ERP Analysis and Implementation Report for Sungate Foods

<University> This is a sample report that I’ve written for one of my buyers.’ You can only use it for personal, but not commercial use. You can avail my report writing services from the link below: -https://www.fiverr.com/vinayghosh ERP Analysis and Implementation Report for Sungate Foods by <Your Name> <Date> <Lecturer’s Name and Course Number> <You may include here a copy of the question if you think it is necessary. Or simply delete this comment>  <Your Name> 2002 1 of 15 Executive Summary Many MNC’s nowadays are going through a dilemma of managing many aspects of business like production, finance, payroll, etc. and it often becomes daunting to manage all these operations and this is where the ERP implementation is required. ERP application can provide a core to all the business operations of the company and the employees can easily access and update the information in the system through ERP application software. This report has been commissioned to provide best suggestions to choose ERP application software for Sungate, which is a rice milling and Production Company.  <Your Name> 2002 2 of 15 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Purpose ................................................................................................................. 5 1.2 Scope .................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Methods Used ...................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Company Background ......................................................................................... 5 2.0 An Overview of ERP ............................................................................................... 6 3.0 Objectives of this Report ......................................................................................... 6 4.0 Research on the Various Aspects of SIS and ERP for Sungate Foods .................... 7 4.1 Overview of SIS and ERP Implementation Considerations ................................ 7 4.2 Example of Some Common Mistakes Done In ERP Implementation ................. 8 4.3 Business Requirements for Sungate Foods .......................................................... 8 4.4 System Requirements........................................................................................... 9 4.5 Sizing ................................................................................................................. 10 5.0 Selecting a Vendor Software for Sungate .............................................................. 10 5.1 Requirements Considerations of Sungate .......................................................... 10 5.1.1 Which ERP application system should be easiest and cheapest to implement and maintain? ..................................................................................... 10 5.1.2 How resilient software is or how easily software can adapt to the changing market conditions? ............................................................................................... 11 5.1.3 Choosing whether an intuitive user interface or a strong functionality is mandatory for the business .................................................................................. 11 5.1.4 Ease of transition from past to the future .................................................... 11 5.2 Process of Selecting ERP for Sungate ............................................................... 11 5.3 Industry Specific Vendor Suggestion ................................................................ 13  <Your Name> 2002 3 of 15 6.0 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 14 7.0 Works Cited ........................................................................................................... 15  <Your Name> 2002 4 of 15 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Purpose The main purpose of this report is to provide an ERP implementation report to the Australian rice and wild rice producer company; Sungate Foods. 1.2 Scope This report provides a brief implementation report to the Sunway Foods for ERP. Some considerations and suggestions are also provided for choosing the hardware, networking, and other components for the same. 1.3 Methods Used The method used in this report is the direct approach of analysis of company requirements, analysis of business requirements, analysis of system requirements, and then the implementation and assessment of the ERP model. 1.4 Company Background Sungate Foods is the Victoria based rice and wild rice producer company, which is recently milling up to 80 tons of rice husk per hour during the seasonal peak period. Recently, in the year 2013, Sungate has had a employee base of 100 staff that were involved in processing 3 processing warehouse, which were located in different regions of the Western Victorian region and a marketing office in the Melbourne region. Sungate buys from 350 farms, and then packages, distributes, and sells the rice domestically as well as internationally. But its patchwork of information system softwares requires multiple manual entries of each order and financial transactions. This report has been commissioned to solve these issues of manual input of data and financial transactions. Sungate wants to know the best approach of ERP implementation that could be used to improve the company’s operations. The company is determined to adopt a technology that should reduce the burden of finance, management, and production; under the budget of around $150,000.  <Your Name> 2002 5 of 15 2.0 An Overview of ERP Globalization and advent of internet has changed the whole scenarios of today’s business operations. Nowadays, there are many MNC’s that have to deal with multiple languages, currencies, cultures, and accounting systems. Sometimes it really becomes difficult to manage all the related business operations by a single software or accounting system, due to change in currencies and languages. This is the reason why ERP has come into existence after globalization and internet invention. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, or in simple words; ERP is a combination of hardwares, softwares, networks, and other resources of various business operations. ERP is responsible to provide a one core access and updating point for all the relevant operations of any business. ERP refers to the various softwares, tools, and technologies that can be used to process and manage all aspects of the business from all parts and operations of the company. ERP solution softwares are capable of saving relevant information in a single database, so that it can be accessed whenever needed. In the coming sections of this paper, some benefits and drawbacks of ERP implementation and other related issues have been discussed in brief (Brooks, 2013). 3.0 Objectives of this Report The main motivation behind making this report is to conduct a thorough research on the aspects of ERP and information systems for a client. Some basic requirements of this report include a defined business process, system requirement considerations, selection of softwares, and finally selecting the best vendor for the final implementation.  <Your Name> 2002 6 of 15 Figure 1. SIS Lifecycle 4.0 Research on the Various Aspects of SIS and ERP for Sungate Foods 4.1 Overview of SIS and ERP Implementation Considerations The information system and the firm usually influence the operations of one another since information technology is the aspect, which is normally created by the company managers, so as to serve the interest of the various business operations of the company. The main company in such cases is often the client company that must be responsible for managing all the resources and business operations. Before making the final selection of the ERP for a company, many considerations are being made in advance. Some of the key changes that should be made after the final implementation are as follows: -1. Making a proper integration between the various business, marketing, and management operations. 2. Providing better visibility and sharper focus to the business, financial, marketing, and management operations of the company. 3. Implementing generation of invoices in the branches. 4. Printing the delivery order at the Godowns and Warehouses. 5. OCM (Organizational Change Management) implementation to feed the data directly through SAP.  <Your Name> 2002 7 of 15 6. Providing a core to the control, inserting, fetching, and updating of the data (Mishra, 2010). 4.2 Example of Some Common Mistakes Done In ERP Implementation It is beneficial to understand and analyse some of the common mistakes that may occur during and after the implementation of ERP. Following are examples of some earlier mistakes done in the implementation of ERP: -1. In case the management fails to consider all the users when determining the system requirements. 2. Taking a shortcut for the ERP system selection and implementation process in an attempt to save investments or time. 3. In case the ERP system fails to consider all the requirements of the partners, suppliers, and exporters of the company. 4. If the ERP implementation is relying too much on the promotional materials and vendor demos. 5. Neglecting the amount of time that should be required for the user training. 6. Neglecting the importance of team management. 7. Making too much delay in the selection process by focusing too much on low level requirements. 4.3 Business Requirements for Sungate Foods ERP is often a complex process and that’s why it needs a proper future forecasting and assessment before doing any final implementation. ERP applications are information centric and comprehensible. ERP should also meet all the requirements of the company for maintenance, administration, and security to make it a more pronounced and flexible system. Sungate Foods is basically a production and Distribution Company that buys from the 350 different farms of Australia, and then packages, distributes, and sells internationally and domestically. Following are some of the main business operations for the company: -1. Inventory: -- Inventory is so far one of the crucial business operations for any production and manufacturing company. Sungate Foods also would have an  <Your Name> 2002 8 of 15 inventory control system to manage the amount of distribution of rice husks and other raw materials for the company. Considering inventory control thus becomes mandatory for the ERP implementation. 2. Sales: -- Sales management is also the crucial business operation for any company. Sungate has basically dealt in exporting, importing, buying, and selling of raw materials for the company and that’s why this operation must be considered in the ERP implementation. 3. Purchasing: -- Purchasing is the next crucial business operation for the company that refers to buying of raw materials for the production of goods. Purchasing for the company should be synchronised with the inventory control, so that the raw material would neither run out of stock or overstocked by the inventory control system. 4. Financial management: -- Every company deals with managing the finance and this is another major contributing factor for the company. Most companies fail to cope with the market due to mismanagement of their finances. Sungate is also dealing with finances and that’s why ERP implementation must consider this business operation. 5. Payroll: -- Finally, payroll is another crucial part of business operations of any company. Payroll refers to the management of the salaries and wages that are being paid to the employees of the organization. An SME like Sungate has to deal with many issues of payroll like income tax deduction, EPF, bonuses etc. and that’s why the ERP implementation should consider it (Rosebt, 2010). 