Management Information Systems: ERP Proposal for Business Expansion

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, focusing on their implementation, benefits, and limitations. The report begins with a problem statement highlighting the challenges of bulging inventories and poor customer fill rates faced by an organization. It proposes an ERP solution to integrate various business functions, such as purchasing, sales, planning, finance, and inventory, to improve efficiency and customer service. The report details the benefits of ERP systems, including reliable business information, enhanced inventory management, multiple channels integration, increased operational efficiency, automated payment & sale recording, increased customer management, and pricing and discount management. It also addresses the limitations of ERP systems, such as implementation challenges and potential downtime. The report then provides an overview of various ERP software brands like NetSuite ERP, Intacct, Brightpearl, Odoo, Ecount, PeopleSoft, Sage 100, FinancialForce, SAP Business One, and iXERP Standard, recommending Brightpearl as the best-suited system for the organization. The report concludes with a bibliography of relevant sources.

Running Head: ERP 1
Management Information System
Student Details
4/28/2019

EPR 2
Contents
Problem Statement:..........................................................................................................................3
Proposed Solution:...........................................................................................................................3
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)...............................................................................................3
Benefits of ERP Systems.............................................................................................................3
Limitations of ERP Systems........................................................................................................5
Brands which are Offering ERP......................................................................................................5
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................8

EPR 3
CEO
XXX
28-04-19
Problem Statement: Organization is facing various critical problems such as bulging
inventories and poor customer fill rates which require immediate attention and solution.
Proposed Solution
Our organization has becoming a large organization with each passing day. Due to the
business expansion of xxx, now company has an excess of inventory which is causing problems
such as difficulty in keeping our customers satisfied by meeting their changing demands. I as a
manager of the company have carried out several researches in order to come up with a solution
to this problem. I have analysed that the main reason behind all these problems that our
organization is currently facing is due to its outdated IT technology systems. Hence, I discovered
that implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is beneficial for the
organization and help our company in its business expansion and managing better customer
services.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
An ERP system allows an organization to integrate its various business functions such as
purchasing, sales, planning, finance, purchasing, human resources, marketing, and inventory. It
is software which is capable of integrating various applications of a business (Haddara & Zach,
2011).
ERP has become an unavoidable need of our retail business. Due to increasing
competition in the market, it has become important for our organization to implement ERP
systems in order to sustain and keep up with the changing demands of customers (Capterra,
2019). ERP systems consist of customizable applications which will enable our organization to
integrate and manage all of its key operations along with handling of multi-location stores,
pricing changes, moving stocks frequently, discount offers on products, and several others.
Management of these functions manually is complicated and lengthy, however ERP software is
able to provide faster, reliable, and simpler solutions for management which are needed to run
our business more efficiently (Master, 2018).
Benefits of ERP Systems
Below are the seven advantages of ERP system for our business:
1. Reliable Business Information: An ERP system will collect business information from
our several subdivisions which include sales, inventory, purchase, and other units. The

EPR 4
information provided by the ERP system is in real time, relevant, and accurate which will
allow our managers to make better and quick decisions (Magal & Word, 2011). A better
planning is possible after implementing ERP systems which will lead to stronger control
and thus makes business to move forward to generate increased profit.
2. Enhanced Inventory Management: Inventory is important for our business as it allows
us to stock enough products to meet customers’ demands. Having control over it enables
the organizations to keep the needed stock and remove the excess one. An ERP system
has the capability of addressing these challenges as it stores detailed information of each
product available in the stock (Cross, 2018). By this users have knowledge of product
amount in the inventory. This system also provides information about demanded products
by analyzing buying trends of customers.
3. Multiple Channels Integration: Our organization needs functioning of multiple
channels simultaneously which are required to ensure smooth functioning of all
operations. An ERP system will integrate all these channels and make all departments to
share information in real time. It will enable employees to get information of data
whenever it is required by them and thus promote effective business communication
(Toppr, 2019).
4. Increase Operational Efficiency: As ERP software will allow our business to capture,
store, and manage the entire information through an automated system and thus simplify
and organize daily operations. This reduces the tiresome manual efforts of performing
these repetitive activities and thus efficiency of company will be increased as targets are
achieved on time and hence save operational costs (Huin, 2014).
5. Automated Payment & Sale Recording: POS tools are integrated in modern ERP
systems which enables automatic recording of sales transaction details and thus makes
sales transactions much easier and faster. Real time data will reflect all the transaction
data on the central ERP (Tagliavini, Faverio, Ravarini, Pigni, Buonanno, & Callaos,
2012).
6. Increase Customer Management: Customers are most important to ensure success of
an organization. ERP systems consist of customer management tools which resolve the
issues and challenges related to acquisition and maintenance of clients. As described
earlier that ERP systems captures whole information related to purchase history of
customers, and thus this data can be helpful in determining the buying trends of shoppers
and allow the organization to develop attracting deals for customers to provide them a
really modified shopping experience (Master, 2018).
7. Pricing and Discount Management: It is nature of a retail business of demanding a
dynamic pricing system. Manual maintenance of this is quite complex and tiring.
However, ERP systems provide automatic recording of products’ prices as well as
available discount on them. This will make the process effortless and simpler for our
organization (Sstaehr, Shanks, & Seddon, 2012).

