ERP Software Selection Report for Gracious Industries

This report focuses on Gracious Industries, a private limited company seeking to invest in accounting software to enhance its business operations. The report analyzes key business processes like accounting, sales, marketing, and identifies major control risks such as lack of quality control, regulatory compliance issues, and low technological knowledge. The study evaluates ERP software solutions, including SAP Business ByDesign and IFS Applications, with a recommendation to invest in Epicor due to its free trial and low application cost. The report covers business requirements, system requirements, software selection, and vendor selection, emphasizing how ERP features like financial management, sales and marketing, human resources, and supply chain management can help achieve business objectives and minimize control risks. The report also provides an overview of ERP vendors like Epicor and their offerings.

Strategic Information
Systems for Business and
Enterprise

Executive Summary
The presented report mainly depended on Gracious industry which is private limited
company and planning to invest in accounting software to reach next level. The key business
processes of company like accounting, sales, technology, marketing, product or service delivery
and quality. The company face control risk such as lack of control over quality, regulatory and
compliance, low level of knowledge regarding accounting and technology etc. To sort out the
problem used two software first one SAP business by design and IFS application. There is
recommended that company must invest into Epicor due to it provides 30 days for free trial and
application cost is very low.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Business Requirements....................................................................................................................1
Key business processes...............................................................................................................1
Major control risk........................................................................................................................2
System Requirements.......................................................................................................................3
Possible ERP features and functionalities to achieve business objectives and minimise the
control risk..................................................................................................................................3
Software Selection...........................................................................................................................5
Three ERP vendors and their description....................................................................................5
Vendor Selection..............................................................................................................................7
Compare and contrast the features and functionalities of two ERP software packages offered
by three vendors..........................................................................................................................7
Select most suitable vendor and ERP software packages for company......................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Strategic information system is a system that manage information and assist in decision
making. Generally says that it is a part of information system that is straight with business
strategy and structure. It is utilised by the organisation to react on the corporate world and many
business initiatives for providing higher benefits of competition to the business. It may provide a
service or product at cheap price, distinguished and especially focused on a demanding market
division or which is invention (Abugabah, Sanzogni and Alfarraj, 2015). This report based on the
case study, Gracious industries is a private limited company where are working about 35 staff
members and generate sales revenue $10.5 million compare last year. Recently, Gracious lost
key accounts due to ineffectual to produce some of its products at a competitive price. So
company decided to employed a accountant for creating financial statements for each year. The
company thought they get more information through final accounts and investment amount in
accounting software to reach next level of business. In the report covers business requirements,
system requirements, software selection and vendor selection.
Business Requirements
Key business processes
Key business process are the collection of procedures that are performed by business
entities to ensure about all functions are carried out correctly and organizations work well or not.
Gracious Industries is a private limited company that is supplying electronic parts. All the key
business processor of the business are as follows:
Sale and marketing: In the Key business process consist of those activities which are
conducted for sales and marketing in the Gracious industries. Through these activities business
earn income and aware for the customer in the reference of all products which are sold by it.
Through the business procedure a company easily acquire their goals and objectives that related
to profit maximisation. For this, it is required to all the operations of business processes are
presented effectively, the board of directors of company execute business strategies for them.
Such as business to business sales, publicity through pamphlets etc. These strategies helps to
formulate all the plan which are formed previously (Al-Ghofail and Al-Mashari, 2014).
Accounting and technology: Both procedure are included as key business processes of
Gracious industries because without both of them it is not possible to formulate activities in
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systematic way. To analyse business activities apply accounting that provides actual situation
and provide information of the business performance well or not. To record transactions of
activities, company use different kind of accounting software that helps to record transaction
easily and complete work on time without create any problem. Accounting and technology are
advantageous for company to conduct complex task easily and achieve.
Quality and product or service delivery: In the context of Gracious industries, it is
supplying electronic items to various organisation. So it is required to focus on the quality of
product that are supplied to different clients. An enterprise must focus on their service delivery
and their quality to satisfy their clients. The particular process defined as key business process
for company due to provide help to maintain good relation with clients and generate higher
income (Al-Jabri and Roztocki, 2015).