4.4 System Requirements There are many considerations of system requirements that need to be done for the system requirements. The system requirements for a production company like Sungate would be different from industries. Sungate requires a modular design within the various systems of the company that should comprise of some distinct modules like accounting, finance, distribution, and finance. SAP is basically a client server software application; running on the company server as the client will be running as it is connected to the main server.  <Your Name> 2002 9 of 15 4.5 Sizing Sizing is also an important aspect for the proper implementation of ERP application. Sizing refers to the set of ERP system hardware resources, required for the proper support and implementation of the software. There must be a high capacity system requirement specification to support large amount of data storage for future applications. The network hardware should be bought from the branded company like Cisco, to remain free from any malfunctioning and failure of network hardware. The whole hardware and network system should be large enough to accommodate all the human resource management data, inventory data, production data, financial and other types of data within the ERP application software. 5.0 Selecting a Vendor Software for Sungate 5.1 Requirements Considerations of Sungate As it has been clearly mentioned in the briefings file of the report; Sungate is keen to adopt a technology that should be capable of improving the operations, especially the areas of business reporting and accounting for the company. The company is keen to adopt a technology under an initial budget of $150,000 that should be capable of eliminating these issues. Following are some of the sample examples that the management of Sungate should consider before choosing ERP application software: -5.1.1 Which ERP application system should be easiest and cheapest to implement and maintain? It has been analysed in many cases where the implementation and support cost itself is quite high to that of the actual software installation. The cost of the ERP application software should be decided depending upon the budget of the company and the profit which it’ll do in the coming 5-10 years. Although it’s not necessary that cheapest software is always better software.  <Your Name> 2002 10 of 15 5.1.2 How resilient software is or how easily software can adapt to the changing market conditions? The growth of the company’s business depends totally on the choice of ERP application. Many ERP application softwares are not resilient, which means that they are not be able to adapt to the changing market conditions. The company management must consider this point while selecting ERP application vendor software. 5.1.3 Choosing whether an intuitive user interface or a strong functionality is mandatory for the business An ERP system is the best choice that can provide both the strong functionality and intuitive user interface. However, it also depends on the type of business for which function is more important. 5.1.4 Ease of transition from past to the future Legacy data for many production companies like Sungate that can provide you with the information of easily importing and using the legacy data. The ERP system selected should also allow the user to add new functionality when he or she needs it. 5.2 Process of Selecting ERP for Sungate The system selection of the ERP system for Sungate requires a structure based approach to use cogent application for the ERP system. Some considerations of the system requirement and selection to primarily presenting the proposed choice to the stakeholders for acknowledgement. The various process involved in the system should be flexible enough so that every person involved in the business operations of the company can easily understand the use and performance of the system. The essence behind the structure based approach is to confirm that all the stakeholders in the business are acquainted with the process of selection. This step can ensure that the process is vital the business progression and profit maximization. Meanwhile, Sungate needs to make the necessary decisions to choose the type of ERP carefully. The management of the Sungate should be informed about the various economic outcomes that should due to the decision making process. So, the company  <Your Name> 2002 11 of 15 must take cogent decisions that are based on the objectiveness of the ERP system. This process should be chosen from a multi-criterion view perspective. One of the major reference points at this stage is the idea of collecting agreement from the stakeholders, much before the final system installation and application. Further, it also becomes mandatory to involve each employee and the concerned department for the best vendor selection of the company. The most crucial role played by the company in this case will be by the management that can act as forerunners to ascertain the activities of the selection. Another crucial step in this process is the orientation of all the employees of the company and the management team. In order to achieve this, the company needs a proper mechanism in place to ensure the proper compliance among the working staff. The company can also involve the workers in this process; to accelerate the process of choosing system for the company. There are some issues that the company must resolve before the implementation of the selected system. The main problem in a Production Company like Sungate is due to some issues in the application software. During the initial planning stage, the company management needs to do a proper documentation and the information should be kept in the main server for future references. There are chances of arising some problems due to the managers and