The Enterprise Resource Planning Software - Assignment Example

? Business Plan Christina Serratos DeVry Table of Contents Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Business Analysis 7 HRIS Type/Comparison. 9 HRIS Vendor Recommendation 10 Akers, M. Major Segments of the Restaurant Industry. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/major-segments-restaurant-industry-25986.html 13 Executive Summary In this ever changing world there arises a great need to employ the best business practices. All major sectors of the modern human life have been affected or impacted by information technology. Very rarely would one walk into an office or home and fail to come across a high tech device. The Castle Family Group of Restaurant encountered the need of an information system. This group of eight family run restaurants operating in northern California has been undergoing difficulties dealing with human resource issues. The operations manager doubles up as the human resource manager and embarks on a tedious process of physical inspection of the human resource requirements and problems of all the eight restaurants. Not only is this a time consuming and tiring process, the operations manager has also realized that it is costly and very inefficient. Therefore this plan presents a possible solution to the problem in the form of the implementation of an information system which will effectively aid the human resource manager with his operations thus allowing for efficiency and company growth. The restaurant industry is quite competitive with northern California being a haven for great restaurants. It is essential for one to cut a niche in the market and this can only be done if the various organizational resources are effectively managed. The replacement of the current manual system with an automated one will enable the company to manage its employees effectively allowing for good record handling, proper and easy scheduling, and effective communication within the organization. This will see an improvement in business processes which will culminate in the growth of the business reflected as higher profits. Introduction The implementation of an Information system is a vital part of business process transformation. For a business to succeed various steps must be taken to ensure that business process support and improvement is achieved. The use of a Human resource information system is a sure way of attaining this. A human resource information system will ensure that human resource functions are effectively managed by information technology hence creating an environment for profit making and business growth through efficient service provision and management. The human resource department is charged with the responsibility of payroll processing, employee recruitment and employee appraisals. These functions are increasingly becoming complex and thus require sufficient support. Automation of such a department, through the use of information technology, will ensure that the workload is sufficiently reduced and access to information is easy and quick. This business plan examines the effective role of implementing a human resource information system by performing a business analysis that will present the inefficiency of a manual system, and presenting a possible solution in the form of a human resource information system that can be implemented. Company Review The Castle Family Restaurants, a group of eight restaurants in northern California run by the Castle family, is a big employer of both part time and full time employees. It has employed more than 300 employees most of whom are on a part time basis as only 30% of these employees work on a full time basis. The operations manager usually has her hands full as she makes several visits to all the restaurants managed by the group to perform human resource administrative duties such as employee recruitment, appraisals, payroll processing among other functions. This manual process of performing human resource functions is quite costly and very inefficient. Therefore there is a great need for improvement in order to eliminate the constant travel of the operations manager and many other inefficiencies posed by the manual operations. In order to save on costs incurred in gasoline, Mr. Joy Morgan should adopt the human resource information technology to automate the functions and activities of human resources that make him travel to the locations. For instance, he can automate the recruitment and hiring process such that the process is entirely done online where the applicants are short listed, selected online and then recruited. Training of employees can also be done online through the business database. So that instead of travelling to various locations, Mr. Joy Morgan could just post a survey on the database to get the feelings of the employees and then act by posting what they are expected to do. The Restaurant industry is one of the fastest growing industries and continues to be one of the economy’s top employers. It is expected that the industries will be employing more than 14.1 million people by 2020 thus it is important that a restaurant owner learn how to effectively manage the human resource in order to be in line with industry standards and partake in the industry’s profit making process (Akers). Impeccable human resource is necessary for a company’s growth because it is the employees who work hard to ensure that the company creates a niche in the market. Good employees will propel the business to greater heights. Consequently potential employees are attracted to companies with good human resource management as they realize that such companies will effectively cater for their needs. Therefore businesses have to adopt good industry practices with regards to human resource management in order to attract and maintain the best possible staff. The restaurant industry experiences many forces that create