Global Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) Implementations

Global ERP Course to Open in Summer 2012 at Bilkent University

2011-10-29T03:48:00.004-04:00

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a managerial overview course for Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) implementations and other similar large scale technology implementations. With this course, you will familiarize yourself with a whole Enterprise Systems implementation life cycle. We will explore the ERP implementations starting with how companies decide to implement ERP systems until after go-live support.

You will get hands on exposure to SAP system, Accelerated SAP implementation methodology (ASAP) and key implementation issues. Some of these strategic issues that will be covered are implementation planning, organizational readiness, knowledge management, business process reengineering, best practices and project management within the ERP system implementation context.

This course is to the first step to prepare you to take part in ERP implementation projects as a business user, business manager, implementation team member or to consider other ERP related careers.

This course DOESN’T require any technical background, or any prior knowledge of ERP systems. Students with all backgrounds are welcome. The course contents might change during the course to fit the students’ needs.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Learn about ERP Systems and understand the key issues surrounding ERP implementations.

Become familiar with the SAP system and SAP implementation methodology.

Obtain a real-life perspective of ERP implementations as well as the ability to learn from current trade articles and ERP research literature for practical purposes.

Learn/Practice key skills on business analysis, reporting, team collaboration, decision making with limited information, virtual collaboration and professional presentation that can be utilized in real world ERP implementation settings.

INSTRUCTOR BIO
U. Yeliz Eseryel is an assistant professor at the University of Groningen in Holland. She has an MBA, Master’s degree in Information Management and PhD in Information Science and Technology from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.

Yeliz’s industry experiences include project management in ERP implementations and Information Technology Consulting for Booz Allen Hamilton as well as collaboration with other consulting firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and CapGemini. Most recently she lead the successful implementation of SAP SEM module at Welch Allyn, an international medical device manufacturer headquartered in Syracuse. As well, she managed the go-live testing for Welch Allyn’s European SAP roll-out of Ireland office, which included the MM, PP, SD, CS, FI, CO and PLM modules.

Yeliz teaches courses on Information Technologies, ERP Systems, Enterprise Technologies, , Enterprise Architecture, Virtual Teams & Emerging Technologies and IT Governance at Master’s and Executive Master’s programs at Syracuse University (USA), University of Groningen (Netherlands), Bilkent University (Turkey), IESEG Management School (France), Aarhus School of Business (Denmark) and E-Gov Executive Master’s Program (USA/Switzerland). Her research interests are leadership dynamics in virtual and Open Source Software Development teams.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, Week 4, Derya Kaya

2010-08-04T06:06:00.005-04:00

ERP Implementation Strategy
Big Bang and Phased Implementation

Big bang: There is focus in the organization. It is needed to take too much attention Phased: Phased implementation doesn't take too much attention.
Big bang: It provides integrity; because all the modules are implemented together. Phased: In case of conflict, it is necessary to go back to old system. Because each module is implemented separetely.
Big bang: Huge change might be difficult to handle with
Phased: There is learning and the first one will help to second round.

Staff/Resources (Outsourcing/In-house)

It should be get consultants for their expertise but ERP experts should be kept for in-house support. (after go live)

Customization Level
Customization level should be decided well before customize the system. If it is strongly needed to customize, then it should be done. Because everything you customize, you change yourself. It is not easy to handle very much customization. Customization brings higher implementation and maintenance costs including more time with itself.

Leadership
In the new leadership approach, the important thing is 'extending the pie not sharing the pie.' There are two kinds of leadership behaviours: Task Oriented Leadership and Relationship Oriented Leadership. In addition to those terms, it was interesting to learn that at this era, the leaders were just showing themselves without being pointed as leader, and they had different points for leadership. They did not have all the leadership features but they had some of them. Therefore, it could help to create value in the organizations more than before.

ASAP Methodology (Accelarated SAP)
ASAP methodology has five phases:

Phase 1- Project Preparation (Obejctives, key activities, key deliverables should be defined)
Phase 2- Business Blueprint (Business process documentation) (This could be old documentation+ BPR)
Phase 3- Realization (Unit tests, Integration test, Stress Testing)
Phase 4- Final Preparation
Phase 5- Go Live&Support (The new system is active and post-implementation support is provided) (Parallel processing is good way to survive on crashes if something goes wrong; but the disadvantage is double maintain and it is costly.)

!The organizations should always think about continuous improvement. It should be asked to consultant: 'What other functions there are that could be useful?

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 4, Gun Gokmen

2010-08-02T09:41:00.004-04:00

Leadership Behaviors and Perception in Self-Managing Virtual Teams

Leadership are two distinct concepts. We discussed the differences of each other.
Our project teams sre examples of "Self-Managing Virtual Teams" (SMV) Leadership is more challenging here, since there is no defined leader and one should grab it himself.
The important point is that, what people observe is behaviors. Two concepts here: task-oriented (getting work done) and relationship oriented (knowing who knows what, directs you to the right person; for example our department secretary).
IBM Sametime is a similar program to Teamviewer
Emergent leadership: becoming a leader later, emerging yourself.

Guest Speaker: ERP Implementation in FNSS Defense Industries

Cigdem came to talk, she's an HR specialist in the company.
FNSS had MRP systems before, making one think that change would be easier. But turned out to be not, end user resistance was high.
The selected ERP system was IFS from Sweden for its flexibility and defense industry experience. (FNSS's designs changed frequently, was doing engineer-to-order) They went live on May 2009
The most important thing is a dedicated team for implementation.
It was expected 8 months, but turned out to be 13 months.
the biggest problem with HR process was the organization chart. The relations were very hard to link, it took3 months.
Choosing consultants is very important. "You have to love them, you spend too much time with them. They shoould be flexible, should know empathy."
The benefits of the system won't be well understood until 18 months after implementation.
According to Cigdem, it is not good to change everything at once, go one by one.
2 important points: Customization is expensive, master data cannot be changed.

The Lecture:

Cost ingredients for Cisco: software, hardware, integration, headcount. The biggest cost was integration at Cisco.
We should be prepared to pay twice the budget we estimated.
Three trade-offs in ERP implementation:
big-bang vs. phased (roll out) implementation
outsourcing vs. in-housing staff and resources (cannot do full in-house, must outsource to some extent)
high vs. low customization level (must be closer to implementing as is. )
Also there is customization vs. business process reengineering. (changing the company for the program)
We also talked about Accelerated SAP methodology and support pack upgrade.
Realization: unit test - you only test ones that are critical.
Final system cutover: switch from old to new system. Old system is shut off. It can also go in parallel for some time, but is more costly and time consuming.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 4, Rostislav Smolin

2010-08-01T06:17:00.001-04:00

Three big considerations must be taken into account in ERP implementation:
- Big Bang or Phased Implementation: Big Bang (all at once) minimizes risks of integration issues at a higher cost. Phased Implementation (one by one) allows real options on each stage, allowing managers to “pull the plug” if the project goes the wrong way and minimize losses, but at increased integration risks.
- Outsource / In-house: Outsourcing may lower need for internal resources but increase dependency on outside consultants. In-house may increase dependency on key personnel if, for example, no succession plans are in place or knowledge management is not facilitated.
- Customization Level: Higher customization mean higher implementation and maintenance costs. If possible, customization must be kept to the minimum, while satisfying business needs and retaining sponsor support.

All three considerations are in continuous. For example, in one company big bang may be used for financial module, but production is implemented factory by factory.

One of popular SAP implementation methodologies meant to minimize costs and risks is ASAP. It contains 5 stages: project preparation, business blueprint, realization, final preparation and go live & support. Continuous improvement can be considered as 6th phase.

Leadership behaviors exist in real as well as virtual teams. Leaders manifest themselves in communication (babble hypothesis) as well as activity (activity hypothesis). To be perceived as leaders, participants must exhibit communication and work activity. Temporal lag exists in the process, and perceived leaders exhibit leadership behavior over a period of time. However, perceived leaders exhibit less than half of all leadership activity in the team, because the whole team participates in the process.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 4, Nurcan Bozkaya

2010-07-31T10:26:00.000-04:00

In the 4rd week we discussed about the strategic ERP implementation types such that;
• The Big Bang Method:
This method requires that doing the implementation one at a time in whole company. It requires relatively shorter time period than phased method of implementation. This generally helps to the long term cost shortages. Doing the implementation shortly also leads to less painful adaptation period. But also since it is a shorter time adaptation, the intensity of the pain might be more. Additionally this method is more risky than phased method and the result is less satisfaction with the crucial system’s abilities. Generally, applying this method can cause extra working costs and opportunity cost of not working since while implementing this method very fast might require most of the employees to have their full concentration to that job.
• Phased Method:
This method is followed slowly relative to Big Bang Method. This method is less risky than Big Bang method since it consists of the steps of implementation in a long term. Thus, if there is a big problem with the project, it allows stopping the project, and with this way the company can avoid from extra cost. On the other hand, making the implementation slowly may cause “change fatigue”, and employees may lose their interests about change.
Moreover we discussed about leadership, “what is leadership and what is leadership different than management?” subjects. And also we talked about the shared leadership concept;
First of all leadership is defined as “influencing others understand and agree about what should have been done, how this can be done effectively, and it is a process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish a shared objective” by Yukl. The difference between leadears and managers are; managers have formal authority but leaders do not, they have the inspire and influential affect on their employees. From the point of Global ERP implementations’ view, in global teams there are issues we should have to deal with. For that reason Self-managing virtual teams (SMV) are becoming more and more common. SMV team members have abilities on work methods, task assignments and schedules and also compensation and feedback.
There are 2 types of leadership behaviours which are:
1. Task-Oriented Leadership: Task-oriented leaders are focused on accomplishments. At this type of leadership the success depends on to the leader’s ability about demonstrating the competence and commitments to the team members.
2. Relationship-Oriented Leadership: Relationship-oriented leaders focus on the relationships among the team's members. At this type of leaders creates an atmosphere which formed by trust, dignity and respect. The leader encourages the members to build constructive relationships with each other also.
The other subject we discussed is about ASAP methodology. ASAP means Accelerated SAP which is proven and successful approach to implement SAP solutions across industries and customer environments.And also ASAP provides content, tools, and expertise from former successful implementations. ASAP methodology has 5 phases:
1. Project preparation:
In this step the objective is to provide initial planning and preparation for the project. At this stage project team trained and the initial hardware is ordered. The output of this stage is the high level project plan and the project team organization.
2. Business blueprint:
This stage is the documentation step which will be used while doing configuration in the realization phase. Blueprint workshops and prototypes are being done at this stage. FRICE (Form, Report, Interface, Conversion & Enhancement) control list and the business process definitions are the outputs of this step.
3. Realization: The purpose of this phase is to implement all the business process requirements based on the previous stages outputs. Unit tests, training the process owners, FRICE developments, integration tests, and data activities are being done at this stage. Final user acceptance is the output of realization.
4. Final preparation: The purpose of this phase is to complete testing, end-user training and finalize the readiness of the company before go live. During this phase, final system rehearsal, help desk support preparation and cutover should have been done.
5. Go Live & Support: At this stage the data is migrated from the legacy systems, the new system is activated, and post-implementation support is provided. During this stage, review system processes and continuos improvement, help desk support and review issue log should have been done.

Lessons Learnt - Week 4

2010-07-30T13:49:00.002-04:00

Leadership

The first topic discussed this week was the concept of leadership, and how specifically this relates to the environment of self managing virtual teams (SMV teams). In these environments there is often no assigned leader. However, natural leaders will always begin to emerge. An interesting finding of the study was that although leaders are often perceived as showing more ‘leadership’, actual leadership is performed by many different team members; with ‘non-leaders’ often contributing more real leadership.

Strategic ERP implementation

Big Bang vs. Phased: is it better to implement in one big hit? Or one business unit at a time?

Big Bang implementation carries significant risk. If something goes wrong, the consequences are significant. However, Big Bang may be less costly than a phased implementation and the momentum and significance of the event can help motivate to employees.

Under this phased implementation, the ERP system is introduced to one unit of the business at a time. Phased implementation is significantly less risky and allows the business time to make adjustments to the system over the course of the implementation. However, there are some significant drawbacks. Phased implementation may have higher costs and users may have to use both the old system and new ERP system simultaneously (double entry). In addition, temporary networks between the old and new systems may have to be created. Also, during the implementation, the company does not benefit from the value of ERP integration (different units are still using different systems).

Implementing with ASAP method

Accelerated SAP methodology is a systematic approach for implementing SAP systems. It works on a 5 stage process:

Project Preparation: This is the high-level planning stage. Teams are trained, hardware is ordered. Deliverables are set.
Business Blue Print: This stage is concerned with the determining the details of how the business functions; it’s processes, work flows, etc.
Realisation: Training begins in this stage. Business process developments from the blue print stage are also implemented.
Final Preparation: Testing, rehearsal and end user training in preparation for go-live
Go-Live and Support: This phase encompasses the launch and the period immediately following. The system should be carefully analysed after go-live to monitor and address any issues.

Finally, the company should plan for continuous improvement, where systems and processes are periodically reviewed and updated.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 4

2010-07-30T12:47:00.003-04:00

The difference between leadership and management can be summarized as follows: leadership is the process of influencing others, and facilitating collective efforts to achieve objectives. A leader should also consider what the team members want, and should have followers. Management is more related to work structure and systems, he has formal authority and subordinates. As a part of Global ERP Implementations, Self-Managing Virtual (SMV) Teams can be analyzed. They are not leader dependent teams but decision making is done collectively by team members. Besides showing leadership in virtual teams is harder. In shared Leadership individuals share the leader role. In self-leadership, you get yourself do something. These leaders create role-models for their teams.

There are 2 kinds of leadership behaviors: Task- oriented and Relationship oriented. Task- oriented leaders configure how to change processes. Relationship oriented leadership can be also used in SMV’s on e-mails, with a positive group atmosphere being created and asking people’s opinions and encouraging outsiders to participate. Relationship oriented leaders may also use boundary spanning which means they connect team to outsiders and act as knowledge brokers.

During the FNSS company presentation, we learned that ERP implementation may not necessarily reduce the number of processes or reduce the workload in a company. Rather it would be more useful in increasing the quality of data and quality of the processes in the company.

ERP Options in implementation strategy can be discussed under the following dimensions:
a. Timeline: In Big-Bang Implementation, the system changes all at once. The advantage is that it offers a shorter period of uncertainty. Phased implementation’s advantage is that it becomes easier for the employees to adapt themselves and through learning effects, each round there is an increasing performance of adaptation. Another advantage of phased implementation is that is easier to finance because you can make incremental payments. In fact this 2 approaches are two ends of a spectrum and companies should use a combination of both according to their specific conditions and needs.

b. Staff/Resources: Resources can be obtained by outsourcing or in-house. However, it is advised that using a combination of them. For instance, a company cannot do whole process by in-house, because everyone cannot be IT specialists, some consultants will be needed. On the other hand, it cannot be 100% outsourced, because some in-house knowledge will be always necessary.

c. Customization Level: should also be managed. The original ERP software can be added some modules or some integration points can be added to combine company’s old software with the new. However, it is costly to upgrade them and to use patchs; therefore, customization should be used only if it is absolutely necessary. Being somewhere in between fully customized system and as-is Implementation; and preferably being closer to As-Is implementation on the continuum is the best.
There is also a second continuum in this dimension. Customization takes place on one side and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) on the other side. If you do not customize, you need to change your own processes and it is better to be close to BPR side of the continuum while using a combination of both.

ASAP (Accelerated ASAP) Methodology includes the following steps:
1. Project Preparation: high level plan is prepared, project team is organized.

2. Business Blueprint preparation: Business processes are defined. FRICE control list is used in this phase (Form, Report, Interface, Conversion & Enhancement)

3. Realization : This step has a heavy workload including unit test (for individual transactions), integration test (testing for coherence among all business processes working together), stress test (to see whether the system can handle full-capacity workload), and support packs- upgrading testing (done after implementation a few times a year to detect bugs in critical cycles). Using simulation tools is recommended in this stress test. The realization phase ends after final-user acceptance is obtained.

4. Final Preparation: Final system rehearsal should be made in this phase and it is better to simulate how you would go-live. Final-system cutover should be decided, meaning a time to go-live should be scheduled to shut down old and to move to the new system. This cutover time should be chosen so that it does not disturb work-flow. For instance, it can be performed at the weekend. In this phase there is possibility of having parallel systems: old and new systems being used together for a certain time period to avoid risk of failure. However, this parallel structure is time-consuming and costly therefore, it should last only for a short period.

5. Go-Live &Support: There is a move from project environment to live production environment in this phase. For the first 1-2 weeks there should be a review of issue log, meaning periodic meetings at the beginning of implementation as status update. Help desk support by super-users should be provided.

6. Continuous Improvement and process reviews should be performed.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned- Week 4

2010-07-30T09:24:00.001-04:00

During the fourth week of the class, we discussed about the new concept of shared leadership, some ERP implementation strategies, and Accelerated SAP implementation methodology.

We learned that there are open source development teams that work on a virtual space without any face-to-face interaction. In these self managing teams, there is this concept called shared leadership and in this new management style, the leadership responsibilities are distributed between the team mates.

Apart from self management teams, we talked about some ERP implementation strategies. Companies can either go with a Big Bang implementation or a Phased Out implementation. Big Bang implementation happens when everybody in the organization goes live at the same time. Phased Out implementation occurs when the company switches to the new system step by step. Although most of the people in the class agreed that Big Bang implementation is better and prefer Big Bang over Phased Out, I still believe that Phased Out is a better approach since it gives time for users/ organizations to get used to the new system. In addition, the organization gains some sort of an expertise in implementing one phase and see what the problems and the difficulties are, so that they can be aware of those difficulties and take corrective action when implementing subsequent phases. Also, I think companies can have a better understanding of their needs after they start the implementation. As the guest speaker, Çiğdem, mentioned, it is like a continuum and companies want to implement more modules as they get into this ERP system. On top of that, the upfront costs in Big Bang are much higher than Phased Out implementation, and can be a burden for most companies. On the other hand, I agree that in Big Bang, the transition period is shorter and it is less painful. But the company has to manage all the problems that arise after it goes live, at the same time, and it may be too difficult to manage all at once. Another drawback of Phased Out is that companies need to create temporary bridges to connect the new system and the old one. But I believe companies need to go through this challenge and show determination during the longer transition period in order to get better results.

We also talked about the strategies in resourcing, whether outsource the staff or allocate in-house staff for the implementation. In order companies to not outsource, they have to have necessary technical skills to implement.

In addition, we talked about customization and how it is difficult to maintain once it is implemented since every customization brings its problems. It is also like a continuum between as-is implementation and full customization, and the optimum would be sticking in the middle by making compromises from your own business processes. In addition, customization is also like a continuum between full customization and BPR for the same reasons.

