COPPERSTONE UNIVERSITY

STUDENT’S NAME: ISAAC SICHALWE

STUDENT’S ID: CU-BCS-102-7075

SCHOOL: MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

COURSE: MANAGEMNT INFORMATION SYSTEM

PROGRAMME: BACHELOR IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

ASSIGNMENT: FOUR

LECTURER: BWALYA MWANAMWENGE

DUE DATE: 21/10/2022

QUESTION: Describe at least two benefits of using enterprise

system
 TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………1
Types of Enterprise System…………………………………………………………………2
Benefits of Enterprise System……………………………………………………………….5
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...8
References…………………………………………………………………………………...9
 INTRODUCTION

An enterprise system, also known as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, is a cross-
functional information system that provides organization-wide coordination and integration of
the key business processes and helps in planning the resources of an organization. An
enterprise resource planning (ERP) system corporate with organizations to enhance business
management and operations within a centralized database. Agencies incorporate ERP software to
assimilate business processes, accumulate operational data, improve supply-chain effectiveness,
stimulate data-driven strategies, and improve collaboration between compartments. The business
processes in each business function were disparate and not capable of sharing information with
each other. It was difficult for the managers to assemble the data fragmented into separate
systems in order to present an overall picture of the organization’s operations and take firm-wide
decisions. At the time a customer places an order, for example, the salesperson might not be able
to tell him whether the desired items are in inventory or are to be produced.

To overcome such difficulties, in recent years, many organizations have opted to replace several
distinct information systems with a single integrated system that can support business activities
for different business functions. Such systems are called enterprise systems. With the help of
enterprise resource planning systems, information can flow seamlessly across the firm. Also,
different business processes from sales, production, manufacturing, logistics, and human
resources can be integrated into organization-wide business processes.

An ERP system is driven by the ERP software suite-a set of integrated software modules–and a
common centralized database. The software modules support the basic business processes under
different functional areas and the database stores data from and feed the data to various
applications supporting the internal business activities.

Some examples of business processes supported by ERP software include accounts payable,
general ledger, cash management, and forecasting, personnel administration, payroll, time
management, inventory management, product pricing, billing, etc. Initially, ERP software was
designed for automating a firm’s internal ‘back-office business processes, but now, it can also
communicate with customers, suppliers, and other business partners.

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 TYPES OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEM

1.0. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the largest software market in the world that’s
capable of handling complex data in one internal databases. It focuses on marketing and
strengthening customer communication.

CRM today is a discipline as well as a set of discrete software and technologies, which focuses
on automating and improving the business processes associated with managing customer
relationships in the areas of sales, marketing, customer service and support.

CRM helps companies to understand, establish and nurture long-term relationships with clients,
as well as help in retaining current customers. The most important step that an organization has
to take in the direction of CRM is to create an inter-disciplinary team to review how the
organization interacts with each customer and determine how to improve and extent the
relationship.

Some of the most basic CRM functionalities include:

 Analytics

 Artificial intelligence

 Contact center automation

 Human resource management

 Integration with other software

 Lead management

 Marketing communication

 Salesforce automation

 Workflow automation

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Customer relationship management systems are customized to meet the specific needs of a
business. Nowadays, CRM has become the best technological asset for collecting customer data
and forecasting sales or market opportunities.

2.0. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems integrate enterprise applications

(called modules) such as purchasing, finance, human resources, and inventory management into
one cross-functional system. Through ERPs, different departments can communicate and share
information real-time, which eliminates inconsistencies and duplication of efforts during
operations.

 The ERP finance module automates basic accounting, invoicing, financial analysis,
forecasting and reporting. It is often the main reason a company moves to ERP from
standalone accounting software. The growing complexity of the business makes apparent
the need to have a single system to manage all of the financial transactions and
accounting for multiple business units or product lines.

 Human resources (HR), also known as human capital management (HCM) is another
core process that companies try to improve with ERP. Basic HCM handles employee
records, benefits management and payroll but often adds talent management functions,
such as recruiting and performance management.