Human resource management: In Gracious industries all the board of directors and
manager concentrate towards the management of human resource in order to determine the
requirement of all the employees regarding to their job roles and they are satisfied or not. It
directs to leaders how to apply effective strategies to arrange staff members so they can change
in the acquirement of long term business objectives. It is a important part of key business
processes that carrying out different results. If company do not concentrate in this process so it
will create many hazards like improper formulation of business activities, unmanaged staff etc.
As per the above analysis, it has been understand that key business processes important
for Gracious industries. It execute all the business activities in systematic way. All of them
concentrate on the long term goals and objectives and prepare strategy to achieve profit
maximization.
Major control risk
Control Risks: It is the probability of financial statements are materially misstated due to
failure in the system of controls utilised by a company. These are the group of risk that may take
place due to lack of control over business processes. For every company like Gracious industries,
it is essential to pay attention in regard to possibility of their negative impact could be deducted.
There are mentioned some control risk that are associated with key business process in the
context of Gracious industries:
Regulatory and compliance: It is a main control risk that may influence to human
resource management approach of Gracious industries due to company have not any control over
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governmental rules and regulations. When government implement any type of changes that time
manager of company assure about the required changes and develop strategies according to that
for arranging human resource at workplace. When company do not follow legislation with
modification so it affect functionally of company to interference of governmental bodies in
operational activities (Bradford, 2015).
Market Demand: It is also essential part of control risk that can affect to Gracious
industries in following years due to preferences and demand of clients are not easy to forecast as
both of them changes with time. It is defined as major risk due to company face several
challenges like big losses, decreased market share and ineffective operations.
Lack of control over quality: If a company like Gracious industries is not having
control over quality so as a result company face various types of issues like ungratified clients,
reduced market share and revenues etc. It is very essential for supplies such as Gracious
industries one of them. So it is required to focus on the quality of electronic products before sale
out other businesses. If company supply products without check so it will create many issues
such as unsatisfied customer, customer relation and market image. It is control risk due to in this
condition, the company will have very low control over the quality of products.
Low level of knowledge regarding accounting and technology: When management
and other employees within the company have not proper knowledge about the accounting and
technology, so it will create problems and hard to control over business activities. It will impact
on the interest of stakeholders due to they may think that the records which were provided to
them previously are forged or inappropriate. So there is not any control on the condition of
company thus it is defined as control risk (Bradford, Earp and Grabski, 2014).
From the above discussed points are part of control risk that are arising in the key
business procedure of Gracious industries because of low level of control over them. All these
risks may result in unsuitable business execution.
System Requirements
Possible ERP features and functionalities to achieve business objectives and minimise the control
risk
ERP (Enterprise resource planning): It is defined as a software that is advantageous
for a company as it instruct them to manage and maintain all the activities of business is
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connected to technology (Chorafas, 2016). It will help to an organisation to improve their
productivity as well as profitability as is assist to negative complex process, forbid re-entry of
information and modify the functions like transfer, verification of orders and manufacture. There
is several features and functionality that concentrated by Gracious industries in reference to
accomplish all the objectives and reduce risks. All of them are follows:
Feature and functionality of ERP: Financial management: The ERP system software mainly utilised by the most of the
businesses that assist for monitor and analysis of all the financial data of a company. The
particular software helps to identify income and expenditure of company that recorded in
the accounting book in accounting period of time. In the context of Gracious industries, it
is advantageous to tackle control risk such as lack of knowledge of accounting. So it will
help to face of critical situation and provide reply of accounting issues that face by the
company due to low level experience. Through financial management a company achieve
their organisational objectives in order to maximise profit. Through the management
record all the transactions in the accounting books and arrange in systematic way which
will reflect on real condition of business (Features and functionality of ERP, 2019). Sales and marketing: Through ERP system predict current data of market due to take
help into control risk of market demand could be handled effectively. On the basis of
recent data, Gracious industry managers forecast of potential requirement of customer
and take appropriate steps accordingly. This functionally if ERP system is also
advantageous in accomplishment of company objectives like attracting large number of
customers through marketing activities will be performed in effective way. Human Resource: In human resource department apply ERP system in order to analysis
the performance of employees. It mange the staff members effectively below legal
application after apply changes in the policies. The major advantage of ERP for Gracious
industries to set human resource operation in systematic way. Due to get help from the
software easily manager every task and manager focus on other business activities and
prepare strategies to deduct effect of external factors like changes into legal factors.
