Term Paper on "Strategic Use of ERP Systems"

Term Paper 11 pages (4300 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Smorgon Steel Case Study Analysis

The many challenges that Smorgon Steel faces are symptomatic of manufacturers globally. First and most urgently there is the need to become more demand-driven and demand sensing with their supply chains including the urgent need to synchronize their production cycles with their other divisions' needs. Second, strategies aimed at working capital reduction need greater coordination and integration points within the it infrastructure to be successful. Third, the use of analytics and intelligence within it is limited and nearly reactionary in its timing and approach. This clearly needs to change for Smorgon to stay competitive not only in its home markets but also globally. Fourth, Smorgons' need to consolidate ERP instances is symptomatic of what many manufacturers are grappling with today. Having grown through acquisition, and then using ERP systems for specific manufacturing tasks and the lack of integration between multiple instances of their ERP systems has made ROI on their entire it investments elusive for Smorgon. As a result, continued major investments in it are met with skepticism, as there is a lack of credibility regarding the results that are being attained. Exacerbating this are the major investments in supply chain planning, execution, optimization and management applications including the expensive Manugistics supply chain suite. it's clear that the operating charter of Smorgon it itself needs to change, it must become a strong contributor to the strategic plans of Smorgon, not just a cost centre. Aligning all of it behind business strategies is critical and that is the intent of this case analysis, to provide insights into how the company can accompli

Continue scrolling to

download full paper ⤓

sh this transformation. Within this case study strategies for transforming Smorgon's it department into a vital part of their strategic plan and long-term strategies will be provided.

Introduction

Today Smorgon Steel has five different ERP systems installed and as a result the it infrastructure has grown to be disparate and partially integrated. The company uses WebMethods as the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) layer between these ERP systems and supply chain applications including Manugistics, Mincom, Weighbridge, TagMan (tag management system), SpectroMeter (Quality Testing System) and the data warehouse the company has residing on a Storage Area Network. The wide disparities in each of the these ERP systems leads to only the most common and easiest to produce reports being produced, delivering little value beyond the core transaction and reporting metrics. Simply put there is no alignment of these ERP systems with a common business strategy, making their value to the organization minimized. Compounding this is the lack of integration on sales and operations planning S&OP) data including the inclusion of master data management repositories that could in turn be used for major strategic contribution vs. being annualized costs.

These are the key strategic areas of focus for Smorgon Steel going forward. First, the company is looking for ways to leverage it to accomplish working capital reduction, increase and sustain margin improvements through better pricing and more effective procurement practices, and attain cost reductions through a series of strategies including more effective forecasting and procurement. In addition, Smorgon wants to transform it to use mine the data and aggressively use analytics to find and fund insightful areas for future growth, and most importantly, become more customer-centric in its many strategies. Taken together these five core challenges must be met for Smorgon to accomplish the strategic objective of transforming their it organization from being cost-based to being strategically active in the core parts of its company's business.

Brief description of organization

Smorgon Steel (SSX) is one of the leading providers of steel in Australia, and has grown steadily through acquisitions and an emphasis on building out its distribution business. It has a market capitalization value of approximately $1.3B on the Australian stock exchange and operates in 9 countries. The company relies on 3 dominant business platforms including metal recycling in Australia and Asia, Steel products in Australia, the U.S.A. And Asia, and Metal Distribution in Australia. As of the company's latest financial statements there are 5,800 employees globally. The latest financial figures provided in Table 1, Reported Financial Results are for the most recent analyst briefing held August 23, 2006.

The company was founded in 1981, and in 1983 initiated its first mini-mill for steel manufacturing in Laverton, Victoria. The company's use of electric arc furnace technology in steel production was the first of its kind in Australia.

Smorgon Steel went public in February 1999 on the Australian Stock Exchange following the acquisition of Australian National Industries (ANI). With that single acquisition, Smorgon doubled in size and lead to a successful initial public offering and provided the company with funding for additional acquisitions through today, as the company is in discussions to Smorgon's ERP Systems: Descriptions and Analysis

Disparate in their structure and intended roles in Smorgon Steel, the five major ERP systems in use within the company today are described and analyzed here.

SAP R/3-4.6c ERP Instance

SAP AG's founder Dr. Hasso Plattner often remarked that SAP AG was born out of the need for better distributed order management systems through process manufacturing industries. The result of this vision that was the impetus for the creation of SAP AG was an order management system that rivaled IBM's at the time, the company for which Hasso worked prior to starting SAP. SAP R/3-4.6c is the culmination of Dr. Plattner's vision for unifying all critical components into a single platform that could in turn be used for creating portal views to distributors, dealers, and resellers. R/3-4.6c was the first revision of any ERP system from SAP to also separate Web Application Server logic from SAP R/3 core technologies. In short, SAP R/3-4.6c is ideal for process goods manufacturers who rely on distribution channels as core parts of their value chains.

