Strategic Information Systems Report: Business and Enterprise

This report provides a strategic analysis of information systems for Gracious Industries, a private limited company seeking to implement accounting software to enhance its business operations. The report identifies key business processes, including sales and marketing, accounting and technology, quality and product delivery, and human resource management. It also outlines major control risks, such as regulatory compliance, market demand, quality control, and technological knowledge gaps. The report then explores Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, detailing features and functionalities like financial management, sales and marketing, human resources, and supply chain management. It compares and contrasts ERP vendors, including NetSuite, Epicor, and SYSPRO, offering recommendations for software selection based on Gracious Industries' specific needs and risk mitigation strategies, ultimately recommending the IFS application from Epicor due to its free trial and low implementation cost.

Strategic information
systems for business and
enterprise

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is mainly based upon Gracious Industries which is a private limited company
and planning to invest in accounting software so that business could be taken to next level. Key
business processes for the organisation are sales, marketing, accounting, technology, quality,
product/ service delivery etc. Control risks for all of them are regulatory and compliance, market
demand, lack of control over quality, low level of knowledge regarding accounting and
technology etc. In order to overcome all of them company can use various software. These are
IFS application and SAP Business by Design. Both of them are provided by different vendors
such as Epicor, SYSPRO, NetSuite. The organisation is recommended to invest in IFS
application and buy it from Epicor because it is provided free trial for 30 days and cost of
implementation of its package is very low as compare to other vendors.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS.......................................................................................................1
Key business processes for Gracious Industries..........................................................................1
Major control risks for the business process of the company......................................................2
SYSTEMS REQUIREMENTS........................................................................................................3
ERP features and functionalities that company should consider to achieve objectives and
minimise control risks..................................................................................................................3
SOFTWARE SELECTION.............................................................................................................5
Description of ERP vendor and its products................................................................................5
VENDOR SELECTION..................................................................................................................6
Comparison and contrasting the features and functionalities of two ERP software packages
offered by three vendors..............................................................................................................6
Suitability of the software package and reason behind it............................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Strategic information system are such types of tools which are developed in response to
embodied enterprise initiatives. Main purpose of using them is to attain competitive advantage
for the business so that long term objectives could be achieved. Role of it within an organisation
is to enhance the image of information system so that ability to compete with competitors could
be increased (Abugabah, Sanzogni and Alfarraj, 2015). This report is based upon Gracious
Industries which is a private limited company and have employee strength of 35 staff members.
The organisation is planning to invest in accounting software to take the business at next level.
For this purpose, various topics are discussed under this report which are key process of the
organisation, major control risks for it, possible features and functionalities of ERP and brief
introduction of ERP vendors and their products. Along with this, comparison and contrasting of
features and functionalities and two ERP packages and recommendation regarding the most
suitable one with justification are also covered under this assignment.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Key business processes for Gracious Industries
Key business processes are the set of such procedures which are followed by business
entities to make sure that all the operations are executed properly and organisations is
functioning well or not. Gracious Industries is a small business enterprise which is a supplier of
electronic parts. All the key business processes of the company are as follows:
Sales and marketing: Key business processes of Gracious Industries includes all the
activities which are performed for the purpose of sales and marketing. With the help of them,
organisation generate revenues and aware its customers regarding all the products which are sold
by it. Without these processes, company will not be able to achieve all its business goals and
objectives which are related to profit maximisation. In order to make sure that all the activities
which are related to these procedures are performed appropriately, top level executives of the
organisation formulate effective strategies for them. These are business to business sales,
advertisement through pamphlets etc. All of them helps the enterprise to execute all the plan
which were formed previously (Al-Ghofail and Al-Mashari, 2014).
Accounting and technology: These two procedures are also considered as key business
processes of Gracious Industries because without both of them it is not possible to execute
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operations in a systematic manner. In order to analyse that the business is performing well or not,
accounting is the main requirement. While recording information of different transactions,
different software are used by company which helps to complete the work quickly and reduce
complexities from the work. Both the processes are beneficial for enterprise as with the help of
them all the complex tasks could be accomplished easily.
Quality and product or service delivery: As Gracious Industries is a company which is
supplying electric products to different businesses, so it is very important for it to check the
quality of all the items which are supplied to different customers. Organisation also pay attention
towards the delivery of products in order to make sure that all of them get delivered to the clients
properly. These procedures are considered as key business processes for the company because
with the help of them company can establish good relations with customers and generate higher
revenues (Al-Jabri and Roztocki, 2015).
