Enterprise System Implementation Analysis: The Jackson Laboratory

This report analyzes The Jackson Laboratory's implementation of enterprise systems to improve mouse production for medical research. It examines the applications of modern technologies, challenges faced during implementation and integration, and the impact on the company's revenue. The organization encountered issues related to employee training, technological integration with Oracle Process Manufacturing (OPM), and managing implementation costs. Despite initial setbacks, the successful implementation of the ERP system, including modifications to adapt the software, contributed to improved processes and revenue generation. The fixed-fee contract with Oracle helped mitigate risks and control costs, ensuring the project's successful completion and the organization's sustainability. The report concludes that technology implementation significantly benefited The Jackson Laboratory's revenue streams.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS
ANALYSIS OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
This report is based on the analysis of the case study of The Jackson Laboratory related to the
implementation of technologies for the purpose of improving the production processes of
mice for medical research. The various applications that were formulated by The Jackson
Laboratory using the modern technologies are analysed in the report in detail. The other
major points of discussion are the issues that are faced by the organization in the
implementation and integration of modern technologies. The assessment of the effects of
integration of technologies on the revenues of the company is a major part of the report. The
discussion is concluded by stating that the implementation of technologies has helped The
Jackson Laboratory in gaining its revenues.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Problems that are faced by the organization in the industry..........................................3
Nature of the enterprise system that has been adopted by the company........................5
Difficulties faced by the company in adopting the new system.....................................6
Analysis of success of the enterprise system.................................................................7
Conclusion....................................................................................................................10
References....................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The Jackson Laboratory is an independent non-profit institution which is dedicated
towards contributing to a future that can provide better health care based on unique genetic
makeup for the individuals. The organization has an employee based of 2100 members in the
operations of the institute which is located in Farmimgton, Connecticut. The major mission of
the laboratory is to discover precise solutions that can be used for the treatment for various
types of diseases and the empowerment of global biomedical community. The laboratory is
also a major source for various types of mice that are defined in a genetic manner. The
institution is the source of the world based on 8000 strains of genetically defined mice (CFO.
2018). The major areas of research where the organization has its operations are,
development or reproductive biology, immunology, neurobiology, metabolic diseases and the
various neurobehavioral diseases. The Jackson Laboratory is mainly recognised by IRS as
public charity. The revenues of the organization are mainly gained from the sale of the
various materials and the services and support that is provided by the government (CFO.
2018).
The report will be mainly based on the case study related to the implementation of an
enterprise system. The issues and challenges that have been faced by the organization during
the implementation of enterprise system will also be analysed in the report.
Problems that are faced by the organization in the industry
The challenges that have been faced by Jackson laboratory during the implementation
of the installation of the new ERP system is defined by the CFO of the organization Lee
Wilbur. The CFO has explained that the problems that are caused by people or employees of
the organizations can affect the operations in the same manner as the flaws that have occurred
in the technologies. The lack of people in the information technology industry and the

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untested systems can cause major issues related to the cost related overruns and the delay in
projects as well. This can further threaten the reputation of the company and the relations
with the customers. The experts have thereby said that the project costs related to the
implementation of IT projects and ERP systems can exceed beyond the actual limits during
the actual implementation process (Al-Ghofaili and Al-Mashari 2014). The integrators of the
system mainly prefer to quote less for the project during the initial phase and further the
prices are increased as the project proceeds further. These integrators work on an open-ended
basis and are not provided with any fixed fees. The example of Gladwyne project that has
been provided in the case study depicts that the cost of the entire project was initially
estimated at $7.8 million initially and further the costs increased to $19.9 billion dollars as
the project proceeded. The open-ended contracts are thereby faced by the high increase of
costs that are related to the completion of the project (Aloini et al. 2016). On the other hand,
in case of projects that have fixed fees the buyer and providers also show high levels of
competitiveness. The buyer tries to achieve high levels of customization and the providers try
to get out of the situation by providing them with the services that have already been decided
previously.
The Jackson Laboratory has also faced many issues during the implementation
process of the mouse-development related functions into the ERP systems of the company.
The mouse-development functions needed to be integrated into the existing ERP systems of
the organization. The problems that were faced by the company were mainly related to the
employees and the internal management of human resource based systems rather than the
suppliers of the software (Asprion, Schneider and Grimberg 2018). The organization is
known to be quite lean about the choice of employees and they select the best lot for working
in the company. The major functions that are performed by the lab include, obtaining the
grants, production of research based resources and providing administrative support. The

