ERP Software for Australian Immigration and Border Protection

This business report examines the application of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, specifically SAP, within the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIAC). The report details the department's organizational structure and the business requirements driving the need for a new ERP system, including challenges related to managing border control, air cargo movements, and the reliance on manual processes. It outlines the system's requirements, emphasizing the importance of data security and compliance. The report further explores SAP software solutions, the development of an ERP for the department, and the benefits of implementation, such as improved data connectivity, increased time for innovation, better communication, and segregation of duties. Key success factors for implementing SAP in cloud technology are discussed, including business transformation and managing border control challenges. The report also addresses potential control problems, risks associated with the implementation, and guidelines for mitigating these risks, concluding with an overview of the positive impact of the new ERP system.

Strategic Information System
[DATE]
HP
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Running Head: Report
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Organization Structure...........................................................................................................................2
Business Requirements..........................................................................................................................3
System’s Requirements for new ERP Software.....................................................................................4
SAP Software Solutions........................................................................................................................5
Development of an ERP for Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection.................6
Benefits of ERP.....................................................................................................................................7
The Success factors of implementing SAP in Cloud Technology..........................................................8
Control Problems and Risks................................................................................................................11
Guidelines to mitigate the risks...........................................................................................................12
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................13
References...........................................................................................................................................14
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Running Head: Report
Introduction
This business report is compiled to study the Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
and its application at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship in Australia, also called
DIAC. It is the third largest revenue generating Commonwealth department in Australia. This
department is now succeeded by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
This report will cover the challenges of earlier used system for various processes within the
Department of Immigration and Border Protection, and further study of the requirements and
objective to fulfil from the new ERP software. The analysis would further give details of the
benefits of the new ERP software and how it can get success for the department.
Organization Structure
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection works for immigration, stay and
movement of non-Australian residents, manages the border entry control, makes
arrangements for settlement of migrants and humanitarian entrants, and handles the
citizenship process, ethnic and multicultural affairs.
The department has a well-managed migration program that enables them in risk
identification, thus they are able to eliminate potential risks and ensures protection to the
Australian community (Australian Government, 2017).
The department had a new access control system in place which was being used by the end
users, hence post all analysis and requirement gathering for a new ERP system, it is very
important to understand the linkage between the department and SAP to ensure a smooth
implementation of new software.
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Business Requirements
The significant increase in the use of technology in various aspects of business dealing and
interactions, it has also reduced the geographical distance, hence increasing the complex issue
of external threats to the country’s borders. This is a challenge that the Department of
Immigration and Border Protection in Australia also faces, as they are responsible to manage
and restrict the movement of illegal goods, weapons, drugs and other toxic materials across
the borders.
The most difficult task is monitoring the Australia’s Air cargo movements. The data show
that more than 170 million air cargo consignments move across the border in a year. All the
processes under the responsibility of this department were manually handled by the team.
Considering the kind of role, the agency plays in securing the borders, it is very important to
improve the system and make it more robust, such that, there exist no room for risks and
frauds (SAP Team, 2015).
The Australian border forces, consider the checking of these air cargos as high risk for the
borders as the process requires visits to the mail depots on a daily basis by the Australian
border forces officer. This process involved almost 40 printed forms to be filled manually
with each detail of inspection in a descriptive manner. Post inspection, the officer has to log
the inspection data into multiple systems in the office. This particular process if very tedious
and time consuming, especially for the officers. The department needs to get an automated
system to reduce the tedious, time consuming administrative tasks of the officers.
This particular process is not just tedious for the officers but for the people at the other side as
well, because they were not allowed to move further before the inspection details gets logged
into all the systems by the officer at the border office. System integrity is something that
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cannot be compromised, hence a new system is required that fastens the process, ensuring all
checks and integrity of the system and compliances (Turbet, 2012).
An automated solution implementation could save a lot of time of the officers, which they are
putting in the manual form filling and data upload presently. Improving the software system
used for this activity, the officers can utilize their time in strategic work to ensure protection
at the borders. The officers will not be required to take manual notes of inspection, which
could save almost two hours of their daily working. Time would be saved even for the end
users, as they will not have to wait for hours to get clearance from the border officers for
movement of their air cargo.