Human resource management: In Gracious Industries all the top level executives and
managers pay attention towards management of human resource as it helps to analyse that staff
members are fulfilling all the requirements of their job role or not. It guides the leaders to
implement different strategies to manage employees so that they can contribute in the attainment
of long term business objectives. It is considered as the part of key business processes because if
it is not focused by company, then it may create different challenges such as improper execution
of operations, unmanaged staff etc.
From the above analysis, it has been assessed that there are various key business
processes of Gracious Industries which helps the organisation to execute all the operations in
systematic manner. All of them are focused by management to reach long term business
objectives such as profit maximisation (Bradford, 2015).
Major control risks for the business process of the company
Control risks: These are the set of such hazards which may take place due to lack of
control over business processes. For all the organisations such as Gracious Industries, it is very
important to pay attention towards them so that possibility of their negative impact could be
reduced. Following are some control risks which are associated with key business process of the
Gracious Industries:
Regulatory and compliance: It is one of the main control risk which may affect human
resource management approach of Gracious Industries because organisation do not have any
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control over governmental rules and regulations. If a certain change is made in them, then the
managers have to make sure that they have made require changes in their policy of managing
human resource at workplace. If the organisation is not able to comply with modified legislation,
then it may affect functionality of business due to interference of governmental bodies in
operational activities (Bradford, Earp and Grabski, 2014).
Market demand: It is also a part of control risk which may affect Gracious Industries in
future because preferences and demand of customers are not easy to predict as both of them
changes with time. It is considered as one of the major risk because due to this, organisation may
face different issues such as huge losses, decreased market share and ineffective operations.
Lack of control over quality: If an organisation such as Gracious Industries is not
having control over quality, then it may result in different challenges such as unsatisfied
customers, decreased market share and profits etc. For companies like Gracious which is
supplying different products to other businesses, it is very important to check quality of all the
items so that customers could be satisfied. It is control risk because in this situation, the company
will have very low control over the quality of goods.
Low level of knowledge regarding accounting and technology: If management and
other staff members within the organisation are not having proper knowledge regarding
accounting and technology, then it will become difficult to keep control over business activities.
It will also affect the interest of stakeholders because they may think that the records which were
provided to them previously are forged or inappropriate. As there is no significant control of
organisation on this situation therefore, it is considered as a control risk (Chorafas, 2016).
All the above described points are the part of control risk which are arising in the key
business procedures of Gracious Industries due to low level of control over them. All these risks
may result in inappropriate business execution.
SYSTEMS REQUIREMENTS
ERP features and functionalities that company should consider to achieve objectives and
minimise control risks
ERP (Enterprise resource planning): It can be defined as a software which is
beneficial for the organisations as it guide them to manage and maintain all the functions of
business which are related to technology. With the help of it, companies can enhance their
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productivity and efficiency as it helps them to navigate complex procedures, prevent re-entry of
data and improve the functions such as delivery, confirmation of orders and production. There
are various features and functionality of it which could be focused by Gracious Industries in
order to achieve all its objectives and minimise control risks. All of them are as follows:
Features and functionality of ERP:
 Financial management: ERP system are used by most of the companies as they helps to
monitor and evaluate all the financial data of an organisation. With the help of it,
organisation can determine the spending and incomes which were recorded in the books
for a specific time period. It will be beneficial for Gracious Industries to deal with the
control risk of lack of knowledge of accounting because it can help to deal with all the
critical accounting challenges which are faced due to low level of experience. It can also
help to reach organisational objective of profit maximisation because with the help of it
all the records could be managed properly which will reflect actual situation of business
(Features and functionality of ERP, 2019).
 Sales and marketing: ERP systems helps to make forecast which is based upon current
data of market. With the help of it the control risk of market demand could be dealt
properly because managers in Gracious Industries can use recent data to make predictions
for future requirements of clients. This functionality if ERP system is also beneficial in
the attainment of organisational objectives such as attracting large number of customers
because with the help of it marketing activities could be performed in systematic manner.
 Human resource: ERP systems in different organisations helps to manage the
employees appropriately under legal implications by making modification in the
strategies. One of the major benefit of ERP for Gracious Industries is proper management
of human resource activities (Elragal, 2014). When a software is used to manage all the
tasks, then time involved in all of them gets reduced which helps managers to pay
attention towards external factors such as changes in legal factors. It helps them to make
appropriate changes in organisational policies according to the governmental regulations.
