Day 2 Learnings

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.

Lessons Learned - Wed1

An ERP system simply is a giant computer program that integrates multiple traditional programs before used by many companies. It is sold as a bundled program system by various companies such as Oracle, PeopleSoft, Baan, J.D. Edwards, and SAP. There also are open source versions of the program.

The type of ERP system defines unique attributes to the program. For example when an SAP P/3 can require many management decisions be taken prior to implementation and require further customization of the system according to the company structure, an in-house programming team may be able to write a more easy-to-implement version of ERP for certain companies. Besides, customizations on these programs may have to be remade when a software upgrade is to be made, as the upgrade will erase or disregard the customizations made before.

Open source systems are easier to understand and customize, but the costs of acquiring a programming team for their implementation may go beyond expectations. Open source systems may not be the highest quality either. Noone is earning money off them after all.

Since ERP systems are giant programs, they require the installation of a considerably large hardware system. In addition to the computers in offices and at facilities, a number of servers are needed. The example given by Mr.Kumar for Siebel was as follows:

Web server --- Enterprise server --- Database server --- File system server

Where the enterprise server is actually a gateway server that allocates data flow to and from a number of Siebel servers that do the processing.

A query is made from the Siebel client, which goes to the webserver, and then to the enterprise server. Data is collected from the database server and the employee files are collected from the file server. Then they are processed by the siebel servers according to the incoming flow of information.

Siebel has various clients such as the webclient (internet explorer!:)), handheld client, mobile webclient, etc. In short, Siebel simply made a client version for each type of hardware (PDA, laptop, PC) for users, and one mobile and one fixed client for programmers.

Building the ERP case

The advantage of using ERP is basically integration between traditionally disparate departments of an enterprise. Such integration reduces paperwork and simplifies procedures for management, in return resulting in better management of and communication within an enterprise.

The risks are mainly lack of know-how or scale to implement an ERP system. It is a costly system, and if not implemented correctly: garbage in, garbage out. Besides SMEs may not have the scale to benefit from many functions of an ERP, and therefore the benefits may be less than costs.

Elevator Speech
Short speech you make to introduce a concept to someone, usually the manager/CEO. It is intended to convey the whole idea in a few seconds/minute. Advantage: informal speech, nothing written, face-to-face. Disadvantage: short, lack of detail. Making good elevator speeches is important in business! You may not ever get the chance of talking to the CEO or having an appointment with the CEO. Once you see him/her you have to take your chance and use time wisely.

...to be edited.

Day 2 Learnings (Serkan Kocak)

At the having the review section of first lecture, we have watched the video, which is about CRM.

From the video:

One of the opportunities of CRM: Experienced professionals helping entry level professionals.
CRM is a company-wide business strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer loyalty
CRM is a growing market, which is $6 billion now expected to be $18 billion in 2010.
The major players in the market are: Oracle, SAP, and PeopleSoft…
Some type of businesses that Siebel creates CRM applications; Pharma, Media, Finance, Energy, Clinic…

Siebel Industry Applications
Employee Application: Siebel Call Center, Marketing, Sales, Field Service
Partner Application: Siebel Partner Portal, Partner Manager
Customer Application: Siebel Adviser, Configuration, Rider, Price, e Service, e Sales.

Mobile Solutions
Siebel Remote, Wireless

Siebel Physical Architecture works as follows;
Signal comes from web server and Gateway Server distributes it one of the Siebel Servers (to one that is less busy). Then that Siebel Server takes relevant information from the data base in order to run the process, and the configurations are stored at Siebel file System to be used during process.

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

Building ERP Business Case

Initial Needs are as follows
· More control
· Share info
· Accounting purposes
· Process innovation + Automation
· Data integrity
· Competiveness
Why Should a Company not implement ERP?
· Costs
· Organization readiness
· Time Consumers
· No need for growth
· Knowledge or capability not accessible

Potential Analysis (in order to decide to implement ERP or not)
· SWOT analysis
· Gap Analysis (where you are – what is your target in terms of IT)
· Elevator Speech (to tell what is needed or relevant in two minutes time to find a job).
o What is the product service solution?
o Problem it addresses
o What does it do?