Another subject we discussed is ASAP- Accelerated SAP methodology, which is a proven and successful approach to implement SAP, and provides content, tools, and expertise from other successful implementations. This method has 5 phases:
• Project preparation- In this phase, the scope of the implementation such as which modules to be implemented are defined.
• Business blueprint- This phase is concerned with the documentation of the business processes and what is going to be implemented. The key deliverable in this phase is FRICE.
• Realization- In this phase, the output from Business Blueprint stage is used to configure the system. During this phase several tests are done to check the individual transactions (unit test), and the means (integration test). Stress testing can also be done with simulation tools.
• Final preparation- This stage is for preparing the organization to go live. In this phase, end-user trainings are completed and the cutover process is defined. (Cutover: Depending on the risk evasiveness of the company, it can run the old system in parallel to the new one or stop the old one and continue with the new one.)
• Go Live & Support- This stage is concerned with after-go-live support. Generally, it is recommended that consultants stay in the company for around 2 more months to resolve issues. Also, in emergency situations, it is important to identify and resolve the critical issues before the others.

Furthermore, there is actually another phase called Continuous Improvement, in which the company reviews its processes periodically and try to improve itself by getting extra support, implementing new modules, etc.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 3, Nurcan Bozkaya

2010-07-28T09:46:00.001-04:00

The Organizational change management has five initiatives. The OCM is consisted of both the hard (Blueprinting, configuring, client strategy, transports, testing, code changes, more transports, more testing, etc.)and soft stuff (Training, communications, security authorization, super user organization, business process procedures).

Here are the initiatives of the OCM;

· Business Process Procedures: is the documentation process of business. How each transaction is going to used in ERP system? Each documentation processes should be done properly and data should be stored also it should also be easily reachable.

· Communications: Communication is one of the most important part of the OCM. A good communication plan should involve these topics;

§ What is the content/ message?

§ Who is the audience?

§ How do we tell them?

§ What is frequency of the communication?

§ Who will deliver?

§ Where will it come from?

§ When are delivery dates?

· Training: training involves the core team training, management seminar, and end user trainings. The most of the budget which allocated to training is used for end user trainings. The core team training and management seminar tools are being done before the end user training. Also the end user training involves some analysis, their course contents must be developed well, after they deliver the training courses they should have done practices before they go live. Training has also several elements as follows;

· Core team training

· Management “seminar”

· End user training:

o Training needs analysis

o Develop course contents

o Deliver training courses

o After training - practice before go live

· Super User Development: For super user development firstly we should determine the objectives of the super users, and then identify the criteria. Super users has to good communication skills and they should be volunteer. %10 of the end users must be identified as super users. Super users are the links between the core team managers and end users so they know how and where they can get help.

· Security/ Role Development: The role developers role is to determine who will authorized to access the data and how many data that they can access according to the needs of implementation.

Risk Assessment is one of the most necessary element in a project. According to the results of the risk assessment we are going to give colors about how the risk of the project is high and take the precautions to lower the risk or leave off the project.

Risk assessment involves these steps;

1. What is the risk?

2. What is the impact of the?When it happens, what would be the damage?

3. What is the probability of the risk?

4. What is the risk index?

5. Create a mitigation plan

Resistance to change & Culture:

To overcome to change resistance it is very important to give information to the employees about the benefits of the new system. With this way they will be willing to do change management and they will be the part of the change management. Additionally company culture must also be take into the consideration while doing change management in the company. Because of the culture the viewpoints of the organization changes. Company’s culture is formed by the values, behaviors, beliefs and norms (norm means the unspoken rule of the culture) that permeate the group, for example entrepreneurial vs. bureaucratic. And it influences the companies approach and the way that they solve the problem. Also by the customers behaviours affects to companies culture.

Additionally communication is one of the other important way to deal with resistance to change in the organization. With good communication skills people can be convinced about the benefits of the new system and it is also important for understanding the employees needs and satisfy their demands.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 4, Cemil Kanat Sarısoy

2010-07-27T13:30:00.004-04:00

In the week 4, two styles of implementation attract me significantly and push me thinking on them. They are Bing Bang implementation and Phased implementation. Bing Bang means that a company implements ERP system to all modules at the same time. Surely, it has advantages and disadvantages. It is useful because the company can save time while applying it in one time in a clear cut system. The company can also provide an integration in the company for this change with the concept of a complete motivation equally. That is, everyone can get the psychology of changing and they can understand each other more comfortable while arranging the processes. On the other hand, it can not be useful because it is highly risky and it can cost the company dramatically if it will not be successful at the end. When we come up to the Phased implementation, it can be beneficial because if the company can not achieve, it costs very low. Moreover, the company can learn the stages, necessities and its falses in time and can improve itself in every level. However, it can not be beneficial because it can take very much time and the integration can not be developed over time because of serious differentiations in the company. I think that the decision about selecting the style, company's route, economical situation and long-term purposes are the determinative tools to approach the right result.

I also want to express my ideas in some other subjects for this week. ASAP methodology and its phases are worthy to explain something about them. ASAP name came from SAP and it means Accelareted System Applications and Products in Data Processing. It consists of 5 phases which are project preparation, business blue print, realization, final preparation and go live support. Project preparation is to identify team members and develop strategy as it works. Business blue print help to supply a developed strategy that can give a way to process one or more SAP systems with detailed documentation in a company. Realization works for blue print and it provides to implement all the business process requirements according to fundamentals of blue print phase. Final Preparation means basically end user training. Finally, go live and support is about supporting and optimizing the system.

At last, I want to finish my writting with mentioning on an important part of Yeliz Eseryel's article that is about shared leadership. Shared leadership symbolizes for me a new trend about leadership. In the lesson, Y. Eseryel point out that there are three aspects of Group's life in on going projects. They are task, relationships and individual needs. task is a need of accomplishing the jobs, Relationship is a desire to have a qualified and satisfied relationship environment. Then individual needs mean the psychology of intimacy, individual interests and acceptance in the group. So, if a group always have those compenents and there are appropriate leader characters to those three aspects, the leadership can be shared as to the situation and the kind of the process. As a result, in right time with right leadership characters' effectiveness and its acceptance can form a suitable, efficient and reasonable leading style. I believe that it is a subject that needs to be improved and should be opened more for assessing the real leadership concept in a complete manner with the vital contribution of creative and new thinking styles.

Dear Eseryel and Friends,

Thank you all for this integrated, informative, sincere and kind environment,
My leasons learned was not only restricted with the academic part of the lecture..

Respectfully,

Cemil Kanat Sarısoy

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week3

2010-07-27T09:26:00.003-04:00

During the third week of the class, we discussed the “soft stuff” and how they can turn into hard stuff in implementing ERP. In order for companies to overcome this problem, we talked about the importance of OCM- Organizational Change Management and its five initiatives.

It is known that around 80% of ERP implementation projects fail, and the reason is not because of the technical stuff but because of the people stuff for the most of cases. For this reason, organizations need to go through a change management program that prepares the company and its staff for the upcoming changes as a result ERP implementation. In this change management program there are five initiatives:

Business Process Procedures- this is the documentation initiative of the processes, i.e. how each transaction is used within the ERP system, to control and store all the business process procedures associated with the implementation. Once this stage is completed, the output can be used in making the training plans.

Training- The most important aspect of this initiative is to be able to address the needs of the trainees. The core team trainings and managerial seminars should be done in the early phase of the implementation. Later on, end users trainings should be made.

Security/ Role Development- This initiative is about identifying transactions for each role and giving authority to those identified. Note that, in this initiative, a help of a supervisor that is from the company is needed in order to consider the future needs of staff.

Super User Development- Super Users are the people within the company who are trained before everybody else in the company. They later are employed in the training of end users and act like an internal consultant during and after the project implementation. The selection of super users should be according to their willingness, whether they are well-respected and influential, whether they are responsible and communicate with others.

Communication- OCM is about encouraging staff to get involved with what’s going on in the company. Therefore, communicating the aim of the project and its benefits to the users is significant. As a result, they are the one who are going to use the new system and probably determine the faith of the newly implemented ERP system. Also note that communication methods should be different for each level in the organization.

We also talked about how to overcome the resistance to change. According to Palmer, there are 7 factors: leading change, creating a shared need, shaping a vision, mobilizing commitment, monitoring progress, finishing the job, and anchoring the change in systems and structures. He recommends companies to measure resistance in the organization by his scoring matrix, and advices that if they find out that their organizations are not ready for change, they should not go for it, and try to improve the situation.

During the class discussions, the following question emerged: What do you think the company should do if he both considers BPR (Business Process Reengineering) to make its processes lean and implement ERP. We concluded that it would be better if he does both at the same time since ERP already includes the best practices and can address the issues regarding optimizing the business processes.

Risk Assessment is another important measurement in implementing ERP. In this evaluation method, the company identifies what the risks are, their impacts, and the probability of it; then they estimate its index and determine how to mitigate those risks.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 3

2010-07-27T06:44:00.001-04:00

In managing the organizational change process it is very critical to overcome resistance to chance. A vision, strategy, goals and initiatives have to be carefully decided on. In addition, to overcome change resistance, employees should be told about how they will benefit from the new system and they should be involved in the change management system before finalizing decisions. The new system should be designed to address their needs and people should be empowered to take responsibility in change.

Organizational Change Management (OCM) involves the search for the answers of what, why, how, who, when and where questions for the ERP Implementation. Although people stuff (training, communications, security authorization, etc..) is misperceived as the soft stuff and technical issues (transporting old data into new system, blueprinting, etc..) as the hard stuff of the OCM, in practice this is not true. It is harder to confront people compared to technical issues and therefore the most important people initiatives should be identified and they should be made priority of OCM. Company culture (which includes values, beliefs and norms) also needs to be taken into consideration while managing the change. For instance, it can be especially harder to convince people on the benefits of change in a conservative/bureaucratic company culture, and issues must be handled with greater care in such an environment.

The 5 initiatives of OCM, which are interrelated and which support each other, can be addressed as following:

1. Training: core team training and management seminar should take place early in the project as an overview. End-user training which takes place later, is more time consuming, detailed and requires preliminary work such as training need analysis and course content development.

2. Communications: the determination of content/message, audience, communication channel (e.g. e-mail, lunch meeting, etc..), frequency, communicator, supporting material developer and messages and objectives constitute the elements of a communications plan. It is usually hard for the end-users to understand and embrace the system before go-live

3. Security/Role Development: the transactions that an end-user is authorized to complete should be determined.

4. Super-user Development: objectives, selection criteria (such as communication skills, being respectable, high knowledge level) should be determined and super-users must be trained. An open channel between super-users and end-users should be created. These super-users become the first contract of end-users in case of a problem. In return, they report key problems to technical analysts, who can ask the issues to business owners. The demand on super-users on the first months is very high and it is hard to estimate demand at that time.

5. Business Process Procedure: BPP should be documented to define the steps on how each transaction is used within the ERP system. This should be done before training process.

Risk Assessment: involves 5 steps which are; risk identification, impact identification, probability determination, risk index (result of impact) and mitigation of the risk (how to deal with risk).

Thought byte: Organizational Politics and Challenges

2010-07-27T04:13:00.002-04:00

You are a junior staff member where you work. You are assigned to help with the implementation. You understand what great opportunity this is, but at the same time you are nervous. Having taken this course, you understand the scale of work that is involved. You are not sure how much your bosses understand this whole process.

What are some of the challenges you will face?
What are some of the initiatives you take to make sure you succeed?

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 3, Cemil Kanat Sarısoy

2010-07-26T13:41:00.002-04:00

Organizational change management creates a great impact on me in the week 3. To begin with its functions, change management provides to overcome resistance to change while trying to form a shared vision and a shared goal. It helps the company that workers understand the purpose and benefits of the company more consciously and from different aspects. Security role development, communication, super user development, training and business process management are the tools of change management that can apply a complete change management strategy. Ok, system seems durable, the tools are reasonable and it is manifest. However, the actual success is comprehending and solving the individuals' and cultures' effects about resistance to change. According to me change management should be handled importantly from that side of the subject for a long term, efficient and effective implementation. we have 5 compenents of Organizational Change Management as I mentioned at the top. "Communication and training" are highly critical to reflect the positive change perspective on the people. especially, a successful communication provides persuasing and it means a change voluntarily. In fact, according to some aspects about change manegement, "Change management=Communication" and I also think that communication is not only strategic but also psychological and those make it a useful and encouraging enforcement to smooth the norms mainly. Surely, communication has some opportunity costs, logistic costs and consulatancy hours cost but communication should be understood as highly essential implementation and a company shouldn't be very much strict about the cost policy of its communication plan.

As I mentioned, training part interests me significantly and I believe its great necessity as a compenent of organizational change management. training is like a reaction, it spreads. Firstly, consultants try to convince the General Manager and HR Manager why change management is a need and giv information about how it is managed. Secondly, Core Team which consists of HR manager, Marketing manager, Congress operations manager, IT head, Accounting Finanace manager, Procurement head.. Training is provided by consultants to Core Team about how to implement a change management and how will intervene it if there is a problem. Finally, End Users learned how to use the interface of the program from Super Users and Consultants. (Super Users are the people in the company who is skilled about the application of the systems.)

Risk Assessment is another important subject to point out for the 3. week. You sent us some questions about the 10 modules that want to be implement in a company has places in Ankara, İstanbul, Azerbejan and Russia. I think that it can be perfect to express my thoughts about risk analysis for a company. If we form an excellent risk assessment table, we can draw our way more clearly because when we analyse truly our Risk we can also notice company's specific sights manifestly. So, lack of a risk assessment, a company looks like a road without directions.

In conclusion, I want to share my feelings about my team for this week. we work together for the ERP presentation about change management and we compose and develop a team spirit with the concepts of patience, kindness, respect and friendship while being shared leaders and being highly informed.

Thank You Peter, Gün, Nurcan and Me.. :)
Thank You Dear Eseryel.. :)

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 3, Gun Gokmen

2010-07-26T12:58:00.004-04:00

Week 3 started with the concept of change management.

As an introduction, we started with the source of resistance: why do people resist to changes in their workplaces, and we talked about some instances. A salesman, for example resists to an ERP system because entering the information to the system requires time, which can be traced to lost sales eventually. Or they may not want to share their sales or customer information with the others. There ale solutions to this problem, like communicating and convincing them that the system will benefit them eventually, and to show them how to get benefit from the system as a tool. Or these people could be given incentives to use the system.
Norm is a culture, which is not written. This affects the change efforts.
The change management also involves trainings for different levels in a company: Core team training, management seminar, end user training. I used to give end user trainings and remember my hard times because of the resistance of the users. They looked forward to seeing some problems with the software and not to use it. I learned that training the trainers sessions I've once attended was a mean of change management concept.
Business process reengineering makes business processes leaner.
Do biz process optimization or ERP implementation first? Best to do hand in hand, but getting ERP before could be better because ERP already provides "best practices"
Business process procedures (BPP): documents to define steps in processes. They also represent the actual business processes of a company because ERP processes REPLACE the old processes. A good transactional document also includes clues of the actual process.
The Silo Problem: Departments working distinctly of each other, doing their own work and "throwing off the wall" But they should work together.

Then we did Risk Assessment and analysis

1. identify the risk 2. identify impact 3. identify probability 4. Risk index 5. Find its mitigation
Risks: technical or related to people
We did an example of network down for a day... Red index.
Risk assessment can be used as a project management tool. Could be done monthly, twice a year, in the phases of a project, etc.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 3, Rostislav Smolin

2010-07-26T07:36:00.000-04:00

OCM

One of most valuable assets to an ERP project is sponsorship. Project managers must involve and support sponsors from day one. Even a seemingly successful implementation can be halted if sponsors lose their influencein the company, so project team must inform executives about project successes allowing sponsors to maintain and grow their pro-ERP coalition.

Next in order of importance is the communication with the core team. These people will, hopefully, work long and stressful hours to make the implementation happen. They need to be trained, supports and informed about flow of the project.

End users training can be the most expensive item on the OCM budget, depending on the number of people trained. Effective training schedule can minimize costs as courses are grouped in related topics.

One important aspect of OCM is mitigating the risks associated with company culture. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast every day”, and sometimes cultural and structural changes in the company must be implemented in parallel with ERP.

ERP specialists can backup themselves politically by timely informing management of arising risks. The usual way to present risk is to follow risk, impact, probability and mitigation sequence.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 3, Derya Kaya

2010-07-25T04:31:00.009-04:00

Organizational Change Management (OCM)
Organizational Change Management (OCM) refers to series of initiatives to prepare your organization and the individuals for changes.
Individuals' behaviours in the organization are Soft Stuff but always end up as "Hard Stuff"

How to overcome resistance?

Show people how they can benefit from it?
Involve the people ("The intention is to empower organizations and individuals [to take] responsibility for their own future". Hemamalini Suresh, Ittoolbox)
Understand their needs and meet them through the new system

OCM- Five Initiatives
Training:
Includes the training of all levels in the organization. These are core team trainings, management seminars and end user trainings. Core team training is about the overview of the functionality. Management seminar is about the overview of the system. End user training is about the business processes and the steps of the transactions. Department managers (Functional managers) could be trainers for the end users. Because they can answer to functional questions too. Before this they should receive the training named 'training of the trainer'.
Communication:
Communication that we need for each level. We need to decide this and make a communication plan. Communication is very important to involve the people in the organization.
Security/Role Development:
For the groups of users in each functional area, we need to identify each transaction for each role. It is necessary to consider "what they do now" and "what they will do". And security authorization levels for each user role must be constructed.
Super User Development:
Super User Organization should be develop and be trained as Super Users. Super User training includes each of the transactions, how to get from one screen to other, and a list of business procedures. For each training, we should have some strategic points like: 'Why are we doing this?', Why is it good? ...
Business Process Procedures:
It is about How to document, control the business processes. We should document the business procedures as part of implementation and provide them as part of end user training. After documentation we need to create an easy access for end users. For instance, this could be by intranet.

Risk Assessment:
Risk assessment is important method to seek the risks and to take preventive actions through the implementation. It is consist of five steps:
1. Identify the risk
2. Identify the impact of the risk
3. Identify the probability of the risk
4. Calculate the risk index (impact*probability)
5. Create a mitigation plan (reduce/eliminate the risk)

Lessons Learnt - Week 3

2010-07-24T09:10:00.001-04:00

ERP Week 3 – Change management

“Changes that fail usually do so because of human, not technical,
reasons” – Brien Palmer

Organisational Change Management (OCM) is a set of initiatives to prepare a business for a significant change, such as an ERP implementation. OCM encompasses both the hard (technical) changes and the soft (people) changes.

So how do we know if a business is ready for change?

Palmer recommends a 7 step model to minimise this risk. The model is designed to be used as a self-check score card for change management. The company should assess itself on each of the criteria, and if it is not adequately prepared, the change or new implementation should be delayed or scrapped.