EPR 5
Source: (Focussoftnet, 2019)
Limitations of ERP Systems
However, despite of several advantages, there are also some limitations of ERP systems also
which we need to consider and keep in mind before implementing ERP systems in our
organization. Following are points which require attention in ERP implementation:
1. As our business is older, hence it is more difficult for us to implement ERP systems. This
is because employees need training to understand the functioning of new ERP system.
2. Downtime is obvious to switch the all business applications to new system. Hence, we
need to be prepared for the losses that would occur during the downtime (Lacoma, 2017).
3. There are also some standards associated with ERP systems for retail industry and these
strict restrictions may decreases competitive advantages and creativity (Cross, 2018).
Brands which are Offering ERP
There are numerous ERP software available in market. But, picking a right software is
crucial and therefore, I am providing a list of 10 best software which can be best suited to the
business function of our organization.
1. NetSuite ERP: It is considered as one of the most reliable and deployed cloud ERPs. It is
best suited for mid-sized and large enterprises. NetSuite is excellent in managing
financial records of the organization which include tracking and controlling expenses
also. This system provides monitoring of financial records, financial performance, and
revenues in real time (Online, 2019). It closely monitors inventory processes from
procurement to payment. It provides key features such as self-service function for
vendors and automated and streamlined purchase, removes barriers in order-to-cash
workflow, seamless approval for invoicing and collection, customized dashboards for

EPR 6
managers and staff to display key metrics, an add-on module naming Human Capital
Management which help in evaluating productivity of staff (Magstarinc, 2019).
2. Intacct: It has rich set of modules which performs almost all transactional processes.
Features of this system includes core accounting from payable/receivable accounts to
cash management, fixed assets, subscription billing, provide sales and use tax processing,
and supports global consolidations and multi-entity. It is best suited in strict financial
regulations areas (Magal & Word, 2011). It is easy to learn, and provides customization
of built-in reports, set of graphs, dashboards, and charts to present essential metrics,
automatically calculates frequent figures as sales orders, commissions, purchase orders,
and returns. It provides wide integration which allows CRM, online payment, and travel
management (Sstaehr, Shanks, & Seddon, 2012).
3. Brightpearl: It is an omni-channel retail management system. It has features of
managing various sales channels, allows consolidation of different disconnected but
relevant data which is critical for strategic planning and decision making, manage supply
levels and inventory easily, real time processing, automatic entering of payments, orders,
and billing, automatic accounting process, provides central hub for data storage, and can
be accessed anytime and anywhere (Tagliavini, Faverio, Ravarini, Pigni, Buonanno, &
Callaos, 2012).
4. Odoo: It is an extended ERP and integrates with its web builder, CRM, e-commerce,
POS, and sales apps. It is an open source platform for compatible apps. It is best suited
for growing businesses as it provides a scalable platform to scale complicated features
according to arise need (Capterra, 2019).
5. Ecount: It is the most affordable solution for robust system. It is cheaper than other
available ERP systems. Addition to features which are provided by above mentioned
systems, it has a specific version for manufacturing with integrated features such as cost
schedule and bill of materials (Toppr, 2019).
6. PeopleSoft: It is a Human resource focused ERP system. Addition to above mentioned
features, it has resource allocation, project portfolio, and expenses features. Other
features of this system include workforce estimation, talent sourcing, and labour law-
compliment controls. It also improves supplier relationships, includes spend analytics,
and procurement (Online, 2019).
7. Sage 100: It is best suited for small and mid-sized organizations. It consist of industry
specific features and BI tools, mobile access, more intuitive UI, consolidate disconnected
internal processes, manage vendors and people, provides access to previous budgets of
different departments which helps in planning of localized and overall budget (Online,
2019). It enhances financial forecasting more accurately and efficiently.
8. FinancialForce: It is designed as per customer centric features in order to provide
enhanced services to customers. It makes all business units on the same page while
dealing with customers. It streamlines various items such as revenue recognition, cash
collection, billing, payroll, quoting, and talent sourcing (Lacoma, 2017).