Enterprise Architecture
It is the frame work that enables us to understand current situation.
Executives Identify Top Items
· Improvement opportunities (providers)
· Benefits (triggers)
· Benefit Category
· Implementation plan
· Metrics

Day2 - Lessons Learned by Basak Tektemur

ERP II connects suppliers and customers to the system; it allows you to integrate with them too.

Major players provide cheaper alternatives like ASAP. There may be a single module that can be implemented which costs less. ASAP costs less during implementation, it is also claimed that ASAP does not require that much consultancy. It is basically faster implementation.
SAP uses solution manager approach, for the initial installation, and it helps up to some level.
There is SAP configuration module and it works.

If you definitely want to work with a small vendor and you are not sure if they will be around for a long time it will be a good idea to develop some in-house capabilities or even attract people from the provider.

CRM is abbreviation for customer relationship management

CRM Opportunities:
MyprojectHelp.com
Experienced professionals helping entry level professionals
They are offering new way of educating people

From the speech of Mr. Kumar:
A company-wide business strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer loyalty
Improve customer relations
There are mid market CRM and on-demand CRM
The competitors of Siebel: Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft

Why Siebel CRM?
Highest market share and easy to implement
More number of integration points
Catchy GUI and very user friendly
Very easy to configure, code and deploy
Easy administration and maintenance

Siebel applications:
Siebel CRM enterprise
CRM professional edition
CRM on-demand

Siebel industry implications:
Consumer goods
Finance
Phama
Energy
Media
Clinic

Employee Application:
Call center
Marketing
Sales
Field service

Partner application:
Partner portal
Partner manager

Customer application:
Advisor
Configurator
Orders
Pricer
eService
eSales

Mobile solutions:
Remote
Wireless

*Mobile solutions are very useful since they can handle information better.
Companies can use their Siebel partners in order to interpret about customer behavior

Siebel Clients:
5 types
Web-client => internet explorer, u purchase the application
Handheld client => like blackberry and so on
Wireless web client => mostly used one
Mobile web client => software developers uses this one, install to the laptops
Dedicated web client

Siebel physical architecture
There is a Gateway server, which is bought by the enterprise, where all the requests are collected, also there are Siebel servers (number depends on the needs of the enterprise) that are helping GS and these two types compose the enterprise server. Also there is database server which is a separate one. The Siebel servers in CRM system benefit from the enterprise database server like the modules of ERP. There is also Siebel file system which usually contains configuration files, it eases the maintenance since you do not need to install configuration files to all other servers. All these are connected by a web server. All the orders from customers come from web and reach to the gateway server, GS sends the job to appropriate servers and they are processed in the Siebel server or servers.

Siebel application:
Siebel versions/releases
Siebel client demo

There is a possibility to use free trial versions for Siebel applications and learn about the program before buying it can be downloaded from Oracle’s site.

There are forecasts, tariffs, and other similar things in the sales module.
Siebel tool:
It is a step based configuration tool
Objects explorer
Drag&Drop facilities or Wizards
Tool Layer: GUI LAYER => Object layer => Data Layer

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

ERP systems alone cannot increase company’s competitiveness.
If you can solve your problems with simpler applications use them because ERP systems are very expensive.
If you believe that ERP will allow you lower costs in the future use it, but it is good to keep in mind that maintaining ERP will be expensive.

Why does the company feel the need for an integrated system?
More control, share information, accounting purposes, process innovation and automation, data integrity, fewer people to maintain the same function => efficiency increases, one system-easy to maintain and competitiveness.

Why not?
* Costs
* The costs don’t justify the benefits
* Organization readiness
* Time consuming-not enough staff-not enough money
* No need for growth
* No accessible knowledge and capability

When you implement ERP, some processes become more efficient but some others get worse; because system brings some requirements. Therefore, it is important to have flexibility at least up to some levels.

Potential Analyses:
Before implementing ERP systems it is good to make some analyses such as:
SWOT Analysis
GAP Analysis: you determine where you are now first and then you decide where you want to be in certain time period. And then you look at the gap in between.
Enterprise architecture
Elevator Speech: a short but impressive speech to introduce yourself or your company

Executives-Identify top -3 items:
* Improvement opportunities (provides)
* Benefits (triggers)
* Benefit Category (achieved)
* Implementation Plan (measured)
* Metrics

Then you need to link these to strategic objectives. Companies must have key performance indicators that must be relevant with their businesses.

