The Fact Sheet
The Fact Sheet outlines the duties, with the CIO officer taking into account the last remaining item on the ERP implementation budget. He had to plan how the crew would be rewarded, which was the mainstay of the prior project's success. The problems involved the person who made the decision to use a product from a different demand class. The assurance of the overall process's viability was also a challenge. To enter the software sector, a team would have to be formed (Bradford, 2015). The squad could be formed of from 20 and 30 members. They can be engaged in making sure that the people in the market have adequate information as regards the products that are being sold. The implementation process could entail the allocation of the driving resources to the manufacturing sector, such that they dominate in comparison to the vendors. The long-term development could be directly proportional to the functionality of the package. From the initiation of the project to the completion, there would be a total estimate of 75 days with the choice of the team being the top on priority (Magal & Word, 2011). The assumptions included that any technical problems as not defined would be short-lived. This would be enabled through the stabilization by the collaboration with the partners in seeing to it that there is the addition of the working capacity of the whole system. Another assumption is that the system will go down at minimal times during the installation.
Introduction
Cisco Systems initiated through the efforts of two computer scientists in 1984 and traded in the public arenas in the 1990s with routers as their primary products. The intranet as a combination of hardware and software acted as the traffic cop in the complexity of TCP/IP networks. Their products boomed in the market, leading to dominance and ranking the company among the top five companies as regards the revenues generated (Abbas, 2011). The success of the company is attributable to the myriad of the projects it engages in within its financial years. Their projects achieve success was through the support of the various stakeholders and the vision on the focus of project incorporation. This presentation gives the fact sheet, issues, and opinion as regards one of their ERP projects anticipated for implementation.
Fact Sheet
The CIO officer has the role of the consideration of the last remaining item of the implementation budget of the ERP. He had to organize on how the team was to be rewarded which was the main backbone towards the success of the former project. Solvik who was the CIO officer avoided the ERP solution and engaged in the planning to have his functional area be independent as regards the decision making and the timing of the implementation. The project started out one week after his acceptance and approval.
After the project was one year old the director by the name Randy Pond became the eventual co-leader of the project as he engaged in the descriptions of the dilemma facing the functional areas. This was back in the year 1993. He was the man who was in charge of the legacy risks, especially when there were a perpetuation and the deterioration of the legacy environment.
In 1994 when the company had a major struggle for the recovery from the major shutdown, Solvik, Pond and other managers concluded that the autonomous approach to systems replacement was not adequate. Then Solvic took up the role of the identification of the way forward whereby he stated that to have the applications it would take long establishments and connections (Piazolo, & Felderer, 2016). Thus, for a faster action, the company obtained a sponsorship from the SVP manufacturing, which is based on Carl Redfield and that which had a digital transaction before Cisco. He gave his directions as regards the starting from the manufacturing which saw the company develop and regain its momentum again. The assisting company had a director who had vast knowledge on how to go by IT project and thus aided in the monolithic IT projects in collaboration with the Cisco's management team (Austin, Nolan & Cotteleer, 2015).
Issues
The issues entailed the person who had the decision to use the product from another demand class. More so, the determiner of which orders would slip out was a challenge. The guarantee of the workability of the whole process was also a challenge. The buffering of the customer services in the allowance for the demand class attention could also be a worry. The definitions of the promise date, the scheduled time and the request date were also one of the concerns. The control of the master scheduling also demanded attention.
The major issue in the initialization of the project was the progress made. During the startup, the progress has to be large enough to guarantee financial anticipations. This acted as a major drawback for the company which opted to engage in the running of the legacy systems with the intentions of spending an average of $5.5 million dollars in the purchase of the package to help the situation. The problem was brought about by the system's replacement difficulties that perpetuated in the deterioration of the company. However, after the maintain ace of the problem, the company grew at an 80% annual rate.
The legacy environment can be one of the challenges such that it can even cause the shortcomings of the existing systems and thus there is the demand to bring up an authorized method to enable the access to the core application database. The issue could be motivated by the inability of the system to perform and can cause the malfunctioning and the corruption of the company's central database.
The company's systems could be the cause of failure, such that they require an independent approach to the network's replacement. In that regard, there is the need to embark on the collaboration of the order entry, finance and manufacturing such that they have uniform decisions with the order entry and the financial groups doing a single integrated replacement of all the applications.
The selection of the best ERP product was another issue as it was to meet the business demands which required involvement in the business community. The product was to be in such a way that it was product-wise, efficient but not an IT-only initiative. In the selection, there were to be the concern and the care to ensure that the best for the people was sought. The target was to make sure that the product attracts personnel out of other firms to aid in the production process.
Opinion
Processes to implement
The company can dig up for the opportunities which will see to it that the company has adequate partners. In that way, as the company is strong, it can collaborate with the Redfield Company and integrate with another partner to see to it that there is the assistance in the selection and the implementation of all the solutions that were due (Saunders, 2015). This would entail the use of the business knowledge of the employees of the company, and also the technical skills are available. The integration partner could be one of the auditing firms.