contractors not agreeing on some aspects of the ERP application; the proper application of IT should be beneficial in this condition because the managers will find them in the company files. It is the responsibility of Sungate managers and company executives to come up with the cogent strategies for the proper development and management of the process, thereby accelerating the production and delivery of the manufactures goods. The managers of the Sungate should monitor the compliances and progress that are involved in the process. This step can help the managers to develop necessary guidelines and metrics. Sungate managers will have to assemble all the available raw materials, produced goods, and funds that are required for the expansion purpose (Hall, 2010). It is the responsibility of Sungate managers to select experienced suppliers to bring the services and goods required for the expansion and implementation of ERP system.  <Your Name> 2002 12 of 15 So, this way the it also becomes mandatory for the managers to provide processes of pricing, delivery, and also payment that should be enough to form and provide metrics for monitoring and improving the management of Sungate. ERP managers should be responsible to manage the process of goods and inventory services, so that the tasks of receiving and conforming production and transportation can be done easily. 5.3 Industry Specific Vendor Suggestion It is evident from the information of the company that the company’s budget, i.e. $150,000 is not appropriate for the traditional ERP application software implementation like SAP etc. The average cost for SAP ERP implementation is around $150,000 - $750,000. This is the rough amount for the mid-sized company and it can further rise, depending upon the requirements of the company. So, in case of Sungate, the best choice will be a cloud based SaaS like NetSuite. SaaS cloud ERP application software like NetSuite can minimize the cost of installation, system and hardware specifications, and updating of the installed system, since it is cloud based platform (Yigitbasioglu, 2013). Following are some of the benefits of NetSuite over SAP: -1. Since most NetSuite outsourcing is done on the cloud, any installation and upgrading can be done at an instance, without worrying about the hardware and network specifications of the company’s offices. This is somewhat beneficial and cost effective for the companies who prefer NetSuite. 2. NetSuite is benefiting from the fact that the data and information about the user are secured in the cloud, which can be accessed anytime; without worrying about any theft of failure. If the system of the company premises fails, then the company still has an option to continue necessary operations by using the cloud interface of NetSuite, but this feature is not available in the case of traditional outsourcing. 3. NetSuite is the most cost effective ways of ERP outsourcing from the fact that the user does not need to worry about any hardware and network specifications, testing, installation etc. The company does not need to provide any rigorous training to use NetSuite, since it is available in an easy to use  <Your Name> 2002 13 of 15 interface. So, the company can save a lot of time and money by using NetSuite (Ojala, 2012). Choosing NetSuite for Sungate is also benefiting from the fact that it can provide benefits in the warehouse management also, where managing the inventory of 2 or more locations had been daunting in the past in earlier traditional ERP softwares. NetSuite can provide a flexibility to view the current inventory for sale at any time, without waiting for the weekly report updating. The employees can also use the saved searches in NetSuite platform to find the latest products. Some of the additional features of NetSuite are that the managerial level employees can access the platform from their iPhones. The earlier managers who were using NetSuite were really fascinated with this feature since they can now easily view the customer, inventory, production, and other information and provide suggestions to lower level employees. Another feature that should be beneficial for the Sungate is the B2B e-commerce capabilities of NetSuite. NetSuite can provide the customers of the Sungate to directly buy products from the NetSuite’s web store, which can definitely increase the revenue generation for the company. 6.0 Conclusion There are many industries in the world that are implementing ERP applications in their business operations. Nowadays, many cloud ERP platforms like NetSuite are more beneficial for some SME’s and very small scale business industries from the fact that it does not need any kind of software and hardware specifications, which can minimize the overall budget for ERP implementation. However, traditional ERP softwares are mandatory for most MNC’s because they have a large base of various business operations that needs customized ERP solutions.  <Your Name> 2002 14 of 15 7.0 Works Cited Brooks, C., 2013. What is ERP? [Online] Available at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5010-erp-enterprise-resource-planning.html [Accessed 5 September 2016]. Hall, A., 2010. Accounting Information Systems. Prentice Hall. Mishra, A.&.M.D., 2010. ERP System Implementation in FMCG Sector. Uvođenje ERP sustava u sektoru brzog kretanja potrošačkih roba, pp.115-20. Ojala, A., 2012. Comparison of different revenue models in SaaS. In E. Prakash (Ed.). Multimedia & Allied Technology Conference, pp.120-23. Rosebt, 2010. ERP for Small Businesses: A Buyer's Guide. [Online] Rosebt Available at: http://www.rosebt.com/uploads/8/1/8/1/8181762/erp-for-small-businesses-a-buyers-guide.pdf [Accessed 4 September 2016]. Yigitbasioglu, O.M.e.a., 2013. Cloud Computing: How does it differ from IT. The International Journal of Digital Accounting Research, 13, pp.99-121.  <Your Name> 2002 15 of 15