Day 2 - Lesson Learned - Seçil Akdemir

In order to mitigate going concern risk of small ERP vendors, firms can make long term contracts with expert people from the vendor. Another method could be developing an in-house expert.

ERP system do not solve single data problems by themselves, you still need communication between departments in order to benefit from this feature of ERP systems.

CRM is a company wide business strategy which is developed to increase profitability with increased consumer loyalty while decreasing costs.

There are 3 types of CRM companies which are Enterprise CRM, Mid Market CRM and On Demand CRM and major players in CRM business are Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft and Salesforce.Com.

Siebel is the CRM application of Oracle Company and it is the only enterprise CRM in the market. It has certain advantages over others so it has the highest market share. Siebel is said to be easy to implement, administrate and maintain and user friendly.

Siebel also have different applications which are CRM Enterprise, CRM Professional Edition and CRM On Demand. Siebel has also different industry specific applications for consumer goods, finance, energy, media, clinic and etc.

Siebel also have different employee, partner, customer and mobile application types.
There are 5 types of Siebel Clients which can be listed as Siebel Web Client, Siebel Handheld Client, Siebel Wireless Web Client, Siebel Mobile Web Client, and Siebel Dedicated Web Client.

There could be lots of different reasons for a company in order to decide on implementing ERP and the most important one is the increasing automation and control over firm and data integrity. Moreover, ERP system could be useful in terms of increasing efficiency, sharing information among departments and competitiveness. Another important purpose is generally the accounting needs of the company. With the help of ERP systems, accounting systems will become more integrated to other operations therefore, number of errors in the system will probably decrease.

However, on the other hand ERP systems are very expensive systems so firms should do cost vs. benefit analysis in detail before deciding on implementation. Companies should also consider their know-how, availability of their staff and time besides money. In case of some traditional companies, organization readiness could also create a problem for the implementation because if people resist on using the system the huge investment could mean nothing than a cost. Moreover, in some business processes ERP systems could affect the efficiency negatively because ERP systems demand so much information.

Therefore, as mentioned above before deciding on ERP implementation, companies should do detailed analysis such as SWOT analysis and GAP analysis. They have to think about the need for such a system for their long term organizational goals. So, firms should always begin with their business objectives to the analysis.

SWOT analysis is a brief presentation of a company’s internal strengths, weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. This analysis will certainly be useful in order to observe the current situation of a company.

In the case of GAP analysis, we begin with the current situation and then analyzed the future desired situation. After that we will decide on what we have to do in order to reach our target position.

Elevator speech is like an executive summary which will shortly and briefly present the improvement opportunities with the benefits. After that it should also mention the implementation plan and certainly the metrics such as KPIs.

Day 2 Lessons Learned

After a general evaluation of first day,
We watched a webinar about CRM Siebel, Siebel is a CRM software from Oracle. The speech owner Kumar's english was not good enough to understnad and the software described was too slow for an evaluation purposes. Generally speaking a CRM is a software for customer satisfaction.

We learned about evaluation of ERP decision for a company,
First we evaluated first why a company can need to implement an ERP. The main causes can be

• Share infot hrough company
  
• Process Innovation + Automation
• Data Integrity
• Fewer people to maintain the same function
• Entering data once use everywhere
• beware of human level integration
  
• Efficiency
• One system –easier to maintain, old legacy systems needs different kinds of human source
• Effective communication of data and processes

And what some common needs can not be a cause

• Costs (always think of implementation, buying education and customization costs, these can be higher)
• Organization readiness (think of organizational processes if they are not ready or not utilized, first reengineer them to be competitive, ERPs are only tools, that is software can not manage companies, managers manage them.)
• Time consuming– not enough staff
• Knowledge or capability not accessable (need ERP consultance that is not cheap.)