A team could be selected to engage in the software market. The team could be composed of between 20 to 30 people. They can be engaged in making sure that the individuals in the market have adequate information as regards the products that are being sold. In that case, the experience of the members of the team would be exposed in such a manner that it will be of utmost use to the company leveraging the experiences of others. The acquisition of knowledge can be obtained from inquisitive conversations with the big six companies of the region.
The processes that will be implemented also include the request for proposals to the vendors. In this case, the vendors would be given two weeks to respond. The vendors can prepare their responses with the company engaging in the due diligence whereby it will participate in visiting a myriad of reference clients which will be availed by each vendor. Through the analysis of the RFP responses, the vendors can be invited in the specific timeline to engage in the software demonstration for the company to assess the validity of their software at the meeting of the requirements for information processing.
Implementation process
The implementation process could entail the allocation of the driving resources to the manufacturing sector, such that they dominate in comparison to the vendors. The long-term development could be directly proportional to the functionality of the package. From the inception of the project to the completion, there would be a total estimate of 75 days with the choice of the team being the top on priority.
In all the procedures the management team had to approve the selections. The costs would be integrated into the system in such a manner that the sales would cover 40% of them within the same period. For the purpose of the analysis, sample data can be collected to ensure that there was the illustration of the requirement that would be accrued to the software.
The request for information from the big six can orient the selection process through the continuous emphasis on the decision speed. The company can narrow down the field to incorporate the use of five packages which can take place in two days. The evaluation of the package should be at a high-level for the company to have the ideal candidate with whom to engage partnership. This can entail the use of the members of staff who are highly qualified to bring about the technical support as required by the company. The opportunity for the growth of the business can be through the pulling of the people out of their jobs in other firms with the intentions of having the best for the company during the project installation (Chang, 2016). Giving up would be the last thing to think about as the project has a promise of greenies at the end of the installation process.
Key Assumptions
The assumptions included that any technical problems as not defined would be short-lived. This would be enabled through the stabilization by the collaboration with the partners in seeing to it that there is the addition of the working capacity of the whole system. Another assumption is that the system will go down at minimal times during the installation. In the case that the system went down, there were to be adequate funds to ensure that there is the maintenance of the system to correct the deficiency. The other assumption was that the Cisco Company had obtained a contract from the hardware vendors to ensure that there was the flow in the installation. Another assumption was that the software could handle the transaction volume as required by the Cisco environment. This is with the intentions of making sure that there are minimized hardware problems which could pop. Other assumptions included that there were adequate resources geared towards this project.
Take Away Lessons
The celebration party for the company team and management would come after the completion and the launching of the project which will invite the board of directors. The system installation can see to sit that there is the fulfillment of the promise in support of the rapid growth as per the expectations of the company.
At the start of the implementation of the project, there could be instability which could be brought about by the fact that the users would savage through the new system. The architecture and the sizing could cause the system to go down at some of the instances. There must be the care to make sure that in the case that there are the purchases; they should be as per the specific configuration in accordance with the system as opposed to the acquisition in regards to the promised capability.
Some things could be broken at big data volumes that are fed into the system, and thus satisfactory testing must be done in the huge database. In the testing, the processes must be run sequentially as opposed to running them at the same time. More so, the entire database should be used in the testing of the system to make sure that the system does not lack the capacity to process the required load after the cutover. The IT department must be ready to swallow the bustles that came around in the first two months in the implementation of the project.
Conclusion
There is the need to embark on the collaboration of the order entry, finance and manufacturing such that they have uniform decisions with the order entry and the financial groups doing a single integrated replacement of all the applications. The company can dig up for the opportunities which will see to it that the company has adequate partners. In that way, as the company is strong, it can collaborate with the Redfield Company and integrate with another partner to see to it that there is the assistance in the selection and the implementation of all the solutions that were due. In all the procedures the management team had to approve the selections. The costs would be integrated into the system in such a manner that the sales would cover 40% of them within the same period. For the purpose of the analysis, sample data can be collected to ensure that there was the illustration of the requirement that would be accrued to the software. An assumption was that the software could handle the transaction volume as required by the Cisco environment. This is with the intentions of making sure that there are minimized hardware problems which could pop. At the start of the implementation of the project, there could be instability which could be brought about by the fact that the users would savage through the new system.
References
Abbas, M. (2011). ERP systems in HEI context from multiple perspective views: a case study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Manchester).
Austin, R. D., Nolan, R. L., & Cotteleer, M. J. (2002). Cisco Systems, Inc: Implementing ERP. Boston: Harvard Business School.
Bradford, M. (2015). Modern ERP: Select, Implement and use today's advanced business systems. Lulu.com.
Chang, J. F. (2016). Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press.
Magal, S. R., & Word, J. (2011). Integrated business processes with ERP systems. Wiley Publishing.
Piazolo, F., & Felderer, M. (Eds.). (2016). Multidimensional Views on Enterprise Information Systems: Proceedings of ERP Future 2014 (Vol. 12). Springer.
Saunders, R. P. (2015). Implementation, monitoring and process evaluation. Sage Publications.
