Enterprise Resource Planning Information System - Assignment Example

HOME EXAM By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Question 1: Can Implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Information System provide a competitive advantage if your competitors are utilising the exact same system? Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems offer a novel class of wide-ranging software package designed to join together the fundamental organisational activities of the company (Choi et al., 2013, p.73). According to (Ram et al., 2014, p.663), ERP systems are tools utilised to deal with every organisation data and to offer information to departments who require it when they require it. Evidently, with the aid of an ERP system an organisation’s business practices can be automated, from the first point where a client places an order up to the point of offering revenue receipt (Chang et al., 2008, p.1813; Chofreh et al., 2014, p.140). Importantly, by streamlining the supply chain, handling relationships of the customers along with making the processes of production leaner, Chockalingam and Ramayah (2013, p.562) posit that ERP systems plays a crucial role in assisting an organisation achieve competitive advantage, regardless of if the competitors have also implemented it. Conversely, owing to their intricacy, ERP systems are not easy to implement, keeping it operational and maintain it; thus, proving why some companies do have high competitive advantage than their rivals who have implemented the same system. According to Choi et al. (2013, p.75), ERP systems implementation is extremely costly and exceedingly time consuming and it offers no success assurance. For instance, out of 100 organisations examined by Ram et al. (2014), they established that only 10% achieved real value after successfully implementing ERP system. The large-scale ERP software implementations as well as maintenance can call for a million-dollar investment, and yet scores of companies invest in this system devoid of abiding to the similar disciplines used in other departments of their business (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2004, p.314). Important steps like performance goals benefit analysis and risk assessment are usually disposed of, and are replaced by expenditures, which are made after inexperienced suppositions that the system will magically change an organisation into a competence paradigm. Umble et al. (2003, p.247) posit that this erroneous approach instigates a series of occurrences that time and again results in objectives’ failure. Most organizations think that by taking advantage of ERP systems; they will be able to change the yearly practice, which adds almost nothing to the company into technological exercise that guarantees the incessant optimization of resource allotments as well as the reliable, resourceful implementation of the organizational strategy across the company (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2004, p.311; Basoglu et al., 2007, p.84). Towards the beginning of 21st century, Nike used $400 million for ERP implementation as well as to update their supply chain system. However, they were astounded to discover that they experienced a ghastly loss of $100 million, and this happened after they implemented ERP system devoid of testing it, and so the whole thing went off-center. Instead of assisting Nike narrow their manufacturing cycle and equal their supply with demand, the company ended up ordering sneakers that had low selling instead of those with high demand; thus, making the company’s supply chain to collapse (Umble et al., 2003). Therefore, the Nike case proves that not every company that implements ERP systems achieve the benefits such as completive advantage, since all depends on the top organisation commitment. According to Basoglu et al. (2007, p.76), the ERP project can be termed successful only if it manages to reduce the cost of operation, produce demand forecasts that are more precise, accelerate manufacturing cycles, and enormously improve customer service; all these can help the company save millions of dollars in the long run and achieve more competitive advantage. For instance, at Toro Company, ERP implementation together with novel distribution and warehousing techniques, led to $10 million annual savings owing to reduced inventory. Besides that, Owens Corning alleges successful implementation of ERP system assisted the company to save $50 million in sourcing, management of materials, and logistics. ERP as well lead to an inventory reduction for the reason that planners of material-management could access data that was more accurate (Chofreh et al., 2014, p.141). ERP systems apparently as well result in enhanced management of cash, employees; requirements reduction, and a decrease in general IT expenditure by getting rid of superfluous computer and information systems. APICS survey towards the end of 20th century pointed out that 25% of members planned or considered to acquire an ERP system; but, most of them were worried about failure in implementation process. AMR Research forecasted that the market of ERP systems will develop yearly at rate of 32 percent, and that the momentum for this