Palmer’s 7-Step Model:

Leading Change – the initiative needs a champion/sponsor with access to resources
Creating a Shared Need – the reason, need, and drive for change must be shared throughout the organisation.
Shaping a Vision – the desired outcome of change must be widely understood and shared
Mobilising Commitment – there must be a strong commitment from all key constituents
Monitoring Progress – benchmarks need to be set and realised
Finishing the Job – once the change is in motion, ongoing learning and skill transfer needs to be implemented
Anchoring the Change in Systems and Structures – systems such as Audits, performance reviews, IT and ERP, should be used to reinforce the change.

Palmer’s list is also an instructional to-do list for businesses; it’s a guide for the business as to how it can prepare for change.

Key elements of OCM:

Training: this includes training all levels of the company, from the Core Team, to Management and finally, the End Users. It is critical that the needs of each level are fully understood, and that training is administered in the most effective way for each audience.

Communications: In OCM, managing communications is about keeping all relevant parties informed as much, or as a little, as is necessary. The purpose of this is not just for reporting, but also to help create the “shared vision” as discussed by Palmer.
Security and Role Development: The most important role of OCM here is to understand each user’s before-implementation and after-implementation needs, and to ensure that they have the access to complete their old and new duties.
Super Users: To help ensure a successful implementation, super users should be selected and trained carefully. These people should be natural change agents in the organisation; their influence and leadership will help minimise resistance to change.
Business Process Procedures: in this area, the OCM team needs to make sure business processes are properly documented, stored appropriately, and easily accessible. The documentation should capture the transactional process as well as the core business process – this will help users to better understand why they are performing a particular business procedure, now just how to perform it.

Culture vs. Strategy

All elements of the change management plan should be tailored around a company’s culture. The OCM team must recognise the existing culture and adapt the elements of the change plan to foster an inquisitive culture. If this is achieved, employees will seek out learning, they will ask questions, and they will take responsibility for their own actions.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is an essential element of any project or major implementation. This process for assessing risks is as follows

What is the risk?
What is the likely impact?
What is the probability of the event occurring?
Calculate the risk index
Create a mitigation plan

Risks that score high on the risk index must take priority. If possible, the ‘expected cost’ of each risk event should be calculated and a mitigation plan created accordingly.

BilkentMBA2010, Thought Byte, Cemil Kanat Sarısoy

2010-07-23T13:48:00.004-04:00

We want to establish an ERP system, we have 10 modules that want to be formed, and we have 4 places that are in Ankara, in İstanbul, in Azerbejan and in Russia. According to my way of thinking, firstly, the company should start applying the system from the main places in Ankara and in İstanbul with the help of a careful, informative and controlled manner. But, all modules in case should be applied at the same time in terms of combining and dealing with different departments. Then, the departments will get used to comprehend the system while integrating with works and each other. Thus, modules can improve equally, timely, comparably and apparently. On the other hand, there can be some correlation and time usage problems in the company and it means complexity and "out of control". That is, processes rearrangement as to the new ERP system can be easier, more useful and more reasonable in terms of feasibility.

After catching durability with the system in Ankara and in İstanbul, and if the results' efficiency and effectiveness make sense in short-term and it seems hopeful and returnable in the long-term, the company must think about bringing the ERP system in Azerbejan and in Russia also.

It will be very useful to point out that there are some hidden parameters exist for whole subject.. For example, are the operation styles similar in Russia and in Azerbejan according to Turkey? How training and implementation will be supplied in different cultures? How is the perspective to the change in Turkey, in Russia and in Azerbejan? Do the company really need an ERP system or does it really need an ERP system in foreign country? and does it really need all the modules? In fact, how is the works in Ankara and in İstanbul? which is the center? do they similar?

In conclusion, I made my comments according to my "imaginative company" standards. I imagine some companies such as Borusan and Efes Pilsen.. Then my ideas based on those at the first paragraph. In other circumstances, a company should masterly answer the questions that I asked in the second paragraph. Yes, ERP is an excellent technology. It provides you an integrated and complete way of working atmosphere efficiently, but if you decide its size, its cost, its necessities and its application techniques perfectly, appropriately and timely.

A Thought Byte from Yeliz - Which Implementation Strategy?

2010-07-23T06:10:00.002-04:00

Hi All,
Here is a scenario I would like you to think about.

You are implementing an ERP system in a global company which has offices in Turkey (Ankara, and Istanbul (Headquarters), Azerbaycan and Russia. You want to implement about 10 modules.

How would you implement? Would you implement only one module first and then the rest of the modules? Would you implement in one location first? If so which one? Would you implement all modules at the same time? in all countries at the same time?

Let me know what you think by posting comments. Tell me why you choose the alternative you choose (what are the benefits and disadvantages of the alternative you choose?)

Cheers,
Yeliz.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 2, Cemil Kanat Sarısoy

2010-07-20T15:34:00.005-04:00

Enterprise architecture affected me mostly in the second week.. Especially, the connection and meaningfulness between the ERP and EA makes sense on me.. Yeliz Eseryel and Nancy Wolf's "Enterprise Architecture as a context for ERP implementation" article about the EA and its relationships with ERP, in addition to Mr. Scott's EA cube enlights the situation for me in an excellent manner. The article expresses that Enterprise Architecture has theoritacally and methodologically roots in strategic, Business and technology planning. Even this definition we can easily comprehend that EA should have much correlations with ERP. Then, it has. EA includes informations, applications, infrasutructure, products and services. it is integrated with the concepts of database, ERP modules, data translation, strategic goals and infrasutructure that ERP is consisted.

EA is a perfect tool to discover your ERP system's usefulness or which ERP system can be useful for the company. In terms of proccessing the change management, EA and ERP works for you together positively. So it supports you twice. Consequently, I think that, EA is a good friend and supporter of ERP.

Relevantly, if it is essential to point out the Organizational Change Management, I can firstly express its components: Security/role development, communications, Super user development, training and business process management and improvement.. As it seems, it is about an organized strategy and development in different modules which emphasize on occuring an efficient and effective skill upgrading management systems for different types of corporations.

Finally, for this week, I want to mention shortly about some analysis that are the strongest ways to implement your ERP system. Those are SWOT analysis and GAP analysis. SWOT means STRENGTHES, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS.. The SWOT helps you to define your strategy and your real purposes.. GAP analysis is in case give you an opportunity to be conscios about the organizations actual performance in return to potential performance.. It is perfect for the usage of knowing about industrial and market potential..

Cemil Kanat Sarısoy, week 2 comments

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 1, Cemil

2010-07-20T14:11:00.008-04:00

ERP(Entrprise Resorce Planning) is a system and it can be simply defined as complete and integrated applications which is related to the modules, such as finance, accounting, sales and etc.. The term comes from MRP (Meterial Requirements Planning). Actually, there were two MRP systems: MRP1 and MRP2( HUMAN AND ECONOMIC APPLICATIONS also addes as to MRP1) ERP2 is in case a more skilled system manner which includes CRM(Customer Relationship Management) and BI(Business Inteligence) as to MRP1 and MRP2. Relevantly, if it is necessary to express BI: provides reportings for logical and designed DM(Decision Making) for its users. After explaining BI, it will be useful to point out Datamining. It is the process of extacting patterns in a great amount of data partials. and it converts this complexity to a reasonable information. When we come up to the point of why ERP is useful and offerable, we can easily say that it makes corporates and people more fast, more focused and more organized. Those Positive things have also some costs surely such as training, licensing, consulting and etc..

Another important points about the first week is about SAP (Systems Applications Products). SAP is one of the most durable and significant player of the market which established in 1972 to form a real time business data system. It has a lot of ındustry specific solution systems. For instance, in aerospace, defence, automative, banking, media, insurance sectors.. Then, it has modules on finance, controlling, meterials management, production planning, human resource, sales and distribution, customer service, production lifecycle management, project systems and etc.. SAP is a system that is appropriate for medium and large size corporations which need a detailed and powerful ERP system. However, there are some other kinds of ERP systems that is useful and meaningful for small types of corporations in terms of cost and easy procedures.. A company should carefully decide that it needs an Open Source, Small Size or Large Size system to apply it in an excellent manner..

Some other key words and symbols which not mentioned at the top of week 1:
DB (database)
CRM (customer relationship management)
GIGO (garbage in garbage out)

Cemil Kanat Sarısoy, Week 1 comments

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 2, Rostislav Smolin

2010-07-19T05:12:00.000-04:00

Back in yearly 2000s when the demand for ERP consulting in Russia was high my future employer, now a leading consulting company, would walk away from projects in which the client could not clearly define the (strategic) objectives of implementation. This tactics allowed the company to maintain a perfect project success rate (although as we have learned in class, the success itself is rather subjective). If you are an outside consultant, or a company employee, remembering that “no is always a possible answer” is good to keep the options open.

There are good reasons to implement ERP (business growth, increased complexity, improving financial control) and good reasons not to (high cost, resistance to change, insufficient staff, strategic misalignment).

Resistance to change is almost always an issue. I remember meeting a colleague on a parallel implementation project and ask him which stage of they are on. “Sabotage” – he answered rater casually. Employee age, in my experience, is not a defining factor: I’ve seen old inefficient government owned firms embrace change with enthusiasm, and young and seemingly dynamic companies create political barriers to implementation.

If the organization processes grow complex and diverse Enterprise Architecture framework can be employed (in parallel with ERP) to understand how organization functions and how processes can be improved. Since 1987 when John Zachman introduced his framework many alternatives appeared; some were developed specifically for the needs of government organizations, others are for use in business companies.

Typically, analysis on EA is done in context of following components: Goals and Initiatives, Products and Services, Data and Information, Systems and Applications and Networks and Infrastructure. The process is repeated for each business unit of a company.

Business problems that can be solved with either ERP or EA may have similarities. Given that implementation of wither ERP or EA requires significant resources, a choice can be made between the two by carefully analyzing business requirements.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 2, Derya Kaya

2010-07-19T04:02:00.003-04:00

Why would a company has an ERP System?
The reasons could be one or more of the followings:

Growth in the company
To be able to handle the load
To have higher complexity
Opportunity to improve the business processes
To reduce costs
To increase financial control

The reasons above could be initiative to implement ERP but it's very important ERP to be a strategic decision.

Why not ERP?

Resistance to change
High integration&development costs
Strategy of the company and ERP are not in line with each other

What is Success for ERP Implementation?
If you meet the requirements, meet the budget, and meet the timeline: YOUR IMPLEMENTATION IS SUCCESSFUL!

What are the Tools on deciding if ERP is a solution or not?

SWOT Analysis: An analysis is done from nternal and external aspects of the company. SW (Strenghts, Weakness) are internal to company, OT (Opportunities, Threats) are external to company.

GAP Analysis: Shows the situation about 'Where you are (AS-IS)' and 'Where you want to be (TO-BE)'. ERP is one of the tools that helps you on 'how you get there'

What is Enterprise Architecture (EA)?
EA includes the Strategy, Business and Technology Perspective and is a framework. The whole idea behind EA is strategic decions.

Comparing EA and ERP

EA is a framework; ERP is a system
EA is a tool for strategic planning; ERP mainly provides system integration
Both EA and ERP requires top down support in the organization.
Both EA and ERP requires 'Change Management Plan'
ERP includes Super User Development in the Change Management; but EA does not need it.

What is the Content of Change Management?

Training (How would the job be done?)
The documentation of the Business Process Procedures (How you go to each transactions? What is the relationship between the business transactions? etc.)
Communications (How do you communicate with executives, regular employees, project team? Will you have an intranet page, posters...? etc.)
Super User Development (Identifying the super users, training them, and supporting them) (Super User/Power User: Assigned people from the organization from the area that he is knowledgeable. The main goal for using 'super users' in the change management process is to have them as internal consultant. Super users are trained before the others in the organization.
Security/Role Development

What kind of Change Management actions could we use for EA?
EA does trigger change in the organization. Therefore there is need to have Change Management Plan for it.
Here are the change management actions for EA:

Business Process Documentation
Communication
Training
Role Development

Lessons Learned, Week 2

2010-07-19T04:00:00.003-04:00

Decision on whether to use ERP:
- The initial need for ERP arises from several reasons such as; growth in the company, current systems not handling the load, increase in business complexity, to improve processes and to reduce costs, to increase financial control, to obtain better information about operations, for accounting purposes, or as a system to maintain data integrity with increase in efficiency.
- On the other hand, some companies may prefer not to implement ERP due to the following factors: resistance to change, high costs of implementation and additional modules, high development and integration costs, ERP implementation is not in line with company strategy, the company has its own compatible software, costs do not justify the benefits, or company does not have enough staff to work on ERP implementation project.

Success of ERP: 80 percent of ERP projects fail in implementation phase, meaning they do not meet one of the following 3 criteria for success: meeting the needs and requirements of customers, meeting the budget, meeting the timeline.

ERP vendor firms are now moving on to Europe, Middle East and Asia because US market is in maturity phase now. They initially target larger and medium sized companies but they will move toward smaller sized firms in time.

There are 2 main potential analyses before deciding to implement ERP: SWOT and GAP Analysis. SWOT Analysis is about strengths& weaknesses of the company(internal analysis)and opportunities& threats in the environement that the company operates(environmental analysis). GAP Analysis involves both business and technology analyses, is about where I am (as-is), where I want to be and how can I go there. ERP is a possible resource to move on to the target situation. GAP analysis is related to Enterprise Architecture (EA) concept developed by Zachman.
- EA is the analysis and documentation of an enterprise in its current and future states from a strategy, business and technology perspective. It helps to integrate and manage IT resources from a strategy and business driven viewpoint.
- From the EA Cube Framework options, it is important to choose the one that is the most understandable. Also its components should be checked to see if it fits your company’s strategy and structure. Also the level of detail should be in line with company needs.

EA and ERP comparison:
- EA and ERP are not competing applications; EA can help you decide if ERP is beneficial for your firm.
- Both EA and ERP need change management, strategy alignment, and continuous maintenance activities (ERP involves adding new modules in time, EA should also be reviewed periodically.)
- Both EA and ERP need insider information as well as external expertise to implement.

Business Involvement in ERP:

- To provide resources and show commitment, putting corporate VP’s and functional sponsors in project steering team is important.
- Business process owners who are responsible in business processes and who has right to change business process, should be employed.
- Successful people within organization should be trained first and used as internal consultants in training other employees. (these people are called super-users)
- Some workers should be assigned as role profile owners, approving security requests and deciding who has access to what information.

Organizational Change Management:

- ERP Organizational Change management has 5 initiatives which are; training, business process procedures, communications, super-user development and security/role development
- About 25% of ERP budget should be spent in change management
- EA organizational change management initiatives include; top supervision, training and communication.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned- Week 2

2010-07-19T03:47:00.000-04:00

During the second week of the class, we discussed the reasons why companies need an ERP system, and when they should not implement the system. In addition, we talked about the potential analyses to be done before a company decides whether to implement an ERP system or not. Moreover, we learned about the concept of enterprise architecture.

A company may need to implement ERP system because of the below reasons:

· Growth

· Current systems are not enough to handle the load

· Higher complexity

· Opportunities for higher efficiency such as improving the process and reducing costs

· Competitive environment that requires your company to have an ERP system (Supplier/client requirements)

On the other hand, a company should not implement ERP system if:

· the strategy of the company is not in line with the ERP,

· there is a resistance to change in the company,

· the company needs will not be met with the existing offer and implementing the system will lead to incur high development and integration costs,

· there are cheaper and easier alternatives that address the needs of the company.

“Success” in ERP means that the system meets the customer expectations. This includes meeting the functionality needs and requirements, the budget, and the timeline of the project.

A company needs to apply below potential analyses to decide on whether to implement an ERP system or not:

· SWOT analysis- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This analysis should be done to understand general situation of the company. Also note that strengths and weaknesses are internal company features whereas opportunities and threats address external issues.

· GAP analysis- It is recommended that companies should use this analysis to identify the technological needs of the company. Basically, this analysis shows where the company is and where it is desired to be. Then the companies may assess how to address those needs to fill the gap.

Moreover, Enterprise Architecture (EA) allows companies to determine the way to achieve future objectives by examining processes. There are two big names that brought EA- Zachman and Spevach.

ERP is a system but EA is a process, methodology, and a framework. ERP is an end result of a strategic planning. However, both of them require strategy management, integration, maintenance, change management, insider information from the people who use it, and top management support and commitment. In addition, EA should be implemented by business people, Process Owners, who have the authority to change managerial decisions, rather than IT personnel because of several reasons:

· IT personnel may miss the strategy and only focus on the technological aspect.

· IT personnel may not know the business processes and the problems.

Also, it is important that the consultants and process owners work together to enhance the knowledge transfer. Moreover, teams should have someone from the executives ie. VP, since they work as an intermediary between the team and the top management, are helpful in getting resources, and a way to show that the company supports the project.

Change Management both in EA and ERP is important and 20% of the total budget should be allocated. It should involve training the staff, business process procedures, communicating the reasons of the implementation, security/role development, and super user development. (Super users are the staff that you train before everybody to use them later during the change management period as a trainer and as an internal consultant.)

BilkentMBA2010, Elevator Speech, Derya Kaya

2010-07-19T03:37:00.005-04:00

This is Derya Kaya. My background is Industrial Engineering and I am working as QA engineer at the space sector. I am in love with space&quality!!! I have worked as intern at one of the leader companies at space business in Europe, Saab Space AB which has been acquired by RUAG then. I am currently working on a space project that is the first space project with its features in Turkey and I am the only one Industrial Engineer taking role on the project.
Personally, I never give up if I believe myself that I can be successful in doing the job. I think this is similar to space projects: if there is failure, you should not stop to work; you should try till you have succeed because in the end you have great result that is very impressive to your employees, to your managers, to anyone in your company and of course to your country.. I am open-minded person and have passion..
Would you like me to be part of your organization and add value to you? If yes, please contact me by my mobile number.

BilkentMBA2010, Elevator Speech,Week2

2010-07-17T08:16:00.001-04:00

Hi, I am Nurcan Bozkaya. I help companies to do their production processes
much more effiecient by optimizing them. Thus, they increase their profit
margins and stengthened their competitive strength and place in the market
share.
Would you like me to optimize your workplace?

BilkentMBA2010 Lessons Learned Week2

2010-07-17T08:11:00.004-04:00

Microsoft Word - JEA Nov 2005 - EA-ERP Article

We learnt that what are the inital needs of an implementation phase of ERP systems and why does a company needs an integrated system?

The initial needs of a company before implementation of an ERP system are,

- Aim of growth

- Current systems’ incapability of handling the loads

- Higher complexity

- The opportunities to improve processes and reduce the costs

- To improve the financial control of the company

- Have a better information about the processes

- Share information between departments easily

- To gain competitive strength

- Data integrality

Why should a company not implement an ERP system?

