Leadtek Corporation: ERP Implementation Analysis and Recommendations

This report analyzes the ERP implementation challenges faced by Leadtek Corporation, a company in the computer peripherals industry. The report details the company's background, including its transition from legacy systems to Oracle ERP 11i. It identifies the problem statement, highlighting the failure of the ERP implementation due to issues in planning, communication, and employee adoption. The analysis includes an examination of the company's initial approach, the problems encountered, and the need for a revised strategy. The report recommends a two-step ERP implementation process, the use of Oracle ERP 12c, and emphasizes effective communication and stakeholder engagement. The report concludes with recommendations for improving future ERP implementation and achieving the desired business outcomes, based on the issues and failures of the Oracle ERP 11i implementation.

Running head: ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
ERP Planning and Implementation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes:

1ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................3
Company Background.................................................................................................................3
Problem Statement.......................................................................................................................4
Effective way of implementation.....................................................................................................6
Recommendation for ERP implementation.....................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

2ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Executive Summary
Leadtek Corporation is a company that has been operating in the computer peripherals industry.
While operating in the industry there were several grounds that the company gained success in
terms of operations. Furthermore, the company used various sources of technology in order to
incorporate the solutions into the market that they have been operating in. The forms of
technology that was being used by the company was effectively helping the company in
operations however, with modernisation, the need of technology from the part of the company
has changed. The company aimed to capitalise on ERP software. Oracle ERP 11i was the ERP
software that was chosen. However, the implementation of the same experienced difficulties and
delays as a result of which the ERP implementation plan was deemed as a failure. Thus, it has
been recommended that the company should follow a process that is characterised by following a
step while the new ERP project is being implemented. Furthermore, use of a new ERP based
software was implemented. The new suggested ERP software is Oracle ERP 12c.

3ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Introduction
It can be said that the Leadtek Corporation has been recognised as company that has been
operating in the computer peripherals industry. The company has been operating in the industry
the company has been subject to favourable outcomes. The company has not of implementing
change in operational technology with the change of time. Just as every other company Leadtek
Corp also has various functional divisions that operate under the wing of the company. The
assimilation of effort of and smooth nature of operations of all the functional division of the
company can help in terms of gaining feral outcomes that caters to the viability of the company
while they are operating in the industry. The functioning of the accounts division of the company
has been seen to under jeopardy. It has been found out that the accounts and transaction
management software that is has been used by the company has gone through rapid and drastic
changes with Oracle ERP 11i being the latest in line. However, the implementation of the latter
comes with a stiff resistance to change that has resulted in failure of implementation of the plan.
The aim of the paper is to critically evaluate the scope of the issue and to provide
recommendations for resolving the issue that has resulted due to the failure of the ERP software.
Analysis
Company Background
Leadtek Corporation has been operating in the computer peripherals industry. The
company is based in Taiwan and has over 2000 employees. All the operations of the company
are aimed towards the needs of industrial customers. It has been found out from the case that the
company has over 100 industrial customer who avail the services of the organisation. The
supplier base of the company is spread throughout the country with various supplier spread

4ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
across different part of the country. The services that are offered by the company is deemed to be
technology driven. Over the years of operations in the industry the company has been using
software such as FOXPRO, RDBMS, INGRES and others. The aim of the company while it
operates in the industry is to cater to the needs of the customers and come up with solution that
are effective in nature and that is carried out by the extensive use of technology. Latter on the
company took initiatives to smoothen the nature of services by using a form of technology that
would help the company in gaining effectiveness in operations. The technology that the company
thought of implementing into usage was ERP. The implementation of the latter faced several
issues and the implementation plan for the same was abandoned.
Problem Statement
Regardless of the nature of operations of a company and regardless of the industry that
the latter belonged to, it can be said that there should be considerable amount of affiliation that
the motive of the company should have with an innovative environment1. Furthermore, the
companies have to stay up to date with the nature of operations that are carried out while the
company operates in the current business environment. Same was with the case of Leadtek who
aimed at increasing the efficiency of the activities that are carried out by the company while they
are operating in the industry that they belong to. Back in the 1990s, the company used to carry
out operation of the accounts division with the help of FOXPRO. The software was used for a
few years after which it was found that the operations that are being carried out with the help of
the software is seemingly slowing down the process associated with the development of the
functionality of the accounts division. Thus, there was a need for changing the software that was
currently in usage. Thus, the software that was being used was modified and incorporated with
1 Oksanen, Kaisa, and Pirjo Ståhle. "Physical environment as a source for innovation: investigating the attributes of
innovative space." Journal of knowledge management 17, no. 6 (2013): 815-827.

5ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
the use INGRES that is a database software. During the period of 1993 to 1995, the legacy
software was being seed extensively in the company after which the latter became the technology
that was consistently employed in use by the organisation. The internal DP department of the
company maintained the usage of the software and they had to accommodate the request the
users who were new to the system and also in terms of development of new resources and
functionality. However, it the problem arose when it was found that the demands from the users
of the same were exceeding the internal capacity of the DP departments to meet the said
demands.
Furthermore, it was found from the case that individual departments of the accounting
division were having to use different software. This, can be deemed to imply unfavourably on
the nature of operations of the organisation. Thus, there was a need for selection of an individual
software that would lead to effectiveness in operations of the company. The use of ERP based
software was found to be the aspect that the organisation could capitalise on in order to solve the
issues that have been identified2. Before choosing Oracle ERP as the go to software, the
company had different choices that they could take in terms of development of the ERP. Other
software such as SAP, JD Edwards and Ramco Marshall were the software that the company
could have chosen from. ERP was the software that was chosen according as per the consultants
that the company in order to resolve issues associated with the effectiveness of the previously
employed IT systems and the software that can boost the efficacy of the company that aims to
gain international stature. Thus, after the decision was passed regarding the fact that the IT
services would be carried out through the help of solution provided by the ERP software, the
project management plan that was developed would help in catering to the needs of flexibility of
2 Ram, Jiwat, and David Corkindale. "How “critical” are the critical success factors (CSFs)? Examining the role of
CSFs for ERP." Business Process Management Journal 20, no. 1 (2014): 151-174.

6ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
the organisation along with eth activities associated to the development of the competency of the
organisation. Planning is one of the most effective parts of the operations of a company
regarding the effectiveness of operations of a company in the industry that they are operating in.
The planning phase associated with the operations of the company in terms of adopting the ERP
software incurred development of issues associated with the development of a long planning
phase, the budget of which was crossed. One corporate office of the company was operating
solely based on ERP software. This was seen as a ground on which the aim of the company
could be satiated. Issues such as perceived loss of one department from that of another resulted
in the unfavourable nature of operations of one department if compared with the departments that
use ERP software. Apart from the latter, unrest in the company regarding the time taken for
implementation of the project the fact that it crossed the budget resulted in boycott of the plan
associated to the development and implementation of the ERP software in the said organisation.
Effective way of implementation
While aiming to achieve a global stature, the company adopted the help from consultants
in terms of gaining awareness regarding the aspect that they were lacking in the IT department.
The initiative was taken as a result of unfavourably long service time and for the fact that each
individual department had to cope with operations with the help of individual software that
served them the purpose that they needed. According to the consultancy services it was found
that the company should adopt ERP software and the latter would help them in terms of
identification of issues associated with the smooth nature of operations associated to the
development of a rationale for the performance of the organisation.
It can be opined that adopting Oracle ERP helps in terms of gaining nature of operations through
which the company would have achieved a global stature. However, the nature of operation that

7ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
had taken place in the organisation that was characterised by a process that involved testing of
the ERP solution in only one department of the organisation. This, led to unfavourable
perception within the organisation through which the employees of the other departments of the
organisation perceived that they were lagging behind. This, ultimate lead to the development of
grievance within the employees which reflected in their performance. Furthermore, the latter was
a move that was deemed to be ineffective in nature as it decreased the speed of operations of the
company. It can be said that the issue that is to be catered to by the organisation in an effective
manner through which the activities associated with the development of the rationale of the
organisation would be carried out in a manner that would imply that the nature of operation
would be carried out in favourable manner.
In order to resolve issue of the said nature, there must be incidence of communication
that takes place between the top level of the management and the employees of the organisation.
The employees of the organisation are important stakeholders of companies regardless of their
position in the organisation. Hence, the latter have the right to be educated regarding every move
of the company. Only if the company had communicated effectively before carrying out the
operation, the scenario could have been completely different. Moreover, the issue that was
prevalent in terms of operations of the company with respect to the implementation of Oracle
ERP was deemed to be a burden to many employees across various departments of the
organisation. Again the importance of communication has been highlighted which would have
solved the issue of it was actually carried out before the implementation plan of the project was
carried out.

8ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
There are various benefits that one could be subject to with the help of ERP3. The top and
middle level management were educated about the benefits that ERP would provide the
company. Hence, the employees and all the associated stakeholders should have been educated
about the idea that ERP has is an Integrated and secure service that is available online which
helps in ensuring effective flow of operations of an organisation. The fact should have been
communicated that it would help in mitigating the costs associated with the development of
activities associated with maintenance of the mainframe technologies. Furthermore, the fact that
the latter could help in increasing the efficiency in operations of the processes that are carried out
while the company is in operations thus, increasing the speed associated with the development of
activities associated with the empowerment of the stakeholders. Apart from the latter there are
various advantages that are posed to the operations of the company. Advantages such as inter
relation between each functional division of the organisation, reduction of process cost along
with the effectiveness in operations of the company along with the fact that it offers a global
outreach to the company as per the aim of the company should have been enough to justify the
fact that ERP is a software that the organisation is implementing for the betterment of the
organisation in the long run. Thus, communication regarding the same would have resulted in
better treatment of the issue from the part of the organisation.
Recommendation for ERP implementation
It can be said that the aim of the company in terms of development of the ERP11i could
have been effectively carried out if the incorporation of the ERP 12c project followed a process.
Proper structuring can help in terms of development of favourable outcome in terms of ERP
implementation. Following are the recommended activities that should be implemented into
3 Ravasan, Ahad Zare, and Taha Mansouri. "A FCM-based dynamic modeling of ERP implementation critical
failure factors." International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems (IJEIS) 10, no. 1 (2014): 32-52.

9ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
operations of the company and that would help in ensuring the fact that the activities to be
carried out by the company are favourable in nature;
i. Pre evaluation: Process that is characterised by the evaluation of the process that calls for
a need of development of an ERP program.
ii. Evaluation of the package: Evaluation of the package in terms of the facilities that are
offered by the latter along with the scope for development of the activities associated
with the ERP plan.
iii. Planning: One of the most important phases of operations that helps in identifying the
activities that needs to be carried out in order to ensure that the activities are carried out
in an effective manner ensuring sustainability of the organisation in the long run4.
iv. Analysis of the gap: This process involves analysis of the gap as a result of which the
ERP program has been adopted by the company.
v. Re-engineering of the processes: Re-engineering the process associated with the
development of the activities according to the development of activities associated with
the operations of the company.
vi. Configuration of the actual process of implementation: This process will involve the
activities that are to be carried out by the organisation while they implement the plan of
ERP development that has been developed in the planning phase of operations of the
company.
4 Gianni, Luca, Gilles H. Romieu, Michail Lichinitser, Sergio V. Serrano, Mauro Mansutti, Xavier Pivot, Paola
Mariani et al. "AVEREL: a randomized phase III Trial evaluating bevacizumab in combination with docetaxel and
trastuzumab as first-line therapy for HER2-positive locally recurrent/metastatic breast cancer." J Clin Oncol 31, no.
14 (2013): 1719-1725.

10ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
vii. Training on a team level: Training regarding the implementation of the ERP program on
a team level that will help the employees of the organisation in terms of gaining
effectiveness in operations.
viii. Testing of the solution: The plan that has been developed should be tested before the
development of thistle process that is characterised by live implementation of the
activities associated with the ERP plan.
ix. Live implementation: incorporation of the activities into the actual implementation and
using the solution provided by the ERP solution in practice.
x. Monitoring: The process of implementation of the actual ERP should be monitored in
order to find loopholes in the systems and to ensure the process of continuous
improvement in the organisation while the activities are being carried out in accordance
with the goals of the organisation5.
Conclusion
On a concluding note it can be said that the operations of Leadtek Corp has been
characterised by extensive nature of operations of the company that is characterised by the
development of technology. The company has used various forms of technological services
while they are in operations. The company aimed to reach international standards with the help
of a software and database management tool and ERP was deemed to be the best option that the
company could have used. However, the efforts experienced delays as a result of slow nature of
operations and lack of planning. The problems can be resolved if proper structuring is
5 Weber, Ingo, Xiwei Xu, Régis Riveret, Guido Governatori, Alexander Ponomarev, and Jan Mendling. "Untrusted
business process monitoring and execution using blockchain." In International Conference on Business Process
Management, pp. 329-347. Springer, Cham, 2016.

11ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
maintained and the provided recommendation are followed. Furthermore, the use of Oracle ERP
was implemented.

12ERP PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
REFERENCES
Gianni, Luca, Gilles H. Romieu, Michail Lichinitser, Sergio V. Serrano, Mauro Mansutti, Xavier
Pivot, Paola Mariani et al. "AVEREL: a randomized phase III Trial evaluating bevacizumab in
combination with docetaxel and trastuzumab as first-line therapy for HER2-positive locally
recurrent/metastatic breast cancer." J Clin Oncol 31, no. 14 (2013): 1719-1725.
Oksanen, Kaisa, and Pirjo Ståhle. "Physical environment as a source for innovation:
investigating the attributes of innovative space." Journal of knowledge management 17, no. 6
(2013): 815-827.
Ram, Jiwat, and David Corkindale. "How “critical” are the critical success factors (CSFs)?
Examining the role of CSFs for ERP." Business Process Management Journal 20, no. 1 (2014):
151-174.
Ravasan, Ahad Zare, and Taha Mansouri. "A FCM-based dynamic modeling of ERP
implementation critical failure factors." International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems
(IJEIS) 10, no. 1 (2014): 32-52.
Weber, Ingo, Xiwei Xu, Régis Riveret, Guido Governatori, Alexander Ponomarev, and Jan
Mendling. "Untrusted business process monitoring and execution using blockchain."
In International Conference on Business Process Management, pp. 329-347. Springer, Cham,
2016.