Jean Roberge - vice president of ABS - Essay Example

?Case Question 2: Jean Roberge has proved himself to be a very efficient and dedicated vice president of ABS. His proposition of implementing an integrated Information Technology system is very clearly the demand of time. There are many problems that Jean Roberge has highlighted. The project tends to bring all 3 sub-units (which were previously 3 different businesses) on to one platform so that resources can be shared profitably especially in accounting and human resource management department. Even in marketing department, if the plan of marketing from all three entities is in line with each other due to the presence of an integrated management system, it will prove less costly and more effective. The project will cost $50 million, which Mr. Roberge plan to spread over the period of 24 months. The major targets of ABS from incorporation of this new system are to ensure consistent and reliable data retrieval, harmonization of accounting and financial process, improving process efficiency in HR management and to create an integrated market vision for the new ABS entity. The challenges as identified by Mr. Roberge include the fact that there is a huge amount of information that needs to be sorted out and placed rightly to be accessed when required and this too must be done without a single error. The existing systems and soft wares cannot be considered obsolete for no reason. Instead, the best option is to make as little as possible change to the soft wares in use already. This will help in keeping the system understandable for the users. Also, it is a huge project which will have a direct impact over the way IT department of ABS works. It will have an impact over the future of IT department in ABS. Another great challenge is that Mr. Roberge needs to hire a competent project manager. Case 1: Question 1: There are few other issues which at this point seem that Mr. Roberge has not considered. The biggest issue is reaction of ABS employees to this huge change. It has been mentioned in the case study that IT department staff is already a little uneasy about it as such a system can lead towards downsizing of their department. Such an automated system might result in lower number of jobs in IT department. This thus has an impact over performance of staff especially in the IT department. On the same line, the reaction of employees from other departments will also be important. Marketing department for example might not be very comfortable with such an integrated system. They are not used to discussing their micro plans with a huge audience. An important aspect that is thus being overlooked at this stage in my opinion is change management. Case Study 2: Question 1: In my opinion there are a few key points in the presentation which include the following: First of all, the presentation must have included the scope, budget, requirement and justification of having such a huge system in place. This is something which Mr. Roberge’s own presentation to the committee had in detail. The issues which he found a little untouched in his own presentation and was impressed when he saw added to consultant’s presentation are a detailed break up of the additional resources ABS will require for implementation of such a huge system. When ERP is incorporated in any huge corporate of public culture, there is a lot of staff requirement, capital resource requirement and hardware and soft ware requirements to be taken care of by the parent company. Though Mr. Roberge has done thorough cost analysis, the requirement of staff was brought up by the consultant. Other important point that was highlighted in the presentation of the consultant was that change management must be a well planned process. The consultant has been a part of essentially many such ERP incorporations and from his experience he has pointed out that firms see highest turn over rate during the time when such huge changes are taking place. He pointed out that change management should be a well planned process and employees from every tier must be involved so that there is no insecurity amongst them. Case 2: Question 2: As Mr. Roberge clearly wants someone with a great grip on IT solutions and ERP incorporations, my recommendation to him would be Candidate B. This recommendation I am making on the basis of qualification and experience of all three candidates. The list of equipment and environments he is comfortable with, languages and data bases he can understand and manage and especially his experience with ERP integrated system is better than the others. He is not only an IT expert, but also experienced in similar kind of projects. My next choice would be candidate A as he is familiar to some level with ABS systems and functions. Candidate C would be my last choice as most of her experience is in the field of finance and not in the field of IT and ERP installation. Appendix Case 2: Questions: 1. Experience of launching ERP incorporations 2. Hurdles faced during previous ERP installations 3. Suggestions for ABS ERP solutions 4. How well the candidates understand ABS culture, soft wares being used here and the systems that are already in place here. 5. How their previous experience can help ABS’s future? 6. What value they can add to the whole project? Case 3: Question 1: In my view the basic issue Mr. Roberge is facing is because of the fact that higher management has planned every thing else very well, but they have not paid all due attention towards employee reaction to this huge change. Change management is the actual factor which is disturbing the whole plan at the moment. For example, IT managers who have been loyally working with ABS for many years think that it is unfair that when a lucrative position is on offer, they are not considered for the job and an outsider is hired as project manager. The low level managers and executives think that they are being alienated from the whole process. In my opinion, Mr. Roberge has to pay close attention towards change management as earlier pointed out by the consultant. Case 3: Question 2: Solution 1: Talk to the representatives of every management tier. Advantages: People will consider themselves a part of the whole process Disadvantages: Vice-President and Project Manager have a lot on their minds and thus cannot find so much time to spare at this stage. Solution 2: Let the Human resource who wants to leave ABS at this stage go without any discussion and hire new people Advantages: Once the ERP is in place, the requirement of human resource will be reduced, and also, ABS will have to train even the old employees of the firm so they can alternately train new ones as well. Disadvantages: Disruption of work at key stages, over all low morale and productivity of the staff, high turn over, extra cost of rehiring processes, also they might lose some talent important to them business wise. In my opinion, top level management must find time to meet low level managers and keep them in the loop so that this change becomes easier to manage for all. Case 4: Question 1: The most important factors that Andre Gagne focused on were: Smooth change management Discussions-Taking the low level management and executives into confidence Responsibility: Low level management and executives were made responsible for some parts of the huge task and that made them feel to be a part of the whole process. Removing doubts from workers’ minds: Gagne made sure that everyone who needed a clarification was provided with one, that what percentage of employees will be downsized. Technical IT expertise and team making with members coming from various departments to ensure the team has all required experience in every important field to be focused on. Reference: Bernier, Carmen, Roy, Vital and Brunelle, Eric. An ERP Story. International Journal of Case Studies in Management. Vol. 4. Issue 1. March 2006. Print. Read More