Analysis of AIS/ERP Systems for Public Transport: A Business Report

This report, prepared for clients, details the process of selecting an ERP system from American Infotech Solutions (AIS) for public transport. It outlines business processes, requirements, system specifications, and software/vendor selection. The report also explores how organizations can leverage technology to improve efficiency, evaluates the effectiveness of technology implementation, and assesses potential security risks and data breaches. Finally, it provides guidelines for mitigating these risks. The report covers various aspects, including customer portals, maintenance scheduling, real-time tracking, inventory control, distribution improvements, and staff management. It also addresses operational planning, transportation intelligence, fleet management, freight payment, and billing. Furthermore, the report discusses system requirements, software options (such as Cogxim Transport Management, Helios Trans, and others), vendor selection criteria, and ways to utilize technology to motivate employees, monitor productivity, and analyze performance.

Running head: AIS/ERP SYSTEMS FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT
AIS/ERP Systems for Public Transport
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note

1AIS/ERP SYSTEMS FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Executive Summary
The report is prepared for business purpose for the clients that detail the process to select the ERP
system of American Infotech Solutions or AIS. It has outlined the business processes and
requirements, determination of the systems requirements and software and vendor selection. Then it
has also determined the ways through which the companies or the organizations could utilize the
technologies for improving the business efficiency. Next the level of efficiency of technology
implementation and examined the potential security risks and data breaches are evaluated here. At
last the report has delivered the guidelines on how those risks might be mitigated.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:..........................................................................................................................................3
1. Defining the business processes:.......................................................................................................3
2. Developing the business requirements:.............................................................................................5
3. Determining the systems requirements:.............................................................................................7
4. Software and vendor selection:..........................................................................................................7
5. Determining the ways through which technologies could be utilized:..............................................9
6. Evaluation of the level of efficiency of the technology implementation:.......................................11
7. Examining the potential security risks and data breaches:..............................................................12
7.1. The potential risks:...................................................................................................................12
7.2. The data breaches:....................................................................................................................13
8. Guidelines for mitigating the risks:.................................................................................................13
Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................................15
References:..........................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction:
The ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning has been the integrated system based on
computers. It is used for managing resources both external and internal. This has been including the
financial resources, human resources, materials and tangible assets (Agarwal and Koo 2016).
The following study is a business report for the clients that detail the process to select the
ERP system of American Infotech Solutions or AIS. This is done to create the informed decision to
invest in the information system for taking the “Public Transport” to the further level.
The report has covered the business processes and requirements, determination of the
systems requirements and software and vendor selection. It has also determined the ways through
which the companies or the organizations could utilize the technologies for improving the business
efficiency. Then it evaluated the level of efficiency of technology implementation and examined the
potential security risks and data breaches. Lastly it has provided the guidelines on how those risks
might be eradicated.
1. Defining the business processes:
The transportation companies have been needed to maintain the track of their every asset.
These are mainly the vehicles at every time. Beside this, they require to schedule the vehicles to
maintain, manage the further bookings, resources and payments. Very often, the information is
maintained in file manually (Nettsträter et al. 2015). This generates future problems as it comes to
rectifications and auditing.
ERP regarding the transportation and the logistics industry has been helping to perform every
pre-mentioned jobs and specifically from the centralized platform. The ERP software has been the

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business toll integrating with every third party resolutions giving a totally reverse viewpoint of the
primary business processes.
Currently, the ERP system has been offering several new functionalists such as vendor
portals. View according to products and the only view of the entire supply chain and much more.
Moreover, there have been functions for creating the sales order entry for raising the order, order
shipment, shipment invoice, and entries of a purchase order for purchasing goods and much more
(Bradford and Herman 2017).
The ERP system has been enabling the transport business for managing the primary business
functions such as managing resources and to meet the requirements of customers, logistics
management, optimizing transportation, maximum efficiency processes and at last the customer
profitability and loyalty. The business process in which the ERP has been driving the transportation
industry on their right foot is described below.
Customer or vendor portal:
The ERP software has been coming with the customer or vendor portals for allowing the easy
log to the account and knowing the status of every logistics.
Scheduling maintenance:
The transport infrastructure and vehicles have been the assets needing to be kept under
maintenance regularly.
Real time tracking:
Under the transit, the vehicles require to be tracked based on real time to provide updates to
the customers.

