Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Enterprise Resource Planning and Implementation MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Enterprise Resource Planning and Implementation. Answer: Introduction An Enterprise Resource planning system is a software system that is used used to integrate all the tasks spanning an organizations department in order to achieve cost effectiveness and efficiency (Ifon, p53, 2013). The tasks to be managed are both internal and external resources, including tangible and intangible assets, materials, human resources, and financial resources. Its main purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. The characteristics of an ERP system are that it is built on a centralized database, it utilizes a common computing platform and that it consolidates all business operations into an enterprise wide system. In contrast, an accounting information system software is a subsidiary of an enterprise resource planning system which handles various accounting functions. These include payroll accounts, accounts payable, accounts receivable and trial balances. These functions may further be expanded to include ledgers, purchase orders, and financial statements. An ERP/IAS solution will help the business in identifying opportunities for cost savings and improving efficiency in their business processes by integrating data across the enterprise, for example, financial, inventory and production data. This helps top management to make accurate, strategic decisions. A flight center basically handles and manages passenger flights from one destination from another. By doing so, many other processes are involved to make the whole operation successful. Flight centers are usually big multinational companies which handle a lot of customers in their day to day operations, who number to the hundreds. Flight center operations are very complex since it also involves many departments, expanding routes, and alliance marketing structures, all of which are susceptible to many factors, for example, weather, economy and politics (Johnson,pg 5, 2013) As a result, all business processes and data need to be organized in a manner which will improve efficiency of the flight center. The diagram below depicts the complexity of the operations of an airlines flight center From the above diagram, it is evident that all operations fall a given business day. Depending on the various factors, both controllable and uncontrollable, a business process can take any of the paths to achieve a specific objective. All these operations, however, are all geared towards customer satisfaction. Airlines are also highly leveraged operations (Aviation Pros, 2017), therefore they must regularly buy new airliners from airline builders or buy parts, such as engines, in order to keep up with technology trends and maintain corporate image. The top management also has to make long-term decisions concerning their fleet with the main aim of meeting market demands. In light of this, they have to keep in mind cost benefits of operating their chosen fleet. The major business requirements of flight centers are: To provide an enterprise view of data , the structure of the organization, and functions applicable across departments to enable seamless movement of data, collaboration, between departments and the overall meeting of the organizations objectives and operational requirements. To optimize profit gains from a design perspective that covers areas such as revenue, operation costs, and operational performance To enable the flight center to have a change management system in order to respond to changes in a cost saving and timely manner in competitive environment. To enable the flight center to have a system for mitigating or eliminating delays and down times, which results in tremendous losses. System requirements for the ERP AIS solution Representation of every department and function involved in the operation of flights Real time information communication to enable balanced, timely decisions. System operation should have a separate reporting department System should be able to integrate all data in the system in a central database There should be seamless end to end movement of data between departments and functions Best practices are applied when choosing any software system to use. An ERP AIS is no exception. The selection process requires the sponsors, project manager and other stake holders to consider the following key aspects:- How the business is going to gain a competitive edge by performing better, specifically areas where improvements are needed. The overall of technology requirements across the entire enterprise The long term corporate objectives of the organization The need for software consultants or a Request For Proposal the ROI of the new system and whether it can be quantified the factors and criteria that will determine a successful implementation The meeting of all processes and requirements across all departments been Full support of the top management, and end users adequate budgeting of the system how long the entire project will take Basic budget elements for the new software system include business process planning and needs analysis, software, hardware, implementation and training, incidentals beyond project scope, IT infrastructure, maintenance and support. Pitfalls to avoid in the ERP AIS selection process Failure to acquire enough documentation, that is, business, system and user requirements. Failing to train the staff in the use of the new system. Poor planning of the budget and time needed to realize the new system. Not including consultants or experts where necessary. Internal staff dont always have the complete skill set. Over planning the project and not being flexible. Selecting a system that is impractical for the organization, that is, it may be too big or too small. Not having the full support of top executive management. Failing to have end users fully support the initiative Not having a criteria to measure success These pitfalls can be avoided by taking the following counter measures:- Havingthorough documentation, which covers all business and user requiremens Setting a practical and realistic goal Involving the necessary experts in the adoption process Allowing room for change incorporation and management Obtaining support from all parties in the organization, from top management to end users Establishing criteria for measuring success Training end users, where necessary, in the use of the system Steps in successfully implementing an ERP AIS solution It is essential that ERP systems prove productive by allowing the implementation of best business and IT systems practices. (Amid, Bagheri and Ghasrodhashti, pp 76-7, 2010). The company should first analyze and plan by reviewing business requirements and processes, identifying which aspects of the business need improving and refinement. It should then map business requirements into the project plan. The design and development stage, where the solution is designed and developed should be based on business requirements and processes and the project plan written in the first page. The third stage involves testing and training. Here the system is tested according to overall and specific objectives and users are trained on best practices in delivering system functionality. The fourth stage is the implementation stage. Once the system has been tested and accepted, legacy data is exported to the new