Ongoing process about evaluating an ERP implementation covers generally

• SWOT analyses --> which need to be done before and after of implementation process, to compare and contrast the benefits
• GAP analyses --> to see what needed functionality is not avaialble
• Elevation speech --> That is a new concept that we have learned, that is a short, charming, effective speech that must have a great first impact which can only long for 2-3 minutes.

At the end we identify some steps that a management team must cover to identify an ERP implementation decision. These cover from cost to benefits.

Alexis Bouly- Day 2 Lessons Learned

Today we saw the decision process of an ERP, whether a company need to invest in an ERP system or not. This process can be achieved through several analysis such as SWOT and GAP analysis. The SWOT analysis can be completed by setting strategic goals and objectives of the organization for the next 5 years for example. The Gap analysis consists in comparing the current situation with the expected situation after an ERP implementation. In fact the GAP analysis helps to understand the benefits of an ERP implementation and if finally invest in an ERP is really a good choice. Moreover elevator speech is also a way of understanding the benefits of an ERP implementation, as each department of a company present in a short speech what advantages such a project can bring to its division.It was useful to have a look to the SWOT analysis process because it reminds me that S&W are applied to the company and O&T are linked with the market. Thanks for that! best regards
Alexis

Day 2 - Juan REYNOSO

Despite I already have done some SWOT analysis before, I think it was very useful to remind today in class that, as any change planned to be introduced in a company, the ERP implementation must fits in the business strategy. In addition, it could help to grow up the strengths or eradicates the weaknesses, but in any case, it is important to have a perfect knowledge of the current state of the business before implementation. Just like a feedback, I think that we spent a lot of time doing the SWOT Analysis example.

When we were working in our business case the obligated question was: “they need it or not?”. It is hard to say, because even with the collected information, we still don’t have some inside information like the culture of the people involved in the ERP project, or if the company works more function that process-oriented.

Furthermore, as we are analyzing a big multinational company other questions arise as, how easy/difficult or convenient is to involve people from different countries in the same project. Also, if having a huge and complex database could carry more costs that having two or three separate projects.

On the other hand, I’m glad with my first navigation in the SAP system. It seems very friendly and logic. I hope we make a more applied lab, making transactions.

Day 2

HOLA!

I want to share my knowledge learned today with one example of my experience.

I think is very important, as we discussed on the morning, to use ERP’s (and I may say that any new technology too) focusing always in the Company strategy.

In the power plant that I worked, there were many people very angry and disappointed because the ERP that they developed was going to be replaced for SAP. The problem was that the employees dedicated a lot of time and heart in the old system, they were also updating it constantly and the new one seemed to do exactly the same as the existing one. Also they were mad because the decision process seemed to be only authoritarian.

I wasn’t there to follow the problem and neither to know exactly what procedures they took before. But I can assume that they chose a bad explanation and therefore they had all these angry people.

So, when I saw the process today to make the decision to implement or not an ERP, I think it would be very useful also to explain at all the employees the real advantages to implement it or perhaps they may change their mind and don’t use it.

This also may be a very useful tool if in the future we are the ones in charge to make this decision. At the end we will have always a backup and explanation of our decision.

See ya

Lesson 2

Today we made a brief recap of what we saw yesterday and then moved further into ERP’s.

Companies that sell ERP systems sometimes may not tell the buyers if the software doesn’t include modules they need, so that in the long term buyers keep spending their money acquiring different modules they may need and, that they probably thought the included since the beginning.

We had a very interesting discussion on whether a company that runs other businesses should have one ERP or several ERP’s. In my opinion there’s no right or wrong answer. Companies that find themselves in this situation should evaluate which is the convenient way for them.

Afterwards we saw how to start building an ERP business case, why would a company initially need to implement an ERP and why not. Companies that take a step into acquiring an ERP might be companies that have long future plans and are thinking of solving problems within themselves by implementing the system, companies that are seeking to stay in the competition and obtain more control among many other reasons.

For building an ERP it is convenient to do an analysis, by starting defining the companies SWOT’s (its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). After this we can pass on defining the strategic goals of the company, to later pass on identifying the objectives (forecast revenue and expenses) and the Return of Investment. The analysis can then be completed with a GAP analysis, to then start working on the system and its future needs.