changes in the restaurant industry. The recent recession period saw a great change in all major sectors of the world and the restaurant industry was no exception. As a result, the industry has to deal with increased cost of food thus reducing the number of people who can afford a meal in a restaurant. It has become essential to try and reduce overall costs thus to maintain the profit margins and keep the restaurant doors open. Nevertheless, the economy is slowly improving and the industry is growing again. But perhaps the biggest change that will hit the restaurant industry is that of technology. Technology has impacted all areas of our lives. The emergence of mobile phones and various other technological inventions has made it virtually impossible to go somewhere and not encounter a high-tech piece of hardware and the restaurant industry is not an exception. Technology is slowly penetrating into the restaurant industry through the use of mobile devices on the table, online reservations, social media and new payment methods. Some of these advances will positively impact the industry which must then learn how to deal with the challenges that come with these advances. In a restaurant, technology can be used to create an automated system for placing order, reservations and making payments. Nevertheless, its use is not limited to only these actions. Technology can also be used to track inventory, regular checklists, payroll processing, store employee records and so on. Therefore, very soon all major restaurants will be technologically savvy with those who do not adapt to this new change prone to dismissal by the general public who will consider their service provision to be below standard (Vardy). The Castle Family group of Restaurants intends to adapt to this technological change by adapting an information system in a department where there is a great need for improvement. The human resource department has been facing many challenges with the management of the human resources. This is because the restaurants are geographically dispersed thus their assessment must be physically done through a personal visit by the operations manager. These visits are time consuming and costly therefore end up being a liability to the company. In addition, employee record handling is very difficult especially in the case where many of them are on a part time basis. Manual scheduling of work assignments must be tedious and time consuming. Therefore, the implementation of an information system will go a long way in reducing costs and ensuring efficiency is maintained in the company. Business Analysis The Castle Family Group of Restaurants needs to be managed with more precision and the various human resource functions performed on a daily basis. The restaurant industry is a fast moving high profit industry with established industry players making big profits. Chain restaurants, referring to various restaurants with the same name and owner operating in a geographically dispersed area, are at an advantage in the market. They are able to maintain a good standard that can be recognized over a wide area. Clients, satisfied with the service provided in one area, will enable the restaurant to create a standard for itself even though service provision will be different in each case. Currently, the operations manager of The Castle Family Group of Restaurants doubles up as the human resource manager. This is dangerous and potentially damaging to the effective flow of operations of the Restaurants. The work load of both roles is huge and demanding and thus the possibility of neglecting, unintentionally or otherwise, is very high. To make matters worse, the various restaurants in the group are supervised and monitored physically and manually by the operations manager. This means that the operations manager needs to personally visit a restaurant to get the status report and perform other functions associated with his role. Notably, these restaurants are geographically dispersed meaning that there is quite a distance between them therefore it possibly takes some time to get there with some cost associated with the transportation. In addition to transportation costs, the movement of the operation manager to access information about a specific restaurant is also time consuming and ineffective. Since the restaurants are many it is highly unlikely that the operations manager will take ample time to discuss issues with the employees of the specific restaurant. Therefore many things will be overlooked or left out creating room for problems later on. Consequently, these constant movements may be tiring for the operations manager thus having a negative impact on his performance. Therefore the elimination of the manual system and replacing it with an automated version is highly necessary for business growth, cost reduction and effective management of human resource functions. A human resource information system will automatically eliminate constant travel to all the eight restaurants thus enabling the operations manager to work from a central location. In this way, travel costs will be eliminated thus saving the company from unnecessary expenses. In addition, time will also be saved as the operations manager used to waste a lot of time traveling from one spot to another. Consequently, an information system will allow for easy scheduling, payroll management and rapid response to customer and employee queries. Information will be accessible at the click of a button thus decision making will also be quick and informed. Employees will be able to have access to the human resources department with a lot of ease through the information systems and issues like payment, days off and so on will be handled quickly and easily. An information system will collate the information of all the eight restaurants thus making their management easy. Most importantly, the operations manager will be able to concentrate