 Supply chain management: ERP systems are mainly used in manufacturing and
distribution companies for the purpose of dealing with different types of control risks
such as low control over quality. If it is used by companies, then it helps to monitor the
quality of goods which are going to be delivered to the clients. It will be beneficial for
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Gracious Industries to deal with the problem of low level of control over quality because
with the help of ERP it will be managed properly. It can also help to attain organisation
objective such as customer satisfaction because when good quality products will be
delivered to them, then it will result in good customer experience (Ha and Ahn, 2014).
SOFTWARE SELECTION
Description of ERP vendor and its products
There are various vendors of ERP systems which are NetSuite, Epicor and SYSPRO.
Description of all of them with their products is as follows:
Overview of NetSuite: It was originated by Evan Goldberg in the year 1998. It is
popularly known as cloud based software program which delivers business view in terms of
customer relation management, financials, marketing addition to back office operations. It works
by organising address book, classifying clients along with automating contacts as per the
dependence of certain factors. The software supports 23 languages and used across more than
160 countries. NetSuite is designed to help business administrations to make smart decisions and
attain strong position through providing single view of multiple operations. It fits all business
size due to its total scalability that adds customization to attain growth (Overview of NetSuite,
2019).
Products and services: Products of such software are NetSuite OneWorld, NetSuite for
Nonprofits, OpenAir PSA, NetSuite CRM+, NetSuite ERP, NetSuite SuiteCommerce and
NetSuite Incentive management. It offers services such as payment management, inventory
control, fixed asset management, demand planning, accounting as well as billing management. It
helps organisations to effectively manage their potential together with current clients.
Overview of SYSPRO: It was designed in the year 1978 to solve challenges and
providing continuous innovations such that ongoing improvements are experienced by any
business. The functionality of such software is based on requirements of distributors addition to
manufacturers. It provides various applications concerned with industry specific technology that
is designed to integrate all the business aspects in order gain maximum efficiency as well as
thrive. It helps in managing orders, supply chains, inventory, warehouses, production, planning
and scheduling. Main focus of such software is towards speedily implementations so to get
ultimate and faster investment returns (Overview of SYSPRO, 2019).
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Products and services: Products of the software includes SYSPRO’s Inventory
Management, SYSPRO’s Manufacturing Operations Management and SYSPRO'S ERP. Specific
interested areas where services of SYSPRO are delivered includes customization, business
process modelling, service oriented architecture, workflow management, enterprise resource
planning and enterprise architecture.
Overview of Epicor: It came into existence in 1972. It was built to meet the needs of
large as well as mid sized businesses that are involved in retail, manufacturing and distribution.
It harnesses new technologies including bid data, Internet of things addition to business
analytics. Packages of the software helps in handling customer relations, inventory, accounting
and finance, material planning, human capital, global business management, manufacturing
execution and project management. It enables fact based decisions and built in analytics that
helps the business in achieving highest profitability. It supports its working in all technological
devices such as Android, Windows, Web based, Linux, iPhone and Mac. Epicor drills data
quickly so as to ensure pricing of products in such manner that can maximise profitability
addition to customer satisfaction. The system delivers on premise, hosted as well as cloud based
services offerings (Overview of Epicor, 2019).
Products and services: Epicor Prophet 21 and Epicor Eclipse are some of the products
of selected vendor. Other then products, services of vendor includes professional, hosting,
support, quality performance, business process outstanding, customer relationship, subscription,
management, learning and education.
VENDOR SELECTION
Comparison and contrasting the features and functionalities of two ERP software packages
offered by three vendors
There are various types of ERP software which are offered by different vendors such as
NetSuite, Epicor and SYSPRO. These are SAP Business By Design and IFS applications. With
the help of both of them, organisation such as Gracious Industries can deal with all the risks and
challenges which are faced by it while operating business activities. Managers and accounting
professional at the company can complete all their tasks on time with the help of such systems
because they help to reduce the time which is involved in different processes such as recording.
