ERP System: Analysis, Selection, and Implementation Strategy

This report delves into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, crucial for organizational efficiency. It examines the ERP marketplace, highlighting potential ERPs and vendors, with a focus on SAP, Odoo, and Oracle. The report details various ERP modules, including Human Resource, Inventory, Sales, Purchase, Finance, CRM, Engineering, and Supply Chain Management. It provides an overview of the ERP structure and conducts a fit/gap analysis, along with ERP evaluation and selection criteria. The report culminates in a recommendation for a specific ERP system tailored for the legal firm CRLS, aiming to streamline client handling, case tracking, and team management. The report emphasizes the importance of ERP systems in automating processes, securing data, and improving decision-making within organizations.

Running head: ERP SYSTEM
ERP SYSTEM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
This report deals with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms that can be taken up
and implemented by the organizations so that it can run in an efficient manner. The use of the
ERP system will help the organizations in managing the process of production in an efficient
manner by keeping a track of the record of the raw materials and other inputs that are used in the
process of business. This will help the organizations in managing their duties efficiently. The
legal firm known as CRLS has been looking for opportunities to ease out their process so that the
clients can be handled in a better manner and the proceedings of the cases of the clients can be
tracked. This will help the organization in tracking the daily proceedings that will take place with
respect to the clients. The organization also needs to divide their team according to their level of
expertise so that the clients can approach the right lawyer for getting the advices. The
recommendations have been provided for the organization as to which ERP system they need to
select so that they can efficiently manage the staffs along with the clients.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Marketplace for potential ERP........................................................................................................3
Potential ERPs and vendors.............................................................................................................4
ERP vendors................................................................................................................................4
ERP modules...................................................................................................................................7
ERP structure...................................................................................................................................9
Fit/Gap Analysis............................................................................................................................10
ERP evaluation criteria..................................................................................................................11
ERP selection criteria....................................................................................................................12
Selection of the ERP and the justification.....................................................................................13
Conclusion and Recommendation.................................................................................................13
Reference List................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a kind of software that is built for the
organizations that belongs to different sectors irrespective of the strength and size of the
organization. It helps in supporting and integrating the functional areas that are present in the
process of business, which is inclusive of the purchase of the services and the goods, accounting
and finance, sale and distribution of the goods along with management of the human resources
(Cohan 2017).
The integration of the business processes will help the organization in automating their
process and securing the datas that are present in the various applications along with the
operations and the processes of support. The ERP system evolved from managing the materials
in to a system called the MRP that is Material Requirement Planning (Arachchi, Chong and
Gunawardana 2015).
The ERP system consists of many functions as well such as the support that it provides to
the process of the business within the organization. the planning of the capital, which helps in
executing the plans and strategies of the business can be improved with the help of this software.
It also helps in speeding up of the decision process in the organization, as it helps in analyzing
the data within the organization in a proper manner. The use of these softwares also helps in
mitigating the risks that will help in improving the governance of the organization (Ram,
Corkindale and Wu2014).

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Marketplace for potential ERP
It can be seen that the market is expected to benefit from the software market that is
being presented in the global economy so that the organizations can manage the processes that
are present in the business in an efficient manner. The entry of the Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) has helped the processes of the business in integrated it in a better manner. It has helped
the operations in the back office to be handled in a careful manner so that the mistakes and the
errors can be minimized. The record of the production, control of the inventory, accounting and
the management of the orders that are coming within the organization are all managed with the
help of ERP. It can be forecasted that this market is expected to earn $41.69 billion by the end of
2020, as the rate of growth is calculated to be 7.2 percent (Arachchi, Chong and Gunawardana
2015).
The integration that can be done with the help of these softwares has helped the
companies in keeping a track of the raw materials or the inputs that are being bought within the
organization. The systematic use of this software will help the companies in organizing the
products in a better manner (Khaled and Idrissi 2015).
Potential ERPs and vendors
ERP vendors
The solutions that are provided by ERP specialize in their necessary fields and the
expertise of the domains helps them in critically analyzing the providers so that it can be broken
down in various sectors. The major sectors that are included in this industry are as follows:
 Distribution and manufacturing industry
 Communication, sanitary, energy and transport services

