Implementing Enterprise Resource Planning With Cloud Computing Technology
Introduction to Technology and its Impact on Modern Business
Discuss About The Enterprise Resource Planning Implementing.
The introduction of technology helps the world to grow in every prospective and make life easier every day. The importance of technology is faced in daily life as the system advancement are making work life easier and smooth. The technology advancement is impacting the modern business in growing, shifting, adapting and improving every day (Seo 2013). The organizations are prospering and expanding with a wide scope for success. The use of technology is making the entire working culture different from the previous days monotonous work culture. The term technology was derived from the Greek word tekhnologia that means systematic treatment.
The technology is helping the organization to grow in various ways that includes improved communication, entertainment, lifestyle, education, travelling. Thus it becomes for the organizations to expand and explore all across the world in a short span of time with the help of technology advancement (Zeng and Skibniewski 2013). The technology is bringing new strategies and ways to compete with the existing industry and make a position for the emerging brands in the market. The technology and its advancement is not only helping the industries to improve but it is also improving the life style and work style of every employees and person related to the industry.
The term cloud computing refers to a situation that states the storing and accessing of data and information in the air. The storing of data over the internet that can be accessed at any point of time as and when required is cloud computing. The present business industries are using this technology to ease their mode of communication and transact business all over the world in a short span of time (Seo 2013). The working culture in the organizations are becoming more synchronized and easy thus helping the organizations to improve and expand in the international market. Earlier when communication with offshore nations and distant areas were impossible to reach has become possible and easier by the organization. The organizations are relying on this source to transfer data, access data, monitor and communicate in the organization thus improving the situation of the organization.
The study will typically discuss about the strategies the companies are coming up with where they can merge technology and cloud computing with the ERP system of a company. It will discuss how the technology and planning merged together benefits the organization and helps in development. The study will discuss about the advantages and how that can help the organization. The study will also include relevant case studies that will show how the companies are trying implement this combined source for their betterment. It will also argue with relevant cases that will support the argument and finally it will end with a justified conclusion.
Importance of Cloud Computing in Business Industries
The companies are always trying to manage and improve their working system and culture. They are implementing new strategies and ideas to develop a better scope for the organization. The ERP system in an organization is used to manage the official and automated business functions. It helps to make long term planning and management system. The main work of this ERP system is to integrate areas like planning, purchasing, sales, marketing, human resource, marketing, inventory (Seo 2013). These are the core part of any organization and it has to be well maintained if the organization is planning to work efficiently and prosper in future.
The technology when merged with the ERP system of the company it becomes more effective and powerful to serve the best to the organization. When the technology is supporting the organization to build a platform regarding its marketing sales and monitoring system then automatically its work growth is uplifted (Nwankpa 2015). When it comes to technology support the entire working system is benefited with betterment in the work process and the advancement in the process due to the introduction of technology.
The cloud ERP system increases the accessibility through the use of internet and helps the users to share and transfer their data across the business sectors, clients, partners, workers. It helps the users to share data in a very less span of time (Salim 2013). This systems comes with automated backup, disaster recovery quality that helps the organization to rely on the source without any fear of interruption. The cloud ERP solutions are provided through software as a service model. The are more accessible and mobile than any their traditional technologies. They help to convey message and information at any desired plane and at desired time. The organizations can easily upload data, information about them and share it with the desired sources they want. The advancement not only improves the communication system in the organization but also allows for a better collaboration and management system in the organization also (Weng and Hung 2014). An organization that has to manage various parts like purchasing, relation management, sales, marketing in the organization. However, the cloud computing system helps to identify the crisis and work on it accordingly in a small span of time. The cloud computing system is responsible to ease the entire process with the use of internet and make the system easier. The clod computing process is used to cover a huge area in a short span of time and reach a huge zone without much effort.
Strategies for Merging Technology and Cloud Computing with ERP System
However there can be few issues faced by the cloud computing users in a business. The primary and the biggest issue that can create a problem in cloud computing is the security level. The security level of the cloud computing system is completely reliable on the security provided by the provider’s security system (Weng and Hung 2014). The security system that is provided by the provider might not be reliable and can leak the important data that was shared by the company. This can be a huge threat to the organization and they might face severe problems if they do not take initiative inn this matter. The company must assure that the security standard they are using are of high level and they can rely on it completely else the company should not share any confidential or important data in this system.