Description of both of them is as follows:
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SAP Business By Design: It is a cloud based tool of Enterprise Resource Planning which
is used to manage all the function of business entities as soon as possible. It is mainly designed
for small and medium sized business entities so that they can manage all their operations
appropriately. As Gracious Industries in a small organisation so it will be the beneficial for the
organisation to deal with all the control risks and reach organisation objectives successfully. It
helps in uniting all the functions of business such as human resources, supply chain, controlling
projects and finance. Ongoing maintenance cost is almost negligible that stated that the software
is affordable by small business also and using it, such business can offer better customer services
that can enhance sales addition to profit margins (SAP Business By Design, 2019).
IFS Applications: It is a software program which is used by organisations to connect
different departments and workflows. It contains real time insights and could be accessed with
the help of cloud or on premise installation. It is mainly designed for medium sized companies
but it could be used by small entities such as Gracious Industries as it can help to manage
operations in an effective manner (IFS applications, 2019).
Comparison in two different ERP packages which are SAP Business By Design and
IFS Applications:
Basis IFS Applications SAP Business By Design
Feature
s
Financial
s
IFS applications are considered as
the most effective tools to manage all
the financial at the organisation.
SAP Business By Design is
considered less effective as compare
to IFS applications due to lack of
excel features.
Product
technolo
gy
IFS applications have high level of
focus on product technology because
it can automate and streamline facets
of different tasks at organisation such
as distribution and sales (Lu, 2015).
There is low level of focus on
product technology in SAP because
HTML formatting is not available in
it.
Functio
nalities
Custome
r
relations
hip
CRM is not focused by this tool or
ERP system as it is focused with
other modules such as Human capital
management, Engineering etc.
SAP Business By Design covers
different CRM modules such as
marketing development, sales,
customer service and campaign
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manage
ment
management.
Data
migratio
n
It supports data migration which is
beneficial for the companies to
migrate all their information easily.
It do not provides customer support
for data migration and system
implementation.
Comparison of features of different software on the basis of vendors:
Feature Software NetSuite Epicor SYSPRO
Cost of
implementation
IFS Applications
&
SAP Business By
Design
License cost $999
per month with
additional cost of
access which is
$99
License cost $175
per month
License cost
range between
$200 to $1000
Free trial IFS Applications
&
SAP Business By
Design
14 days free trial
for both the
software
30 day free trial 21 days free trial
Contrasting between IFS application and SAP Business By Design:
Feature
s and
function
alities
Basis IFS Applications SAP Business By Design
User
friendly
Implementation process of it is
complex and it is not user friendly
because high level of knowledge is
required to use it.
SAP Business By Design is not user
friendly and it is very difficult for
general people to use it.
Experienced person is required to
utilise it (Rainer, Prince and
Watson, 2014).
Cloud
based
It could be implemented with the
help of cloud or internal system of
the internet of the organisation.
It is a cloud based system which
could be implemented by
organisation by connecting it with
the cloud of the company.
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Cost of
impleme
ntation
Cost of the implementation of IFS
applications is very high and for all
the companies it is not possible to
invest high amount in such software.
SAP Business By Design is an
expensive software and cost of it is
very high. Therefore for all
organisations, it is not easy to spend
thins much amount in software for
workflow.
Suitability of the software package and reason behind it
By analysing comparison and contrasting of features and functionalities of IFS
application and SAP Business BY Design it has been assessed that IFS is more effective as
compare to SAP because there are various features of it which are very good. It has higher ability
to manage financial as compare to the another ERP which is beneficial for Gracious Industries.
The comparison also shows that the organisation should buy it from Epicor because the cost of
implementation of it package is low as compare to other two vendors. Another reason behind
selecting it is 30 day free trial. The period provided by Epicor is more than other two companies.
It is an expensive software but if it will be used by the organisation then it can help to manage
financial data in appropriate manner. As company is planning to make investment in accounting
software so it will be the best suitable option for this purpose because data migration is supported
by it which will facilitate Gracious to migrate information easily. Human capital management
and Engineering are also focused by it which is the main reason for the recommendation of this
tool. It also includes real time data and visualisations which helps to understand the information
in more effective manner (Venkatraman and Fahd, 2016).
IFS application helps in connectivity of business with emerging trends about people and
industry so that competitive advantages are gained in the market. It benefits to the users to
maintain assets, manage operations as well as produce and distribute goods to end consumers.
Other than this, it also helps users to manage their daily asset life cycle within enterprise by
offering capabilities for customer relationship management, document management, financial,
reporting operations addition to business intelligence (Seethamraju, 2015).
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that strategic information systems
are considered as such types of tools which are utilised by business entities to maintain all its
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