System’s Requirements for new ERP Software
The decision of shifting to a new ERP SAP system was considered keeping in mind the work
areas handled by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. It becomes very important
for the department to ensure that the new software or system should comply with the norms
and rules, it should also take care of the integrity part, the data of this department are very
crucial and confidential, and thus a secure implementation of new system is the priority with
cannot be compromised with. There are certain factors that are considered for seeking
improved and better ERP software within the department.
1. Protect, Enforce and Ensure Security
The intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies and other agencies partner with the
Australian Border forces to protect the Australian borders and manage people and goods
movement across the border. Together, they work to protect the community, enforce
Australian laws, security of the resources, maritime jurisdiction. They also work with the
agencies to deliver policies related to customs, trade and industries. All these teams are
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enabled with latest technologies to help the intelligence led resources utilize their efforts to
the maximum towards offshore, domestic and maritime zones. A streamlined process driven
ERP is required to facilitate their work and which also secures the data (Giachetti & Truex,
2015).
2. Get rid of Paper
The human capital management system, on which the team works are a mixture of paper
based processes, which lead to tedious process flow, is time consuming and has a lot of gaps.
To increase the efficiency, a decision needs to be taken to reduce the amount of paper used
and to streamline the process towards a single solution.
Another reason is the transformation of the innovation division to help them automate their
systems and enable them implement their ideas faster without use of papers.
3. One Cloud based solution
The department realizes is that their goal of making the processes paperless is through cloud
technology. It can lead to updating of the visa application process, improved
communications.
SAP Software Solutions
There has been a huge increase in the number of people visiting Australia for temporary or
permanent reasons. This increase in the number of people entering the country causes an
overload of work on the desk of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection
people, to issue visas, control cargo, patrol the borders and monitor immigration and
citizenship of non-residents of Australia. It is therefore required to implement SAP as an ERP
to make the processes and system better, as the new application would help to streamline the
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processes, eliminate waste, for the creation of collaborative environments and to define a
unified vision and to completely remove paperwork from the system and processes.
A new automated software would reduce the costs incurred under various processes by the
department, would also increase the efficiency of people involved and fasten the work and
responses to the upcoming requirements (Protection, 2017).
An SAP ERP software would allow the department to customize the software as per their
specific requirements, it has a user-friendly application system which enables a new user
adapt with ease after training. This software can be used across the world and can be
integrated with multiple processes, it also gives reliable and accurate information without
causing and data mismatch or data breach.
Development of an ERP for Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection
The processes were more tedious, full of paperwork and time consuming, involving a lot of
interpersonal communication. Post implementation of ERP, everything gets available at a
single location on a cloud, making it easier and simpler for the teams to access any data and
information from anywhere.
Certain broad areas to look for in the ERP software are to check for process integrity, security
of applications and data, integrity management in terms of infrastructure, and integrity while
implementing the software (Microsoft, 2017).
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Benefits of ERP
Better Connectivity and access to data and information: The teams in the Australian
Department of Immigration and Border Protection can get more connected with each other
with access to all information at all time from anywhere.
The implementation of SAP access control manages the access to all the users in the SAP
production ERP environment. Implementation of this software could help to get away with
the delays in decision making due to incorrect user data. It can bring in a fast and an effective
access to various systems within the department.
More time for Innovation: With the self-driven automated process in place, the manual
work gets reduced to a minimum level and hence saving time with the teams to think and
work on new strategic improvements.
Better Communication: The cloud technology has a quality of location-agnostic, which
enables everyone across the levels to input, contribute, give feedback and opinions from
anywhere at any time.
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Better
Communication
More time for
Innovation
Segregation of
Duties
Better connectivity
and access to Data
and information
Benefits of SAP
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Segregation of Duties: The implementation of SAP software in various departments will
further segregate the responsibilities of each individual within the department and hence help
in reducing the number of issues arising due to overlap of responsibilities. The software also
helps in preventing the segregation of duties to further avoid any risk profiles.
The Success factors of implementing SAP in Cloud Technology
The Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection can overcome its system
and process challenges along with bringing a boost in the innovations with the SAP software
platform. With that it could save a lot of money and time of its resources. The success factors
that the department can imagine or analyses are as below
1. Business Transformation
For the objectives like cost cutting, for improving productivity, providing better support to
the human resource department for recruitment, training and development processes,
encouraging transparency in a collaborative manner; the department can implement solutions
for the human resource function to achieve success in their work through proper process
automation, they could adopt the new SAP software bringing in innovations, and could also
streamline the visa application management leading-edge technology.