Through ERP system apply appropriate modification in the organisational policies as per
the governmental regulations (Elragal, 2014).
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 Supply chain management: The ERP system mainly used into manufacturing and
supplier companies in order to deal with several kind of control risks like low control
over quality. When ERP system applied in the organisation so it provides guidance for
the quality of products that are going to be delivered to the customers. It is advantageous
for the Gracious industries to face the issues of low level of control over quality. With the
help of ERP also arrange activities properly. It can also help to acquire business
objectives like customer satisfaction due to provide good quality of products to customers
otherwise impact on the customer relation. It will provide result in good customer
experience (Ha and Ahn, 2014).
Software Selection
Three ERP vendors and their description
There are numerous suppliers of the ERP systems available in the industry such as
SYSPRO, NetSuit, Epicor, Acumatica, Oracle, etc. Description of the some of the companies
and their product and services are as follows:
Overview of Epicor: The company was founded in 1972 as Triad system corp. It was
created to fulfil the requirements of the medium and large size organizations which are involved
in manufacturing, retail and distribution industry. It supports new technologies and inventions
involving Internet of things and bid data for business analytics. The software package of Epicor
assists in managing inventory, customer relations, finance and accounting, material planning,
international business management, human capital, project management and manufacturing
execution. It allows built in analytics and fact supported judgements that aids the organizations
in attaining high profitability. This system supports working in all operating systems such as
Windows, Android, Linux, Web based, Mac and iPhone. Epicor evaluates data rapidly so that it
can ensure product pricing in such a way that it can optimise profitability according to the
customer satisfaction. The system provides on hosted, premise and cloud computing based
offerings as well (Overview of Epicor, 2019).
Products and services: Epicor Iscara, Epicor Eclipse and Epicor Prophet 21 are some of
the products of selected ERP system supplier. Other then its products, vendor includes some
services such as quality performance, professional hosting, customer relationship, support,
business process outstanding, management, subscription, education and learning.
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Overview of NetSuite: It company was created by Evan Goldberg in 1998. the company
is widely known for cloud based computing software programming that renders organizational
view in relation to finance, marketing, customer relation management and back office
functioning. It works by organising classifying clients, address book along with automation of
contacts depends upon the certain factors. The software provided by the company used across
more than 160 nations by supporting 23 languages. The software designed by NetSuite is
assembled to assist organizational managers to make effective decisions and gain powerful
holding through picturing overall view of various transactions and operations. The scalability
that provides customization to achieve growth make it fit for all the business sizes (Overview of
NetSuite, 2019).
Products and services: Products of NetSuit are OpenAir PSA, NetSuite OneWorld,
NetSuite ERP, NetSuite for Nonprofits, CRM+ NetSuite, NetSuite Incentive management and
NetSuite SuiteCommerce. The services offered by the organization are inventory control,
payment management, demand planning, fixed asset management, billing management and
accounting as well. It assists establishment to efficiently manage their expected together with
existing clients.
Overview of SYSPRO: It was founded in the 1978 to figure out the situations and
rendering uninterrupted innovations that current alterations are fully fledged by any business.
The functions of this software is related to the needs and requirements of suppliers and the
manufacturers. It supplies numerous applications that are in context with business circumstantial
technology which is shaped to incorporate all the organizational aspects in relation to achieve
optimum productivity, efficiency and thrive as well. It provides help in handling orders,
inventory, supply chains, production, warehouses, scheduling and planning. The main
concentration of this software is towards rapid execution of operations so that faster and ultimate
investment returns can be achieved (Overview of SYSPRO, 2019).
Products and services: The software products provided by the SYSPRO are Inventory
Management software, SYSPRO'S ERP and SYSPRO’s Manufacturing Operations
Management. Particular interest domain where works of SYSPRO are rendered service oriented
architecture, customization, workflow management, business process modelling, enterprise
architecture and enterprise resource planning.