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Optimizing the inventory control:
Managing of the inventory has been the vital task for the transport business. The ERP
business has been enabling the transportation industries for viewing orders, sales and deliverables
(Srinivasan, McGrath and Kelly 2014).
Improving distribution:
ERP implementation has been also speeding up the distribution times. This has been enabling
the freight organizations for managing the flow of distribution properly.
Staff management:
The ERP has been the excellent tool as it comes to the workforce management. The freight
operators could control the work hours, break times through this software and get the data to analyze
the staff’s performance (Lin et al. 2016).
2. Developing the business requirements:
The ERP management solutions have been managing every activity of transportation around
the global supply chain. The assimilation of ease of usage with the capabilities that are the industry-
leading abilities, enabling the reducing the freight costs, optimizing the service levels and the
automate processes such that the organizations of public transport could run the logistics operations
more efficiently.
Operational planning:
The state-of-the-art optimization engine has been finding the most effective solutions for the
logistics needs. This has been adhering to the business requirements and the capabilities of trading
partners (Michelutti et al. 2017).

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Transportation intelligence:
This has been the logistic dashboard for the complete enterprise. It has been delivering the
granular visibility to the transportation metrics and data. The tasks have been to track the shipments,
orders, and items, making the alterations improving the service and costs, receiving the proactive
alerts as the milestones have been missed or approached. This also includes the monitoring of the
business metrics against the targets, forecasts, and benchmarks.
The fleet management:
This has been to manage the fleet without sacrificing the fleet utilization and carrier
efficiency. This includes the controlling of every aspect of the fleet such as the trailers, tractors, and
drivers (Kodym and Unucka 2016). This has been simultaneously considering the fleet resource
abilities, along with optimizing the carrier rates contracted. The controlling and measuring of the
financial performance without costing cost accruals, payables and the dispute management.
Freight payment and billing:
This deal with the elimination of the administrative activities such the efficiencies of the
public transport could be developed along with focusing on the bigger scenario. This has been
including the automation of the manual procedures regarding the freight bill payment and the audit.
This has also considered the covering of every aspect of the rates of transportation, including the
discounts and surcharges. The tracking of the accessorial, matching the pay, tracking claims, auto-
pay and report on costs are also considered here. Lastly the supporting of both the freight payment of
shipper and the billing or 3PL, LSP processes are also taken into account.

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3. Determining the systems requirements:
The requirement has been the characteristic exhibited for solving the problems in real world.
The requirements over as system have been the typical complicated combination of requirements
yielded from various people at various organizational levels and from the surrounding under which
the system has been operating. They are listed below:
 Creating more effective the higher velocity networks of logistics.
 Executing and planning the domestic and the international shipments under a single system.
 Lowering the rates and managing the equipment much more effectively.
 Optimizing the cubic capacity of the containers, consolidating orders and streamlining the
location flow and the calendars.
4. Software and vendor selection:
Some relevant software is as follows:
The Cogxim Transport Management:
This has been the complete management software for transport for the transporters. This has
been enabling the users in computerizing the business needs.
Helios Trans:
This has been the ideal transport management system integrated with the various tracking
and mobility solutions such as the RFID, GPS/ Barcoding (Lorenc and Szkoda 2015).

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AgES Logistics:
This has been delivering the broad range of services and solutions for the transportation. This
has been helping to streamline the transportation operations helping the clients for meeting the
challenges of the ever changing industry of logistics.
Excelanto Transport ERP:
This has been one of the user-friendly ERP solutions. This has been providing the solution
for every vehicle operations, cars, trucks or other commercial vehicles.
Entitle ITMS:
This has been signifying the one-stop automated and the integrated platform of transportation
software for the domain of transport services (Singh 2016).
In order to do to vendor solutions, the public transport has been undergoing the following.
Checking the financial stability and references:
The business must assure to verify the economic stability such that they could be confident
that the shelf-life of the solution has been shortened. This is due to the reason that the vendor shops
supporting that or going out of the business.
Compatibility with current process:
The dealing with the workflow of the supply chain has been a little distinct. The ultimate
aims have been similar for all. Assuming that the present processes have been working effectively
for them, they have been checking of the functionality of processes and the overall workflow
(Alturkistani et al. 2015). At of many times taking one step reverse for visualizing the higher