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employees thereby need to perform all these jobs and further take part in the implementation
of the ERP systems. The levels of expertise that is gained by the organization is high and the
depth of the employees is a lot. The low amount of staffing has helped the organization in
investing the amount on the implementation of ERP systems. The budget that has been set by
the institute based on the amounts of costs related to hardware, software, training and
consulting has been maintained successfully by the organization (Bokovec, Damij and
Rajkovič 2015). The ERP project that has been discussed in the case study was launched in
the year 1999 and had taken more than six months for the completion of the entire procedure.
The issues were being faced by the organization in the process was thereby related to the lack
of the expertise of employees about the functions of the ERP system. The costs that were
related to training the employees about the usage of the integrated ERP systems is a major
issue that has been faced by the company. The organization had faced a technological
challenge in the implementation of the new systems (Bradford, Earp and Grabski 2014). The
process of the manufacture of mice were to be integrated in the ERP systems that is already
operating within the organization. The OPM or Oracle Process Manufacturing systems have
been implemented by Jackson Laboratory to integrate the required processes. However,
according to the CEO this system was not suitable for the manufacture related operations of
the Jackson Laboratory. This system is mainly implemented in the organizations which mix
various ingredients to manufacture the products. On the other hand, the process of
manufacturing of the Jackson Laboratory is evolving in nature and the said system of ERP is
not suitable (Dietz 2014).
Nature of the enterprise system that has been adopted by the company
The ERP system that was being implemented by Jackson was Oracle 11i which can
help the organization in improving the production of mice. The integration of this production
system within the entire ERP system that is already operating in the organization. The Oracle

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Process Management or OPM system will be implemented within the processes of the
organization. This ERP system will help in increasing the speed of the production of mice for
the usage in various universities (Galy and Sauceda 2014).
Difficulties faced by the company in adopting the new system
The organization however had to face an array of problems in the implementation of
the ERP systems. Training was the most important issue that was creating immense pressure
on the employees and the organization as well. The company has a strong level of expertise,
however, the employees are not trained enough to use the newly implemented systems in an
effective manner. The employees are under pressure because they need to complete the tasks
that are related to their routine and further take part in the implementation process of ERP.
The training related costs have therefore created pressure on the revenues and profitability of
the organization (Ha and Ahn 2014). The geographical location of the organization had also
contributed to the costs related pressure that was being faced by Jackson. The organization
first planned to spend extra amounts for the purpose of bringing some trainers to the island of
Bar Habor. The management of the lab thereby decided to fly in the trainer on the island
rather than sending the employees for off-island courses. The total amount spent by the
organization on the entire process was however much higher as compared the costs that were
estimated initially. The high costs of the implementation of the system and the costs that are
related to bringing the employees on the site has been a major tension for the management of
the organization. However, it was important to train the employees regarding the different
aspects of the process. This will enable them to perform the various tasks with the ERP
system in an efficient manner (Haddara and Elragal 2015).
Another major problem that was being faced by Jackson was the technological
challenge that they were facing related to the raising of mice within the facilities. The raising

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process of the mice needs to be based on the advanced and generic needs that are a part of the
research. These demands based on the entire research process does not fit within the new
system of Oracle Process Management or OPM that is being implemented by the
organization. Jackson thereby formulated a team for the purpose of providing an out-of-the-
box solution to the problem. The organization would not be able to use the ERP system if the
issue was not solved in a proper manner (Haddara 2018). However, Jackson was able to
implement the new system based on ERP into the entire system of the company. some
changes were further made in the entire system which had led to the implementation of the
software which was not actually made for the said purpose and it was integrated into existing
system of The Jackson. This step helped in the successful implementation of the ERP system
in the various processes of the Jackson (Huber et al. 2016).
Analysis of success of the enterprise system
The process of implementation was completed successfully with the active help that
was given by the management. The risks were minimized with the help of various actions that
were taken by the members of the management. The type of contract that was made by the
management with Oracle was based fixed fees rather the time and materials type. This type of
contract was made by the company in an attempt to gain the surety from the ERP based
organization regarding the completion of the entire process of implementation within the
given time and fees. The idea was mainly based on protecting the organization from the
uncertainties that they need to face during the implementation based process that is followed
by them (Koch and Mitteregger 2016). The risk assessment based functions that have been
performed by various organizations thereby depict that the IT projects need to be bound with
the help of surety bonds so that the organization is able to control the costs that are made on
these projects by the organizations. The controlling of the entire costs related to the project
was important for the successful operations of the organization and its sustainability in the

