ERP Implementation Strategy: Case Study of Richard Antiques Imports

This case study examines the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at Richard Antiques Imports (RAI), a family-run business specializing in antique furniture. Faced with challenges due to company growth, such as managing customer data, tracking suppliers, and handling shipping details, RAI recognized the need for an ERP system. The study compares potential ERP systems like Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo, and Sage, based on RAI's specific business requirements, including detailed accounts of purchased items, customer frequency, and profit margins. Ultimately, the analysis suggests that Sage ERP is the most suitable option for RAI due to its cost-effectiveness and supply chain management capabilities. The study concludes that ERP systems are essential for businesses of all sizes to enhance performance, mitigate complexities, and improve resource utilization, highlighting the importance of ERP in modern business operations. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

IMPLEMENTATI
ON OF ERP IN
AN
ORGANISATIONName of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

INTRODUCTION
 Richards Antiques Imports (RAI) owned by Richard.
 Started business 25 years ago with 50 employees.
 At present the business attained a substantial growth in the
commercial market
 Company growth resulted in new challenges in the internal
services such as managing customer data, maintaining the
same level of service, tracking the suppliers, purchasing of
items, shipping company details and the delivery dates.
 Implementation of an ERP system was vital (Mostaghel et. al.
2015).
 To get served with the solutions, Richard attended a workshop
where he learnt about the benefits about the implementation of
an ERP system in a business.
2

ERP
SYSTEM Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a business process
management software.
 It allows organisations to use a system of integrated
applications.
 ERP helps in managing and overcoming challenges in
business.
 These challenges are mainly in the field of technology,
services and human resources (Lopez and Salmeron
2014).
 ERP systems help to bring integrity with by facilitating
different wings of the business with the assistance of its
specific modules.
3

GENERAL ERP
MODULES Human Resource (Kähkönen, Smolander and
Maglyas 2017)
 Inventory
 Sales & Marketing
 Purchase
 Finance & Accounting
 Customer Relationship Management(CRM)
 Engineering/ Production
 Supply Chain Management (SCM) 4

POTENTIAL ERP
SYSTEMS▪ Microsoft Dynamics – This ERP system was initially developed by the
Great Plains software and was later bought by Microsoft with the modules
covering supply chain, business planning, automated repetitive functions,
cost complexities management visibility to performance factors and
functionality.
▪ Odoo – This ERP system was founded by Fabien Pinckaers in 2005 in
Belgium and was known with the name of TinyERP initially with modules
Enterprise management, Human Resources Management (HRM), Logistics
Management, Accounting & Finance, Customer Relationship Management
(CRM), Project Management and eCommerce Management.
▪ Sage - This ERP system was founded by David Goldman, Paul Muller and
Graham Wylie in 1981 in Newcastle. The modules are Accounting and
Finance, Business Intelligence and Reporting, Customer Service, Purchasing
Management, Manufacturing Management, Sales Management and
Inventory and Warehouse Management
▪ Oracle Netsuite - This ERP system was founded by Evan Goldberg in 1998
in California. The modules are financial management, supply chain
management, order management, production management, warehouse and
procurement (Li, Chang and Yen 2017).
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“ ▪ According to the business
requirements of RAI, the company
needs a detailed account on number
of items purchased, cost, number of
customers and their frequency, busy
periods and profits.
▪ For that the best three ERP systems
will be Microsoft Dynamics, Odoo and
Sage (Chou, Hung and Chang 2013).
▪ These three ERP systems are
purposefully chosen becaause these
three ERP systems make the top list
of the ERP list.
▪ Moreover, these three ERP systems
indulges in meeting the requirements
of the business such as the business
of Richard Antiques and imports.
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COMPARISON OF ERP MODULES
Microsoft
Dynamics
▪ Manage supply
chain
▪ Business planning
(Tsai et. al. 2012)
▪ Automated
repitititive
functions
▪ Manage cost
complexities
▪ Visibility to
performance
Odoo
▪ Enterprise
management
▪ Human
Resources Managem
ent (HRM)
▪ Logistics
Management
▪ Accounting
& Finance
▪ Customer
Relationship
Management (CRM)
Sage
▪ Accounting and
Finance
▪ Business Intelligence
and Reporting
▪ Customer Service
▪ Purchasing
Management
▪ Manufacturing
Management
▪ Sales Management
▪ Inventory and
Warehouse
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▪ Formerly known as Solomon I
(Ruivo et al. 2013)
▪ Originally developed by Great
Plains software in 1981 in
Fargo, North Dakota
▪ Launched its first software in
1993
▪ Primarily focussed on medium
and large sized enterprises
▪ Revenue of $18.6 bn
▪ Based on cloud computing
Place yur screenshot here
8
BACKGROUND OF
MICROSOFT
DYNAMICS
Present logo of Microsoft Dynamics
Source : Internet

▪ Comprises of five primary products
such as Microsoft Dynamics AX,
Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft
Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics
SL, and Microsoft Dynamics C5.
▪ Aims to provide quality service with
the help of its cloud deployment
services (Rafighi, Farjami and Modiri
2016).
▪ The pricing per user for this ERP
system ranges from the $999 to
$14,999 per month.
▪ The development pannel consists of
several developers that are
developing new services such as the
Place yur screenshot here
9
BACKGROUND OF
MICROSOFT
DYNAMICS
Old logo of Microsoft Dynamics
Source : Internet

▪ Microsoft Dynamics will
help to bring in integrity to
the current system of RAI.
▪ It will also with ample data
storage in form of
databases to facilitate the
current system.
▪ The database used is a
typical SQL server database
with the integration of
Microsoft Dynamics.
Place yur screenshot here
1
0
MICROSOFT
DYNAMICS
ARCHITECTURE
Dynamics NAV ERP architecture
Source : Internet

▪ All in one business software
▪ Founded by Fabien Pinckaers
in 2005 in Belgium (Omar and
Gómez 2016)
▪ Formerly known as TinyERP
▪ Primarily focussed on large
enterprises
▪ Uses Python and SQL
▪ Based on SaaS cloud
computing
Place yur screenshot here
1
1
BACKGROUND OF
ODOO
Present logo of Odoo
Source : Internet

▪ The network contains more
than 550 certified partners in
more than 120 countries.
▪ The price for one user is $8 per
month.
▪ The release strategies
comprises of a guidelines that
are mainly focussed on the
quality of service (Omar and
Gómez 2016).
▪ The developers of Odoo ERP
are comprised with the skills in
Javascript, Openerp,
HTML, Python, Postgresql, XML
Place yur screenshot here
1
2
BACKGROUND OF
ODOO
Old logo of Odoo
Source : Internet