ERP Systems and Software: Implementation, Benefits, and Ethical Considerations

Question 1

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. These systems and software allow organizations to plan as well as manage their supply chain, servicing, finance, and manufacturing activities.

In order to ensure that the staff members do not resist from the ERP that the senior management has proposed in the large multinational engineering company by undertaking certain operational changes, following strategies can be implemented.

Change Management- The first and foremost strategy which can be used by the IT manager is to implement a change management strategy. Under this strategy, the IT manager will be able to ensure transparency in the proposed ERP and will also be able to communicate the benefits it will bring along to the staff members.

Training and Development- The staff members could be provided with a number of trainings and webinars based on the proposed ERP and its features so that it become easier for them to familiarize with the changes that the new ERP bring along. Furthermore, trainings will also encourage the staff to participate and loose the resistance, as they get a better understanding of the system and software.

In addition to this, the IT manager can also try to inform the employees of the organizations about the benefits that the new ERP will bring. These benefits will majorly involve betterment in operational decision making, acquisition of quality data, improvement in the processes of their work activities, and, elimination of unnecessary or additional costs.

B.

The management of an organization is responsible for major decision-making in terms of its business. Their expectations from a business could differ from process to process, and department to department. The management expectations majorly involve aspects such as managing costs, delivering projects within timelines, providing quality output and more.

These expectations of the management of an organization can affect their acceptance towards incorporating information technology (IT) in the business, keeping in mind, its (IT’s) ability to fulfil their expectations effectively as well as efficiently. For example, if the management expects high quality output, and IT is unable to deliver that, their acceptance towards the same could be affected negatively and vice versa.

In order to influence this acceptance positively, the IT manager can spread awareness of the benefits of IT in a business organization such as its ability to help in planning with better accuracy and helping in better decision-making. Moreover, the influence can be made by bringing to the managers’ notice that IT helps in transmission, storage, manipulations, and retrieval of any kinds of data, irrespective of the data being in speech, text format, graphics, or reports of certain events which make decision-making easier and more convenient for the management of the organization.

Question 2

A.

While enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and software bring along a number of changes with it, benefits also tag along. These benefits of implementing a new ERP can be delivered to the colleagues in the following manner.

• The colleagues can be made aware about how ERP systems and software help in improvising the access to acquiring quality data so that operational decision making can be enhanced.

• The work processes foresee noticeable improvements through ERP which can also be evidenced by the ERP implemented in the large multinational engineering company. The ERP will help replace about two dozen of legacy information system which will help update the legacy systems and bring along technological advancements to the organization.

• In addition to that, the colleague could also be informed about how replacement of legacy systems by a new ERP system will help the organization in eliminating extra costs due to the inflexibility of the pre-existent legacy systems. And will also help in enhancement of the operational activities by smoothening them and bringing efficiency to them.

• Furthermore, the IT manager can also tell them about how ERP helps in providing better data security as well as cloud security which can prove vitally helpful to an engineering firm like large multinational engineering company. It also helps the company in modernizing the standardizations of the business processes.

B.

A PLM system or a product lifecycle management system helps managers of an organization in understanding the aspects of their product’s lifecycle. The software of PLM helps in integrations of data, project workflows, systems of the business, and the people associated with the product. It also ensures that the organization is able to improve its business, and develop the new products efficiently. PLM evidently helps in designing as well as manufacturing the products and implementation of PLM system could be a good idea for the large multinational engineering company. A PLM will help the organization in following ways.

• It will reduce risks in development of new products as the system will help the organization implement a number of regulations associated with the product and its development.

• The productivity will also increase substantially by application and implementation of PLM system in the organization. The operational efficiency improves and infrastructure costs are reduced whilst improving the quality of the products. PLM allows consolidation of all the records of the products and the associated communication, designs, workflows, and documents.

• Cost management can also be enhanced through PLM as it provides organization’s management with a clarified as well as simplified overview of the product lifecycle providing information for procurement, manufacturing, and more such aspects.

Question 3

A.

Ethical behaviour involves characteristics such as honesty, integrity, professionalism, dignity, diversity, and fairness. Showcasing a respectful behaviour towards others showcase ethical behaviour in an individual. In context of a university, ethical behaviour essentially associates with respecting others, being self-disciplined, working hard, and dedication towards learning, and appreciating diversity. In terms of IT, universities evidently have access to private information of the students that are studying there, which the management of the university is likely to store on their computers, laptops, or tablets. It becomes the university’s responsibility to ensure security of this data as it is unethical to provide that data to unauthorized personnel.

Legal behaviour is associated with following laws, rues and regulations with complete abidance. For example, when a decision is to be made, the legality of the decision needs to be considered by facilitating the regulations, codes of conduct, and more such legal aspects. The legal behaviour establishes a framework of laws which govern the actions in an organization. In context of a university and its abidance to legality, the university needs to ensure that no student follows the practices of plagiarising content, or copying assignments or notes from their peers. Plagiarism is a sensitive practice and can result in adverse actions to be taken for those found guilty.

C.

In order to ensure that the client data us protected extensively by all ends; the organization can take measure like:

• Encryption- Under this process, the IT management can be able to convert the sensitive data stored on their systems into encoded data which is not easily readable for unauthorized people. The encryption process allows the encoded data to be only decrypted when a key is accessed. This will help in protecting client’s data from unauthorized access.

• Cloud Providers- Using this measure, organizations can try to store the data into a single location such as cloud-based systems, rather than multiple so that the risks of cyber crime and unauthorized access can be restricted, as the focus of the management shifts from multiple platforms to a single platform, ensuring better data security.

D.

An action which is legal but unethical can be considered as an individual being disrespectful towards his or her colleagues. Showcasing disrespectful behaviour will not cause the individual any legal adversities, but would highly reflect upon their unethical behaviour and practices. Furthermore, lying about anything is also considerably a legal practice but unethical in nature.

An action that is ethical but illegal can be considered as bullying. Many students may find it ethical to exert power over their colleagues but could face legal actions taken against them for such practices. Disturbing other colleagues, and trying to exert power over them is a practice that can be legally addressed under anti-bullying acts.

Question 4

The CFO could be informed by the IT manager about the prevalent situation in the organization as that will be ethical behaviour of the IT manager. The CFO could be requested to allowing some time to the IT manager to take the meeting with better effectiveness. As 3 of the 5 members are unavailable, the IT manager can do the following things:

• The IT manager can try some more attempts to conduct the meeting with the presence of all 5 members and if it still stays impossible, the meeting can be conducted via conference calls, or video calls, instead of in-person. This action will enable the manager to ensure that all 5 members are present at the meeting, and conclusions made are useful.

• While the members are preparing themselves for the meeting via video conferencing, the IT manager can work upon the budget and cost estimations, and the schedule. Not only will it help in managing the work well but will also help in saving time. The budget and schedule can be presented by the IT manager in a draft form so the required amendments can be made before preparing the final documents, as suggested by the team members as well as the CFO.

B.

Risk management plans provide a number of benefits to the organizations. The employee who hesitated or restricted from this can be informed about these benefits, which are:

• Employees can be made aware that it is not the sole responsibility of the project manager to manage the risks but the whole team.

• Risk plans help in identification of the potential risks associated with a project and can take place in the future, adversely impacting the project and its progression. Risk plans can be made while the project is in its initiation phase so that risk management is ensured util the closure phase of the project.

• The scope of the project can also be tracked and supervised while the project progresses to further stages in its lifecycle. Risk management will also help in saving additional costs, losses, and damages. And the plan will also allow the IT manager to keep a contingency budget and resource buffer in case of unannounced or unexpected risks and uncertainties.