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market. The contract that was signed by the organization ultimately covered the materials,
time and all the other expenses that were related to the successful completion of the project
(Kulkarni et al. 2015). The company was however unable to get a contract that was totally
based on the fixed costs from the software producing company named Oracle. The lack of
entire fixed prices thereby left the contract related to surety bond untenable in nature. The
fixed-price based agreement has been provided with benchmarks which was needed to be
framed before the entire agreement was done. The negotiation based process was quite
difficult and was a huge mess for the successful operations of the company. The vice
president of the Oracle Group in Boston had thereby responded that contingency is quite
common in the implementation processes in the IT industry (Meyr, Wagner and Rohde
2015). The negotiations that are related to the fixed-price based contracts are quite complex
in nature and need to provide clearer definition of the responsibilities and roles between the
service providers and the clients of the company. The ERP systems were however
implemented even after the various issues that were faced by the Jackson Group during the
actual formation of the contract. The first part of the ERP project was performed at the start
of the month of February. This part thereby included management of the production capacity,
the general-ledger functions, accounts receivable, and the various purchase process of the
manufacturing materials (Mittelstädt et al. 2015). The second part of the first phase of the
implementation process started in the month of April. This phase consisted of the accounting
process of various research grants that were received by the organization. The second phase
started in the month of June which included the human resources, the distribution of the
labour, the payroll of the organization and information that was involved in filling the grant.
The brand new module that was created by Oracle was thereby used by Jackson for the
improvement of its different processes. The order management procedure was also created by
the organization in the second phase of the entire ERP management process (Nwankpa 2015).

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The organization had to face numerous issues before the implementation of new ERP
systems for the management of the production of mice to supply to various educational
institutions. The ERP management system was implemented in the organization in the year
2000 which further led to the increase in the production of the institution. The 21st century
thereby marked the era of large-scale implementation of science in the organization. The
organization thereby started receiving funds for the development of mouse models related to
neurological diseases. The organization has been able to further expand its operations beyond
the Bar Harbor based campus where it had its operations (Nwankpa 2018). In the year 2011,
the Jackson Laboratory for Genmic Medicine was created when a bond was approved to
bring the operations of the organization within the school campus in Farmington. The
genome centre was formed in the year 2014 which provided high level of analysis and
sequencing based activities in the campus. The company further made advancements in the
research based fields for the purpose of understanding the personalized medicine facilities.
The mouse strain of NSG that was developed by the Jackson Group will play a critical role in
the personalized medicine formation of the institution (Poba-Nzaou et al. 2014). The Jackson
Laboratory has thereby entered the field of production of the genomic medicines. The
establishment of the lab in Connecticut is thereby bringing together the researchers of JAX.
The state of the art facilities that have been created by the organization in various areas have
affected the reputation of the organization in the industry. The research will be able to
establish the organization as a leader in the world of genomic medicine and a strong
participant in the transnational process of research (Seethamraju 2015).
The Jackson Laboratory has been able to succeed in various fields after the operations
of the ERP system and the expansion of its facilities to many other areas in the world. The
organization had received an award of 12.5 million dollars for the Ellsworth expansion
related activities that have been performed by them. The organization had received a grant of

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12.5 million dollars from the Maine Technology Institute in the year 2018. The grant will
therefore affect the formation of mouse production unit of the organization. The second phase
of the production unit will be formed in Ellsworth (The Jackson Laboratory.org 2018). The
organization has become a leader in the production of mice and is further planning for the
expansion of its facilities to improve speed and quality of the production of mice in the
industry. The Mice that are produced by Jackson Labs are used by more than 25,000 labs in
more 60 countries of the world. These are used for the purpose of the identification of
treatments, conducting researches and seeking cures for the various human diseases (Yen et
al. 2015). The organization is expected to expand to such an extent in the next few years so
that more than 300 high quality full time jobs can be created in Ellsworth and 120 jobs will
be created in Bar Harbor which is base of the organization. The grants provided to the
organization keep on expanding as the partnerships are created with other technology based
organizations.
Conclusion
The report can be concluded by stating that the implementation process of the ERP
systems are quite complex for some of the organizations. The organization which has been
taken into consideration for research in this report is involved in quite complex and sensitive
type of work process. This has further complicated the entire implementation based functions
of the ERP system in the organization. The Jackson Laboratory has faced many issues when
the ERP systems were being implemented in the organizational processes. This has further
led to the successful implementation of the system under the strict supervision of the
management. Further, the employees are trained in a proper manner to use the systems so that
they can provide benefits to the company. The organization had further created its own
position in the country and has shown great prospects related to fast growth in the future as
well.

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