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software process changes has been permitting to take the time for reviewing and modifying the
previous processes existing.
The Goldilocks Test:
The more developed transport management system has been designed for the big
organizations. Once the business kicks the tires, they should assure that they eradicate the solutions
offering functions that are not needed by the business. The stakeholders should be asked to state
their expectations of the software and what they have been hoping it to accomplish.
Tracking the records:
This is built on the above considerations. As any potential vendors have been offering the
latest software package, they need to consider the every pros and cons to assist the product
development (Nagy and Tick 2016). As they have interested to be the part of the trial period of the
software and preferring more established products, the business needs to typically work with what
the product has been offering. This must be against to provide the input on the manner how it has
been functioning.
5. Determining the ways through which technologies could be utilized:
The ways are analyzed below:
Motivating the employees using the technology:
On the basis of the information collected in the evaluation of the online perform ace, the
managers could compare the present skills with the required for the development or any other reward
opportunities or recognition. The business might also find the necessity for redirecting the various
departments as they feel that the productivity of the business might rise elsewhere. They might also

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need to redirect the staffs to various departments as they feel that the business productivity could rise
anywhere else (Kisielewski 2016). As there have been impediments to the better performance, the
business must review why that has been happening and attempt to eliminate those through allocating
the resources better or with more training.
Monitoring the business productivity and the progress of the employee on goals:
The software solutions of business productivity through online have been enabling the
managers to track the progress more easily during all the phases of goal completion. It has been
offering the quickest coaching or reinforcement for keeping the deadlines and performances on
track. This process has been leading to the higher productivity of business as the organization has
been staffed with the people’s workforce. These people have been continually developing new skills
and have been challenged for doing the best (Kivimaa and Virkamäki 2014). As it came to who have
been working for the business, they must be alerted and motivated as the satisfied staffs would work
harder. The employees should be encouraged through rewards for success through both the non-
monetary and monetary incentives.
Analyzing the performance:
The current technology has been delivering the advanced business analysis and reporting
ability for helping to gain the in-depth understanding of the market trends, customer preferences, and
business performances. The executives and the business managers could also access the analytical
reports and performance metrics. Then this information could be used to work together for setting or
redesigning the strategy.

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The efficiency level of the technology implementation:
The solution provides a suite of fully integrated applications built on top of Odoo to help
Bus/Passenger Transportation Services Companies manage and grow their business with less effort.
In addition to including outstanding Odoo's core applications (e.g. Financial & Accounting
Management, Inventory Management, Sales Management, Purchase Management, Point of Sales,
Website Builder & e-Commerce, etc), Bus Transportation Services Businesses are now offered with
their vertical industry features such as fuel management, route management, passenger management,
costs & revenues analysis against each vehicle, vehicle maintenance, vehicle insurance, vehicle
accident management, etc.
6. Evaluation of the level of efficiency of the technology implementation:
The ERP has been needed in public transport due to traffic congestion that has been
expensive to the people and the society. This has resulted in the lack of productive hours, wasted
fuel, adverse health impacts and environmental pollution. This has been to keep the traffic moving
(Koster, Carstens and Heyns 2017). The LTA would continue with the integrated and holistic
approach. This has been utilizing all the available tools like the building of more roads,
implementing the engineering solutions of traffic, regulation of the vehicle growth and developing
the usage of public transport. Moreover, the business requires managing the demand of traffic via
ERP. Having more vehicles on the road, the ERP has been remaining in addressing the future and
current conditions of traffic and assuring the motorists consistently have the smooth journey.
The levels of the ERP are determined by its rates. These are recognized by the quarterly
reviewing of the traffic speeds of the expensive roads. At Australia, this is done at the school
holidays in June and December (Talukdar and Hassan 2014). On the basis of the optimal range of