ever-increasing demand would be desire for producers to set up better management over their supply chains (Bradley, 2008, p.181). Evidently, the 2008 global economic recession reduced this forecasted demand, but still as the economy continues to get well, the ERP systems demand has continued to increase drastically. Astoundingly, given the time limit and investment level required to implement ERP systems, scores of business organizations have continued to implement ERP devoid of making any ROI calculations; thus leading to ERP project failure or collapse of supply chain (Chang et al., 2008, p.1817; Basoglu et al., 2007, p.84). Nevertheless, nearly all companies appear to have had exceptional rationales for doing so, and a number of them desired to integrate various units of business; others desired to merge redundant proprietary data. ERP systems are undoubtedly enormous and multifaceted and permit a cautious execution as well as planning of their implementation. According to Chang et al. (2008, p.1812), ERP systems are not just computer systems; they have an effect on business conduct. Therefore any organisation can achieve a completive advantage, even if its competitors have implemented the same system since how the ERP system is implemented determines whether it generates a competitive advantage or turns out to be a pain on the company (Bradford & Florin, 2003, p.212). In this regard, upper management commitment is the main contributor for an effective implementation of ERP system, given that the upper management is involved in important modifications to present business practices and an expenditure of enormous capital investments (Bradford & Florin, 2003, p.217). References Basoglu, N., Daim, T. & Kerimoglu, O., 2007. Organizational adoption of enterprise resource planning systems: A conceptual framework. The Journal of High Technology Management Research, vol. 18, no. 1, pp.73-97. Bradford, M. & Florin, J., 2003. Examining the role of innovation diffusion factors on the implementation success of enterprise resource planning systems. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, vol. 4, no. 3, pp.205-25. Bradley, J., 2008. Management based critical success factors in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, vol. 9, no. 3, pp.175-200. Chang, I.-C. et al., 2008. A neural network evaluation model for ERP performance from SCM perspective to enhance enterprise competitive advantage. Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 35, no. 4, pp.1809-16. Chockalingam, A. & Ramayah, T., 2013. Does the organizational culture act as a moderator in Indian enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects? Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, vol. 24, no. 4, pp.555-87. Chofreh, A.G. et al., 2014. Sustainable enterprise resource planning: imperatives and research directions. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 71, pp.139-47. Choi, T.M., Chow, P.S. & Liu, S.C., 2013. Implementation of fashion ERP systems in China: Case study of a fashion brand, review and future challenges. International Journal of Production Economics, vol. 146, no. 1, pp.70–81. Lengnick-Hall, C.A., Lengnick-Hall, M.L. & Abdinnour-Helm, S., 2004. The role of social and intellectual capital in achieving competitive advantage through enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, vol. 21, no. 4, pp.307-30. Ram, J., Wu, M.-L. & Tagg, R., 2014. Competitive advantage from ERP projects: Examining the role of key implementation drivers. International Journal of Project Management, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 663–675. Umble, E.J., Haft, R.R. & Umble, M.M., 2003. Enterprise resource planning: Implementation procedures and critical success factors. European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 146, no. 2, pp.241-57. Question 2: Are paywalls the only sustainable business model for a globalised media I do not concur with professor Levinson’s statement that newspapers that offer online content for free like Huffingston have sustaibale business model than those that need readers to pay to read their content. Presently, Newspaper publishers are struggling to profitably monetize their content in the internet, and are not receiving any assistance from journalism institutions: in spite of the truth that such are the very establishments making teenagers ready to penetrate the dwindling field and the ones everyone believe will be attempting to assist newspapers continue subsisting, and not accelerate their downfall (Chiou & Tucker, 2013, p.63). Most individuals comprehend that the newspapers content costs a lot of money to create, but the cost for creating that content is not reduced after distributing the content on the internet. No one ought to comprehend that better as compared to scholars in the field of journalism (Crikey, 2013). Even so, a number of scholars in the journalism field have turn out to be supporters for making online content free, to an extent of helping students to avoid newspaper pay-walls by demonstrating to them how it is achieved. Whilst the New York Times’ paywall fails to totally admonish theft of content, MacLeod (2014) posits that the paper’s audacious approach doubled as a