It was interesting to learn the basics on SAP navigation. It would be more interesting to do a real life simulation on it though, to see how it actually works and see all the benefits it provides that we’ve discussed in class.

Lecture 2 by Sangyoun Han

Lecture 2

In today’s lecture, new topics were learned. We explored reasoning behind why firms should or should not implement an ERP system. I also discovered that although many companies invest in ERP, it does not guarantee success, as many firms still fail in its business due to issues such as end users not using the system properly. An example of employees in the Sales Department was used as an example of how improper data implementation within an ERP can actually make the company worse off.

In order to determine whether a company should use an ERP system, several steps can be taken. First a SWOT analysis of the firm should be performed, in order to analyze all internal and external aspects of the company. Next, strategies should be formed, to help the organization determine where the company should go in the future. From this comes the firm’s objectives, which are more direct and give exact figures of what the company wishes to achieve. Finally, after all these steps are performed, a GAP analysis should be carried out in order to discover how well the firm is meeting its present performance in relation to its future goals. Thus, this thorough analysis will help determine whether an ERP system would be beneficial to the overall firm or not.

The final lesson learned today was the Elevator Speech, in which it teaches us how to make our points clear in a minimum amount of time and words.

All of these steps learned in today’s lecture reflect last nights reading of the article, “Decision making in the evaluation, selection and implementation of ERP systems”. The article emphasized and displayed several approaches in choosing the right ERP system for an entity. Several steps are needed such as using the Six decision-making model to choose which model best firsts a certain description. These models were then used in a case example to demonstrate how firms determine which ERP systems work best.

In the last part of the day, we went to the computer lab to experience how real ERP systems worked. We were introduced to the SAP system and were taught how basic transactions within the system were executed.

Lessons Day2

Hi all!

After recapitulating yesterday's introduction about ERP Systems the focus today was going deeper into the question wheather or not a company should introduce such a software. Even if the descision was in favour of a ERP-system: How should a holding company act, how a company that is in different markets or has at least plans tHi ao diversify?

The methods we applied were well-known, general strategic descision making tools, like the SWOT-Analysis and the GAP-Analysis.

The SWOT Analysis consists of finding out where the concerned company actually is (finding out Strength and Weaknesses) and in which way external factors can influence this situation (Opportunities and Threats).

Following to that analysis the mid- to longterm goals for the company were to be defined. Some approaches argue, that this definition has to be made beforegoing over to the SWAT analysis, nevertheless, I think both ways are appropriate, even though they might have different outcomes. Defining goals before performing SWAT analysis provides maybe a better point of view on opportunities and threats, because the mental focus is on the targets to be achieved. The focus on mid- and longterm goals is especially important because the implementation of ERP may not help contemporary operative problems, because the selection and implementation of the new system may take at least six month but also up to two years [Shakir, 2000].

Once SWOTs and Goals are defined, it is possible to determine the difference between both, also called "gap" in the managerial terms. This point is where the choise of the ERP systems comes in: it should contribute closing those gaps. Out of the broad landscape of different systems (and for each systems the landscape of modules or coustumization options), the descision makers have to find out, which one fits best for the company's mid- and long-term needs.

The second part of the lesson was applying this theoretical knowledge on a firm, which is a group assignment that is still in progress... so I can tell more about that later.

In the third and final part one of my expectations came true: We were granted access to an actual SAP system and learned how to use the navigation via menu or command-line-similar codes. I consider this a very important experience and opted for a second computer lab session. I know for sure that I will have to deal with SAP (or a competitors product) in the future, so that already have - if even rudimentary - experience is a really worthful asset. It enables me not to have a scary look in my face if I am asked one day if I already have dealt with an ERP system and will definitely speed up the period of vocational adjustment at the point in time I will have to use such a system.

I become more and more interested in that field. Doing some surfing on the web I found that Microsoft recently tries to enter this market. It's Dynamics series, it integrated four product from companys it all aquiered subsequently to provide competitve ERP systems. Whereas MS is definetly one of the most dominant software providers in the world, we didn't even mention their products in the "smaller players".

So, now there are still some texts to read! See you tomorrow!