Thus if the company is assuring a secured system that is used by them or the person who will be uploading the data or receiving the data are reliable then they can trust this technology blindly. This is the latest and most convenient technology used by the organization to manage the ERP system in an organization. The technology that are used by the organization should be considered and then used to assure a better performance system and best result from the system.
IaaS- Infrastructure as Service: this is a form of cloud computing that provides the virtual computing resource over internet. It refers to the traditional approach where the company is purchasing the license for the ERP system (Seo 2013).
PaaS- Platform as Service: it is a model where the third party delivers the hardware and software tools especially who need application development. They host the hardware and software on its own infrastructure. Therefore they make the users free from installing a in house software and hardware to develop a new application or run it.
SaaS- Software as Service: it is a software distribution model where a third party provider hosts the application and makes them available to the users over the internet. It is developed to operate on cloud environment. The companies have to pay a subscription to access the system and share it with the other companies (Seo 2013).
Lower upfront cost: the service provider are responsible for the operating and service providing task that leads to isolation of operation costs. It becomes the service providers responsibility to deal with the costs and thus the user is free from such headaches.
Advantages of Cloud Computing in ERP System
Rapid implementation: It offers a wide range of solutions that will satisfy the organizations need and requirement (Zeng and Skibniewski 2013). Selecting among the different solutions and product takes place according to the enterprise needs. The implementation process is thus accelerated by this process.
Scalability: the system is highly elastic as they can be scaled up and down as perrhe requirement of the company.
Using advance technology: the working system over the clouds allows the enterprise to access over the internet and use specialized technology that helps to improve the working pattern oof the system completely (Zeng and Skibniewski 2013). The use of latest technology helps the organization to become aware of the present updated technologies that might help them to improve their work and business style in a better way.
Easier integration: the system has to work to meet various requirement of the company which are not in the same field. The system has to integrate the different fields together and make it easily accessible by the user and helps the organization to reach the required area on time. it connects the different people at a single point of time and makes the working system easier for the organization.
Improved system availability: the CSP’s provide well defined policies and plans for back up, restore, recovery and damage repairing situation (Zeng and Skibniewski 2013). It makes the user free from any scope of disturbance and interruption and thus supports the smooth working of the entire system.
Rapid updates and upgrades: the cloud computing upgrades and updates are comparatively higher than any other traditional system. The CSP performs all the up gradation according to the enterprise request.
The cloud based software are hosted on vendor servers who access it through web browser. And the On-premise software is installed locally on the companies system or server. However the cloud ERP delivers a better performance than the on-premise solution. It is designed from the ground up for maximum network performance. The cloud ERP automatically adjusts with the spike sin the business (Mijac, Picek and Stapic 2013). They also provide real time data that can be easily accessed through the use of internet which is not possible in other ERP systems. This means that the workers can see the real time data and also provide better performance and greater accessibility. Thus it is always preferable to use this ERP system instead of using the on-premise ERP system.
Issues Faced by Cloud Computing Users
Thus the report aims to make the organization understand that the technology that has been changing the working pattern in the organization are helping them in various ways. Among these one of the prominent field is ERP system. The cloud ERP system is helping the organization to build a better scope for the organization to improve and develop in the market. The report has shown a clear discussion stating how the cloud ERP system benefits the organization and how the challenges can be met. The following paragraph will discuss about the case study that will discuss how the other organizations have tried to use this source to improve their working condition:
The use of cloud ERP system has helped many organizations to develop their condition and mend their situations that were harming the working of the organization.
According to (Peng and Gala 2014) Quatro Composite, who are manufacturer for aerospace, medical, industrial market were in need to consolidate their disparate business system. At the same time the company wanted to avoid any investment for the recovery and development part. The company decided to go with the manufacturing cloud ERP provided the scalability that was required by the company. Presently the company is in a better position and thus is steadily leading towards its growth to 25 to 50 % per year. The company had to lower the TCO over ten year that was supported by this system and thus they were helped by the cloud ERP system to implement the requirement and make necessary changes that benefited the organization. The change in the organization clearly states that the cloud ERP system is helping the companies to meet their requirement and reduce the challenges faced by the organization.