clarion call to the globalised media industry. With surprising promptness, other media publishers have included themselves. At present, 25 percent of newspapers in United States have monetized their content by means of payment system (Ingram, 2013). Obviously, there will be readers at all times who will be at ease with pilfering proprietary content since there is no publisher able to manage their readership ethics. Thus far, nearly all content security has been conquered without difficulty through by JavaScript, browsers or cookies manipulation with disguised settings (Pidgeon, 2014). Some newspaper publishers, conscious of the countless errors in their payment systems, have armed themselves with a solution. Paywalls have a tendency to bring about a drop in web traffic, but the users who are willing to subscribe for the content could be a more committed audience. According to Chiou and Tucker (2013, p.67) this audience demographic could be more eye-catching to online advertisers who enthusiastically are looking to get to niche markets, instead of utilizing a more sophisticated advertising model. Companies such as New York Times who have exhibited committed subscribers for their paywalled content have managed to give good reason for the heightened advertisements rates that go with that content. Apparently, the paywall of New York Times has been an outstanding achievement ever since its introduction three years ago and the paradigm for digital subscription allowed the Times Company to make faltering distribution income more stable, since digital subscriptions counterbalance the print business losses of the Times Company (Roberts, 2013). By March 2013, McAthy (2013) posits that the International Herald Tribune as well as the New York Times had over 670,000 online subscribers, which is undoubtedly an outstanding accomplishment. However, all is not well for New York Times since the growth of digital subscriber decelerated considerably in the first quarter of 2013, declining by 6% (Chittum, 2013). Furthermore, the increase of digital incomes was excessively little to counterbalance for the loss of print as well as advertising revenues. According to Myers (2012), the New York Times Company total revenue circulation increase by 8% in the first quarter of 2013, but as revenue for advertising decreased by 11%; therefore, the total revenue of the company reduced by 1%. So as to reaccelerate the growth of digital subscriber, the New York Times Company has publicized the introduction of reasonably priced digital subscription models, so as to increase its prospective audience. In addition, the company made known that videos will hereafter be free from the paywall so as to assemble an enormous video audience as well as increase advertising sales. Whereas paywalls are utilised to make additional revenue for global media by charging for content in the internet, McAthy (2013) posits that they have as well been utilised to boost the number of subscribers for printed newspapers. Evidently, a number of newspapers provide access to online published content, which includes distribution of a weekend print edition at a reduced price as compared to internet access single-handedly. News websites like NYTimes.com as well as BostonGlobe.com utilize this approach since it heightens both their print circulation (which as a result offers additional advertisement revenue) and online revenue (McAthy, 2013). Producing online advertisement income has evidently been an unending scuffle for globalised media; bearing in mind that at present an online ad just makes 10 to 20 percent of the cash made by similar print advertisement. Chiou and Tucker (2013, p.62) posit that neither digital subscriptions nor digital advertisement money through a paywall are close to bring in the money received through printed subscriptions and advertisement. McAthy (2013) affirms that for a paywall to produce sustainable income, newspapers have to develop innovative value in their online content, which merits imbursement that were not achieved by formerly free content. Essentially, the paywall utilisation to prevent people from accessing online news content without payment raises scores of moral questions. According to Chiou and Tucker (2013, p.63), globalised media have failed to supply people with all set access to pertinent public information. What’s more, the paywalls implementation on formerly free online news content increases this disappointment by deliberately withholding information. Myers (2012) mentions that general economic as well as cultural approaches, like information commodification as well as the reliance of commercial media on ad income are the two biggest impacts on performance of globalised media. Chiou and Tucker (2013, p.64) indicate that such economic and cultural approaches create infringements of the egalitarian rule of equal opportunity. Paywall Implementation manages and closely binds the economic and cultural approaches, as the news content commodification by the paywall brings in income from both content readers as well as from heightened distribution of printed paper’s advertisement (Egan, 2012). In that case even if paywalls have some shortcomings, introducing low-priced subscription models