Lessons Learned posting 2 + Maha Shakir

Laurent Feltz Tuesday 6th March 2007

ERP IMP

Lessons learned posting n°2

So I will start this posting with the matter I learned about the need for ERP.

The most important thing about the companies need is the definition of strategic need. All the needs for ERP in a company must be strategic:

• Develop the reactivity in the business processes like fulfilling customer demand
• Facilitate the share of information and thus the reporting, the control of margin and sales and the development of new products
• Speed up the processes (like order and invoice data capture/input)
• Improve the processes efficiency

The need for ERP should not come from the trend of the global competition to acquire ERP, because there are also reasons for not implementing an ERP system.

The business can work efficiently without such an investment. All the more so since ERP investment can cost a lot of money (in the basic application, in specific modules and other bolt-on, in customization, in support and in employees’ training) and would require from a lot of employees a lot of time which could not be use to do other strategic activities. Moreover the problem must me taken from the end-users’ point of view: if there are some reasons for them not to use it, the implementation or the design of ERP should be revised. What is more the use and especially the support of such a system require resources (employees in IT department for example) and knowledge that are likely to be missing before the implementation.

I wrote previously that the need for ERP should come from strategic needs, that is why it is so important to do analyses before looking for that material. The classic analyses are the SWOT and GAP analyses, because they allow pointing out the strategic goals of the company and then its objectives. At that time it is possible to link the advantage of an ERP system with the objectives of the company. These links are usually made in what we call the elevator speech (which is supposed to be short enough to be entirely said to an executive in an elevator).

This speech contains real benefits, improvement opportunities, the benefit category achieved, the development of future state process through integration and also the increase in sales (or margin or return) expected.

Another point of the class was the choice between 1 and several ERP for Corporation.

I think this question is linked with the question of the connection between subsidiaries. Actually it depends of the type of corporate administration. In simple terms, if the holding company tends to separate clearly the different subsidiary companies, the choice will clearly be several ERP!

I will finish this post with a brief analyse of the paper “Decision Making in the ESI of ERPs” by Maha Shakir.

The different phases of an ERP project are the evaluation, selection and implementation; and understanding who make the decision in each of these phases could help manager in the preparation to such a project.

In fact the decisions are not always financial ones. Strategy, processes and the stakeholders involved actually influence a lot these decisions. Without considering the theoretical decision-making models, it is important to understand that during a great part of the project phases the decisions are basically political (i.e. decisions are based on personal objectives rather than organizational purpose). The decision-maker often being the consultant, he has a big decision power in the ESI of an ERP, so I can even conclude that the choice of the consultant is primordial.

I also thought this paper was interesting because it has taken into account the main ERP project phases that I remember to have learnt one day in a Pr. Carugati’s lecture.

Day 2 - Analysis and practice

We are in day 2 now with some new lesson and more practice. I love that. This is the best way to learn. Problem is the fact that wi-fi configuration did not allow us to use the e-software. Anyway, we will have some other session to get it fast.

Just a question: what are the advantages of one system instead of many?
We can talk about maintenance, data integrity, security, (on transaction and flows of information) more control...

But, we do not want to implement an ERP if there is no use to have one. As any project, it is necessary to analyse the pros and cons of such an investment. We can use classical tool like SWOT^* and complete the analysis with GAP. After it, we can convince the executive with an Elevator speech. You know them, these are the short speech which stick to the point and which can convinced you in few words.

The interface of the SAP ERP appears as very complete. Is it intuitive? I do not think so but I find it more relevant to see it as a database management system rather than a GUI. (Graphical User Interface)

Arrivederci tutti

* Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

Document

Hi all,

I finally managed to find the document we talked about at the end of today's class. I'll bring it tomorrow, so that you all can take a look at it.

Best regards,

Thierry

about Tuesday 6

Merhaba öğrenci ve öğretmen


On this class I saw the initial state of implementing an ERP. The need. One aspect that was interesting to me is that sometimes the needs of a company can be fulfilled by implementing other IT tools, cheaper ones or less conflictive. (access, a data warehouse, etc...)
I found the ERP systems to be more like a tool that links departments. This is useful to monitor the performance of all departments in order to measure the global achievements of the company. This is very important when an enterprise is focused in an specific objective.