The manufacturer of injection molding for automobile industry, Bhar Inch an automated its manual processes with the manufacturing cloud ERP (Wang and Xu 2013). The company saw an increasing efficiency of 30% in the company and also saw a reduced cost in the overall system. The company saw an increase in customer satisfaction and thus it proved that the implementation of ERP had helped them to improve their condition. The company claims that the reason for their change in the system is their single input data entry and the user interface that demands the correct input. This has saved the company for any wrong data entry or irrelevant data entry. The single point data entry ass helped the management to maintain a proper record of the entire system and control the properly.
Conclusion
The company Avon Gear manufacturer of industrial equipment’s were in search of ERP system that would provide them with integrated information about the entire business system (Gangwar, Date and Ramaswamy 2015). The cloud ERP system helped the company to track and record production activities, status changes, receiving, shipping from its plant floor. This helped and benefitted the organization in various ways. Presently the company is able to generate in depth information for accurate cost analysis. The company has now improved their accuracy and sustained an average growth of 20%c annually. This shows that the involvement of cloud ERP system helps the company o understands their flaws and make required changes that help the organization to develop better scope for their success. The company that was looking for ERP system had been benefitted by the cloud ERP system. However if the company would have used only the ERP system then there were very less chances that they would have benefitted so much from it.
At the same time the Ralco Industries, an automotive manufacturer and supplier specializing in precision-welded assemblies (Seethamraju 2015). The company used the ERP system to address the business problem along with saving money. Earlier they used inventory inaccuracy and used multiple systems that led to inefficient planning, quality problems, extended timings, high costing. The company had a problem in managing the data in the organization. After implementing the cliud ERP system the company saw a drastic change in the working system. The company moved to a single connected cloud ERP system enabled the company to reduce the inventory costs by 15%, reduced the scrap down more than 60 %, reduced the freight cost by more than 29% and saved $100 on every purchase. The company saw a drastic change in its working system and thus the cost was reduced and the income was increased in the company. The company was benefited by the system.
The Wolverine Advanced Materials is a manufacturer of customized technology for automotive braking system. The company had realized that the manual based processes were not sustainable (Gangwar, Date and Ramaswamy 2015). The company were targeting for growth but were unable to meet their goal due to lack of proper management system. The cloud ERP system helped the company to adopt lean manufacturing and scale it. The ERP also allowed the employees on the plant floor to see all the customers’ orders and group them in an efficient and synchronized manner. The introduction of the cloud ERP system helped the organization to improve their productivity and working strategy. It also helped them to reduce the costing of the manufacturing of the product. The overtime has reduced to 60% and the quality has improved to 15-20 %. Thus it can be clearly stated that the introduction of cloud ERP system has benefitted the organization in various ways that has improved their working strategy, production power, reduced their costing and saved their times. Thus the introduction of this technology has affected the organization that has already used this and they are also looking for betterment in this technology
Conclusion:
Thus to conclude it can be stated that he study has typically discussed about the importance of technology in the day to day transaction life and business life. The technology advancement has helped the organization to expand and explore to a wide range in a short span of time. The technology that is combined with skilled management strategy has given the best the vest result. The study has discussed about one such combination of technology and skilled strategy for business development and maintenance.
The study has discussed about the merging of cloud computing with ERP system in an organization and how it has and will be benefiting the organization. The study has taken relevant case studies that has been used in the case study stating which organization has taken advantage of this system and how it has helped them. The companies that were facing severe issue regarding the working of the organization and were unable to identify or organize the issues in a desired manner, decided to take help from this cloud ERP system. The ERP system helped the companies to develop new skills and strategies to meet the challenges in the organization and make required changes for a better working system. The study has also discussed about the possible risks that are directly related to the technology that has been mentioned over here. It has also suggested the measurable steps that might be taken to prevent any risk that can hamper the company. The study has shown a difference between the cloud ERP and on-premise ERP, how the cloud ERP is more useful and beneficial to the organization. thus it can be concluded with this thought pint that the cloud ERP system is improving the entire process of the organization that might be related to communication, sales, management, analysis or any other field. If the recommended strategies are followed by the organization then there re high chances that they will succeed in future.
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