The difference in the management of personal performance, the speed of work, processes and
efficiency of people will be visible clearly through the software as it will be increased
drastically at all the levels, the culture of communication will also get improved for the entire
business.
The new software brings with it better inbuilt reports to enable efficient working conditions
and completion of tasks. It would also increase the success in audits.
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2. Management of Border control challenges
The department of Immigration and Border Protection handles the activities of immigrations,
citizenship, Australian border control and its protection, its activities also include issuing
visas and controlling the movement of cargo across the borders.
With more and more people seeking citizenship, visas for entry in Australia, the department
is facing a big challenge in managing a huge number of applications for these reasons. It has
to manage the incoming of people and goods in huge numbers on a regular basis, with the
availability of limited resources that they have. The new staff needs time to get trained and
learn the processes and way of working. To manage the staffing, training and development
issues, the existing system in the human resource department is using a mixture of paper and
software solutions. Hence, to improve the efficiency and to cater to these growing challenges,
the department needs to eliminate the use of paper and streamline the human capital
management process in terms of making it more efficient, effective and consistent.
Another factor is the innovations that the department always focused on, and formed a new
division for the same to encourage new ideas and suggestions. This particular division faces
challenges in terms of communication which are inadequate and does not reach the right
people at the right time. To resolve these challenges, the department requires new software
solutions, but the department management wants to do certain capital expenses. But, with that
they also want to improve a person's efficiency, increase flexibility in the business, and cut
the costs. It wants to achieve these objectives with implementation of cloud computing
software (Deloitte, 2016).
3. A World class system for Visa Applications
In order to have the best system in place, the department can form a Cloud first initiative as a
default approach for problem resolving. An analysis can be done to understand what could
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give required features that can solve the human capital management problems and also could
meet the innovative platform requirements. The software has certain inbuilt processes that
will simplify their day to day tasks.
The service support team from SAP can help the department of immigration and border
protection, in the process of implementing the software. With this SAP software, the
department can also build a new tool for the Australian Visa. This particular tool will enable
people across the world connect with the department (Latvanen & Ruusunen, 2013).
4. Benefits for Stakeholders
The software implementation will help eliminate all paper work from the recruitment process.
It also has the ease of doing the work from home, hence resulting in no delays. The Success
factors various solutions in HCM, like its learning solution, performance and goals solution,
workforce analytics solution, will benefit the department to a great extent, these benefits will
enable the management to continue the work on cloud technology in the long run.
All employees will be able to access data as and when required. They can manage their
learning and performance assessments much easily. Managers are enabled to take more
informed decisions. The IT people will be able to focus on the strategic work as daily
management will be taken care by the software itself. Even the new joiners will have pleasant
experience with the use of this software.
5. Streamlining of Compliance
An automated system helps completing the compliances and checks in a better manner than a
manual compliance management. The improvements that SAP will bring to various processes
and systems would substantially bring improvement in compliances as the risk factors and
risk of frauds gets drastically reduced or even gets eliminated completely.
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The implementation of SAP within the department would automate all the processes for
department users. The access risks would reduce to almost nil from what it is in lakhs through
manual system, as a manual system is more prone to errors than an automated one. The
elimination of paperwork reduces costs as well as eliminates risk of frauds as the authorities
to approve and monitor goes to different individuals bringing in multiple levels check for any
process to complete and ensuring data and information.
Control Problems and Risks
Implementation of a new system within an organization brings a few risks as well with the
benefits, there are controls also for these risks considering the risks and controls are known.
The multiple risks associated with implementation of a new software could be the application
complexity, lack of clarity of roles to the individuals involved in the project, the user
experience of new technology. It is very important to decide the scope of the new system, as
to which processes or functions the new system has to be integrated with. This can be taken
care by doing an analysis of the complexity of the process and accordingly the priority
processes should be taken care of in phases. The new ERP system should be used in a well-
designed and measurable manner and should be a business initiative.
A disconnect between the organizational strategy, structure and processes while selection of a
new ERP software is another risk factor. The control for it is to fix the operational processes
before implementing a new ERP system (Grabski, et al., 2013).
Lack of required skills brings a risk while implementation of an ERP. This can get resolved
by hiring consultants for a said duration who possess those skills and their experience can
help achieve the goals of brining a new ERP system.
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