JD Edwards ERP Instance

Having since been acquired by PeopleSoft in 2003 and with PeopleSoft in turn being acquired by Oracle in late 2004 and being finalized in early 2005, the fate of support for JD Edwards applications is a huge unknown for over 40,000 of its customers. JD Edwards' leadership position in small and medium manufacturing is what attracted PeopleSoft in the first place, as the latter company had a solid base in human resources, accounting and CRM, yet lacked depth in the markets where JD Edwards excelled. Despite efforts by Oracle to assuage JD Edwards customers the reality is that Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, acquired PeopleSoft and JD Edwards to migrate them to the service-oriented architecture called Fusion, and has not completed any updates to either PeopleSoft or JD Edwards ERP systems since acquiring them. Clearly Smorgon Steel needs to quit paying for this ERP system's maintenance and find a solution to getting it discontinued and uninstalled as no major updates will be provided.

Symix ERP Instance

Seradex Manufacturing Software, like JD Edwards, found initial success selling into small and medium-sized manufacturers, especially in the fabricated products industry. Seradex is built entirely on the Microsoft platform, and as a result is requires WebMethods adapters and connectors to integrate even the most fundamental of data with the SAP R/3-4.6c instance that is currently running on the HP-UX operating system, using an Oracle 9(i) database specifically for the data warehouse. Symix ERP is comprised of a series of module suites. These include Front Office ERP, Accounting ERP, Core ERP Modules including System Manager and Bill of Materials. In addition Seradex has added in Management Control ERP modules and a core set of Manufacturing ERP Modules that Smorgon finds useful for supply chain management and Lean ERP manufacturing. Despite the breadth of modules that Seradex provides with the Symix ERP system however the many challenges of integrating data between Microsoft operating systems, databases to SAP R/3 field-level integration (which is among the most challenging in enterprise software) and Oracle 9 database support makes Symix a candidate for consolidation as well. SAP's Supply Chain Module on MySAP Suite that is the follow-on to R/3-4.6c for example can perform all the same functions of Symix yet can be negotiated as a bundle-in with SAP for consolidating ERP instances.

Progress ERP (homegrown) Instance

Smorgon Steel also has created its own in-house ERP system called Progress. Virtually any company with sales over $100M globally has at one time or another had to create their own ERP system primarily to track orders, coordinate and synchronize pricing, and manage bills of materials that in drive manufacturing on the production floor. Today Smorgon Steel is using WebMethods to integrate only at the data transaction level with Progress. While homegrown ERP systems over time are consolidated and their master data management functions are transitioned into a larger system of record, the majority of these types of systems are transformed into front-end systems for procurement and purchasing. It is conceivable that for Smorgon to be successful in its continued management of suppliers and buyers and continually manage strategic sourcing and procurement, the key functions of Progress will be transformed into a portal-based series of applications.

Creative Software EasyPay… READ MORE

Download Full Paper

Write a New Paper for Me

Quoted Instructions for "Strategic Use of ERP Systems" Assignment:

“

Order only for *****’s Username: (*****)

---------

Subject: Strategic Use of ERP Systems.

Academic level: Master Degree

Language/spelling style: British – Harvard format

Specific Topic: "Smorgon Steel Case Study Analysis"

Type of document: Case Study (analysis report)

Sources: must be derived from the subject materials (articles) and the company answers and documentations (will send all of these to your email again)

Very important Note: Please make sure there is nothing copied from the net or books, unless it places between quotation marks. In case the paper matches more than 6% in the Turnitin.com, MyDropBox.com and EVE2 paper will be returned for rewrite.

-------------------------------------------------------

TOPIC:

------

*** Smorgon Steel Case Study Analysis***

Smorgon’s Case Study (analysis report) must cover the following:

• How is the ERP product used to support either the ICT Strategy and/or the Business Strategy of the organisation?

• How is the success of the ERP product to meet these strategies determined? Are there metrics in place to measure the success or failure of the Business Objectives?

• What is the future direction of the ERP system does a business case exist for this direction?

• What are the expected benefits? What timelines are in place? What issues need to be dealt with to achieve these benefits?

• Is there a formalised business case? Does it include metrics? Can you have a copy of the table of contents? (Note that some of these questions may relate to sensitive information and the organisation may only be willing to share general ideas, not company specific information.)

------------------------------------------------------

**Must use the questions/proposal you wrote for Smorgon’s Analytics as Interview with the company (Answered sent to your email).

***Smorgon’s Business Case is quite important to cover**

**Discussion in the report must relate to and be contrasted with current texts and journal articles relating to Strategic Use of ERP Systems. The case study is NOT to be just a descriptive report; you must show evidence of analysis and synthesis of the case study information. Chunks of information directly imported from the web or other sources will not be accepted – penalties will be imposed for plagiarism.