- Resistance to change

- May be the strategy of the company is not in the line with ERP, the need of company can met with a cheaper alternatives

- The cost of implementing an ERP system is so high

- Implementing an ERP system may not met the demand of the firm

- May be the organisation is not ready to implement such a system

- Company may not want to grow anymore

What is the success of company?

Success means the customer satisfaction:

-how you meet the requirements (recuirement functionality),

-how you meet the budget

And how you meet the timeline

What should be done before implementing an ERP system?

Some analysis should be done before implementing an ERP system. These analysis are,

GAP analysis; this analysis determines that where I am as a company now? And where should I be as a company? AS-IS and To Be sitiuations.

SWOT analysis; Strengths, weaknesses, oppurtunities and treatments of the company. Oppurtunities and Treatments form the external environment of the company and Strengths, weaknesses form the internal environment of the company.

Elevator speech; we can also use the elavotor speech to improve the companies benefits.

KEIRETSU: the way that Japanese organisations work. In this concept suppliers of the company work closely with each other.

Organisational Change Management:

%20 budget should be allocated to Organisational Change Management since Organisational change management is an initiative that aims to improve the success of the company.

There are 5 different needs for Organizational Change Management:

-Training; employees should be trained fort he new system adaptation.

- Business Process Procedures, documentations of processes should be managed

-Super user development: Super users are the workers who are trained earlier for helping to train his/her Colleagues . This users should be good at communication skills.

-Communications, for achieving the success we should be sure about all of the employees understands the ERP concepts , since misunderstanding can cause to failure.

-Security and role development; there should be given an authorization to the employees not any more then they need on the system.

What is the difference between the concept of Enterprise Architecture and ERP Business Case?

They are not the same concepts, but they complement each other. EA is a framework for strategy, business and technology planning. ERP systems are tools for integration that EA helps to meet the requirements and achieve strategic goals.ERP implementations should be ERP planned in the context of EA management since EA concept helps to reduce the risk of ERP implementation failure by using some tools to view the current and future conditions. EA is a complementary of ERP system. It makes you see the gaps of ERP implementations. First we should apply the EA concept then decide whether ERP could be the solution system or not. ERP system can be used to support the strategic plans but in fact, ERP should be the reason of the strategic plans.

EA concept was put forward by John Zachman in 1987 and 5 years later Spewack published a book about this concept.

How would we choose EA type?

Zachman’s type of EA, EA^3(Scott Bernard’s concept) and the company should choose the EA type which it fits with company’s demands, also which can be applicable for that company. Additionally the level of detail should also be concerned.

BilkentMBA2010, Elevator Speech, Week 2

2010-07-15T14:55:00.002-04:00

Sir, I have always been into learning new things, trying to be as much multi-faceted as possible. My idustrial engineering education with a focus on management and innovation also sparkled my entrepreneur side, leading me to get a patent for one of my ideas and developing a biz plan for it. I've worked in four different industries as a trainee in summers to learn about the industry as much as possible. Considering all these, I realized I was tailor-made for consulting and started working in a consulting company on business managment software implementations. After nine months full of projects providing me valuable insights on different industries, I was promoted to a special project on entrepreneurship and business plans before leaving for my military duty. All these led me to top my experience with an MBA degree to fill the gaps for the perfect consultant.

I wish I could have the chance to utilize my skills and knowledge for a consulting position, this is your floor, this is my biz card and thank you for your attention and I am looking forward to hearing from you:)

Lessons Learnt - Week 2

2010-07-15T07:54:00.002-04:00

To ERP or not to ERP

Why does a company need ERP?

The need for ERP can be driven by several factors. Some of these reasons include:

Company growth
Current systems are inadequate
Changes in competitive environment
Company needs better internal controls
The need to share information

Why shouldn't a company implement ERP?

Costs – upfront, ongoing and hidden costs.
ERP is no aligned with company strategy
Company’s needs can be met with a cheaper or easier solutions (can the same task be performed with Excel?)

Tools to help help decide whether to implement ERP:

SWOT: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. This analysis will help a company to better understand its internal and external environment; from this, the need for ERP may be identified.
GAP Analysis: Current performance vs. desired performance. By using this tool, companies my first identify the current situation of the business vs. the desired position of the business, and then undertake and assessment of options and strategies to get from one to the other. Companies should ask: is ERP the answer to get the company to where we want it to be?

In deciding whether to implement ERP, the final decision criteria should be: is there a strategic need?

What defines a successful implementation?

And implementation is successful when the customer’s expectations are met or exceeded:

System meets requirements
Is on time
Is on budget

Enterprise Architecture

What’s the difference between EA and ERP?

EA is a framework; a tool for strategic planning
ERP is a system; a tool for integration

Both are business initiatives and not IT initiatives. It is unwise to allow IT to oversee the implementation of these projects as IT often does not fully understand the business processes, the project may not get the proper support it needs, and many levels of the organisation may not see the strategic value of the project.

Selecting an EA framework:

A company should pick a framework that...

It understands
Suits the business type
Has an appropriate level of detail

Change management:

In both ERP and EA, change management is essential. This critical section of the project requires approx 20% of the overall budget.

ERP change management includes:

Training (staff need to know how to use the new system)
Business process procedures (development and management of the migration from old to new processes)
Communications (making sure everyone knows the systems, how it works, why it is being implemented, and the strategic value of the new system)
Security and role development (ensuring the protection of sensitive data)
Super user development (training key employees who will be champions of their functional areas. they will serve as internal trainers themselves, and as go-to help for others that need assistance with the system)

In EA, excluding the need for security and super users, the areas of change management are similar.

Both EA and ERP requite support from the top levels for change management to be effective.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 2

2010-07-15T06:23:00.009-04:00

This week, we are taught about building the ERP business case and the concept of Enterprise Architecture.

The initial need for ERP originates from company growth, current systems not handling the load, higher complexity of operations, to improve processes and reduce costs, collecting better information about processes etc.
There are also reasons NOT to implement an ERP system: high resistance to change, high integration and development costs, being not in line with company strategy, problem can be solved with cheaper alternatives etc.
Success means customer satisfaction in business basically. This passes through meeting their needs, within the budget and appropriate time.
ERP is a good market since because most top 500 companies already have ERP systems, the market goes towards medium-sized companies.
Before implementing ERP, analyses should be made like SWOT, GAP, ...)
We talked bout GAP analysis and then Enterprise Architecture, critical success factors.
With GAP analysis, we can determine the current situation (as-is) and the future system (to-be). The difference between the two is the GAP, and it could be filled in some ways. ERP implementation could be one of the ways.
I learned Japan's "Keiretsu" concept, working with their suppliers.
Enterprise architecture: Zachman invented it, Spevack studied it further and made it more basic. U.S. federal govt. implemented its own architecture and applied widely.
We discussed whether EA and ERP are competing solutions or not. EA finds out the gaps, ERP might be ONE solution. But they have common points.
Process owner: The responsible of a business process. They are mostly seniors in the company, and they can proopse changes in the process.
Power user: The users that are trained before the others. This is a part of change management. They must have good communication skills.
Role profile owner: Decides on and arrange who accesses what in the system.
20% of the ERP implementation budget should be allocated to change management.

Elevator Speech

2010-07-15T06:23:00.003-04:00

Oh hi, didn’t expect to see you here...

... my name’s Peter. I wouldn’t normally introduce myself like this, but i’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time. I’m a marketing, economics and finance graduate with extensive experience in magazine publishing, and I really think I could help you and your company. My first love is marketing, but I’m also great with numbers – words and design is my passion, but I’ve made sure to learn the business fundamentals to support that.

I’m dedicated, loyal and hardworking, and I know my skills and my enthusiasm would be a good fit for your organisation. Here's my number, just let me know when you want me to start.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 1

2010-07-15T04:45:00.002-04:00

The first week was an introduction to the ERP systems and some providers of them.

ERP systems are categorized into major ("best practice", less development expenses), smaller (simpler processes, niche software, lower price) and open source (free licensing, high security, accessible to community) ones.

BPR stands for business process re-engineering, which is done for improving processes.

Each SAP module has its experts, like FICO (finance and controlling), One consultant cannot be an expert of all modules. These consultants could be for implementation or for ongoing maintenance.
The concept of audit trail: anything you do in the system is tracked with your user-ID.
GIGO: Garbage in - garbage out.

Cemil Kanat Sarısoy Elevator Speech

2010-07-13T13:00:00.005-04:00

Hi.. a perfect day for a negotiation.. and I have one.. I negotiate with myself in various subjects during the day for improving new negotiation techniques. I think that if one finds the formulation to negotiate with oneself, he/she can catch the core of success in this job. I am Cemil, a marketing man tries to establish special and effective negotiation approches on making business and works to be more skilled for applying new styles. Then, what projects are on your plate at present?

Bilkent MBA2010, Elevator Speech , Week 2

2010-07-13T05:16:00.003-04:00

A possible elevator speech of me for a research and financial consulting firm would be:

“I am a graduate of Bilkent University’s management department and have 4 years of working experience in banking sector. I worked in the Headquarter of one of the top private banks of Turkey. Adding into it my expected MBA degree from Bilkent University, I have refreshed my knowledge in the area and added new knowledge and skills. As a person who combines wide variety of skills such as foreign language proficiency, computer skills, as well as research, analyzing and teamwork skills; I believe I will create a difference for your company. In the bank sector related consulting projects that your firm specializes in, or in research oriented projects I can benefit your company with those mentioned skills and my detailed industry and management knowledge.”

Elevator Speech, Seray Ozturk

2010-07-13T04:43:00.002-04:00

Here is my elevator speech to give to an executive who has authority to offer me a job in United Nations.

I would like to be a part of a project that aims for environment and sustainable development while increasing the long-term quality of life of its recipients. I am equipped with both engineering and business knowledge due to my bachelors degrees in industrial engineering and statistics from Lehigh University, and MBA from Bilkent. In addition, I have gained organizing, coordinating, and managing skills in my past work experience in Garanti Bank headquarters. Currently, I am interested in social entrepreneurship and aim to work on the subject academically. However, prior to my academic studies, I would like to obtain hands on experience in order to understand and feel how international non-profit organizations run socially responsible projects. I believe, my interest towards sustainable socially responsible projects will strengthen my enthusiasm to succeed in this project.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 1

2010-07-12T08:16:00.000-04:00

The ERP software as we know it today progressed from simple inventory systems, then to MRP (material resource planning), MRPII, ERP, and ERPII.
Basically ERP has MRP functionality in its core, with addition of other modules such as HR, and a financial system binding everything together.
I think it is important to know how ERP progressed because all new ERP features still serve the purpose of effective use of company resources. For example, some argue that CRM is not a part of ERP, but if you think of it as a system of managing company’s most valuable resource – its customers – that it definitely is.
ERP system providers can be divided into Major Players (SAP, Oracle), Smaller Companies (Epicor), and Open Source. Each have their own advantages:
• Major Players represent best practices in the industry
• Smaller Companies support simpler processes and provide niche solutions
• Open Source is free
I think it is important when choosing and ERP not to concentrate on particular features, but try to understand the overall impact. For example, Industry-Specific Solutions are required because different industries use different business processes. Business process reengineering – increasing effectiveness of processes can be coupled with ERP implementation to gain results.
In the end, successful implementation depends on consultants more than on the choice of system. Consultants may specialize in particular modules. It is best to pair one functional and one technical specialist for each module.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned- Week 1

2010-07-12T05:47:00.002-04:00

Lessons Learned Week 1

During the first week of the class, we have learned what ERP is, a little bit about of its history, and the basic ERP implementation cycle. In addition, we talked about what business intelligence and datamining are.

Basically, ERP- Enterprise Resource Planning is an integrated software application that facilitates managing information from some or all functions of the company such as Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Production, etc. It is modular in design. And because it is modular, companies may choose to obtain different ERP modules from different ERP vendors and combine them. For instance, one company can obtain the human resources module from PeopleSoft, finance module from Oracle, and accounting module from SAP. Actually this approach is called Best of Breed and is basically used to develop a customized ERP system. Customization approach often yield a better solution since it combines the best practices of different vendor. However, it may create complications on the integration parts, resulting with a higher cost to manage the overall ERP system. On top of it, companies usually have to manage those integration parts by its own.

ERP actually started out as MRP- Materials Requirement Planning, which was developed for tracking down raw materials and other inventories in manufacturing companies. Later on, companies needed to integrate human resources and finance related strategic tools and MRP turned into MRP II- Manufacturing Requirements Planning. As the needs of the companies increased, ERP emerged to manage and integrate company-wide information. Today, companies are talking about ERP II, in which CRM- Customer Relationship Management and Business Intelligence units are added. (CRM is actually a company-wide strategy that focuses on managing client relations to improve service levels, loyalty, retention rates etc. Business Intelligence is a data warehouse that collects and stores data from various sources, and helps users to access and analyze it. Datamining means looking for patterns and revealing those patterns in data.)

Choosing the best ERP system is important for companies since otherwise it would be just another cost item in the financials. The costs of ERP include hardware, software license, implementation, consulting, training, and after-go-live. However, the benefits of ERP include increased process efficiency and competitive advantage.

Oracle, SAP, and SSA Global are some of the major vendors. The advantages of implementing major ones include employing best practices of the industry and the opportunity of having an on-going support after the implementation. There are also small vendors that offer tailor-made solutions to small companies. These are cheaper, but may not be reliable for after implementation support due the risk of bankruptcy. In addition, there are open source software applications available for companies as well. These are free but companies need to have experienced staff to develop these applications in-house.

Seray Ozturk

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 1

2010-07-12T04:37:00.003-04:00

ERP Sytem is a modular and integrated system. It is a complete suite of integrated applications consisting of different modules such as Finance, Accounting, Sales, Manufacturing, etc..If used effectively, ERP eliminates need for duplicate information.

ERP History consists of following phases:
MRPI- Material Resources Planning
MRPII- Includes financial and human aspects as well
ERR- Includes forecasting, supply chain management with many modules
ERPII- Included more strategic components such as CRM and Business Intelligence.
Difference between BI and Datamining:
- BI creates reports for decision making.
- Datamining looks for patterns in data to make a business decision such as investigating demographic effect on buying a product.
“In Best of Breed Approach” of ERP, the firm buys best modules from different vendors.
Also if a module is missing in an ERP software, it is possible to use Bolt-on’s which are 3rd party softwares. However there is a risk in using Bolt-on’s because integration points should be managed by the firm itself.
Costs of ERP:
- Hardware
- Software licence
- Implementation
- Consulting
- Training
- After go-live support

Benefits of ERP:
- Process efficiency (better info flow)
- Competitive advantage benefits (e.g. higher revenues, better supply chain management)
- Strategic benefits (better decision making)

ERP systems are provided by some major players such as Oracle and SAP, some smaller vendors and also by open-source ERP systems such as OFBIZ, WebERP and Compiere. The ERP system (major vendor, smaller vendor, or open-source) should be carefully chosen with respect to needs and technical capability of a company.
In the open-source systems, software source code is available for everyone to see. Advantages include the following:
- Mostly they are free
- They can have high security and stability because many people look at the code and find bugs
- They have an existing community and can be used as a leverage of resources
On the other hand, it can be expensive to develop open source systems further, requiring an in-house development team. Also community cannot be depended upon solving problems on a scheduled basis.

Buying a Major SW is better if company has less development experience and in terms of following the best practices in the industry.
Smaller ERP SW’s, can develop niche software which larger companies may not serve and they are lower priced. However, they are also riskier because you do not know how long they will stay in business

Business Process Reengineering: involves business process analyzing and optimizing those systems in terms of time, workers, etc..while decreasing cost and increasing customer satisfaction.

Meric Turker, Week 1

Lessons Learned - Bilkent Summer - Week 1

2010-07-11T10:38:00.003-04:00

What is ERP?

ERP is an administrative and strategic tool that integrates the functional units of a business. ERP centralises data storage, allowing each area of the business real-time access to company-wide data.

The benefits of ERP include better, faster and more reliable information; improved process efficiency; better and quicker decision making (competitive advantage); greater control of resources (lower costs); stronger internal controls.

ERP developed from simple material and manufacturing systems into an integrated strategic business tool. Latest ERP developments have show a trend toward the inclusion of business intelligence and customer relationship management (CRM) functions.

ERP is about the ‘bigger picture’, and best in breed modules don’t necessarily create the best ERP system. An ERP system’s true power lies in its ability to integrate different business functions, not just in its ability to perform individual functions well.

ERP Implementation:

The basic costs which need to be considered are:

Hardware
Software
Implementation
Consultancy
Training
After go-live support

In selecting a software system, a company must consider which style of software is best suited to its needs. The primary branches of ERP systems are:

Major Players: SAP, Oracle, etc. The advantage of these systems is that they are often crafted around industry best practices. In addition, their large size and market presence means they typically have a long-life, which means access to ongoing support for users of these softwares.

Smaller players: These companies usually offer simpler, less complex systems. They are generally cheaper that the big names and may cater to niche industries. However, their small size makes providers vulnerable to takeover or bankruptcy.

Open-source: Open source ERP software is provides the client with access to the software’s raw code; this is often provided free of charge. Open source makes the ERP software much more flexible to changes. And in addition, the open-source nature of the software means a greater number on contributors which may result in a more stable and secure program. However, open source software may require costly in-house development in order to properly tailer the program to the company’s needs.

- Peter Jones (Week 1)

Posting Rules

2010-07-06T12:10:00.004-04:00

I am excited that the blog is now open for my students from Bilkent MBA program.
Please use the blog to reflect on each week's course. Please do this as soon as possible after the Tuesday class, so that your knowledge is fresh.
Feel free to use bullet points as much as possible. Don't say "We learned about such and such subject". Instead say what exactly you learned. Also reflect on your learning by sharing how it relates to what you did in your job, or what you might do in your job, or what you've read and learned elsewhere.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO USE THE SAME LABEL (YOUR NAME) FOR EACH POST. Please also use the label BilkentMBA2010 for each post. Lastly, please title your lessons learned for each week (Week 1, Week 2, etc) You can also put other relevant labels if you wish. These labels will help me sort the content for grading.

Feel free to read and comment to others' posts.

Good luck and I am looking forward to reading your posts.

Day 4 Learnings-OnurOzensoy

2008-06-29T21:17:00.003-04:00

-SAP lab demonstrated creating and changing some customer and order information. It showed me that the integrated system is complex, and hence, may turnout to be problematic/hard to use. Training is very important for all levels of users.
-Harley Davidson case was about ERP vendor choice and regarding process. We as well inducted such an hypothetical benefit/cost analysis for the last 3 providers in the class. At last we chose upon 5 decision criteria but the process revealed to be difficult if it was implemented in full scale in a more realistic and comprehensive way. Harley Davidson chose provider2 (ref: supplement of the case) at last but the project was stated to be a failure.
-Last discussion was about the future of ERP sector especially in Turkey. Very low implementation rates (despite the need) among SMEs imply growth potential for this industry.
-Feedbacks.