system as the system is officially launched. The last but equally important phase is the maintenance stage. The company is given continuous support its technology partner(s), who should provide ongoing support through a service help desk, implementation of new updates and possibly, user group sessions. These work hand in hand with the organizations internal IT team. The company can utilize the system to improve organizational efficiency in the following ways: Enabling collaborative decisions among all affected departments. This ensures that overall objectives are being achieved by the organization. Supporting planning for disruptions to eliminate delays or downtimes, which results in immense losses in the airline industry. The system should support communication in an outage incident for quick discussion on how to solve the incident. Strategizing communication ahead of time will help the organization know what to share and how to share it, both internally and externally. The system should utilize best practices in monitoring outages and downtime. Critical applications and infrastructure should not go down for longer than acceptable periods, hence affecting brand and customer loyalty. Its important to develop an intelligent, streamlined way to monitor system events and respond when necessary, in a timely manner. Evaluation of the systems efficiency Amid, Bagheri and Ghasrodhashti (p2, 2010) argue that the effectiveness of an organization is the level to which that same organization, by utilizing certain resources, fulfills its strategic, operational and tactical objectives without exhausting its resources or overworking its staff. In their research study, they found that evaluating an ERPs system is quite difficult but have outlined a number of factors that can be useful in the evaluation procedure, namely:- Conflict resolution- If involved departments within an organization can be able to collaboratively make decisions, then the system is considered efficient. Flexibility and adaptation- This is when the system incorporates changes according to business and user needs in a timely and cost saving manner Seamless data communication- This is where data is passed from one point to another in its complete form, in a timely manner and maintaining integrity. Reduced downtimes-Unvailability of data or services should not exceed a set time limit. Support of best business practices- The system should support the standard set of business practices in all its business processes Potential security risks and data breaches Security risks in information systems revolve around three main factors, that is, confidentiality, integrity and availability (Peltier, pp 53-4, 2014). These are the three main goals of security in any information system. In a cloud enterprise system a threat can be attacked at the application level, virtual level and physical level (Zikiss and Lekkas, pp 583-92, 2014), hence compromising the three main goals. From there many kinds of specific threats could be perpetrated on the system by malicious people, both from within the organization and from the outside. The following paragraphs explain the various types of attacks. By far, these are the most common types of security threats in any organizations information system:- Modification of data- This happens through the modification of data and consequently compromising its original meaning. Interception of data This is the stealing of data which is on transit from a source to some destination. Although, data would have reached its destination, its confidentiality would have been compromised. Data deletion- This causes an availability breach of data, whereby it would not be available as per the current demands User account theft (impersonation)- This is the accessing of an account by an unauthorized person where he/she may get access to any kind of resource Network attacks- These threats are usually perpetrated by external malicious attackers on the organizations network, and include denial of service attacks. Insiders can also carry out network attacks. Hardware theft- This is the typical stealing of a commodity, either through breaking and entering or by other inconspicuous means. Hardware malfunction Hardware could malfunction because of a number of reasons, modification, natural disaster or mishandling. Software malfunction- Software can malfunction due to bugs and malicious software such as viruses. Not keeping the software up to date could also bring the same problem. The table below also gives a summary of common security risks to the various levels of an IS infrastructure. Level of risk Risks and data breaches Confidentiality Integrity Availability Privacy Data Unauthorized access to user accounts Altering of data Deleting of data Sharing of data with inappropriate people Network Hacking Interception Denial of service attacks Communications listening Physical resources Theft, breaking and entering software Access to unauthorized programs/code Viruses/malware Viruses/malware Traffic analysis Mitigation of the risks The aforementioned security risks and data breaches can be mitigated through the following types of measures. Use of authentication- This involves the use of usernames and passwords to gain entry to accounts and application. Data encryption- This renders the original message unintelligible to unauthorized third parties User training Users can be briefed on standard security procedures in the use of information systems. This is very vital as they will be the ones operating the system. Installation of firewalls- Firewalls enable the system to detect external intruders who try to illegally gain entry to the system. Keeping the system up to date- constantly updating the system with security patches and general updates will help keep the system operationally stable. Installation of antivirus and malware programs- This will prevent viruses and malicious software from infecting the system and wreaking havoc. Using lock and key- Hardware can be kept safe by locking them in safe zones and restricting or access to them. It is a simple method, but very effective. References Amid, A., Bagheri, M., Ghasrodhashti, S., (2010). Analysis of the impact of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems on Organizational Effectiveness. International Journal of Systems Applications, Engineering and Development. 3(4), pp 76-87 AVIATION PROS (2017). Back to Basics: ERP Workshop for Aviation Businesses-https://www.aviationpros.com/press_release/12235081/back-to-basics-erp-workshop-for-aviation-businesses Services - ERP Solution https://aisinfotech.com/erp-solutions.php [16th May, 2017] ERP SoftwareBlog - https://www.erpsoftwareblog.com/2009/11/5-steps-to-a-successful-implementation-of-your-new-accounting-system/ [16th May, 2017] Ifon, D.S, (2013). Enterprise Resource Planning Systems. 12th Research Seminar Series workshop. Pp 53-57 Souza, C. Introducing Modern IT Operations to the Airline Industry (4th October,2016)-https://www.pagerduty.com/blog/airlines-digital-transformation/ [16th, May, 2017] Peltier T.R., (2014). Information Security Fundamentals, Second Edition. Taylor Francis Group, LLC. ISBN: 13:978-1-4398-1062-0 Zissis, , D. , Lekkas, D., (2012). Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation Computer SystemS, 8(3),PP 583-592 Johnson, B., (2013). Airline Cost Management Through Planning and control. IATA report, Airline cost conference, Geneva

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