Why should a company not implement ERP system?

¤Costs>Benefits

I think this is easy to say, however, in the first reading we saw that the managerial decisions are taken ina political way,more than in a classical or "cientific" way.

¤Organization's state of development

When a company is medium size or small, sometimes they can work with ther own tools and ways.

¤The company is performing well

Also, a change in a company is sometimes useless if the performance is optimal for achieving the objectives.


Without anything more to add, Hoscakal.... GÖRÜSÜRÜZ !!!!

Day 2--Derya

Hi! Everybody,
Because of the technical difficulties, I couldn't write yesterday. But today, I hope it will work and I will able to comment for both days.
I learned much more things today than yesterday. It was good to start with a quick rewiew of what we have done. I think I got some of the points that I missed yesterday.
I realized today that I have made the a mistake because I thought that ERP is such a system which itself gives competitive advantage to the company, helps it to be one step further than others. But after the two tennis players' example, I understood that it is such a software package which facilititates operations of some organizations and there are some cases that it is not useful to use this system.
Moreover, I have learned what the elevator speech term and seen an example of it. GAP analysis was a new concept for me as well. I haven't heard about it before.
Even I had some minor technical difficulties:) with my computer, it was good to see some applied format of SAP. I took some classes of Access database and I feel more familiar to the system and it made more sense to me.
I guess these are all I learned from today's class.
See you all tomorrow,

Duygu Becermen Day 2

Hi everyone,

Today we focused on implementation of ERP systems. We looked at SWOT and GAP analysis and learned the term "elevator speech".

We made the SWOT analysis for the SAP Company. According to this analysis, we defined our strategic goals; according to our goals, we defined our objectives for the next five years.

Afterwards, we started our case studies which helped us understand deeply how to make a SWOT analysis for a company.

In the lab, we have been introduced to SAP. We learned how to log on to the system, how to create a transaction. We got a brief idea about the language of SAP.

That's all I can remember for today.

See you all tomorow.

Day 2

Hello,
Today it was the second day of the Global ERP implementation course. We had a chance to make an analysis on why companies need such an integrated system. During the discussion, we came up with a lot of reasons such as need to get more control, sharing information, process innovation , effective communication, etc...Once a company decide to implement such a system for its business, it is very important to make a SWOT and GAP analysis and elevator speech in advance to evaluate the standing of the organization. By the help of these analysis, companies become able to set strategic goals and objectives. After setting the objectives and forecasting revenues and expenses, companies can safely decide what system will adress its objectives. Additionaly, by making GAP analysis companies can compare its current system with the one they are expecting to implement in the future.
On the second half of the course, we went to lab to work on our team assingnment to build an ERP Business case analysis for the company we chose while writing our report. I think these team activities are very efficient in order to apply everything we have learned. During the discussions we make, I could get different point of views and approaches on the subject. Then, we had a chance to make an application on the SAP system. We have learned how it works and how it is beneficial. At the first day we learned that this system provides a single database for the whole businesses that the company conducts. With this SAP system application, we saw how there are linkages between the branches such as different types of industries in which the company is involved. We can access to the data directly by only entering the transation code of the concept and this provide an easiness for the process.

See you tomorrow.

about Tuesday 6

Merhaba öğrenci ve öğretmen


On this class I saw the initial state of implementing an ERP. The need. One aspect that was interesting to me is that sometimes the needs of a company can be fulfilled by implementing other IT tools, cheaper ones or less conflictive. (access, a data warehouse, etc...)
I found the ERP systems to be more like a tool that links departments. This is useful to monitor the performance of all departments in order to measure the global achievements of the company. This is very important when an enterprise is focused in an specific objective.

Why should a company not implement ERP system?

¤Costs>Benefits

I think this is easy to say, however, in the first reading we saw that the managerial decisions are taken ina political way,more than in a classical or "cientific" way.

¤Organization's state of development

When a company is medium size or small, sometimes they can work with ther own tools and ways.

¤The company is performing well

Also, a change in a company is sometimes useless if the performance is optimal for achieving the objectives.


Without anything more to add, Hoscakal.... GÖRÜSÜRÜZ !!!!