The course was very instructive for me, thanks to all who were involved.

Day4 Lessons Learned

2008-06-28T05:01:00.002-04:00

Day 4 was the conclusion of what we had learned from this course. It began with lab session and trying to make the business process flow on the SAP was interesting and difficult. We created customer, material and made a sales order, etc. I understood that without proper training, using an ERP system that much big is very difficult and cumbersome.
I understood that why this implementation process takes this much money. Understanding business, understanding ERP solution, training users, forcing users to use properly is very difficult and needs time and money.
In the second part of the day4 we tried to make a solution for Harley Davidson case. This part was interesting that even if everything is OK defining the selection criteria and talking on the concepts/coverage/meaning of a criterion is very difficult and needs proper training and same language for the implementation team. In addtion to this, finding the cost of the parameters is another difficult point about the selection, since every one realize different about cost. Some people think license fees, setup costs as cost, some of them consultancy cost, etc.

Nevertheless, it was a good course for me although I think that I know many things about SAP. Articles, cases and trying to solve the problems in the class as a team was a good experience that forces to think.

Thank you.

Lessons Learned - Day 4 - Emre AKIN

2008-06-25T18:10:00.000-04:00

- The lab session was a real example of how ERP implementation can go chaotic process. Since SAP software was developed to handle every detail of business processes, thus each module has quite detailed structure. It requires a fair amount of training to utilize ERP effectively.

- ERP solution selection for a company necessitates preparation of a selection model which takes companies existing business practices, future expectancies in terms of business process and benefits of each ERP solution.

- Any transaction in a module of the ERP systems effects at least several other modules. Thus customization of the ERP system to a company requires very experience employees to get involved.

Lessons Learned - Day 3 - Emre AKIN

2008-06-25T18:09:00.001-04:00

IS solutions for a company
1) Keep Legacy
2) Best of Breed
a. (+) Company retains bargaining power
b. (-) Customer Support may be difficult
c. (+/-) Cost may be higher or lower
3) ERP
4) In House developed solutions

Decision Cycle for an ERP Implementation
0) Workshop on possible solutions
1) Current State Analysis
2) Evaluate possible future states you can reach with ERP systems
3) Determine Future State
4) Choose system and solution provider

Organization Change management is a hard stuff indeed
Refresher courses for the newcomers into the company

The way you define what kind of access to each person is given is determined by roles, like roles of sales people, pm people etc… Include people’s managers in this process. Since it is not a perfect process, new security request may come, and you may give extra access to users…

Organization Change Management
Training
Communication
Security Access
Super Users – idea is to distribute support within system rather than having a single source. They constitute about 10% of the users.
Business Process and Procedures

Day 4 Lab

2008-06-25T06:05:00.002-04:00

Different parts of the SAP client:
Client
Training client
Testing client
Production Client

Company Code
Independent accounting units have different codes

Sales organization
different sales terms

distribution channels
direct/wholesale/mail order

sales division
subdivision of a distribution channel

plant
physical locations have different numbers
facility/warehouse/distribution vehicle

storage location

shipping point

Master & Transaction Data
Master data is relatively fixed

Customer master
Material master
General Ledger
Pricing
Transaction data is unique to a particular transaction

Customer Master
Contains all the customer related data necessary to processing orders, deliveries, invoices
sold to party
ship to party
bill to party
payer

Material Master
Contains all data required to define and manage a specific item or material
Integrates data from: Inventory Manufacturing etc.

General Ledger
All data required for financial statements

Pricing
Highly customizable. Is carried out automatically

Flow of Sales documents

Sales Order
material quantity time etc

Standard functions
check availability
price
check credit limit
reduces credit & inventory
forecast cash
schedules delivery
make material requirements plan (MRP)

Delivery note pick/pack/post goods issue

Day 3 Articles (Serkan Kocak)

2008-06-24T21:24:00.002-04:00

Configuring an ERP System: Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility?

The photographic supplies distribution company is trying to install J.D. Edwards ERP system.

- The core team composed of 8 members and its first duty was to analyze business, specifying all business requirements and research an appropriate ERP package/provider
- It is hard to customize existing system and also existing system was no longer supported those are some of the reasons of changing system.
- In order to keep the task manageable, the team worked one module at a time (to have successive starts before the previous modules went live).
- First three modules took 14 months and six months for 4th one Order Management.
- Because of the complex workflow in ordering and also fair degree of flexibility of JD Edwards, it is hard to implement order module.
- Tom thoughts that if just a conceptual model is needed for pricing than accounting people can do pricing no need for marketing but then he also states the importance of marketing to decide prices.
- Pricing matrix taken out from the meeting with marketing but it is not agreed that JDE is good enough to use it in a no disciplined and no controlled area.

**************************************************************************************

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices

- By appropriately modifying both the ERP system and business process can be result as good implementation of the system. Sometimes software some times process needed to be changed
- Successful ERP implementation requires fit between ERP system and business process.
- Adaptation of the organization to the ERP system is also very important to have a successful implementation. Associated organizational changes should be done because ERP systems change the ways of doing jobs.

When the system is customized to fit the process = Technical Customization

Technical Customization
- Module Selection: Companies choose modules to be used, provider adapts modules to the system
- Table Configuration: according to organizational needs the chosen table types adapted to the system
- Code Modification: In order to satisfy required functionalities the source code of ERO system is changed
Module to Code; risk, and cost increase, it is not guarantied that there would be improvements.

Process Customization
- No Change
- Incremental Change : improvements only in tasks and resources
- Radical Change: fundamental rethinking and resign of some parts of business process.

ERP Customization Choices
- No Customization
- Process Adaptation
- Process Conversion
- Fit System to Process
- Mutual Adaptation
- Fit Process to System
- System Conversion
- System Conversion and Process Adaptation
- System and Process Reengineering
o Table II Customization Choices (pg 326)

Technical Change Capability
- Overall ability to customize ERP
- Understanding of default ERP system
- Ability to develop and modify large-scale software in a networked database environment
- Organizations ability to manage large scale systems development projects
o Tech. Chan. Cap. Consists of scope and depth of its ability to understand ERP

Process Change Capability
- Ability to customize business process
- Ability to design new or changed business process
- Organizations must be capable of large scale business process changes

Overall Capability
- Combination of technical change capabilities and process change capabilities, so that the total of capabilities that are explained up to now.

Day 3 Learnings (Serkan Kocak)

2008-06-24T21:22:00.001-04:00

Instead of ERP
1- Keep Legacy & Improve
2- Best of Bread
a. Different Applications
3- ERP
4- In house development

There are two main states:
1- Current State
2- Future State
In-between these states there are options and ERP provider selection should be done there.
That means after choosing ERP the next stage is choosing providers.
How?
- Providers come and do their presentations
- Analyses of competitor’s ERP providers
- every type of questions should be asked to the providers

Best of Bread as an alternative solution to ERP has some disadvantages:
May have cost disadvantage, needs different types of consultants, may have upgrade problems

Before implementation companies should complete their homework. Homework is to analyze their system enough to have right choices.

Some of the salesmen do not like ERP applications because they think that their know how; the information about customers are their most important properties. However, when all of the information of customers collected by an ERP system firms can fire a salesman without thinking any loss of customer information, which is very useful for firms. Also taking commissions makes salesman do not want to share their information.

Organization Change Management OCM

An ERP system change the way of doing jobs so this change should be managed as wall as ERP implementation process. The culture of the firm is very important; it can be very easy to change the organization in some companies where it had caused someone to be fired.

Welch Allyn, which is a family business, is a good example for us to see how OCM is done.
There are 2300 employees where 600 are trained and they had implemented SAP at 2004. They are using HR, SD/CS, MM/PP, FI/CO, PLM, and BW Modules.
The organization change management is divided into 5 parts.

Training: Core team training
Management Seminar
End User training
Training needs analysis (how many people to train)
Develop course content
Deliver training courses
After training-practice before go live. (Examinations to see users are ready or not)

Communication: ERP cause fair and insecurity in between company so that before the implementation process starts and also during the implementation the employees should be informed. First to get buy in for all levels in organization.

Security/Role Development: There is a common data base and it is used by everyone so that some limitation should be given to the user. To do that the roles of each employee should be defined and relevant access should be given.

Super User Development: They are chosen to ask some questions about new system because they are given a response to help employees in their department. They are chosen because they are better than others in terms of new system. And they are given more training then others. It is not a easy job; they need to search a lot to answer questions.

Business Process Procedures: The documentation process of business should be managed; document specification.

All of these parts should be managed very well to have an efficient organizational change.

Day 3 Articles

2008-06-24T20:15:00.000-04:00

Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility

- The company sells 1000 different raw items and they are repackaged into over 12000 different end products each they 300 to 500 orders are shipped in the same day.

- The company’s pricing strategy is different. They apply different discount strategies for different users. They had an 10 year old ERP system that is highly customized and that system could not meet their requirements.

- They were implementing one module at a time and there was problem in Order management. While implementing order management they expect that ERP system will calculate the prices automatically for different customers.

- When billing their customers, the firm did not use objective approach. In the article it can be seen that there is no organizational standards applied, and they want to implement ERP to that company. In order to implement ERP into pricing module there should be some standards. If there is no control, no discipline, and no organizational standard it would not be beneficial to implement ERP.

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices

ERP sector is one of the fastest growing sectors. While implementing ERP, companies fail most of the time. Reasons of failure is spending more money then the company can afford, being incompatible with strategic partners, conflicting with its management partners, style and structure.

Any successful ERP implementation requires a fit between ERP system and organizational processes.

Customization in ERP Implementation:

a) Technical Customization
1. Module Selection: Companies use the modules using the default configuration set by ERP vendors.
2. Table Configuration:
3. Code Modification: Source code of the ERP is changed for organizational needs.

b) Process Customization
Fit can be achieved by changing the process. Process customization is the degree which business process is changed to fit the system.

It has 3 categories: No change, incremental change, radical change.

c) ERP Customization Choices
Mutual adaptation, process adaptation, System conversion, process adaptation

Capability Requirements for ERP Customization

a) Technical Change Capability
Technical change capability is an organization’s ability to customize ERP systems. Companies can develop and modify large-scale software in a networked database environment. Other thing is an organization’s ability to manage large-scale systems development projects.

b) Process Change Capability
Organization’s overall ability to customize business processes.

Day 3 Learnings

2008-06-24T20:14:00.000-04:00

In order to implement ERP solution we should first do SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis before implementation of ERP should be made and SWOT analysis simulating after ERP implementation should be made.

There are system solutions
1) Keeping Legacy Systems
No change in the existing systems.

2) Best of Breed Systems
Writing different applications and trying to integrate them

3) ERP

4) In-House Development

In pre- ERP process company should create questions.

You should negotiate with different ERP vendors and invite salespeople to come to your company and make presentations. Usually implementation people do not come to companies in that process

Waiting documentation from companies makes consultant to understand if the companies do their homework or not. In this process consultants try to figure out the potential problems of companies.
After that process, company should select the provider.

Organizational Change Management

It is perceived as soft stuff; however it is usually a hard stuff. Using right people for that process is important. Key issue in that process is communication within the company.

There are five parts of Organizational Change Management. These are:

Training
Training has several elements:
Core team training
Management Seminars
End user training.

Communication
Elements of the communication plan is
What is the content/ message
Who is the audience?
How do we tell them?
What is frequency?
Who will deliver?

Security and Role Development
Giving permissions to people to view appropriate data or doing things.

Super User Development
Helpful person who has computer skills is called super user. Literally, it is 10% of the end users. They are educated to tell other users how to use the system.

Business Process Procedures
A document to define steps how each transaction is used within ERP system in your company.
It is strategy and tactics to capture, document and control business process procedures.

Why this procedure is hard stuff?

Because changing individual behaviors and changing company is first perceived as soft stuff.

Day 3 Articles by Tolga YILDIRIM

2008-06-24T19:55:00.000-04:00

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices & Configuring an ERP System: Introduction Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility?

An important argument topic regarding ERP systems is the issue of the alignment between an organization’s business processes and the ERP system. The ERP solutions, in general, come with ‘best practices’ and many times, an organization simply adapts its processes to the ERP system. Sometimes, however, some portions of the ERP system are customized to use the unique business processes of the organization. The question, then, is how to find an appropriate match between customizing the ERP system and changing the business processes in the organization. The fit between business processes and ERP systems and among business processes is believed to be critical to the success of ERP implementation.

In order to ensure the fit between business processes and the ERP system, an organization can either play with its processes, or with the system, or with both. We can call customization on the ERP system as technical customization, where we call customization of business processes as process customization.

There are three possible technical customization options, which are module customization, table customization and code customization. Code customization is the most technical and detailed customization among them. Similarly, there are three possible process customization options, which are no change, incremental change and radical change. An organization should first analyze its technical change and process change capabilities in order to choose an appropriate combination of customization options. An organization with high technical capabilities can go for even code customization, where one with low technical capabilities should definitely not.

It is highly difficult to implement in environments where there is resistance to change. It takes a lot of effort to establish a fit between business processes and the ERP system, if the business processes are unique, as in Photographic Supplies Distribution Company. Different parties’ differing and conflicting interests and awareness levels on specific problems incur problems that are hard to be addressed.

Day 3 Articles - OnurOzensoy

2008-06-24T19:50:00.003-04:00

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices

-Although ERP systems usage are growing rapidly, for individual companies it is challenge to implement those systems. Most common failure reasons are exceeded budget, incompatibility between the company and the vendor/its software from cultural perspective, too comprehensive organizational change and necessity to improve and upgrade ERP and its infrastructure.
-Unlike traditional software, which is fitted upon any process, ERPs are more likely to urge the organization to change its processes in accordance.
-The crucial part is to determine a system customization vs. business adaptation /re-engineering point to decrease costs, time, applicability etc.
-ERP system "best practices", which are processes dictated by he software upon business processes, are not universal but country, culture, company specific. They are readily tailored for industry, though.
-Misfits between ERP capabilities, embedded "best practices" and company processes can be classified in three categories: data, process, output.
-Technical customization vs. process customization
-Technical customization may involve module selection. Since ERPs are modular softwares a specific company may select which modules to implement. This is, however, is not effective in fitting the system on business since it just provides a minimum number of alterations.
-It may involve table configuration. Without coding and leading to cease of vendor support, a company may determine what variables are for what and modify tables and hence table-driven ERP.
-Another option is code customization. This is done by changing the source code of software. The way a system communicates with others changes or a functionality may be augmented.
-Business process is a logical path that is performed to achieve a desired output by using company resources. These processes may also be customized to fit to ERP "best practices".
-If the process customization involves changes in tasks and/or resources, it is classified as "no change" and Little effort is necessary.
-In incremental change, relationships between tasks and/or between tasks and resources change but performance indicators or logic behind the process remain unchanged. TQM applications are examples.
-Radical changes, on the other hand, involve changes in the performance measures and/or logic.
-Capability to change processes is process change capability.
-First process change capability is about understanding current business processes and environments. Second is about designing and implementing new processes. Third is about managing and coordinating large-scale process changes.
-To find a optimum point in ERP implementation, the paper prepares a 3x3 ERP Customization matrix which combines process and software customizations.
-Technical Change capability is an organizations ability to modify the software.
-The first capability is about understanding the software and recognizing built-in options and modules. The second capability is about modifying an integrated large-scale software. The third capability is about the ability to manage large-scale software modification/development projects. i.e. matching and allocation necessary resources efficiently
-This combination of change choices and capabilities result in ERP Customer Evaluation Framework, which consists of another similar 3x3 matrix. This time indicating necessary human and IT(tangible and intangible) resources.
-The paper provides a case study which is an example of controversy to "conventional wisdom". Conventional wisdom states that firms should convert or re-engineer their processes to fit ERP best practices.
-Understanding ERP implementation as a series of projects.

Configuring an ERP System: Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility?

-Implementing ERP in non-systematic environment is very difficult. ERP implementation , ordering module in particular, will cut the flexibility and since flexibility in pricing is a strategic competency of PSDC, it should have been considered at the first place.
-In PSDC there was considerable resistance to change in sales department. It makes implementation even more difficult. We also see that key people from departments should be involved in the process to increase communication and define processes better.
-PSDC war team configured tables thoroughly to introduce some discount options that were normally not available but the process was difficult and it still did not satisfy sales people. But it showed that implementations can be a means of revising departmental strategies, procedures etc.

Lessons learned by 23rd of June

2008-06-24T18:40:00.000-04:00

There are alternatives for ERP software

Keep Legacy system, and improve it
Best of Breed Applications, and try to connect them.
Use ERP
In House development. Deal with your own problems

When implementing there are 5 steps

You must check your options, do workshops
Prepare today’s SWOT
Prepare future’s SWOT
Learn about the systems
Select Your Provider

Organizational Change Management

It is Who, Why, How, Where, When of your implementation plan
Sample Case Welch Allyn
17 Consultants from capgemini
23 Project members
Peoplestuff: training, communications, security,authorization, super user authorization, business process procedures. These all change behaviours. Of people
Peoplestuff is therefore hard stuff.

Core team training is called Training period, you teach your members.

Where in management seminars you give your message t your superior executives, share your vision.

End user training grants the ability to your employees who will face the software on a daily basis.

What must be done is to practice the software before it goes live. Support people with the help of super users, who will act as local leaders and knowledge centers.

Keep in mind that people will have to do the loads of work when they will be back from training, so give them room but remind them practice makes it perfect.

Day3 - Article Key Points by Basak Tektemur

2008-06-24T18:37:00.001-04:00

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices by Wenhong Luo and Diane M. Strong

It is important to define a connection between ERP system and organization’s business processes for an organization. There must be a good supportive system for the ERP implementation decision-making process and this paper provides a framework for a relevant support system including customization choices and the capabilities required to accomplish these choices. ERP systems are packaged software solutions rather than customized systems with built-in assumptions and some best practices. However, mostly these assumptions and practices do not match with the company and therefore, appropriate customization up to some level is required and crucial. There are various customization possibilities in order to achieve a successful ERP implementation and various capabilities required for technical ERP customization options and process change capabilities needed for process customization.

