1. Research an organization that has had a failed ERP System implementation. Prepare a written report that clearly outlines the reasons for failure; 3 minimum, and what could have been done to mitigate the risk of failure; 2 minimum. Do not use generalities in your response, all responses must be specific
Nike roots trace themselves back to the 1950s with University of Oregon field coach Bill Bowerman. Bowerman was always trying to find a competitive advantage for his track runners and had the idea of a lighter show. He would late team up with recent graduate Phil Knight and create the first Nike shoe, “the Swoosh”, which debuted in 1972. Through the years, Nike would continue to create innovative sports apparel, expand into new markets, and challenge the way people look at athletics.
In 2000, Nike decided to implement a SAP ERP system, but found that its demand forecasting was inadequate to their needs at the time. Nike decided to use i2 technologies supply chain management software which was meant to improve management of inventory, production, shipping, and sales forecasting. If successful, Nike would quickly be able to reduce the production of unwanted shoes, reducing inventory, while increasing the production of shoe styles that were rising in demand.
Reasons for failure:
ERP systems can be dangerous, hence need patience in implementing it, however, since the i2 system was much smaller, Nike did not take as many precautions as they should have.
In 2000 the demand-planning engine, I2, of Nike made orders for thousands more Air Garnetts than the market had demanded and thousand fewer of the then popular Air Jordans. This caused a loss of more than 100 million in sales, and depressed the stock price by 20 percent. This caused a large amount of class-action lawsuits.
Nike failed to properly train its employees to understand the new system, which lead to the excess creating of the wrong product
The system was too slow, didn’t integrate well, and had some bugs.
Mitigating Risk:
Firstly Nike could have avoided this failure from happening if they would pay more attention to the implementation of the new ERP system, by doing proper testing and made sure the integration was well and bugs were fixed. They also could have built bridges within the software to enable data sharing.
Nike should have trained its employees well before implementation.
2. Define what ERP systems are and give 2 examples of current products on the market. What business processes do they claim would improve by implementing their system?
ERP is an acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP software integrates various processes that are essential to running a business, including inventory and order management, accounting, human resources, customer relationship management (CRM), and beyond into one complete system to streamline processes and information across the entire organization.
Examples of ERP systems on the market are:
NetSuite: Originally designed as an accounting system, NetSuite has gradually grown into a full-suite ERP with CRM, HR and business intelligence functionality and that it will improve these business processes by implementing NetSuite. A leader in Cloud ERP, NetSuite currently supports more than 20,000 companies.
Intacct: Intacct is a Cloud-based accounting solution that is recommended to firms in professional services, banking, real estate and related industries. In addition to best-of-breed accounting, Intacct offers BI and CRM improvement.
3. On Workopolis or similar job search engine, find a position where SAP is a requirement or an asset for the position and provide a brief overview of the business processes the incumbent is expected manage with SAP. For this company list the products or services being offered.
Website: Indeed.ca
Position: Master Data Analyst
Company: Aritzia - Vancouver, BC
The Responsibilities of incumbent:
Primary owner of all SAP Master Data stewardship activities
Responsible for the input, verification and maintenance of data in SAP
Manage and prioritize ad-hoc requests related to data input, data changes and overall information access
Liaise directly with various business units to translate requirements into tactically and strategically sound solutions
Regularly analyze cross-functional information dependencies and systems impacts
Seek opportunities for automation or optimization of existing department operations
Demonstrate a detailed understanding of data tables and relationships of data within SAP
Maintain documentation and related information resources in shared knowledge repositories to ensure information is searchable and easy to locate
Ensure compliance with incident, problem and change management policies and processes
Support end-users through training sessions, user guides, troubleshooting and issue resolution
Follow established processes, procedures and project methodologies
Aritzia : Products and services
Aritzia is an innovative women’s fashion boutique which provides clothes and accessories both in store and online. Each season, Aritzia carefully curates its collection of exquisitely designed clothes and accessories. The current portfolio includes 12 exclusive brands: TNA, Talula, Babaton, Wilfred, Wilfred Free, Community, Le Fou, Sunday Best, Paradise Mine, The Castings, SIXELEVEN and Auxiliary. The ERP system is used in the backend for these purposes. Master data is the core data that is essential to operations in a specific business or business unit. - 4 references