Systems Integration at UPS Corp | Desklib

Read about the adoption process, difficulties faced, and preparatory steps taken by UPS Corp to integrate ERP systems. Desklib provides a comprehensive study material on Systems Integration at UPS Corp.

Running head: SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
Systems Integration at UPS Corp
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Description of the Organisation.............................................................................................2
1.2 Description of the Problem....................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Nature of the adopted Enterprise System..............................................................................3
2.2 Process of Selection of the Nature of the Enterprise.............................................................4
2.3 Difficulties and Preparatory Steps in the Process of Adoption of the Systems.....................6
3. Assessment of the Successful Implementation of Enterprise System.........................................8
4. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................10
5. References..................................................................................................................................11

2SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
1. Introduction
1.1 Description of the Organisation
The United Parcel Service (UPS) is an American based multinational based package
delivery service provider and a company based on supply management. The globally based
logistics company is mainly situated in the United States in the city of Sandy Springs, Georgia.
The company is also linked with the central operation of package delivery based under the brand
name of UPS, which is mainly used for denoting of many of the divisions of the company that
also includes the cargo airline, operation based on freight-based trucking and the retail based
shipping and packing store (Adie 2017).
1.2 Description of the Problem
The United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) in the mid-1980s had been struggling for gaining a
share within the market based on a new form of newcomer within the shipping industry. The
rival company, which had posed a risk for the UPS systems was Federal Express (Fed Ex).
Company had emerged as a form of arduous player. They had embraced a new kind of
technology in order to gain a strategic advantage over the highly competitive market. They had
mainly focused on improving the form of efficiency and bringing efficiency of customer
services.
The UPS had faced the challenge, which is mainly faced by any other form of shipping
company. This was known to the company as a common form of shipping error due to the wrong
form of input address. This could also be possible with the loading of package boxes that would
be loaded on a wrong truck. This entire process was also time consuming and expensive
(Morganti et al. 2014). There were multiple forms of errors that would happen on a frequent

3SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
basis based on the internal systems of the company. The internal systems of the company
normally required and were using the manual form of data entry mechanisms. The multiple
systems within the organisation would require redundant processes for the purpose of utilizing of
the data. Many of the products, which were handled by UPS systems look to be similar that
would allow for the making of errors. The customer service of the UPS systems were receiving
multiple calls from customers about the issue faced by them due to late time of delivery (Crew et
al. 2013). They were receiving these calls, which was making the entire process to be expensive
and time-consuming for locating the appropriate status of the package. With the rise of these
kinds of problems within the business scenarios of the company, it was thought by the company
that they would implement some form of internet based technologies, which could be helpful for
driving the goals of the business in the future. With the understanding of the gravity of the
current situations, which were being faced by UPS, they had hence decided to invest in the field
of internet based systems hugely and would thus drive the growth of the business (Ducret 2014).
2. Discussion
2.1 Nature of the adopted Enterprise System
The primary of UPS is based of time definite delivery service of packages on a
worldwide basis. In the recent years, the UPS had primarily expanded their service processes for
the purpose of including less form of truckload based transportation in the U.S supply chain of
services. The UPS had reported their operations in three form of segments such as International
Package operations, Supply Chain and Freight Operations and U.S Domestic Package operations.
The IT department that was hired for the design of the newer kinds of systems had played
a major form of role for the design of the new kinds of systems (Bateman 2013). They had
hugely helped for enabling of new kinds of business systems. Hence, they had tried to implement

4SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
the systems based on the perspective of the business. These ERP systems were based within the
domain of Oracle (Laudon, Kenneth C., and Jane 2016). These ERP systems were meant for the
purpose of serving of the financial sector and ease of the HR department.
2.2 Process of Selection of the Nature of the Enterprise
The UPS systems had drawn various forms of conclusions based on the failure of the
previous existing systems within the organization. The failure of delivery of the products to the
customers within the scheduled time was posing a major form of problem for the customers and
also the company as they were incurring a bad reputation within the international market. Upon
proper form of assessment of the entire systems of the organisation, it was found that the UPS
systems were lacking behind in the sector of IT systems. With the implementation of the IT
systems of the organization, they would be able to track the level of performance within the
industry and thus be able to deliver better form of services. The proper form of implementation
of the IT systems of the organization, they would be able to track the level of performance within
the industry and thus be able to deliver better form of services.
Hence the UPS systems embarked on designing and thus implementing a valuable kind of
action plan. This kind of plan, which was based on the ERP systems was mainly focused on the
satisfying the needs of the customer and thus enabling of newer kind of technology. Hence they
offered various kinds of functions that were integrated within the core form of transport based
functions (Poirier 2016). This was meant for the purpose of making the UPS as a valuable part of
the business for the customers. The IT systems within UPS hence chose to centralize the vital
data within their data centers. The system of integration was majorly considered as a primary
part for the success of the UPS organization.

5SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
The entire process of the selection of the ERP systems was based on the primary form of
identification of the various kinds of assets and internal competencies. They were also looking
for the different kinds of areas in which they would have to put major form of focus on thus
improve the internal systems (Peng, Guo and Chirag 2014). This entire process was reviewed by
performing a SWOT analysis that was meant for analyzing the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats faced by the organisation. On intense form of focusing over the internal
systems of the organisation, it was discovered that the company had possessed an extensive form
of infrastructure based on the vast form of expertise within the transportation sector of the
organisation. The UPS system also put a keen observation of the various kinds of external
factors, which had included the emerging of the business within the marketplace, the competitors
who were also involved within this kind of business and their engaged customers (Ptak and Eli
2016). The traditional form of brick and mortar supported the business model. The emerging of
market had the same form of business requirements. They were following the requirements of
the business such as integrated manner of information and real time based connectivity to the
latest form of business requirements. The customers of UPS systems had made the desire and the
power for buying, selling and thus construct the work of research based on their own defined
terms and not depending on the ideas that were dictated by the business model (Fabbe-Costes
and Jacques 2017). Hence, it was a high form of need for the purpose of bridging the gap
between the offered form of services and the physical based products based on electronic
information.
2.3 Difficulties and Preparatory Steps in the Process of Adoption of the Systems
The proper form of assessment of the entire systems of the organisation, it was found that
the UPS systems were lacking behind in the sector of IT systems. With the implementation of the

6SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
IT systems of the organization, they would be able to track the level of performance within the
industry and thus be able to deliver better form of services (Kachur and Warren 2013). Some of
the introductory steps within the adoption of the ERP systems within the UPS systems were the
development of an action plan, which was primarily focused on the customer based prospective.
They developed a SWOT analysis, which had mainly helped them for understanding the core
functionalities of the company and thus take some measures for improving their systems (Flouris
and Sharon 2016). They also offered a form of services that was mainly integrated within the
core functions of transportation. Hence they centralize the vast form of datasets in more than two
data centers. The process of integration of various kinds of functionalities forms the major form
of success history of the organisation. Since the initiation of the company in 1999, UPS had
acquired and brought more than 30 companies (Tukker and Ursula 2017). They also integrated
more than 3600 IT staff who would be able to work in two of their data centers located in
Mahwah and Atlanta. The newer kinds of systems within UPS possessed more than 14
mainframe computers. 260,000 personal computers, 2755 mid-range computers and over 6200
servers. The company does not simply focus on gaining a share within the market but instead
they focus on the implementation of various kinds of strategies within the market. The company
integrates older and new designed systems in order to add value within the delivery chain
services (Low 2013).
With the adoption of the ERP systems within the UPS organizational systems, it was
extremely vital for saving lots of money based on the purchase of goods and services that were
previously being purchased from various locations from all over the world (Venkatraman and
Kiran 2016). The UPS follows the model of intolerance of excessive waste based on the adoption
of new kinds of technologies. The company helps in ensuring that the newly adopted technology

7SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
would fit within the architecture of the company in a nice manner. Upon proper form of
assessment of the entire systems of the organisation, it was found that the UPS systems were
lacking behind in the sector of IT systems (Dey, Ben and Walid 2013). With the implementation
of the IT systems of the organization, they would be able to track the level of performance within
the industry and thus be able to deliver better form of services. The software would be highly
advanced and would be able to show the various kinds of intrinsic details related to the tracking
ID of the delivery package (Ram, David and Ming-Lu 2014). The software would be such
advanced as they would help the customers in showing the exact zip code address of the
customers. There are two factors that have truly contributed for the successful form of
implementation of technology within the business. These are a corporate cultural background
and a form of commitment to training of the employees within the organisation.
3. Assessment of the Successful Implementation of Enterprise System
With the wide form of integration of the ERP systems within the UPS systems, they have
been able to implement smarter kinds of processes and systems within the organisation. Based on
the smart form of IT implementation within the business processes, it has been helpful for
yielding high form of results for the organisation (Beuren et al. 2013). The company is now able
to integrate the vital information of more than 60,000 websites that would have the information
of 7.2 million customers. These customers are directly linked to the company and make use of
the website for tracking the request of their logistics. They would require faster form of services
and would like to receive real time ideas about the tracking of online requests on a daily basis.
The sophisticated form of IT platform based within UPS helps in providing a much more
advanced form of software package, which is known as Package Flow 12. This is one of the
success metric for the company. This package helps in the identification of various kinds of

8SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
packages that would be loaded on the assigned delivery truck based on their level of priority
(Allen et al. 2017). Another kind of software service that have been implemented and is being
used by the UPS systems includes Trade Direct 12 (Cherrett et al. 2017). This software package
helps the retailers, websites and other enterprises for dealing with the tracking of status of small
and large packages that are located all over the world and hence is made possible by using a web
based system (Rougès and Benoit 2014). The management within the systems of UPS is also
committed towards the intense form of training in the times during which the new technology
would be improvised. This would majorly help in designing an environment in which the
different community of users would be able to contribute their form of ideas based on the
improvement of the business platforms (Matzler, Viktoria Veider and Wolfgang Kathan 2015).
Based on the aspect of perspective of the customers, it could be concluded that the use of
ERP systems within the UPS systems have been a major form of help for the growth and
development of the sector. The integration of ERP systems would be very much helpful for
integrating the various functionalities within the UPS. Based on the importance of the systems
from the standpoint of customers, it has been figured out that the use of the high form of ERP
systems would help the company in solving the queries of the customers related to shipping and
tracking of packages. These form of tracking of the packages could be easily tracked within the
website of UPS. The software would be highly advanced and would be able to show the various
kinds of intrinsic details related to the tracking ID of the delivery packages. The software would
be such advanced as they would help the customers in showing the exact zip code address of the
customers. Any form of wrong input by the customer would lead to errors in tracking of the
designated IDs and would hence not proceed with the viewing of the details. The systems has

9SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
adopted smart implementation of tracking of delivery packages that would be based on real time
analysis. The data collected from the time to time movement of the package would be loaded
into the database of the company and hence would be reflected in the website of the company.
This could be viewable by the customer as per their need. The customer would be able to change
between several kinds of options that are provided within the website. The various kinds of
options that are available from the website help in saving the considerable amount of time of the
user as most of the fields within the website have auto-fill options based on the frequent visitors
of the application.
The integrated systems platform of UPS help in providing real time based links of
communication with the seller, package distributor and the delivery service that would include
the vehicle. The shipped packages would have their registered tracking number, ID, date and
status of each of the stages within the delivery of the package that would be recorded and would
get stored on the online platform (Morganti, Dablanc and Fortin 2014). With the implementation
of the ERP systems within the business processes, it has been extremely vital for the customer
service of the company for responding with the internal query of the system. The recorded
databases that stores the details of the shipped products helps the customer service experts for
maintaining a track over the package and hence they would be able to answer the queries of the
customers (Punel and Amanda 2017).
4. Conclusion
Hence form the above discussion, it could be concluded that the use of ERP based IT
systems within the organisation have been a major step towards the success of the organisation.
Although the UPS had faced major kinds of challenges in meeting up with the pace of the rival
competitor, the implementation of ERP systems have been majorly helpful for re-inventing the

10SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
existing systems and thus bring in efficiency for the betterment of the customers and also
enhance the growth of the organisation.

11SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
5. References
Adie, Douglas. Monopoly Mail: Privatizing the United States Postal Service. Routledge, 2017.
Allen, Julian, Tolga Bektaş, Tom Cherrett, Adrian Friday, Fraser McLeod, Maja Piecyk,
Marzena Piotrowska, and Martin Zaltz Austwick. "Enabling a Freight Traffic Controller for
Collaborative Multidrop Urban Logistics: Practical and Theoretical Challenges." Transportation
Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2609 (2017): 77-84.
Bateman, Ian J., Amii R. Harwood, Georgina M. Mace, Robert T. Watson, David J. Abson,
Barnaby Andrews, Amy Binner et al. "Bringing ecosystem services into economic decision-
making: land use in the United Kingdom." science 341, no. 6141 (2013): 45-50.
Beuren, Fernanda Hänsch, Marcelo Gitirana Gomes Ferreira, and Paulo A. Cauchick Miguel.
"Product-service systems: a literature review on integrated products and services." Journal of
Cleaner Production 47 (2013): 222-231.
Cherrett, Tom, Janet Dickinson, Fraser McLeod, Jason Sit, Gavin Bailey, and Gary Whittle.
"Logistics impacts of student online shopping–Evaluating delivery consolidation to halls of
residence." Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 78 (2017): 111-128.
Crew, Michael A., and Paul R. Kleindorfer, eds. Postal and delivery services: pricing,
productivity, regulation and strategy. Vol. 41. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.
Dey, Prasanta Kumar, Ben Clegg, and Walid Cheffi. "Risk management in enterprise resource
planning implementation: a new risk assessment framework." Production Planning & Control 24,
no. 1 (2013): 1-14.

12SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
Ducret, Raphaëlle. "Parcel deliveries and urban logistics: Changes and challenges in the courier
express and parcel sector in Europe—The French case." Research in Transportation Business &
Management 11 (2014): 15-22.
Fabbe-Costes, Nathalie, and Jacques Colin. "Formulating logistics strategy." In Global Logistics
And Distribution Planning, pp. 83-104. Routledge, 2017.
Flouris, Triant G., and Sharon L. Oswald. Designing and executing strategy in aviation
management. Routledge, 2016.
Kachur, Robert, and Warren Kleinsmith. "The evolution to the cloud–are process theory
approaches for ERP implementation lifecycles still valid?." (2013).
Laudon, Kenneth C., and Jane P. Laudon. Management information system. Pearson Education
India, 2016.
Low, Patrick. "The role of services in global value chains." Fung Global Institute, June (2013).
Matzler, Kurt, Viktoria Veider, and Wolfgang Kathan. Adapting to the sharing economy. MIT,
2015.
Morganti, Eleonora, Laetitia Dablanc, and François Fortin. "Final deliveries for online shopping:
The deployment of pickup point networks in urban and suburban areas." Research in
Transportation Business & Management 11 (2014): 23-31.
Morganti, Eleonora, Saskia Seidel, Corinne Blanquart, Laetitia Dablanc, and Barbara Lenz. "The
impact of e-commerce on final deliveries: alternative parcel delivery services in France and
Germany." Transportation Research Procedia 4 (2014): 178-190.

13SYSTEMS INTEGRATION OF UPS CORP
Peng, Guo Chao Alex, and Chirag Gala. "Cloud ERP: a new dilemma to modern
organisations?." Journal of Computer Information Systems 54, no. 4 (2014): 22-30.
Poirier, Charles C. Using models to improve the supply chain. CRC Press, 2016.
Ptak, Carol A., and Eli Schragenheim. ERP: tools, techniques, and applications for integrating
the supply chain. Crc Press, 2016.
Punel, Aymeric, and Amanda Stathopoulos. "Exploratory analysis of crowdsourced delivery
service through a stated preference experiment." In TRB Annual Meeting Online. 2017 &
Archived Meeting Content. 2017.
Ram, Jiwat, David Corkindale, and Ming-Lu Wu. "ERP adoption and the value creation:
Examining the contributions of antecedents." Journal of Engineering and Technology
Management 33 (2014): 113-133.
Rougès, Jean-François, and Benoit Montreuil. "Crowdsourcing delivery: New interconnected
business models to reinvent delivery." In 1st international physical internet conference, pp. 1-19.
2014.
Tukker, Arnold, and Ursula Tischner, eds. New business for old Europe: product-service
development, competitiveness and sustainability. Routledge, 2017.
Venkatraman, Sitalakshmi, and Kiran Fahd. "Challenges and success factors of ERP systems in
Australian SMEs." Systems 4, no. 2 (2016): 20.