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 Retail sector
 Services sector
Vendors in distribution and marketing industry
The market is particularly dominated by Oracle, Microsoft and SAP, which commands
probably 55 percent of the overall market. The lower part of the industry is fragmented to around
26 percent where a large number of vendors have less than a meager 1 percent of the share from
the total market (Jagoda et al. 2017).
Communication, sanitary, energy and transport services
The share of the market for the vendors has increased by 20 percent. This has resulted in
SAP, Microsoft and Oracle taking up a majority of 73 percent within the market and around 11
percent of the market share is divided among the smaller vendors (Zach, Munkvold and Ollsen
2014).
Service sector
The market is majorly dominated by the big three that is SAP, Oracle and Microsoft and
the other vendors cover only a meager 1 percent of the total share in the market.
Retail sector
In this sector as well, the dominance of the big three can be felt as well but it is seen that
Microsoft has an increased advantage along with Oracle. The small vendors have an
accountability of nearly 11 percent of the share in the market (Peng and Gala 2014).
The major vendors in the market are as follows:

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SAP- It was founded by IBM engineers in 1972 and is one of the undisputed leaders in
the market with respect to the space in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and is the third
largest company dealing with software in the world. The present version of their software
consists of more than 30,000 database tables that are relational in nature and allows the user in
handling the complex situations in business at an easy manner. Though it has been the leader in
the market, many criticize it that the handling of the software is very complex (Johansson et al.
2015).
Odoo- This software is also known as OpenERP, which consists of various applications
in the business such as management of the projects, CRM, Warehouse management, Sales,
Financial management along with many other services. It gives a choice of more than a thousand
modules for the organizations to choose from so that they can work in an organized manner. It
has helped mostly the companies that range from small to mid-sized. It is one of the widely used
solutions with respect to open sources that is being used by the companies all over the world
(Haddara 2014).
Sage- This Company was started in the United Kingdom in the year 1981 where the first
version of the software was based on the principles of accounting. The company eventually grew
in number and by the year 1984 the company was launched in a successful manner. The
company was able to acquire most of the organizations, as it was able to successfully attract most
of the organizations (Erturk and Arora 2017).
Oracle- This was considered to be one of the earlier known relational databases that have
helped the organizations in choosing the ERP applications that are present in SAP. During 2004,
the company started to build its own solutions for ERP, which has helped them in providing the

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solutions in the Microsoft SQL database as well so that the performance can be increased. The
first product of the company known as Oracle Financials was introduced in the market in the
year 1989, which helped them in establishing their foothold on the market (Johansson et al.
2015).
Microsoft- The Company mainly keeps their focus on the Tier II clients that are present
in the ERP market and helps in providing the solutions to various domains of the business
organization with respect to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (Erturk and Arora
2017).
ERP modules
The modules of ERP can be divided as follows:
 Human Resource Module- This module helps the team of HRs in efficiently managing
the human resources. The module also helps in managing the information of the
employees by keeping a record of their performances, description of their job profile
along with the designation that has been allotted to them so that it can be maintained in a
proper manner. The payroll system is one of the important part in this module, as it helps
the employees in managing the salaries of the employees along with other benefits as
well (Mu, Kirsch and Butler 2015).
 Inventory module- This module helps the organizations in tracking and sorting the items
by keeping a track of the serial numbers that are unique in nature. The track of the serial
numbers of the inventory system helps the organization in keeping a track of the location
of the inventories. It is also inclusive of the functions such as controlling the inventories
and the reporting of the utilization of the stocks (Khan and Faisal 2015).

