ARTICLE ANALYSIS

Article Analysis

PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION

Due date:

Thursday Week 12 (2PM AEST)

Part:

Portfolio

Weighting:

35% of total assessment.

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Electronic (see course website for details)

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Week 1

1. Enterprise information systems project implementation: A case study of ERP in Rolls-Royce

Introduction

The article is written by Yusuf et al (2004) to examine the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at Rolce Royce and how technical, business and even cultural issues affected the integration of organizational operations. The authors are of the belief that the success and failure of the ERP system depends entirely upon the management of the operations. It is the poor management that becomes a reason for the failure of ERP because the integration of operations becomes impossible if there is a lapse in the implementation process. The study takes in consideration the installation of SAP R/3, ERP software by SAP, at Rolce Royce and the benefits that are associated with the implementation. However the study, by the trio of writers, takes a look at the shortcomings of the implementation process.

Summary

The authors have tried to find out the issues that were raised because of the implementation of the ERP system at Rolce Royce, which has an operation base larger than 15 companies combined. The authors are of the belief that the administrative problems that prevailed throughout the period of implementation emerged because of the huge operational base. The findings of the study extend the notion of the authors that the cultural issues were raised because of the workforce of Rolce Royce that was resistant to change. The management had to start from the scratch to train them for a system that integrates all the operations and a centralized system for database management, where the new data is integrated with the old data to form a completely new record for retrieval (Rajagopal, 2002). One of the most daunting challenges to the management of the company was to implement a new rigid structure, which was capable of complying with the ERP system's requirements. The old data was to be synced with the new data in order to create a crystal database but the most difficult thing to do for the software team was the process of synthesizing the old data into the default format.

Critique

The authors are of the belief that the problems faced by the management point out the fact that the organization will take time to adjust with the new system. The arguments made by the authors are consistent throughout the case study as they try to analyse each and every dimension of the problem to extract the ...