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Vendor Selection
Compare and contrast the features and functionalities of two ERP software packages offered by
three vendors
There are different types of ERP software that are provided by the several seller like
NetSuite, Epicor and SYSPRO. These software are designed for the SAP business by design and
IFS implication. Both are help of a company Gracious industry in order to handle all the
problems and challenges that are faced by business when conduct business operations. All the
tasks of the company done by the managers as well as accountant managers on time through the
systems. As a result it helps in time saving that consume in the different processes like recording
transactions. There is defined both of them as follows:
SAP business by design: The particular tool based on the cloud of Enterprise resource
planning that is utilised to arrange all over the business activities as soon as possible. This tool
mainly designed for the small and medium sized company so that they can arrange all the
activities systematically (SAP Business By Design, 2019). In the context of Gracious industry, it
is a small type of company so it is advantageous for company to handle control risk and meet
with organisational objectives easily. It helps in union all the operations of company like supply
chain, human resource, controlling projects and finance. Due to continue maintenance cost is
almost ignoring that refers those software is inexpensive by small business also and apply it.
These company can provide good customer services that can intensify sales addition to profit
margins.
IFS application: It is known as software program that is utilised by a company to related
with several sections and work flows. It includes actual time for visual percept and could be
accessioned the help of cloud or premise installation. The particular software design for the
medium sized companies but it could be utilised by small business entities like Gracious industry
as it can help to arrange functions effectively (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
Features Product
technology
These applications include high
level of concentration on
Since there is no HTML formatting
available in SAP application, it can
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merchandise technology because
they can automatise and contour
features of assorted tasks at
establishment like sale and
distribution (Lu, 2015).
focus on mercantile technology on a
low level.
Financials Such applications are considered
as the most effective tool in
order to manage financial
operations in the organisation.
Due to the lack of excel features
SAP Business By Design software
is considered less impressive as
compare to IFS applications.
Function
alities
Data
migration
This application supports the
data migration function that
helps the management to
transmit its data easily.
SAP application and software does
not provide data migration function
within it which makes it less
compatible.
Customer
relationship
management
IFS application provides human
resource management and
engineering but it does not
focused on customer relationship
management.
On the other hand, this application
includes various CRM components
such as customer service, marketing
development, campaign directions
and sales.
Comparison of features of different software on the basis of vendors:
Feature NetSuite SYSPRO Epicor
Cost of
implementation
License cost - $999
Additional access cost-
$99 per month
License cost - $199 per
month
License cost - between
$250 to $1000
Free trial 20 days free trial 30 day free trial 21 days free trial
Contrasting between IFS application and SAP Business By Design:
Features
and
function
Basis IFS Applications SAP Business By Design
User
friendly
Execution procedure of the software
is tangled and this is not end user
This application is also not user
amiable and very hard for normal
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alities amiable as intense level of
professionalism is necessary to use it
(Rainer, Prince and Watson, 2014).
people to utilize it. Experienced
person is required to utilise it.
Cloud
based
This application could be enforced
with the aid of internal and cloud
system of the organizational internet.
This application can be
implemented on the cloud based
system that can be executed with
company internet.
Cost of
impleme
ntation
Cost of the implementing this
applications is precisely high and it is
not possible for all the companies to
afford it (Ha and Ahn, 2014).
The cost of purchasing the SAP
Business By Design is extremely
high. Therefore it is not casual to
spend this much amount in software
for workflow for all organisations.
Select most suitable vendor and ERP software packages for company
By examining, evaluating, comparing and contrasting the functions and features of SAP
business BY design and IFS applications, this can be pronounce that IFS system is more useful
and effective SRP system for the Gracious Industries as compare to the SAP because so many
features of the IFS application are more upgraded and better. It has greater capability to handle
and manage financial data and information as compare to any other ERP software which is
beneficial for the respective company (Venkatraman and Fahd, 2016). One more reason behind
choosing IFS application is its 30 days free trial period that will help to assess the software
before purchasing. The comparison also indicates that the selected firm should by that
application from SYSPRO company as it is providing the application with lower cost and the
time period for which the application is being provided is more in context with other two
companies. Even IFS application is more expensive than SAP but adequate utilization of this
application will help the organization in organizing financial data in efficient and effective
manner. This software is also helpful in data migration that will help the Gracious Industries in
migrating data easily so it will be a better option for the company as it is planning to invest in
such an accounting software. One of the most relevant reason behind recommend this software is
that it also focus on human resource engineering and management. Real time data management
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