Some of the most basic CRM functionalities include:

 Accounting

 CRM

 Finance

 Human resources

 Inventory and order management

 Marketing

 Planning

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  Purchasing inventory

 Sales

3.0. Supply Chain Management (SCM)

To provide businesses with a strategic advantage, Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems
facilitate integrated partnerships and manages the flow of goods and services, including all
processes that transform raw materials into final products.

A properly optimized CRM system can automatically process orders with suppliers and track
each department's efficiency when it's being manufactured. SCM encompasses the integrated
planning and execution of processes required to manage the movement of materials, information
and financial capital in activities that broadly include demand planning, sourcing,
production, inventory management and storage, transportation or logistics and returning excess
or defective products. Supply chain management relies on both business strategy, specialized
software and collaboration to work.

Because it's such an expansive, complex undertaking, each partner -- from suppliers to
manufacturers and beyond -- must communicate and work together to create
efficiencies, manage risk and adapt quickly to change.

Some of the most basic SCM functionalities include:

 Procurement

 Product lifecycle management

 Inventory planning

 Enterprise assets and production lines maintenance

 Logistics (fleet management and transportation)

Overall, enterprise software development can significantly increase employee performance,

improve the transparency of the business, and manage each department's operational efficiency.
It’s a matter of knowing which system fits your business needs the best. (Magpili, 2021)

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 BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEM

1.0. Improves Reporting and Planning

Along with improved visibility, better insight is one of the significant advantages of ERP system
management. Implementing an ERP suite across departments means your organization has a
single, unified reporting system for every process. By having a single source of truth, an ERP
system can readily generate valuable reports and analytics at any time. This software allows you
to analyze and compare functions across departments without the hassle of multiple spreadsheets
and emails.

One of the most popular reports involves finances (go figure). Standard financial reports such as
income and cash flow statements generally are built-in and generate custom reports without IT
intervention. Many ERP vendors also offer business intelligence services with their software.
The BI functionality allows businesses to gain a deeper analytical insight into their operations.
These insights aid corporate planning by identifying operational strengths and problem areas that
need improvement.

Providing this detailed view into a company’s data permits users to make better-informed
choices based on trends and metrics, making reporting and planning vital ERP system benefits.
This then improves efficiency, reducing time and effort in daily activities is one of several ERP
advantages. Properly implemented, an ERP solution can significantly reduce or eliminate
repetitive manual processes, thus freeing up team members to focus on revenue-affecting tasks.

The ease of access to the business data helps its analysis for the future development path. The
management team and business analysts of the organization can more successfully develop new
strategies and adjustments to the current ones using the aggregated data. Likewise, the system
can aid in the adoption and enforcement of industry best-practice processes, aligning all actions
across the enterprise.

Cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotic process
automation (RPA) and others support the automation and intelligent suggestion capabilities you
see in many ERP software applications. The advanced functionality can manage business

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activities such as demand forecasting, purchase order creation and product tracking from
manufacturing to delivery.

The convenient access to the bulk of business information greatly facilitates its analysis in order
to plan a further development course. The company’s management staff and business analysts
can use the aggregated data more effectively to devise new strategies or suggest improvements to
the existing one.

1.1. Improved customer service.

Another practical benefit of modern ERP software is the optimization of customer relationship
management. A centralized data storage accumulates all necessary information on sales and
clientele, which makes it easier for sale managers and customer support staff to communicate
with clients and reduces the delay before reacting to customers’ requests.

Faster access to customer histories with enhanced accuracy also adds to other benefits listed
here. For example, accurately collected and analyzed data on customer behavior patterns may
lead to strategy optimizations, or more precise predictions of demand that must be satisfied
accordingly and in proper time. (Hayes, 2022).

2.0. Improves efficiency in the organization.

Enterprise systems bring together all the processes and workflow of the organization making it
easy to communicate the activities and programs to be undertaken. This improves the efficiency
of the employees, as they are aware of their expectations and duties. The system allows storage
of all the data allowing the organization to file only the necessary data. This makes the
organization to improve its data entry strategies (Davenport, 2000).