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speed which is about twenty to thirty kilometers per hour on the arterial roads and forty-five to sixty-
five kilometer per hours on the expressways. Thus the rates of ERP have altered accordingly.
The PCU or the Passenger Car unit equivalent:
The light goods, taxis, and car vehicles have been the 1 PCU. The motorcycles have been 0.5
PCU. The small buses and heavy goods are been 1.5 PCU. The big buses and the very heavy goods
have been 2 PCU.
The graduated ERP rates are introduced at Australia for the initial five minutes of the timing
slot with the higher rates. As the next time period possess the lower ERP rate, the new rate has been
introduced for the five minutes at the last. This has been applicable to the cases where the rate of
change has been at least about 0.50 dollars. This has been depending on the type of vehicle
(Kulińska, Rut and Stosz 2014). For the drivers of the cars, the graduated ERP rate has been
applying to where the changes in the rates have been at least one dollar.
7. Examining the potential security risks and data breaches:
7.1. The potential risks:
The potential risks have been outlined below.
The unsupported and outdated software leading to the integration and crashing issues:
One of the risks that the companies have been often ignoring has been the risks regarding the
unsupported and outdates software systems. The browsers and servers could also be adversely
affected.
The insufficient reporting capability has been leading to the external reporting and a loss of data
control:

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One of the primary causes to drive the ERP purchases has been the lacking of functionality.
This has been resulting in the denying of access and analyzing the data of the users with the tools
that are available under the system. Thus the users have been resorting to the more user friendly
tools like the Excel and the Access for creating the systems (van Lanen et al. 2016). These have been
external to the ERP systems and holding the critical data available only under them.
7.2. The data breaches:
The frequency of the data breaches has been on rise. However various businesses are unable
to understand what has been meant the breach and what measures of protectively must be in the
place. Every business consists of the valuable data and no one is too small to become vulnerable.
The data breach and its consequence have been carrying an important economic and reputational risk
in damage. The business needs to be prepared to react quickly and safeguard the organization.
Again, business like public support has been treating the data security as the afterthought.
The budgets have been limited and the dedicating of the resources to the security has been generally
not been a priority. The businesses require being aware of the data risks. However, many of them
have not been concerned about the size (Dreßler et al. 2016). The reason is that the businesses were
having data that has been at risk. The businesses should be known that the incidents have not been
always involving the malware and outsiders. The staffs could utilize more conventional and the
lower technology approaches, for accessing the data like the paper documents.
8. Guidelines for mitigating the risks:
The guidelines are discussed below:

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Meeting the developing requirements of transportation in the current digital world:
In the current era of the rising complexity and expectations, the transportation and travel
businesses have needed the smart digital approaches. The SAP solutions could be helping to need the
meeting of the transportation demands regarding the future through scaling efficiently. Thus they
could be more responsive, customer-centric, reliable and responsive (Richards and Grinsted 2013).
Finding the travel and transportation software that are tailored to the business needs:
The businesses must achieve the development and think repeatedly about the customer
interactions with the SAP solutions for the transportation and travel companies. The streamline
operations, business models and scaling the business needs must be adopted for meeting the future
demands.
Realizing the business goals through simplifying and accelerating the digital transformation:
In this age that has been focused on the continuous anticipating and innovation of the client’s
requirements, it has been becoming difficult to change the vision into the reality. Here the “SAP
Digital Business Services” could be helpful. The SAP software has been better than all the others.
They are useful in reaching the goals of business transformation and all the things in between.
Transforming the business with the unparalleled service support throughout the enterprise:
The “SAP Digital Business Services” have been connecting the business and the information
technology nearer to the space between the digital transformation execution and strategy (Bournelle
et al. 2013). For the designing and valuing the discovery to the improved innovation to the
productive use of tangible product outcomes, the business could get evolved. This is through
breaking the new ground with the trusted adviser knowing the SAP software at the best.

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Conclusion:
It could be concluded by saying that in the case of transportation industry, the ERP has been
useful to do every pre-mentioned task. This has been specifically from the centralized platform. The
business process in which the ERP has been driving the transportation industry on their right foot has
been including various factors. They are the customer or vendor portal, scheduling maintenance, real
time tracking, optimizing the inventory control, improving distribution and staff management. Some
relevant software that got identified in the report includes the Cogxim Transport Management,
Helios Trans, AgES Logistics, Excelanto Transport ERP and the Entitle ITMS. In order to do to
vendor solutions, the public transport has been undergoing some steps. They are the checking the
financial stability and references and the compatibility with current process. Lastly the report
provides some guidelines to mitigate the risks as identified in the report. The first one is the meeting
of the developing requirements of transportation in the current digital world. Next one is the finding
of the travel and transportation software that are tailored to the business needs. Then there is the
realizing of the business goals through simplifying and accelerating the digital transformation. Lastly
there is the transforming of the business with the unparalleled service support throughout the
enterprise.

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