will undoubtedly become the most sustainable business model for a globalised media. References Chiou, L. & Tucker, C., 2013. Paywalls and the demand for news. Information Economics and Policy, vol. 25, no. 2, pp.61-69. Chittum, R., 2013. The NYT’s $150 million-a-year paywall. [Online] Available at: http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/the_nyts_150_million-a-year_pa.php [Accessed 7 June 2014]. Crikey, 2013. Crikey says: new journalism still needs old money. [Online] Available at: http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/10/10/crikey-says-new-journalism-still-needs-old-money/?wpmp_switcher=mobile [Accessed 7 June 2014]. Egan, M., 2012. NY Times Pay Wall Slowly Converting Skeptics. [Online] Available at: http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/03/20/ny-times-pay-wall-slowly-converting-skeptics/ [Accessed 7 June 2014]. Ingram, M., 2013. How to Build a Paywall. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-09/how-to-build-a-paywall [Accessed 7 June 2014]. MacLeod, S., 2014. What’s next for media paywalls? [Online] Available at: http://www.inma.org/blogs/value-content/post.cfm/what-s-next-for-media-paywalls [Accessed 7 June 2014]. McAthy, R., 2013. Two years in: Reflections on the New York Times paywall. [Online] Available at: http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/two-years-of-the-new-york-times-paywall/s2/a552534/ [Accessed 7 June 2014]. Myers, S., 2012. Latest numbers indicate New York Times traffic is flat since paywall. [Online] Available at: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/160780/new-york-times-traffic-flat-since-paywall/ [Accessed 7 June 2014]. Pidgeon, D., 2014. News UK CEO criticises the Guardian's 'open' business model. [Online] Available at: http://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2014/03/05/news-uk-ceo-criticises-the-guardians-open-business-model/ [Accessed 14 June 2014]. Roberts, J.J., 2013. New York Times CEO calls digital pay model “most successful” decision in years. [Online] Available at: http://gigaom.com/2013/05/20/new-york-times-ceo-calls-digital-pay-model-most-successful-decision-in-years/ [Accessed 7 June 2014]. Question 3: How My Internet Experience has been shaped by big data and the Effect and/or Implications of My privacy of big data Big data can be defined as a high-variety, high-velocity and high-volume information resources that need commercial, inventive types of information processing for improved decision making as well as perceptivity (Dixon & Moxley, 2013, p.245; Abad et al., 2013, p.709). I think the revolution of big data has arrived since a new blog post or book surfaces casting big data as innovative, troublesome and transformational. I once read that big data is reshaping numerous facets of contemporary life, from national security to commerce to medicine. It can even transform people’s existence conception: at some point I will no more see this world as a series of events that people term as social or natural phenomena, but I will see the world as a universe comprised fundamentally of information (Kwon et al., 2014, p.391). However, this revolution possesses its dissenters, and scores of opponents are concerned that the world’s heightening datafication pays no attention to or even suffocates the indefinable, unquantifiable, infinite, elements of human experience. Critics’ caution of the other threatening sides of big data: for instance, possible civil liberties abuses by the government and attrition of long-held privacy customs (Yang et al., 2014, p.90; Cumbley & Church, 2013, p.604). I have observed that Big Data gets bigger every day, and social media single-handedly produces data streams that are endless, streaming in from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn as well as other social networking sites (Chang et al., 2014, p.68). Luckily, platforms for advanced analytics have emerged to assist social media marketers handle, investigate and leverage enormous sets of social data to achieve actionable insights as well as an obvious competitive advantage. I can attest that big data is braced to change our society, from how our children are educated to how we diagnose disease even allowing for self-driving cars (Abad et al., 2013, p.706; Chen & Zhang, 2014, p.322). Essentially, information is surfacing as a novel fiscal input, a very important resource, and it will enable us individuals to measure and optimize everything feasible. In particular instances, analysis of big data has offered me a direct benefit, particularly when my information is being utilised (Barbierato et al., 2014, p.347). This offers well-built momentum for organizations to argue the values of their utilisation with regard to their ensuing value to influenced individuals. In a number of instances, a certain practice could be hard to elucidate within the succinct chance that a person takes notice, whilst in others cases, people may reject in spite of their best interests (Demirkan & Delen, 2013, p.417). Yet it may be regrettable if inability to get hold of consequential approval would routinely damage the reputation of an information practice that openly benefits us. Reflect on the high customization level practiced by Amazon