The system matches the organization and its objectives with its customer requirements leading to
an overall improvement in its activities. This stimulates the productivity and development of the
organization. The system demonstrates the connection between the organization performance
and the employees. They provide a response to the demands and concerns as they occur to

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improve visibility into the end counts and delivery errors resulting into faster and improved
organization performance (Tarn, 2007).

This system ensures coordinated interdepartmental flow of information. This enables the
management and their employees to develop skills necessary for handling their work
responsibilities. It therefore becomes easy to manage functions and policies of the work force in
a way that contributes the success of an organization (Davenport, 2000).

The organization is able to improve its customer satisfaction through enhancing customer
experience, relationship during product or service delivery. They ensure their services are
available whenever the customer needs it by allowing the customers and the employees to have
access to the required information of the organization (Tarn, 2007).

This system helps achieve a consolidated picture of the objectives, policies, and plans of the
organization linking all the activities from the top management to the employees. This leads to a
better planning and follow up of the organization strategies and performance reducing costs of
operation and inventory to maximize the organizations production and developments
(Davenport, 2000).

2.1. Better accuracy and availability of information.

This is the core perk that, one way or another, influences on all the rest of enterprise resource
planning advantages presented in this list. Advanced ERP systems enable effective and
centralized collection, processing, and storage of information on production, sales, supplies or
customers, for example. Thus, a single data system is used and maintained instead of a number
of separate databases that need regular checks and synchronization to remove obsolete or
duplicate records.

The increased quality of all kinds of internal data, combined with its easy availability to the staff
in any relevant department, is an invaluable feat that leads to further performance optimization
on all levels of the enterprise. Particularly, supply chain and inventory management is the
activity that benefits the most from ERP implementation.

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 CONCLUSION

Enterprise systems are very useful in the day-to-day activities of an organization as they ensure
appropriate communication and operations that enable profitability and survival in a competitive
environment. An enterprise system, also known as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system,
is a cross-functional information system that provides organization-wide coordination and
integration of the key business processes and helps in planning the resources of an organization.
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system corporate with organizations to enhance business
management and operations within a centralized database. Agencies incorporate ERP software to
assimilate business processes, accumulate operational data, improve supply-chain effectiveness,
stimulate data-driven strategies, and improve collaboration between compartments. The business
processes in each business function were disparate and not capable of sharing information with
each other. It was difficult for the managers to assemble the data fragmented into separate
systems in order to present an overall picture of the organization’s operations and take firm-wide
decisions. At the time a customer places an order, for example, the salesperson might not be able
to tell him whether the desired items are in inventory or are to be produced.

8
 REFERENCE

1. Davenport, T. (2000). Mission critical: realizing the promise of enterprise systems. New
York: Harvard Business Pres.
2. Hayes, K. (2022, September 15). Retrieved from selecthub.com:
http://www.selecthub.com/enterprise-resource-planning/erp-advantages-and
disadvantages/
3. Magpili, E. (2021, February 5). Retrieved from
http://www.intelegencia.com/blog/infrastructure/types-of-enterprise-system
4. Tarn, M. (2007). Enterprise systems education in the 21st century. New York: Idea
Group Incorporation.
5. Akkermans H., and Helden K., (2002) Vicious and virtuous cycles in ERP
implementation: a case study of interrelations between critical success factors. European
Journal of Information Amrani R. E., Rowe F., and Geffroy B., (2006) The effects of
enterprise
6. Resource planning implementation strategy on cross-functionality. Information
7. Systems Journal 16, 79-104 .Systems 11, 35—46.
8. Amrani R. E., Rowe F., and Geffroy B., (2006) the effects of enterprise resource planning
implementation strategy on cross-functionality. Information Systems Journal 16, 79-104.
9. Jenkins R., (2003) Enterprise Resource Planning as the Trojan horse for new rules of
operations management. Enterprise Resource Planning Journal 10, 201-209.