**You are expected to use material from the class readings and the lectures to support your discussion (will be sent to you). You may locate, read and cite book and journal references outside of those used in the subject but failure to use material presented in class to support your discussion will lead to a poor result.

Information collected must be presented in a separate appendix, for example details of interviews or surveys.

**You must include suitable diagrams and tables (you can use some of the diagrams in the paper and case study I will send to you)

---------------------------------------------

Recommended format for the Case Study as follows:

1- Executive Summary (One page) – must be comprehensive and cover what in the report.

2- Introduction.

3- Brief description of organization, e.g. mission statement, industry sector, size (no more than half page).

4- A description and critical analysis of the ERPs used in this organization.

5- Body (With a logical structure).

6- Conclusion – must be effective.

7- Recommendations – very important.

8- List of references -- in Harvard format.

--------------------------------------------------

The theoretical material for this Case Study will be sent to you (must be from the subject materials – and should be referenced properly throughout the paper) . References must be cited throughout the paper and only those cited can be included in the List of References. Any information you use or based your points on from questions/proposal and answers (you initially wrote) from the company refer to it as (Smorgon Interview, 2006).

The paper should be properly referenced using (Harvard) and should demonstrate both depth and breadth of reading and an analysis and understanding of the topic.

Paper will be submitted to Turnitin.com and MyDropBox.com to check for plagiarism.

Requirements: (Please Read Carefully)

----------------

***Abstract/ or Executive Summary must be included (Only one page)*** Very Important*** - must be effective, coherent and cover what in the paper (Case study).

*** Effective and Suitable Introduction and ConclusionRecommendations must be included***

***Minimum Quotes are required (No more than five '5' (short) quotes throughout the Paper) direct copy from source MUST be placed in quotes, and cited using Harvard System, Students are advised to use their OWN words and minimize using of quotations***

***The Case Study must be written in YOUR OWN WORDS not repeating sections from the Work Reviewed (Be specific and don’t talk in general terms nor IT jargon), but the REFERENCES must be included and appeared to support your work and idea.*** (i.e. … your point in your own words… (John, 2005; Jeff, 2003; Mark, 2004; Anna, 2006)…)

***You must include appropriate appendices to cover any necessary collected information from the company*** Important

***You must explain the component without using IT jargon and journalistic terms***

***The Paper must be highly presented in good Research and Case study format***

***Heading is required to highlight the important part of the Paper***

***Diagrams/Charts/Tables must be used throughout the Case study *** (Very Important).

***Any direct copy from source must be placed in quote.***

*** The paper will be submitted to "Turnitin.com" and “MyDropBox.com” to check for plagiarism. Students are required to use their own words and minimize the use of quotations (Max 5), but you have to add the supporting references for each ideas*** -- Please check there is nothing copied from book, or the web unless you quoted it. (Use your own words and ideas and support/reference them)

***List of sources/ references page in Harvard System is required***

***Please Make sure you cover the topic, the Case Study is short so please adhere to the topic and analyze it in depth.***

---------------------------------------------

Originality is crucial.

------------

Please make sure there is nothing copied from the net or books, unless it places between quotation marks. In case the paper matches more than 6% in the Turnitin.com and MyDropBox.com and EVE2 paper will be returned for rewrite.

Best regards,

Thanks

*****

How to Reference "Strategic Use of ERP Systems" Term Paper in a Bibliography

“Strategic Use of ERP Systems.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2006, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/smorgon-steel-case-study-analysis/255790. Accessed 1 Jul 2024.

Strategic Use of ERP Systems (2006). Retrieved from https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/smorgon-steel-case-study-analysis/255790

A1-TermPaper.com. (2006). Strategic Use of ERP Systems. [online] Available at: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/smorgon-steel-case-study-analysis/255790 [Accessed 1 Jul, 2024].

”Strategic Use of ERP Systems” 2006. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/smorgon-steel-case-study-analysis/255790.

”Strategic Use of ERP Systems” A1-TermPaper.com, Last modified 2024. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/smorgon-steel-case-study-analysis/255790.

[1] ”Strategic Use of ERP Systems”, A1-TermPaper.com, 2006. [Online]. Available: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/smorgon-steel-case-study-analysis/255790. [Accessed: 1-Jul-2024].

1. Strategic Use of ERP Systems [Internet]. A1-TermPaper.com. 2006 [cited 1 July 2024]. Available from: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/smorgon-steel-case-study-analysis/255790

1. Strategic Use of ERP Systems. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/smorgon-steel-case-study-analysis/255790. Published 2006. Accessed July 1, 2024.

Related Term Papers: