Task 2 – Impact of ERP implementation on business outcomes

Task 2 – Impact of ERP implementation on business outcomes
Weighting – 20%
Length – 1000 words (roughly 500 words on each paper)
Date Due – 8:00am (Qld time), Sunday 2 June 2019
Course Learning Outcomes – 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5
Task Rationale
In any business, decisions need to be made regarding process design or resource provision and allocation to help improve factors such as process performance, process and product quality, customer satisfaction or resource allocation.
Today, businesses have access to ERP tools/software to help adopt best BP practice, including: process alignment, cross-functional information flows, centralisation of corporate data, increased information security, suppliers and customer portals, etc. We may be asked to research and demonstrate the pros and cons of ERP systems and their adoption when employed by a business. So, this assignment is very much of concurrent practical value to us in terms of the development of digital literacy skills.
For the fulfilment of this assignment we will make use of the two Refereed Academic Papers provided and then proceed to review them according to the outlined Task Description below.
The papers address the topic of how well Information Technologies in the form of ERP systems are able to influence/support/facilitate BPR efforts and provide actual, real benefits to organisations during and after implementation has occurred.
The papers to review can be found in the assessment section of the Learning@Griffith website.
Task Description –
For this task we need to:
Read the two papers provided. There may be sections in the papers that we find hard to understand, especially in terms of the research methods used in the analysis. We will assume that these have been carried out with competence.
For paper “What is ERP?”, please note the following:
· Read Sections 1.1 (first paragraph); Section 2, 2.1; Section 4 (first paragraph), 4.2, 4.3, 4.4.
· Give a brief introductory statement on your understanding of what ERP is.
· Comment on the meaning of the following:
a) The dream of integration was too complex for in-house development
b) A desire to fulfil the promise of BPR / move to a process-orientation/recognition of ‘best
practice’
c) Best practice’ process models
d) A need to integrate across functions for competitive success
e) Cross-functional integration (intra-organisation)
f) Cross-enterprise business processes (inter-organisation)
g) Componentization of ERP
For paper “Developing an ERP Triggered Business Process Improvement Cycle from a Case Company”, please note the following:
· Evaluate the information provided in the paper. In particular, take note of what the paper claims it will do and why, how the paper is going to achieve what it set out to do, what the findings reported in the discussion section (if there is one) are, and what the paper concluded.
· Based on the evaluation, we then adopt a position statement on the relevance of some of the benefits related to ERP adoption.
Some suggestions that may be helpful for paper “Developing an ERP Triggered Business Process Improvement Cycle from a Case Company”
1. Paper description:
a. describe and list key (most essential) ideas/points
b. what are the main contributions?
2. Detailed comments on the paper
a. what did we learn reading the paper?
b. what are the technical points that we appreciated?
3. What are the most compelling reasons of why we like this work?
a. It adds to our knowledge domain (how)
b. It puts into perspective what we’ve learned in the course (provide examples)
c. It provides empirical evidence supporting the theories covered in the course (be specific)
4. Comments on related work:
a. how does the paper relate to other works/projects/readings covered in the course?
5. Does the paper leave unanswered questions?