Technical Customization:
Module selection
Table configuration
Code modification

Process Customization:

No change
Incremental change
Radical Change

ERP Customization Choices:

No Customization
Process Adaptation
Process Conversion
Fit System to Process
Mutual Adaptation
Fit Process to System
System Conversion
System Conversion and Process Adaptation
System and Process Reengineering

Technical Change Capability:

Understanding of default ERP system processes, configurations and built-in options
Ability to develop and modify large-scale software
Ability to manage large-scale systems development projects

Process Change Capability:

Ability to understand company’s own existing business processes and their business environment
Ability to design new or changed business processes
Ability to manage and coordinate large-scale business process changes

Overall Capability in implementing and customizing ERP systems:

Novice Organization => Low technical change capability, low process change capability
Technician Organization => High technical change capability, low process change capability
Organizer type of organization => Low technical change capability, high process change capability
Expert Organization => Low technical change capability, high process change capability

Configuring an ERP System: Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility? by Olga Volkoff

The case is an example of an ERP implementation which is similar with Welch Allyn’s ERP implementation project that we cover in day3. Therefore many issues are similar such as the project team, who are involved in team. The team of 8 worked on implementing the order management and set up a pricing module. In the end, Tom Brown, Director of Finance and Accounting, made the best point: it is not easy, if not impossible, to make work a system like JDE in an organizational environment where there is no control, no discipline, no desire for change or resistance to change. Here, it is possible to refer lecture learning where we discussed a lot about communication and importance of communication before, during and after ERP implementation in order to release stress and anxiety, and break the resistance against ERP systems.

Day 3 Articles

2008-06-24T18:36:00.001-04:00

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices

The paper proposes the balance of degree of customization for ERP software and processes
A successful ERP implementation requires fit between software and business processes
ERP systems are packaged, which indicates they target the market, not individual companies. So, the work with assumptions of their clients. These create
Differences between ERP capabilities and Company requirements are company-industry-country specific, and can be categorized as in 3 groups, data, output and process.
ERP projects are more riskier than IT projects because they are Company wise
Module Selection, table configuration and code modification are the 3 steps of ERP customization.
Design, implementation, stabilization, continuous improvement, and transformation are 5 steps that companies experience with ERP.
Primary reason to customize ERP implementation is to fit processes that are supported with ERP to ERP system. Technical customization deals with that.
Fit can be achieved by changing processes other than the system. Process customization deals with that
Modules, tables and codes may have different degree of customization, ERP customization choices depends on the degree of fit between ERP system and the company’s requirements.
When the degree of change and the capabilities of the companies to handle that change are low, project team’s development level must be high.
The research helps companies understand the customization decisions given the company’s capabilities.

Configuring an ERP System: Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility

Large number of orders, quick response is needed, too many employees are included.
Implementation team is experts in their departments, external consulting is acquired but not in terms of customization
Team is handling 1 department out of 6 at one time.
Order management is complex because of difference of products and customers.
Order management module was too complex to handle with only customizing the ERP software
So the team decided to find a way between reengineer their customer dealings (business processes) and the software together.

Day 3 Lesson Learned

2008-06-24T18:31:00.003-04:00

There are three approach to automate business processes:

Keep legacy:
Best of breed solutions
ERP
In house development

What should be the time for doing a Gap Analysis? First we should make a SWOT analysis for the current situation without defining a specific solution. After that should make gap analysis for different solutions.

There is an order to make an implementation:

Workshop to learn different solutions
Curent State SWOT
Requirement Anlaysis SWOT
Options (ERP solutions)

Sales guys comes and make presentations
Internet search
Other companies that implemented
Ask creative questions

Is there any enough consultants
Is there any other fee
Does it do this...
Do I need to make customization

There are some good and bad sides of Best of breed solutions

It may be cheaper or expensive than a single solution
Finding consultants that knows the two sides of the integration points is difficult
Upgrades of one of them may require upgrade of the integration implementations.

We can understand that if the company did its homework or not, when we look at the documentation that defines the business processes.

Implementing a system is not important if it is not used properly. In a CRM solution implementation, sales people do not want to enter their sales data to the system.

Sales people do not want to share
Sales people use personal relations
Entering sales data to the system is not easy, since it is not a formatted data.

Organizational Change Management

-Why is OCM first perceived as the “Soft Stuff” and why does it always finish as the “Hard Stuff”

Coomunication and getting commitment is important
“OCM”
because changing individual behaviours and changing company culture is first perceived as soft
This is a software project we can deal with human problems.

Welch allyn Company overview, diagnostic and medical devices, patient monitoring sytems,

Implemented nearly all SAP modules

There are 5 different initiatives of OCM:Training, Business Process Procedures,
Super user development, Communications, Security rules

What is company culture?

-values,beahviours, beliefs and norms

-behaviours of employees

-company or department leadership sets the overall tone

----

Training has several elements

--Core team training, to understand the capabilities of the syste

--management seminar

--End user training

--Training needs analysis(ho many people do we have, how many will take this course...)

--Develop course contents(

Deliver training courses(make exams, give certificates)

-After training practice before go live

elements of Communication plan:What is happening with the project giving information to stakeholder

--what is content

--who is the audience

--who will deliver

--caos, insecurity, anxiety, fear

Security/Role Development

-You cannot give permission to see/change everything

-How can you define the roles

Sales&Marketing Mfg

1)Sales 1)Production

--transactions

--talk key managers

-- do they need other modules 2)Forecasting

2)Cust. Service Rep.

3)Repair

Super user development

develop super user organiztion, look for people who are natural leaders or change agents- target 10% of users

Organize Super User workshops – seek their help to improve SAP.

super userlara bonus verenler var. Boyle birsey verilemiyorsa yemektir falan ayarlanabilir.

Business Process Procedures

-Strategy and tactics to capture document and control business procedures

-What docs to control&store, where and how to control &store

Lessons Learned v3.0 by Tolga YILDIRIM

2008-06-24T18:22:00.000-04:00

Organizations that are in search of effectively managing their information in order to have better decision-making capabilities have several options for an enterprise wide information system. The first option, obviously, is implementing an ERP solution to solve the information needs. An ERP solution should be considered as a digital nervous system that enables the organization to act as effectively and efficiently as if it were a single body. Information needs, business processes should be analyzed by a core team in the organization to implement an ERP solution which will enhance the capabilities of the organization.

However, implementing an ERP system is not the only option. The second option is the ‘best-of-breed’ solution. For example, an organization may choose to implement the best SCM (Supply Chain Management) from one solution provider, the best HR application from another solution provider and a CRM from another one. Then, the organization tries to tie these different applications so that information integrity is maintained. This approach incurs several concerns, beside advantages. By installing the best applications for different functions, an organization gets the best possible individual solutions and capabilities. However, the amount of time and effort, in addition to cost, needed to ensure the integrity of information is tremendous. The organization has to deal with the complex tasks of handling upgrades and monitoring any integrity problems, thereby employing increased number of technical staff.

Another option available is in-house development. Depending on the complexity of business processes and information needs of an organization, the success rate of in-house development approach diminishes. ERP solution providers, or solution providers in general, have the expertise and know-how in solving information needs successfully. Implementing an ERP system is a serious job, and requires professionalism, expertise and know-how. In addition, the organization needs to employ a huge number of technical staff.

Organizational Change Management is the most important aspect of an ERP implementation. The organization may implement the most appropriate ERP solution, yet information needs may not be met. An ERP system changes the way people do their jobs. Therefore, the human factor comes into play significantly. Resistance to change occurs if the organization does not manage the change process. The soft stuff in fact, is really the hard stuff. Organizational Change Management can be summarized as a series of initiatives to prepare the organization and the individuals. Five steps can be categorized as training, security/role development, super user development, communications, and business process procedures.

Day3 - Lessons Learned by Basak Tektemur

2008-06-24T17:36:00.003-04:00

System solutions options:

1) keep legacy system and just improve the quality
2) best of breed and connect them if you can (it can be part of ERP or not)
3) ERP
4) In-house development

You can do SWOT analysis and define your current situation then you can estimate future state and do SWOT for this estimation you can see the GAP and you can talk about the options that may help us to close the gap in between. Rather than focusing on ERP like doing SWOT pre-ERP and post-ERP, doing just SWOT is better because only since then you can think about options and choose or have the chance to choose among the option.

When you decide ERP is best and you decide to implement ERP you select the provider.
To do that you look at the options and you look at your requirements. You can look at companies like yourself to decide which provider is best for you, you can talk about the systems with people who come to your firm to present their solutions (these are salespeople of vendor).

But salespeople are not implementation people; it is not a good idea to trust them and their knowledge only.

If you are using an ERP system with modules coming from different providers but there will be some problems such as integration problems, upgrading problems, also you need to improve higher in-house abilities since your people must know about more than one system. Also cost is an issue, but it is difficult to say it will be cheaper or more expensive. An advantage may be you may obtain best solutions for each application.

If there is no documentation about business processes there is the probability that the firm did not do their homework and did not define their business processes and define their needs. Then it is extra job for consultant firm to define these things and then build a system accordingly.

There are three reasons for failure in persuade salespeople to enter their sales experience:
* Time consuming
* Do not want to share their valuable info
* The need for evaluation

Learning points

According to the general tendency the hard part is the implementation part, many companies do not think about the organizational change management- it is not a easy process as the companies usually think.
It is important and necessary to learn what can go wrong.
People’s jobs change, there is a gap you should close, and communication is a key concept in change management.
OCM is a series of initiatives to prepare your organization
Welch Allyn – family business that sells diagnostic medical instruments, they have patient monitoring systems
They have 2300 employees world-wide
The company was growing organically and also by mergers and acquisitions but their old IT system was not supporting this growth.

They wanted to implement all the system once at a time.
23 full time project members from Welch Allyn and there are 17 system integrators. The medical industry was highly regulated by food and drug ad. There was six team leads.

Technical issues: blueprinting, configuring, client strategy, transports, testing, code changes

OCM – five initiatives
Training
Business process procedures
Security and role development
Super user development
Communications

Culture eats strategy for breakfast everyday… => values, behaviors, beliefs and norms that permeate the group
Expressed through the words and behaviors of each employee
Company or department leadership sets the overall tone
Often influenced by the customers you serve
Most often revealed in the way companies approach and solve their problems

Entrepreneurial vs. bureaucratic
Team focused vs. independent initiatives
Risk taking vs. conservative
Aggressive vs. not
Loyalty vs. what have you done here lately

View points go hand in hand with culture, people may react to ERP training according to the culture in the company.
Ex: viewpoint => I’ve learned other systems before, I’ll figure this out
Culture => Management under-estimates complexity before Go Live – “ready-fire-aim”

Once we decide to implement ERP system
* We send the functional team to training in order to make them learn the needed functions. (on-site and off-site training)
* Management seminars are important and thereby managers ,CEOs and other executives can decide their roles and can be more supportive
* End user training- is like an implementation project it is like an HR project
o Training needs analysis
§ Survey end users; ask them questions
§ What do they know and what do they need to know?
§ What are the ways they learn best determine courses, cost estimates
o Develop course contents
§ Time schedule
§ The content
§ Course material who will do this
§ How will this be accomplished
§ Resources, funding, review tests and etc.
o Deliver training courses (to end users)
§ Identify and train instructors
§ Locate training rooms
§ Set schedule, manage invitations and attendance processes
o After training – practice before go live
§ Adhoc organized practice sessions, prepare for proficiency tests
§ Administer tests, score them, offer retest opportunities, and postpone security access as required.

Element of Communication plan

What is the content/message?
Who is the audience?
How do we tell them?
What is frequency?
Who will deliver?
Where will it come from?
When are delivery dates?

You use communication first to explain the change process in order to erase the anxiety, chaos and fear. You also keep people at speed what is going on at that specific time of the project.

The impact of SAP must be emphasized in order to show in-house people the importance of the project.
Lunch and Learn sessions are very helpful as a communication channel since there are business people involved in the project with IT people and their attendance to the regular meetings during the process is very important.

Day 3 Key Points of the Articles

2008-06-24T17:29:00.001-04:00

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices

ERP is a packaged software and is developed for a market not an individual customer, there is a time to market pressure on the developers ad usually the developers are not related to the customers.
Therefore the fit of an ERP system to an organization is difficult.

Traditional software is tailor made and developers are involved first hand.

Best practices are hardly universal, culture and country specific applications are present

Larger, global, more complex, associated with higher risk.. ERP is regarded as a standard

Adaptation involves customization, positive correlation between initial fit and implementation success. Different types of customization are;
Technical customization
Module selection
Table configuration
Code modification

Table configuration is difficult since there are many tables, and relations and they should be understood very well and also it is time consuming however if the system is tailored this way full vendor support and ease of future upgrades remain.
Code customization has greatest flexibility, highest risk highest cost; incompatibility with higher versions.

The decision on which customization to choose depends on the capabilities both of the software and the company.

Technical change capabilities
1) understanding of ERP systems
2) ability to make desired system changes
3) ability to develop system management projects

Process change capabilities
1) understand business processes
2) ability to design and change business processes
3) ability to manage large scale change projects

Configuring an ERP System: Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility?

When configuring a system people knowing the business processes must be involved. Also in order to be able to benefit form an ERP system and avoid resistance key people from departments who will be using ERP after going live should be convinced and participate in the process.

Day3 Learnings

2008-06-24T17:01:00.003-04:00

After the review of the previous class

Development opportunities for a company:

Keep legacy & improve whtever needs improvement
Best of breed solutions (for SCM, CRM , etc.)
ERP
In-house development

In best of breed solutions, you don't lose bargaining power wrt software vendors. Probably, you can achieve better performance for each function as you are able to use more specialized products for these functions. However, you should possibly deal with lots of upgrades for each different functional software you have.

Organization Cahnge Management : "The Soft Stuff is The Hard Stuff'"

Overview of SAP project:

Company goal is to increase sales revenue with new product development.
IT platforms would not suppot growth.
Project lasts two years with 40 people ( 23 from Welch Allyn, 17 from Capgemini)
Vice president of the company is the champion of the project.
Technical stuff includes blueprinting, configuring, testing, code changes and so on.
People stuff includes training, communication, security authorization, business process procedures.
5 main initiatives for OCM are training, business process procedures, super user development, security and communication. All these 5 initiatives are interrelated with one of another initiatives.

In the last two hours, we have chance to experience a real SAP system in the labratory. System seems to be a little complicated due to involving so many functionalities and surely, using the system efficiently necessitates so much practice.

Day 3 Articles

2008-06-24T16:29:00.003-04:00

A framework for Evaluating ERP implementation:

ERP systems are packaged softwares, a little bit customization required for both erp system and business processes.
There are process and technical customization options and also technical and process change capabilities.
ERP software is developed for all market, not for an individual company. ERP implementation requires data entry and integration
ERP best practices are generic solutions and are not universal.
ERP implementations are company wide and generally contains all company business processes.
ERP system customizations are module selection, table configuration, code modification, another defines this by bolt-ons, screen masks, extended reporting, workflow programming, user exits, ERP programming, interface development, package code modification.
ERP implementations goes into 5 stages, design, implementation, stabilization, continous improvement, transformation.

TECHNICAL CUSTOMIZATION

module selection
table configuration
code modofocations-- which is great flexibility bu backward compatibility injures.

PROCESS CUSTOMIZATION

no change
incremental-- relationships among tasks are customized
radical change

CAPABILITY TO CHANGE BUSINESS PROCESS

comprehensive understanding of ERP vendor reasons underlying
developing an enterprise software or networked database software
managing a large scale software project
wide rang of understanding business processes and the evaluation of the process
creative thinking for redesigning business processes
need for large scale organizational change management

EXAMPLE CASE

Framework let a company resides in appropriate cell and thus figures out effort needed
A variety of modules implemented using customization options mentioned in the article.

Configuring an ERP System: Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility

Case is about implementing order management module while other modules are already implemented.
they formed a war team that is appropriate for such project
the existing software would be changed without any business reengineering.
They thought they had enough expertise to implement ERP by themselves.
In JD Edwards order processing tables are totally different identified.
Grouping orders, customers is needed to manage discoutns or incentives.
But marketing people have totally different and not organized procedures.
Software system needed to make standardize pricing strategy of marketing.

Day 3 Lessons Learned

2008-06-24T16:26:00.001-04:00

Elevation speech
Key performance indicator
short, brief
SWOT analysis
Before and future analysis and compare them,
ERP implementation alternatives
In house developed solutions
Best of breed Find best for each kinf of system and combine them if possible
Keep legacy system

Current State --------------------? Fıtıre State
Options

Figure out each of alternatives options. Then after choosing right solution then select the provider,
How do we select the provider,
-we can go and visit them
- we can have some presentations from different vendors, benefits and options can be explained by them
-That gives a basic overview of what a system will look like.
- ask a lot of questions or visit other companies who has an experience from that company,
SAP has user groups that can be questioned about other companies’ experiences.

Best of breed implementation
Advantage? you have bargaining power, functionality advantage
Disadvantage? upgrade difficulties, integration, different kinds of experience, cost disadvantages, integration point support can be difficult

How an ERP consultant can understand a company did not do his homework,
--lack of documentation
--must know business processes
--if they do not do that consultant must work extra hours to extract business processes
ERP system comes with its own practices somehow customizable,
-- first company must pass through the ERP systems’ best practices to get a taste of the system.
-- the way the erp system goes for the companies’ business processes.

We talked about physical infrastructure of an ERP system. Servers such as web, gateway, database, sybel.
We talked about Sybel software clients.

What would be reasons a salespeople would not use an ERP system
--Salespeople would not want to share their experience
--Salespeople use personel relations
--Depending on sales differnt things can be thought,so it is not easy to computerize the data
--It is not easy for a salespeople to enter data into a computer.

Organization Change Management
1- Organizational change management looks like soft but it is really the hard stuff.
2- The goal is to learn what can go wrong
3- Organizational cahnage is to change the functions of the organizational units.
4- The key part of change management is communication, to take commitments.
5- İs there a dedicated team for organizational chane.
We talked about WelchAllyn.
6- We talked about general structure of SAP implementation on WelchAllyn
7- There were differnt consultants , and everytime a different person came to team meetings. This was very disrupting.
8- There were to kinds of challange, technical stuff and people stuff
9- Five dimesnsions
a. Training
b. Role development
c. Super user developments
d. Communications
e. Business processes
10- Culture eats strategy for breakfast every day.
11- People do not want to learn purposes, just the stuff they will use
12- They think thet do not need any practice
13- Some other wants to learn the purposes.
14- Core team is trained to understand core functions, and they will be used to train other people at the company.
15- Training is a huge HR project in itself that goes with the big project hand in hand.
16- There is a huge process in documentation.
17- Arranging rooms, schedule, manage invitations is not easy.
18- After training practice sessions are arranged.
19- Tests, scoring...
20- Training is just training, real life situations are harder to manage.
After training, communication comes into picture
21- İnternal project level communication involves project team people communication
22- End user needs communication handling
23- İn order to take support from different departments, we need to communicate.
24- To prevent fear, insecurtiy, some type of chaos, we use communication, no need to be afraid, this gonna make good use, better process, we will have trainin sessions.
Securtiy/ Role Development
25- New responsibilities after SAP
26- New jobs evolve
27- New SAP transactions to do their jobs
28- When we think about authentication, we talk with roles.
29- We develop roles and security acess codes, than assign these to people
30- But there would be changes, when the system goes to live.
31- Super users and/or power users must be identified and trained.
32- 10% of end users, must be natural leaders
33- As super users leran over time, there will be fewer calls to HelpDesk
34- It is hard to prospect super user issues for the typical first weeks.
BUSİNESS PROCESS PROCEDURES
35- Strategy and tactics to capture, document and control business process procedures
36- What docs to control and store, where and how to control ans store
37- Web sites for easy access, to SAP On line Help.
38- BPP – Business Process Procedure – a document to define steps – how each transaction is used within SAP system as configures in your company.
39- These documentation is a concurrent process to implementation.

Day 3 Learnings - OnurOzensoy

2008-06-24T16:23:00.002-04:00

For implementing a business information system solution, we should first consider two states via SWOT analysis of business currently and an estimated/desired SWOT state. Either analyzing each solution separately to see if one fits or devising a workshop to determine which provides best benefits/cost ratio, help us to see what is the ideal tool to reach "future desired state".
Strategic alternatives are; keeping legacy systems with no change, employing "best of breed" solutions packages which are not thoroughly integrated, employing an ERP or utilize in house development team to devise an ERP or non-integrated solutions package. Among these ERP implementation has the difficulties of requirement of change in the organization and an extensive process to adopt ERP. Best of breed solutions, on the other hand, will require many consultants, a larger group of admins and maintaining personnel, potentially higher costs and more comprehensive work to upgrade the system whereas it does not offer integration between functional groups. It is important to note that a best of breed application may be implemented to a compatible ERP system, if it is more desirable to do so.

In the vendor selection process, a core team will assess the potential vendors. This, of course, requires an awareness of vendors and their products at the first place.
Typically, a firm will learn about opportunities via vendor presentations, mouth-to-mouth or attending seminars. Sales people are to be communicated carefully though since they probably are not familiar with implementation and compatibility issues. Another key issue is to map your business processes before starting the implementation as consultants for implementation will need them and success will mostly depend on "doing your homework"

We talked about difficulties in making sales people adopt CRM and some other cons of it.

Organizational Change Management
This is perceived as a last and easy step; "soft stuff". But typically it will turn out to be the "hard stuff" as people will realize that changing other people is the most difficult part. Since most employees will be afraid of losing their job or doing something that they are not used to do, there will be friction in the organization. This is not a solely technical issue and it is about culture. Using right people for it is important.

We analyzed OCM process in Welch Allyn which is an Syracuse medical company dealing with medical diagnosis devices. There are five parts of OCM.

-Training: It involves core team training, which is about presenting the system with its capabilities and opportunities, goes on with management seminars and end-user traning to support adoption and ease of usage. Practice course must be the main element with theory.
Attendance and attention to courses should be followed via surveys or simply taking attendance.
-Communication: It should involve bottom-up and top-bottom parts. Communication must be devised so that fears will be overcome and adoption of program will be successful.
Of course, communications should be designed on a audience basis.
-Security/Role Development: It involves grouping different tasks and transactions and giving authority to appropriate person to view appropriate data. There will be many requests to examine other transactions than previously planned ones but as long as job did not change, it should be rejected.
-Super User Development: Super user is a computer literate, helpful person who is responsible for communicating the system to people and for helping fellow employees to use the interface. The person does these along with his/her regular tasks. This is an important part to over come friction in the organization via communication. Super users should be trained further, though.
- Business Process Procedures: It is mapping business processes of the company (workflows) so as getting ready them before training. Also, pre-ERP business processes and post-ERP processes should be mapped along with implementation.

Day 3 - Lesson learned - Seçil Akdemir

2008-06-24T16:21:00.003-04:00

There are 3 types of Opportunities:
In-house developed systems
Best of breed approach – taking the best systems from different vendors
ERP system
Keep legacy system and improve whatever needs improvement

1st stage: Current SWOT analysis
2nd stage: Future SWOT analysis
3rd stage: Options in order to reach future desired and estimated state
4th stage: Choose the provider and the system

These vendors come to the potential companies and talk about their systems.
Companies should ask lots of questions in order to understand the exact benefits of the vendor system since there could be extra costs or different needs in order to use that feature.
Sales people do the presentations most of the time, implementers are different people. So, sales people do not care much.

Best of breed: bargaining power is the main advantage; hopefully you take the best products of each vendor so you can achieve a better system at the end.
But you have to manage the upgrades of different companies. You always have to manage the integration points.
Cost disadvantage since you need different consultants for each product.

If there is no clear documentation of business processes, then it means they do not know the business processes in detail.
When you buy an ERP system, it comes with some business processes in mind. So consultants have generally in depth knowledge in terms of generic business processes.

Sales people generally do not want to use information systems:
Since they are paid in terms of their sales amount so they do not want to share the information with others within the company
In most of the companies, they do not have good evaluation systems so they are not interested in seeing the reports of sales people
Moreover, sales people are only interested in sales and if reporting is not a part of the evaluation process they would not report.

Organizational Change Management Presentation
In many ERP projects, most of the companies did not consider the organization change part of this project.
Communicating expectations is a key part of OCM.
OCM is a series of initiatives to prepare your company to the change.
Commitment of the employees is also important for OCM.

Technical stuff vs. people stuff
People stuff is training, communications, security authorization, super user organization, business process procedures. These are all initiatives that involve changing people behavior.
Technical stuff is blueprinting, configuring and etc.

Which one is harder to change?
Company culture really matters in strategic changes and decisions. Culture includes values the company holds, behaviors, leadership, and customers.
Culture and the view points really affect the success of the project.
Training has several elements:
Core team training is important so they will be involved more and understand the features of the system
Management seminar – ensure management understands what is going on
End user training:
Training needs analysis
Develop course contents
Deliver training courses
After training – practice before go live

Getting employees to see SAP as an organization and business process change
When training is approached as a software project, participants focus on “how to perform their own transactions”

1st part of the OCM is the training and the 2nd part is the communication.
Communication
It is important in order to take support and commitment of every department and user.
Security / Role Development
At the beginning defining the end users access needs could be a difficult task.
Super User Development
Use these people to increase the communication within the organization. Also, we can use these users for training purposes. Super users could be used to elevate problems. To distribute support within the organization is the main idea.
You want people who know about the process.
You select the key users – good workers. They need to be helpful. You need to ensure that super users know where to get help.
Super user workshops can be useful in terms of improving the ERP system.
Super user trainings can be organized so they will transfer their knowledge to the regular users.
Business Process Procedures
BPP is a document to define steps – how each transaction is used within SAP system as configured in your company.

OCM initiatives are inter-related – support and enhance each other.
OCM is hard stuff because you are talking about changing people.
Do plan the OCM and have a significant budget. At least 10% of implementation cost should be put apart for this purpose.

Day 3 Article Learnings - Can Altay

2008-06-24T16:21:00.000-04:00

* We always say that ERP is only a tool and it does not necessarily improve your business, but it may require for companies to change or reengineer their business processes before implementing it. However, if there is lack of control, problems will definitely arise.

* We need to find a match between the ERP and system processes through customizing both the system and the organization.

* Technical customization: Changing the system à this includes module selection, table configuration and code modification. As you move towards code modification, the cost increases.

* Process customization: Changes in tasks and resources, incremental changes in relationships, rethinking and radical redesign. As you make more radical changes, customization increases.

* Determine where your business fits within these customization options and make your decision accordingly (matrix, 3 levels on process change capability, 3 levels on technical change capability-Tables II,III and IV in Luo and Strong).

* Volkoff article talks about the difficulties in implementing different pricing strategies to the ERP system and hence the difficulties faced by the firm in billing its customers. However, it also mentions a culture that has no discipline, no control and no desire to change at all. With these in mind, they would like to implement ERP and find solutions for the pricing module. In my opinion, it is a mistake to implement ERP in such an organizational culture.

Day 3 Learnings - Can Altay

2008-06-24T16:19:00.000-04:00

I will try to keep it as concise as possible.

* We have learned about the SAP software in general, which was a different experience. I experienced that the SAP is pretty complicated and difficult to use for first timers. No wonder people have high resistance against using it! However, it would be nice to simulate a business flow using different modules, so that we could see how convenient SAP makes people do business.

* Sales people think ERP is a waste of time and do not want to use it.
* OCM: Organizational Change Management. Communication is essential. Changing organizations and people seem easy, but actually people can be very resistant against change. The first-hand example is me, who was resistant to use the SAP during the lab session, when I experienced how difficult it is to use it. That is why OCM exists and companies depend highly on it.

* We learned about Super Users. I remember that from every department a super user is picked and those people form the core team for the ERP system. They wear different t-shirts and hats to distinguish themselves in a funny way within the organization.

* Business Processes and Procedures: Deciding on which documents to control and store, where and how to control and store these documents.

Day 3 - Articles key points - Seçil Akdemir

2008-06-24T16:17:00.001-04:00

Configuring on ERP System: Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility
The key personnel from the key departments related to the ERP module should be placed in the ERP implementation project team in order to assess the suitability of the ERP system to the process.

Employees, departments and end users of ERP systems should be convinced related to the benefits of ERP implementation before the implementation starts.

ERP projects could be beneficial in terms o f assessing and determining the main business strategy of the related departments since before the implementation every department should analyze and re-examine their processes in detail in order to match the process and the system.

Highly customization of ERP systems could be risky in terms of obtaining future help and upgrades. Moreover, excessive customization could be very costly for the company.

Systems used for core activities of the firms should be examined in more detail before the implementation since they are the strategic ones.

In order to integrate the activities, business process rules must be carefully specified and data must be defined in ways that make sense for different department users.

Key department should certainly be involved in order to sustain the future health of the ERP system because if they were not involved then, they would not know the essentials of the system. Therefore, they will create new stuff that does not fit with the system.

To conclude, implementing an ERP system in an environment with no control, no discipline and no desire to change would not work.

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices
The most important issue in ERP implementation is catching the match between the ERP system and the business processes of the firm.

In order to match these two things, companies should assess their technical and process change capabilities and the overall capabilities.

Traditionally, systems were developed and designed in order to fit with the current business processes of the firms but now many experts suggest that it is less costly and easier to change the business processes for the ERP systems.

ERP implementation is a very challenging task since it results in large-scale organizational changes.

Every ERP system has a generic best practice in mind but as discussed in the paper these best practices are not universal and there exist some cultural differences between companies.

Day 2 Learnings

2008-06-24T16:13:00.002-04:00

After the review of the previous class

Siebel is CRM software product of Oracle.
With CRM software, customer data such as transaction frequency and habits is stored in a database.
Using this data and after analysis with relevant tools, sales and profitability figures can be increased substantially.
There were too many details about the infrastructure of Siebel which were not so relevant to the course material, in my opinion.

ERP is just a tool, so it does not guarantee to make good results. Therefore, companies should carefully decide on whether they need ERP or not as it is an expensive software!
A company can need an ERP system for:

Data integrity and data sharing
Efficiency
Accurate Accounting
High control level

Before the decision to implement an ERP system, two main analysis should be conducted: SWOT analysis and GAP analysis.
Internal (strensths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) analysis are both of the interest of SWOT analysis.
We should conduct SWOT analysis both for current position of the company and for the position after a possible implementation of ERP system. By this way, we will be able to see the benefits and additional capabilities related to implementation of ERP system.
In the GAP analysis, the company determines where it want to be and currently where it is now. Then, the company decide on the proper strategy or steps to reduce this gap between current and desired states.

Elevator speech is a speech by which someone try to transfer its ideas to probably his executive in just a few seconds or very short time. As it goes on only within a very short time, it is informal and it does not include details of the idea.

day 3 readings by ahmet k

2008-06-24T05:52:00.002-04:00

ERP is a tool, however, business may need to change in order to implement it.

Problems may arise in environments where there is no control.

Also, there should be a need for change for a successful implementation

---

match erp system & business pocesses
change system: technical customization
change busines: process customization

technical customization:
module selection, table configuration, and code modification
as you move right, cost increases

process customization:
changes in tasks & resources, incremental changes in relationships, fundamental rethinking and radical redisgn of elements
as you move right, customization increases

make matrix of these 6 items 3x3 and determine where a business fits

technical change capability:
overall ability to customize ERP systems; 3 levels
-understanding of default ERP system processes, configurations, and built-in options
-develop and modify large-scale software in a networked database environment
-organization’s ability to manage large-scale systems development projects

process change capability:
overall ability to customize business processes; 3 levels
-understand their existing business processes and their business environment
-design new or changed business processes, as well as implement these designs
-managing and coordinating large-scale business process changes

make a matrix 3x3 and see what an organization can do
no worries, training & hiring consultants help to improve these capabilities

do the feasibility using the 2 matrices and decide what to do

Key Points of Day 3 Articles

2008-06-24T04:41:00.002-04:00

Configuring an ERP System: Introducing Best Practices of Hampering Flexibility?
Similar to the lessons learned from the class discussions and other articles, implementation of ERP will not help unless you have a certain strategy with well-defined business processes, plans, and discipline. In this case, benefiting from each flexibility capability of the system makes things more complex and does not lead to anywhere. Rather, flexibility capabilities of the systems should be utilized in line with the organization’s business units’ strategies, plans, and rules.
Also, having employees in each business unit ready for implementation by believing that there is need for it is crucial in the success of the implementation project. In this case, design and implementation of the order management module became too difficult since marketing people – the key personnel knowing the flow well – were not enthusiastic and motivated for implementation. They did not believe in the benefits of ERP to their business and therefore were not helpful to the project team.
We have discussed the importance of having people knowing the flows well in the implementation project teams. It has been pointed out that from each key business unit related with each module to be implemented, people who know the work flows, processes, and the general practices well should be involved. This issue’s importance is also seen in this PSDC case. Order management is well known by marketing and sales people since they do the daily practices, but for reasons I have mentioned above, they do not get involved in the implementation preparation work. Rather, a manager in finance gets responsibility for this. However, the work gets stuck after a point since nobody in the team really knows the marketing-ordering-pricing procedures. So, it is understood that for every implementation case, people form the related departments should be involved.

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices:
Different from our class discussions, in describing ERP, the risks involved with its implementation, its benefits and the reasons for failure; the article points out that there is a gap between the producers of the system and the implementers. Sales staff of the ERP vendor and third party consultants physically contact with the organization (the implementer) rather than the system writers.
As another issue, it is pointed out that ERP is a package solution and it is designed for serving as many customers as it is possible. So, it is not a tool that is designed for individual organizations; rather, it is an industry best-practice application. Also, the article points out some researchers thinking that the systems are actually not universal indeed.

Customization:
The success of the implementation relies upon the fit between business processes and ERP systems. There is a positive correlation between the success and the fit. Accomplishing this fit is the main goal of customization.
Customization is defined in two parts: technical customization (adapting the system to the current business processes) & process customization (vice versa).

Technical Customization: There are three types: (1) module selection, (2) table configuration, and (3) code modification. Module selection consists of the least level of customization; there is no altering of the system but it is usually not sufficient for the needs of the organizations. Table configuration contains risk and necessitates a well understanding of the configurable options within the system. Code customization is the extreme of customization where the codes are re-written for some processes. While it provides the greatest flexibility to the organizations, it involves the highest risk among the technical customization options.

Process Customization: The categories are: (1) no change, (2) incremental change, and (3) radical change. If the company does not prefer to change the relationships among tasks and configurations of resources, then it goes with the no-change option. If improvements are decided to be made between the relationships among tasks and configurations of resources, it is the incremental change category. Or, the company may go with an extreme change of its processes; radical change. (Table 2 in the article).
For customization, it is clear that organizations must have some capabilities. These are classified under two headings in the article: Technical change capability & Process change capability; each related with technical customization and process customization, respectively.

Technical Change Capability: It is the overall capability for technical customization of the ERP systems. It includes understanding ERP configurations, options, the ability to develop large-scale software in every aspect, and the ability to manage this system with enough resources.

Process Change Capability: The capability to customize the organization’s business processes consists of having a ‘change’ capability on the enterprise scale with a design capability and creative thinking. As in the technical change capability case, it also necessitates managerial abilities for organizational change and project management.

Table 3 summarizes well that how the overall capability for customization is evaluated by the article.
These capabilities are not static; they can be improved in time by learning from experiences.
The Public University (PU) case shows that different levels of customizations according to the related capabilities of the organization may be applied for each module of the system. There is not only one way to customize general for the whole modules of the ERP system to be implemented since ERP implementation is actually not a single individual project. Rather, it is a portfolio of projects.
In conclusion, before implementation, the organizations should: (1) identify the fit between its own business processes and the selected ERP system, and (2) evaluate its own ability to manage these changes.

Lessons Learned Posting (June 23, 2008)

2008-06-24T04:40:00.001-04:00

We have completed our discussion about strategy and potential analyses about strategy: The organization should first make a SWOT analysis for its current state and for a future state that is planned. In order to be able to make these analyses successfully, workshops may be arranged before these SWOTs. Then, considering both of the analyses for current and future states, options for ERP (keep legacy – best-of-breed – ERP – in-house development) should be evaluated by asking the question: “Will it help us to reach the future state?” and the provider can be chosen at last.
We have also discussed when choosing the provider, how can a firm get to know the provider firm. We have talked about the presentations, seminars, meetings, etc. by giving the SAP Users Group.
It was also noted in the discussions that, there is the risk of losing your bargaining power as an organization once you signed the contract with the provider – especially, with a major provider in the sector. This again brings us to the discussion that being a small customer of a major provider may include high risks associated. In order not to lose the power within the relationship, the company may choose to work with a small vendor, but as we discussed in the first two days, this has its own disadvantages too.
We have discussed about the “homework” of the organizations before the implementation. This includes to analyze your business processes well by making workshops and to ensure the knowledge exchange with the consultants during the implementation. If the organization has not done its homework, the consultants should be making them to do that.