EPR 7
9. SAP Business One: It has 17 components which manage various business processes. It
has all basic features of an ERP system which are vital for retail business. Apart from that
it has cloud tools and mobile access features which provide flexibility to its clients. Its
key benefit is it removes data inconsistencies and erroneous errors (Lacoma, 2017).
10. iXERP Standard: It centralizes both internal and external resources. It consists of a
automated Cross-Functional financial management tool to provide tracking, effective
planning, and managing of business activities. This provides tailored platform to users to
pay for services only they use (Online, 2019).
As per the requirements of our business, according to me “Brightpearl” is best suited
enterprise system for our organization. It streamlines back-office workflows so that we can focus
on growing the business. It will also integrate our business processes such as order management,
inventory, CRM, accounting, supply chain, POS, analytics and reporting, and fulfilment. It also
consolidates different business units’ processes such as purchasing, e-commerce, marketing,
sales, and finance. Hence, in my opinion Brightpearl is best ERP system for our organization.

EPR 8
Bibliography
Capterra. (2019). Retail Management Software. Retrieved from https://www.capterra.com/retail-
management-systems-software/
Cross, J. (2018). ERP for Retail: What You Should Know & Important Features to Look for.
Retrieved from https://technologyadvice.com/blog/information-technology/retail-erp/
Focussoftnet. (2019). 7 Key Benefits of ERP in a Retail Business. Retrieved from
https://www.focussoftnet.com/erp-systems/blogs/7-key-benefits-of-erp-in-a-retail-business
Haddara, M., & Zach, O. (2011). ERP Systems in SMEs: A Literature Review. Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences , 1-10.
Huin, S. F. (2014). Managing deployment of ERP systems in SMEs using multi-agents.
International Journal of Project Management , 22 (6), 511-517.
Lacoma, T. (2017). Limitations on ERP. Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/about-6583617-
limitations-erp.html
Magal, S. R., & Word, J. (2011). Integrated Business Processes with ERP Systems. UK: Wiley
Publishing.
Magstarinc. (2019). What is ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)? Retrieved from
https://www.magstarinc.com/retail-technology-blog/what-is-erp
Master, B. (2018). What is Retail ERP and Why Do You Need It? Retrieved from
https://www.batchmaster.co.in/blog/what-is-retail-erp-and-why-do-you-need-it/
Online, F. (2019). 10 Best ERP Software For Your Company: Analysis Of Popular Tools.
Retrieved from https://financesonline.com/top-10-erp-software-company-analysis-popular-tools/
Sstaehr, L., Shanks, G., & Seddon, P. B. (2012). An explanatory framework for achieving
business benefits from ERP systems. Journal of the Association for Information Systems , 13 (6),
424.
Tagliavini, M., Faverio, P., Ravarini, A., Pigni, F., Buonanno, G., & Callaos, N. (2012).
Exploring the use of ERP systems by SMEs. Planning , 12, 23.
Toppr. (2019). ERP. Retrieved from
https://www.toppr.com/guides/accounting-and-auditing/computerised-accounting-environment/
erp-meaning/

EPR 9