Technology in an ERP Implementation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Technology in an ERP Implementation - Essay Example The company also shows interest in its overall progress as the management wants to implement ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system for increasing the efficacy of its processing. Previously, the company made use of MRPII (Materials Resource Planning) system, however, in 2000, the management acquired ERP system (Edwards and Humphries 2005, 144). The new system proved to be a failure because of a number of problems identified by the investigative team. Organizational and technical changes are required to be implemented so that the newly developed system is according to the needs of the users. Training must also be given. This paper evaluates the case study in terms of change management and implementation of ERP successfully. PowerIT’s Acquisition Strategy of ERP The company consisted of an IT department but that department lacked the expertise required for the development of a software of that scale for which, the company required a software (Edwards and Humphries 2005, 147). ... This solution opts because software development expertise is high, application domain expertise is high, however, local company knowledge is low (Edwards and Humphries 2005, 147). The third-party vendor is the most suitable choice for the company as the company does not have to rely on its own IT staff that is good at local company knowledge but lack the other two expertise. Company’s local knowledge can be attained but the expertise of software development and application domain must be there in order to get the software developed according to the requirements of the company. The case writers assert that the "areas of relative strength" of this option rank as "High", "High", and "Low" because the third party vendor is expert for the first two fields, so high is ranked and lack local knowledge to a certain extent, so low is ranked. Major Problems before and after Implementation PowerIT faced many problems before and after the implementation of ERP system. During the selection and implementation phases of the project of ERP, the management of PowerIT showed concern towards inefficient working of the old system that was MRPII. The management also identified a problem with the MRPII system, which was that it was an antique system and because of its usage, they were left behind as compared to their competitors (Edwards and Humphries 2005, 148). Therefore, they showed unwillingness for the old system’s further improvement. When the management accepted the system, they evaluated the system’s inadequacies to fulfill all the requirements of the business. In addition, the newly developed system and its requirements asked for an additional budget that was not previously set by the company (Edwards and Humphries 2005, 149).