on both his functions with ease as he will now have the support of an information system. Effective human resource management will be able to save the company a lot of money through elimination of unnecessary costs while at the same time contribute to the development of an impeccable staff who will work hard to ensure that the business records high growth rates. HRIS Type/Comparison. There are three types of human resource information system s. These include transaction processing systems (TPSs), functional area information systems (FAIS) and Enterprise resource processing systems (ERPS). The Enterprise Resource processing system, unlike the transactional processing and the functional area information system, is an integrating all rounded system. This means that all business processes can be successfully dealt with under only ones system. Instead of dealing with only one function at this point then dealing with the rest at a later time, it is essential to eliminate the current and future problem associated with information systems. Human resources are not the only sector that needs to be upgraded. The enterprise resource planning system will ensure that all processes in a business are integrated. The lower level managers can use it to input the data which will then produce an outcome. Outcomes from different functions like marketing, production finance and so on can then be collated and used to make decisions. On the contrary, the transactional processing system, just as the name suggests only deals with one process, business transactions. This system requires that all operations needed for the transaction to take place are completed successfully. It is a very reliable system because error recovery is possible due to the fact that an operation must completely succeed or completely fail. For example, when one buys a book online his or her credit will be checked if it is good then the book will be sent and the book company will receive its money. Otherwise, the whole process will be terminated. This kind of system is necessary for sales, payroll processing and maintains employee records. Consequently, the functional area information system is also process specific. The system can be customized specifically for production, marketing and finance, but cannot integrate the two to form a single central system. The functional area information system will assist the specific department to make decisions but it will not have an impact on top lever management who will require an inter-departmental report. . HRIS Vendor Recommendation The ERP software is the best solution for the Castle Family Restaurants. According to the Management Study Guide website, the ERP has various advantages. For starters, an ERP contains various decision support tools like planning and simulation thus allowing for the effective utilization of resources. The Castle Family group of restaurants has a need to effectively manage its human resources across its eight restaurants. The huge percentage of part time employees, whose management requires a lot of attention, will be effectively managed through easy work scheduling thereby improving employee operations. Consequently, the ERP contains a standard report system which can produce reports when needed. For example, a human resource manager can get reports on how many employees are on part time basis or permanently employed and thus make decisions on recruitments. In addition, an ERP will greatly improve efficiency and quality of work. ERP supports the effective day to day and routine functions like filling of orders, quality management, sales, and invoice reconciliation. Considering that there are eight restaurants, an ERP will greatly contribute in ensuring that all data is available for decision making. Consequently an Enterprise Resource Planning Software allows for business integration and improved data accuracy. An ERP represents business components through modules thus when data is entered into a module all other related modules are also automatically updated thus eliminating redundancy. For example, when a sale is made the inventory is also updated to reflect that a certain number of goods have been moved. This makes the ERP system reliable and error free thus can be used to enable better administration and the provision of security. Lastly, the ERP establishes a top down approach of viewing the organization therefore theft and fraud are significantly minimized. To add on to that, the ERP is internationally recognized and employs internationally accepted best practices therefore maverick practices are done away with. Conclusion In conclusion, the restaurant industry, like all other industries in the world has been forced to adapt to changes in the society in order to remain relevant. The adaption of information technology and systems is one such change that must be embraced for effective growth and continuity. For the Castle family group of restaurants a human resource information system is a necessity. But the implementation of this system is not sufficient. As such a better solution was found in the name of the Enterprise Resource Planning software which will allow all facets of the business to be integrated and managed effectively. Undoubtedly, the Enterprise Resource Planning software will ensure organizational efficiency thus create growth of the company. References Akers, M. Major Segments of the Restaurant Industry. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/major-segments-restaurant-industry-25986.html Management Study Guide. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Retrieved from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/enterprise-resource-planning.html Vardy, M. (2012,). Resistant to the inevitable: How technology is changing the restaurant industry. Retrieved from http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/09/22/how-technology-changing-restaurant-industry/ Read More