Organization Change Management (OCM)
· It is clear that organizations go into a radical change when ERP implementation decision has been made. The change should be managed as well as the implementation project itself. The change should be treated as an individual project and be managed accordingly. There should be a dedicated team / leader to the change management.
· We have discussed the Welch Allyn case that OCM has been applied very successfully; but it was clear that managing it (with the trainings organized, the communication capabilities involved, business processes analyzed & documented) isn’t actually as simple as it seems.
· In the Welch Allyn case, OCM was implemented in five parts: (1) Training, (2) Communication, (3) Security/Role Development, (4) Super User Development, and (5) Business Process Procedures (BPPs).
· In analyzing the change, the culture of the organization should be emphasized. It may prevent the implementation of the strategy as it is. This may be seen in all of the five parts of OCM. When trying to manage the change, strategy may cause things to change from planned: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast everyday”.
· Training: Training is so important that, it should be treated and managed as an individual project itself. There are several stages of training: core-team training, management training, and end-user training. Culture, as mentioned before, plays a significant role in the success of training programs. Training and getting efficient results from it is indeed difficult since the employees would be reluctant for training due to their busy jobs and workloads. Also, the training materials and the design of the classes/class hours, the shifts should all be organized well and according to people’s programs. Training materials should include thing for practice as well as the theory of the system.
· Communication: It is needed very importantly in order to gain the commitment of everyone within the organization. Having a communications plan is a must; it states the communication channels defined for each group of audiences within the company and the schedules. Communication channels differ according to the audience and the specific goals of the communication with that audience group. In the Welch Allyn case, the success of the communications plan was not tested, but, in the class, we have discussed that it can be tested through different measures.
· Security/Role Development: This includes identifying the accesses of every employee to the system and it comes with defining the roles of everyone within the system. In order to define the roles, the transactions should be grouped and analyzed by looking at each individual and their participation of each flow. Then, we may decide about their roles and the relevant accesses to be given to them. Accesses may differ as monitoring access, modifying access, deleting access, etc. Each line manager should be included in this process since they are knowledgeable about the processes. Also, there needs to be a process to change or modify the accesses after they have been assigned to everyone – there should at least someone assigned for this because needs for modification will definitely occur after implementation as people start to practice their everyday-jobs with the system.
· Super User Development: It is the key component for communication. Super user means a person responsible for leading the implementation and helping to the people to start to use the software in their everyday practices; on a departmental basis. Approximately 10% of end-users should be chosen as super users to help others. This also reduces the otherwise significant workload on the helpdesk. Super users may be selected among best knowledgeable people; but not always, since they may not be enthusiastic; the motivation of the employee to become a super-user is in most of the cases more important. There should also be some super-user workshops and trainings and some benefits (like bonuses or additional fringe benefits) may be given to the super-users in order to motivate them and to make their job more appealing.
· Business Process Procedures: They are the documents specifying business processes; that are, specifying how each transaction is used within SAP system as configured in the company. This is about documentation management; documenting the workflows/business processes.
· The meaning of the workflow is similar with that of the business process.
· Preparing the business processes should be a concurrent process with implementation. The goal is to get them ready for training purposes and Go Live use; the output of BPP is an input for training.
· Plan for OCM should have a separate budget; at least 10% of the implementation budget.
· Identifying key people is crucial in OCM.
· The main failure would be to consider OCM as solely a technical project.

Lessons Learned Day 3

2008-06-24T02:32:00.001-04:00

What can we do instead of implementing an ERP system.
- Best of breed (best solutions/modules from different providers and their comination)
- Customized development (in-house development)
- Keep going and improve whatever needs to be improved
- Convert everything to MS Excel

yERP so what?
The first task is to select the provider; for this you,
Research
Invite/presentations, let vendors talk
Look at what others do
You should not rely on the presentations; ask a lot of questions about features etc; price and licenses..
Extras, costs, man hours should be asked for.
There are SAP groups where you can learn about what I should ask my vendor
You should keep in mind that vendors are not implementing

Best of breed solutions have certain disadvantages as;
Difficulty in managing upgrades
Integration problems
Different systems, different admin skills (coding language or what)
Cost disadvantage? Different types of consultancy costs will incur
Best of breed, is it the best in terms of functionality? Some people claim this however this might not be the case.

To be successful in the implementation prior to the ERP your homework is to analyze your processes. As a consultant in order to find out if they did their homework look if they ask questions, if they say yes to everything, if they don’t know why they implement ERP, if they don’t have documentation of business processes. If they don’t have it you should have them go through this. Workshops can be conducted for this.

ERP comes with certain flexibility, and when consultants come there is some exchange of knowledge/information.

For the selection process it seems infeasible to check whatever is possible with that solution. Vendor presentations, and talking to people who use ERP is what you can do.

After selection go through courses/trainings to see how it goes with your functions.

Sales people keep track of information about their customers.
They don’t want to share information because you work on commissions, they build personal relationships which makes them powerful, salespeople don’t take this process as a part of their job it just looks like time consuming task with no benefits to them.
There needs to be a mechanism for evaluation and make people write down the information.

Organization Change Management
OCM is regarded as soft stuff but turns to be hard, since appropriate resources are usually not allocated.
OCM initiative can improve company’s success levels.

What is OCM?
Serious set of actions
People’s job changes

Communication is a key point

Ask questions, why are you here, what’s your involvement, do you have a dedicated team

In the example given the company was growing and the IT was not supportive enough.

A single global system was to be implemented.
The project was led by the VP as Champion.

Technical stuff
People stuff

OCM
Training
Security and role development
Business process procedure
Communications
Super user development
- Culture eats strategy for breakfast every day
Culture should allow (make room for) change (entrepreneurial vs. bureaucratic, risk taking conservative, trust vs. fear, etc.)

Underestimation of the complexity leads to unsuccessful projects.

There is not so much time, they have work plus training and on the top practice is required
Learn as less as possible, just what you need.
Just tell me the answer
Question the purpose
- Training starts with the core team training. (information exchange, understand the capabilities)
- Management seminar
- End user training (training needs, contents, delivery, after training-practice) exams, qualifiers before giving access.
Refresher courses are necessary for newcomers.

Courses are though, you have to prepare courses, write down material, come up with exercises and the set up must be done.
Set-up classes.
Who will train? Do you have your own key people managers that can contribute to the training, who could deliver the training?
An outsider specialist does not know your company, and your processes, they need to be backed up about the process.
Hire documentation specialists
Arrange training and manage back up for your functions.

Sending invites, make sure people come to class.
1 administrator and one database for the training

COMMUNICATIONS
Is all communication the same?
We need to communicate with end users, other plants, organizations.
Main goal is the consensus; avoid fear anxiety, insecurity among employees.

In a communications plan: stakeholder and audience, channel, objectives, frequency, communicator, date and time should be included.
Team lunch, impact project management team meeting, impact newsletter, weekly sire leader, cost of meetings
Branding, banners, boards

How to measure effectiveness is difficult.
Do people show up?
Polls? Might be ways of measurement

No time, there is real work to do is the people’s attitude.

SECURITY
Role development and security
You look at what people do at a company, define transactions and group them. These groups are your roles.
Then you look at the individuals and assign roles to them.
There are also view roles only.
When you go live you need to modify access, and change security roles.
Roles are built from scratch there might be templates

SUPER USERS
Super users are knowledgeable, you go to them when you have questions, they help elevate problems, 10% about all users. They also need help and learn throughout time.. they learn with the helpdesk, helpdesks know about all transactions.
When you go live there should be a certain level of understanding.
You select super users there are more than one, and they are chosen on departmental basis.

Super user location and function matrix.
Super user workshops and trainings separately, so they can help others.

BUSINESS PROCESS PROCEDURES
Documentation creation and management.
Not the same as configuration management.
If you do after implementation you won’t be able to use it for training.
The goal is to get them ready concurrently.
Difference from business blue print? Transactional, blue print is a managerial tool. You don’t use blue prints for documentation, blue print is mapping your procedures.
Security will determine training courses
BPP output is training document input.
Super users are key communication, key feedback on security

KEY learning points

Changing people!
Do plan!
Plan budget and resources! At least 10% for OCM
People initiatives
You need to focus on people even though this is a software project

day 3 learnings by ahmet k

2008-06-23T18:13:00.003-04:00

Alternatives if there is need for change:
-Keep Legacy & improve
-ERP
-Best of Breed Apps
-In house Development

A good homework for the company: Analyze the business & form a core team

Sales People: don't want to lose time with things other then sales, unless its in their benefits in terms of remuneration. They don't want to share their secrets, nor customers.

OCM
---------------
Organizational Change Management
Communication is key!
A series of steps to prepare organization for changes

-Training
-Security/Role Development
-Super User Development
-Business Process Procedures
-Communications

Culture:
entrepreneur vs bureaucratic
team vs independant
risk vs conservative
structure vs variable
plan x3 vs ready, fire, aim (!!)
trust vs fear

Training:
Core team training
Management Seminar
End user training

Communications:
get support of workers
inform them!
-channels: team lunch & learns, newsletter, meetings, e-mails

Security/Role Development:
start with key managers!
then, bottom-up, what kind of special roles needed in addition to the ones specified generally
determine what each employee can & can't do!

Super User Development:
idea is to distribute support in community

Business Processes & Procedures:
what docs to control & store, where & how to control & store

Document business processes procedures!

BPP-a document to define steps, how each transaction is used within SAP system as configured in your company. get them ready & use in trainings.

Changing organization & people seems easy, but it is not. Thats why OCM exists!

Learning Post (June 18,2008)

2008-06-23T02:53:00.001-04:00

Review:
There is no certain fact that one kind of ERP vendor (whether a major firm, a small vendor, or open source) is superior to others. We should evaluate all pros and cons of each type of vendor and make a decision among them considering our company’s specific conditions and needs.
We should ensure that some knowledge is left in-house during the implementation. There would be always someone in the organization that became a star during this process by gaining expertise about ERP by utilizing from the consultants. In that case, the management should focus on the ways to keep these personnel in-house by giving them additional benefits. As an example, we have discussed the packaging woman in a factory that became the star of SAP implementation.

Oracle Siebel CRM:
The film about MyProjectHelp.com (Siebel CRM) has showed us that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be also made more efficient through ERP systems. Siebel is a system designed for CRM by Oracle. Implementing this system is actually about the needs of the company; systems can be designed according to the needs of the company related with its CRM strategy.

Building the ERP Business Case:
Why should a company choose to implement ERP? The main reasons we have discussed were to have more control, to share information, for process innovation & automation, accounting & reporting purposes, data integrity, effective communication of data & processes. Also when ERP is implemented, fewer people would be maintaining the same functions and time/human capital savings are also important.
The most important point in the decision of the implementation of ERP is that it does not make you competitive if it is not implemented well – that is, according to the nature of the business and to the needs of the organization. So, only way to justify the implementation of ERP should be strategic reasons more than reasons such as cost-cutting purposes.
Why should a company not choose to implement ERP? After the strategic decisions (evaluation of how ERP can make easier to accomplish the strategic objectives), the main considerations would be cost and time in giving this decision. The organization may not have enough staff and/or money for ERP. In addition, the readiness of the administration and the organization in general is crucial because as we have discussed, implementation of ERP would not be smooth certainly. So, you need to ensure that the organization is ready for change. Otherwise, the transformation can result in failure or and event it does not, resistance to use the new system would cause huge problems and inefficiencies.
While implementing ERP, some systems become more efficient while others may become inefficient due to some inflexibility in the system. This is similar to the situation of the Ohio plant in the “Why ERP?” book. The important thing is that when we sum up these efficiencies and inefficiencies, the dominant one should be the efficiencies increased by the implementation.
The decision of the implementation of ERP should be given in line with the strategic objectives and/or roadmap of the company. ERP is just a tool rather than a strategy; so it should be implemented only if it would help the firm to accomplish its strategic goals. Some strategic analyses should be made before giving the implementation decision. Among these analyses, we have discussed SWOT Analyses and GAP Analyses.
In GAP Analysis, the company identifies where it aims to be and compares it with its current situation, then defines a roadmap. This also includes enterprise architecture. For instance, the current situation can be defined as enterprise architecture 1 (EA1) and it is compared with the planned/desired future situation EA2 by a GAP analysis.
Executives should identify the following points during giving the implementation decision: improvement opportunities, benefits, benefit categories, the implementation plan, and the metrics. These analyses should be combined with an overall matrix in order to have a look at the bigger picture.
We should keep in mind the business objectives, critical success factors, key performance indicators, and the benefits of each of the areas.

Day 3 Learnings

2008-06-23T02:51:00.008-04:00

Summary:
Elevator speech,
used to convey an idea using implications on key performance indicators.
SWOT Analysis,
needs to be done prior to ERP implementation decision.
GAP Analysis

Options:
1- Keep legacy and improve it: some companies who implement erp return to legacy
2- Best of breed: has advantages of customization and quality but creates more overhead due to numerous upgrades. Also the programming language for each program is different, meaning highly skilled personnel may be needed for customization.
Best of breed may be different programs used together or applied on existing ERP systems with addons.
3- ERP
Consultant should check for documentation of business processes. If the company did not do its homework they will not have the required documentation. The consultant must address this problem before starting implementation. Exchange of information between consultant and company will show how the implementation will be undertaken. Learn how the ERP system works for your function(if you're a function manager).
4- Custom/In-house development

Considering the tool before SWOT & GAP analysis would create bias in analysis. You should first make the analysis then pick an option, or make the analysis for each system and pick the one that best fits.

Workshop-Current State-Future State-Options-System Provider selection(company representatives may come for sale, you can attend seminars, you can ask other companies who implemented these systems [ask questions!])
i.e. SAP users group

the sales people for the system are not usually implementation people, therefore not a very good source.

Siebel CRM - review

Sales software:
advantages: keeps record of customer information, and updates.
disadvantages: the salespeople like personal relationships and selling. They might not want to share the info or not have the time to record the data.

OCM: Organizational Change Management
Looks like the soft stuff but really is the hard stuff. People think implementation is the real thing, but OCM is more important.
OCM prepares the management team and employees for the change to be brought about by ERP.
WelchAllyn - Family Medical Business - f.1915
implemented SAP in 2004 in 2 plants.
Company goal: grow organicly and through acquisitions.
Old infrastructure cannot manage the change.
-6 team leaders (management team)
-23 full time project members
-system integrators - capgemini - 17 full time consultants
-2 years program with 40 people in a room.

The changes that pose a challenge:
technical stuff:
people stuff:

5 initiatives of OCM:

training:
core team training(onsite and offsite), management seminar, end user training (training needs analysis, develop course contents, deliver training courses, practice before go live, refresher courses for newcomers)
communications:
Communication plan: Content, audience, method of expression, frequency, who will deliver, origin, time.
Evaluations, motivation.
Fishbone analysis: Potential failure areas / impact / likelihood / solution
security role development
Groups of users in each functional area: new responsibilities after SAP? New jobs evolve? New SAP transactions to do the job?
Groups: Sales & Marketing (Sales, customer service, repair), Manufacturing (Production, forecasting)
Assess group functions and potential functions and give roles in bundle of transactions accordingly. There also are readonly roles. tedious procedure top-down then bottom-up.
Once gone live, roles will be adjusted.
super user organization
Develop the SUO: Determine objectives, identify criteria, identify 10% of end users as candidates, select and train super users, help desk, communications.
are people who know the processes and should be very helpful people.
business processes & procedures [BPP]
strategy & tactics to capture, document and control business process & procedures
what, where & how to control & store documents
website for easy access to SAP online help
actions can be recorded with screenshots to create tutorials for different transactions

Security will define roles... different courses for each role.

What is the company culture?
values, beliefs etc.
expressed in employee behavior
management sets tone
influenced by customers
usually revealed in problem solving

examples:
entrepreneurial vs bureucratic
team focus vs independent
risk taking vs risk averse
trust vs fear

Any questions?

Day 2 Learnings

2008-06-23T02:24:00.000-04:00

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a cross-functional process that connects companies to the customers on the basis. They can be supported by the information technology systems. Its aim is to provide the direct access to the customer for responding its needs.

ERP systems have brought many benefits to the business environment. However it requires a very accurate and large scaled data input to provide the benefits. Although these conditions are satisfied, an ERP system still can fail, because there is another predecessor of the ERP. This predecessor is making an accurate analysis that will provide important vision about the susceptibility of our processes to ERP. These analyses are as follows:

SWOT analysis: The name SWOT abbreviates the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats terms at once. As it is understood from the meanings of the terms, it involves the specified factors that will affect the future of the project or business.

GAP analysis: Likewise its name, it is a measurement tool to predict the gap between your capability and your target.

Elevator speech: The declaration that is directly focused on the main arguments. It reflects an overview about the subject.

Day 2 Articles

2008-06-23T01:15:00.003-04:00

The ERP Purchase Decision: Influential Business and IT Factors

The objective of performing the research was to determine a set of business and IT factors that influence the purchase of ERP systems.

In the research a literature review on the potential ERP package capabilities was completed.

Five major vendors of the ERP (SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Baan, J.D. Edwards) have occurred since 1997. SAP holds the largest market share.

Vendors are developing faster implementation methodologies and specific industry solutions to provide easier and less costly service for mid- and small-sized firms which will provide larger market spectrum.

In early 1990s, the ability to better meet various competitive goals, the desire to reengineer business processes, and access to integrated data were three influencing business capabilities of the ERP purchases. In these years, many businesses started BPR initiatives to achieve the results that will support their current system is inadequate in performing their BPR efforts.

Currently the experiences have shown that the business should be matched to the software rather than matching the software to the business. Therefore, implementing an ERP simultaneously results into reengineering business processes and replacing legacy systems.

In the second half of the 1990s, replacing the aging mainframe systems with modern enterprise-wide client-server architectures, replacement of legacy systems that no longer meet the firm’s needs, reducing the information systems costs by buying rather than building software were the three influencing IT capabilities for the ERP purchases.

And also between 1996 and 1999 avoiding year 2000 problems by adopting an ERP seemed reasonable for some companies. And at the same time they could improve their information systems capabilities.

As a conclusion, the results from the factor analyses are as; the four business factors are, data integration, new ways of doing business, global capabilities, flexibility/agility; and the four IT factors are IT purchasing, IT cost reduction, IT expertise, and IT architecture. And the Y2K problems affected the purchases before 2000.

Efe Bio

2008-06-23T01:10:00.000-04:00

Hi! I am still an undergraduate in Industrial Engineering in Bilkent University and I hope I will graduate soon with this summer school. I have completed my high school education in Ankara Gazi Anadolu Lisesi.

During my academic lifetime, I have completed two different internships at Tepe Betopan and Philips-Turk T.A.S. In this period, I have experienced production planning, product design and sales & export environment. During my internship in Philips-Turk T.A.S I performed madly efforts to experience S.A.P modules; unfortunately they never let me to do it. Anyway, this year I have been involved in a design and implementation of a MRP system for the boeing 737-800 aircrafts repair and maintanence parts Project with my five collegues from university. And, as i have learned from the Project and from the I.E courses, i have recognized the importance of the ERP systems and my intention to work on it.

My career goal is, to achieve a statue of systems and processes analyst as an Industrial Engineer that is capable of analyzing, interpreting and performing further researches, improvements and innovations for systems and processes.

The MBA675 ERP Systems: Strategy and Practice course will help me in learning the general knowledge and experiences of the ERP systems from the Business Administrator`s point of view. The benefits of this course will be crucial for me, in terms of gaining the necessary knowhow about the ERP systems, as a systems and processes engineer candidate.

The interesting thing about me is; i am stil an undergraduate waiting to be graduated at end of 2007-2008 summer semester, alhough i take this course by obligation, i am glad to have the chance to benefit from it to achieve my career goals. However, i have regretfully got used to be a late reacting person (in terms of accomplishing the given tasks on time) within slowly processing undergraduate environment compared to MBA. I hope i will beat this threat in this course.