as well as Netflix, which suggest products and films to consumers with regard to analysis of their earlier dealings. Chen and Zhang (2014, p.327) think these data analysis openly benefits users and has been acceptable even devoid of ingathering of explicit approval. Correspondingly, the 2010 decision by Comcast to proactively supervise its clients’ computers to identify malware, as well as fastest resolutions by providers of Internet service, which includes Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast to enable customers to report possible malware bugs, were proposed for consumers’ own benefit. Translate and auto-complete functions of Google are rooted in wide-ranging collection of data and synchronized keystroke-by-keystroke analysis, and the value intention to users is comprehensible and convincing (Yang et al., 2014, p.91). However, I have realized that the latest debate over leaked data enlightening the huge scale of data collection, us, and analysis, by the National Security Agency (NSA) and probably other state security institutions point out the fragile balance between big data opportunities as well as privacy risks. According to Du et al. (2014, p.28) big data generates incredible opportunity for the business world, particularly in the national security field, credit risk and marketing analysis, urban development, and medical research. All together, the unique advantages of big data are chastened by privacy concerns. Proponents of privacy are worried that the advancements of the data ecosystem will topple the power connections between individuals, businesses, and governments, and result in ethnic profiling, unfairness, over-criminalization, as well as other limited liberties (Chen & Zhang, 2014, p.321). The recent action by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is detailed to information/data broker: individuals or businesses that gather and analyze certain consumer behavioral information and afterward sell the acquired results to different enterprises aspiring to enhance their consumer sales as well as marketing endeavors. Still, it is imperative to recognize that increasing privacy concerns with regard to the utilization of big data are not restricted to such conventional information/data brokers (Dixon & Moxley, 2013, p.244). Undoubtedly, big data revolution has started, and in view of the attributes of big data, as well as the motivators of business to trail its use, Chen and Zhang (2014, p.322) posit that the accuracy or quality of the data is one of the most vital privacy facets, and so how an organisation utilize this data may, negatively, have an effect on an decisions made by individuals. For instance, I have been wondering how precise is private information retrieved from social media, and if the retrieved information from Web-enabled sources or social media can be utilised to rank or screen employment applications, or heighten medical insurance price. According to Kwon et al. (2014), basic profile information, like employment, education, marital status, or age is usually not proven. Additionally, a similar insufficient authentication is widespread in free email services wherein the holder of the account by acknowledging the terms and conditions, has accepted to hand over some privacy level for purposes of data/information collection (Cumbley & Church, 2013, p.604). Therefore, data brokers should always take into account users’ privacy before selling the data to marketers, since the acquired information can fall in wrong hands. References Abad, C.L. et al., 2013. Generating request streams on Big Data using clustered renewal processes. Performance Evaluation, vol. 70, no. 10, pp.704-19. Barbierato, E., Gribaudo, M. & Iacono, M., 2014. Performance evaluation of NoSQL big-data applications using multi-formalism models. Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 37, pp.345-53. Chang, R.M., Kauffman, R.J. & Kwon, Y., 2014. Understanding the paradigm shift to computational social science in the presence of big data. Decision Support Systems, vol. 63, pp.67-80. Chen, C.L.P. & Zhang, C.-Y., 2014. Data-intensive applications, challenges, techniques and technologies: A survey on Big Data. Information Sciences, vol. 276, no. 10, pp.314-47. Cumbley, R. & Church, P., 2013. Is “Big Data” creepy? Computer Law & Security Review, col. 29, no. 5, pp.601-09. Demirkan, H. & Delen, D., 2013. Leveraging the capabilities of service-oriented decision support systems: Putting analytics and big data in cloud. Decision Support Systems, vol. 55, no. 1, pp.412-21. Dixon, Z. & Moxley, J., 2013. Everything is illuminated: What big data can tell us about teacher commentary. Assessing Writing, vol. 18, no. 4, pp.241-56. Du, D., Li, A. & Zhang, L., 2014. Survey on the Applications of Big Data in Chinese Real Estate Enterprise. Procedia Computer Science, vol. 30, pp.24-33. Kwon, O., Lee, N. & Shin, B., 2014. Data quality management, data usage experience and acquisition intention of big data analytics. International Journal of Information Management, vol. 34, no. 3, pp.387-94. Yang, S. et al., 2014. Framework Formation of Financial Data Classification Standard in the Era of the Big Data. Procedia Computer Science, vol. 30, pp.88-96. Read More