The Enterprise Resource Planning System - Essay Example

TEGAN CASE - 170 Was outsourcing the A/P project the right move for Tegan given the other possible alternatives? In the face of the two other alternatives in getting the new accounts payable, it would be said that the outsourcing was the best option. Comparatively, the use of the enterprise resource planning system and specifically SAP would have caused some inadequacies with the accounting modules and this would have been a major omission considering the fact that the accounts payable is supposed to play central role in the use of accounting modules. The SAP would have also incurred a lot of cost for the company. The second option might have caused a major failure looking at the fact that the internal human resource to man the institutionalization of the rewriting were not in a position to meet the enormous demand for the task. Outsourcing was therefore the right move. If there were any failures with the outsourcing, much cannot be blamed on its selection but on the approach with which the whole process was undertaken. Hrad Technika had had a reputation of delivering on time for other companies and Tegan itself and so if certain administrative duties on the part of Tegan had been discharged duly, there would have been better results from the outsourcing. 2.What are the tradeoffs involved in having the requirements analysis for a project performed by one of the firms that would ultimately bid on the project? The trade off involved in the requirements analysis would be intangible than tangible. This means that it would be more of non monetary benefit in that the requirements analysis if performed would give the developers a better understanding of the entire project they are to undertake. In the long run however, they would be assured of monetary benefits when due to the knowledge they develop on the project, they will not have to incur so much cost in getting the wrong stuff done and having to change everything all over again. 3.Given our journeys through the world of system development methods in recent lectures, discuss the choice of development methodology employed by Hrad Technika. Considering the fact that there was an existing system, which needed to be rewritten, it could be said that technically, the system development methodology or software development methodology in place and used by Hrad Technika was the prototyping. This is because there was not the need for the creation of a complete system that would function under different core duties other than what was already in place with the old account payable. And so though there was to be a new construction, this did not actually befit the description of a waterfall model. As noted by the Hrad tea admitted that there was much more rapid over-lapping model than the traditional waterfall system. again, it can be seen that the whole approach to the model was such there were characteristics of the prototyping model whereby selected parts of the larger system was handled. Also, the making of the system involved the users greatly. What is more, there was the hope to evolve from the prototype to a working system in the long run. 4.Why did Hrad Technika, the firm that performed the requirements analysis, have scope and requirements problems once the project commenced? There were problems with the scope and requirements once the project commenced because there were no personnel at Tegan with the competency critically reviewing the low level design documents (LLD) that were sent to Tegan by the Hrad team for review. Due to the absence of such expertise, it was extremely difficult that the low level design document (LLD) would get back to the developers on time for them to proceed with the requirement analysis process. Delays were therefore partly to blame. Again the lack of expertise also made the developers lack convincing and authentic correspondence from Tegan, that could guide them in determining the appropriateness of the scope they had initially penned down to use. Indeed if the Tegan team had had a very supporting personnel with expertise in account payable for the outsourcing project, there would have been a kind of co-operative edge among the two parties – that is Tegan and Hrad such that all weaknesses with the requirements analysis would have been pointed out easily and more professionally. 5.The case writers state: "Sadly, Smith knew that “Leadership” and “Commitment”, the paucity of which was blamed for untold IT failures were not the problems here." Critique- do you agree? What do you see as the most important IT management failures here? Leadership and commitment could never have been eliminated from the causes of the failures that were recorded. Leadership problems and the absence of commitment are actually the prime causes of the all the problems that were faced. Right from the onset, a kind of leadership that was weak in expertise was seen from Tegan. The leadership itself had very little knowledge on the project that was to be embarked on. Due to this, the assurance that there would be closer and skillful monitoring was lost. Even more, the leadership was not very decisive in its decisions. For instance having realized that the only problem that would have inhibited the use of enterprise resource planning system and specifically SAP was funds, the leadership should have shown some authority by still opting for that choice and putting every plan in place to ensuring that funds were raised to take up the project. Here also, the problem of commitment comes in. There could have the commitment to either employ expertise who had competent knowledge on the account payable to serve as oversight monitors for the project. These monitors would have worked directly with the Hrad team. There could also have been a commitment to train internal staff at Tegan to come to terms with what was happening as the project progressed. All these were lacking and so leadership and commitment will continue to be blame for the failure. 6.Which of the options for moving forward that Tegan identified would you recommend? Moving forward, it is suggested that Tegan puts the SAP’s accounts payable module under roll. This suggestion is made regardless of the fact that it has been identified to come with some cost. At the present moment, the company is advised not to overlook quality with cost knowing that when the system is finally yield benefits that will far outweigh the cost involved at the initial stages. It must be noted that the use of SAP, which is integrated into the enterprise resource planning system will come in handy to meet today’s growing advancement in technology. This is because more and more enterprises are becoming familiar with the use of the SAP and so it means that as the use becomes advanced, there will even be an additional advantage whereby in case there is the need to employ staff to manage the system, getting personnel with knowledge on the SAP will not be a very tedious task. The same argument holds when the need comes for getting people to repair parts of the system in the nearest future. Read More