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 Sales module- This module helps in processing the sales of the organization and is
inclusive of the queries and enquiries that are present in sales with respect to handling of
the quotations along with the acceptance of the sales orders and the proper taxation
facilities (Kim 2014).
 Purchase module- This module takes care of the purchase of the raw materials and other
items that are required within the organization so that the process of production can
continue. It also helps in the listing of the suppliers and linking the items with the
suppliers as well. The sending of the quotations of the price to the suppliers and the track
of the items that have been purchased are all done through this module (Omar and Gomez
2017).
 Finance and Accounting module- The inflow and the outflow of the capital has to be
managed through this module, as it helps in keeping a track of the account related
transactions such as the expenditures and the ledgers of the organization. apart from this,
the module also helps in keeping a track of the balance sheet and other payment related
transactions within the organization (Eker and Aytac 2016).
 CRM module- This module helps in maintaining a better service to the customers by
maintaining healthy relationships with the customers, which helps in boosting up the
sales for the organization. The module also helps in managing and tracking the
information of the customers with respect to the calls that have been made by them to the
organization along with other attributes (Kim 2014).
 Engineering module- This module helps in planning the production function for the
organization along with the scheduling of the machines and the usage of the raw
materials. The progress of the daily production is also tracked by these modules, which

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helps in reporting the actual production that is done within the organization on a daily
basis (Omar and Gomez 2017).
 Supply chain management (SCM) module- This module helps in keeping a track of the
products from the point of view of the manufacturer to the consumer and vice versa. It
basically involves the manufacturer, distributors, and retailers along with the stockiest for
the products. it is also responsible for keeping a track of the supply and demand of the
products so that the market can be studied in a better manner (Khan and Faisal 2015).
ERP structure
Figure 1: ERP structure
(Source: Created by the Author)
The primary aim of the organization known as CRLS will be to provide the legal advice
to the people who come from poor economic backgrounds. The people from the major cities
cannot afford who cannot afford to pay the legal services can come up to this firm for getting the

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legal services at free of cost. When the ERP system was implemented within the organization,
the organization tries to appoint the lawyers according to their areas of specialization so that they
can cater in a better manner towards the clients that are coming to avail the services. This will
help the organization in presenting the legal advices in a better manner so that the clients can
understand it better (Sherwin 2017).
The application of this ERP structure will help the organization in presenting the system
in a dispersed and distributed manner so that the clients who are from different locations can be
handled within the entire organization. The implementation of this structure is that it will help in
handing both the application and the duties that are present in handling the database as well. The
clients of the organization are also responsible in presenting the datas to the organization so that
it can be stored and studied in a proper manner whenever it is needed. This will help the clients
in being connected with the organization in both ways, as they provide feedbacks to the
organization about the proceedings of the court and vice versa (Omar and Gomez 2017).
Fit/Gap Analysis
The analysis has been divided in to three stages that are as follows:
Stage 1: The lawyers need to be trained in a proper manner so that they can provide the advices
to the people at a better manner. They need to be trained in handling the clients in a proper
manner so that they do not feel insecure in sharing the problems with them. When the lawyers
are unsure in providing the advice to the clients, they need to tell that directly to the clients so
that wrong advices can be avoided, which may create problems for the clients. The lawyers need
to be provided with a blueprint carrying all the information that is followed within the

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organization so that they can work in an ethical manner. It will help the lawyers in working in an
effective manner with the clients as well.
Stage 2: The training process will help the lawyers in following the ethics and the code of
conducts that are followed within the organization. This helps the lawyers in becoming better
consultants so that their advices can be of some value to the people.
Stage 3: The presentation of the proceedings needs to be done in a better manner so that the
clients can have no problem in understanding it. This will help the company in solving the
queries of the people so that they can be advised in a better manner (Mu, Kirsch and Butler
2015).
ERP evaluation criteria
The ERP software has to be used based on the requirement of the organization. It can be
divided as follows:
Customer Relationship Management
The module that is present in CRM will help the organization in getting access to the type
of accounts and the products that are being used within the organization. The effective use of the
module will help in providing better access to the information about ERP in any devices at a
particular point of time.
Accounts payable reporting