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The Relation between BPR and ERP

What is BPR according to the textbook? In a plain language, what does it mean to an organization that is underperforming?

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is the process companies undergo through in order to improve the quality of their products for maximum customer satisfaction. Moreover, it is a competitive strategy used by companies over the other companies to improve their product awareness and increase their customer base. To those small organizations, which are usually underperforming, business process re-engineering can be very advantageous because it will help them to improve the quality of their performance additionally making them competitive against other companies (Khosrowpour 3). Moreover, these small companies are advised to use the process of business process re-engineering very carefully because if it fails, it can land to huge losses.

Why can IT be one of the biggest obstacles for BPR?

One of the things that have been identified to spearhead the process is information technology. However, information technology can prove to be the biggest obstacle because of some several reasons. One of the reasons is because of lack of communication between the management and the different staff members. If the management does not communicate with its staff members, most likely they are going to experience a lot of resistance from the employees. Like in the case of Vicro Company, they never consulted with their employees about the use of the enterprise resource planning in the business process re-engineering (Khosrowpour 7). This led to failure due to the resistance, which came from the employees.

Another major obstacle that information technology can pose to these companies is by solely depending on the information technology systems. This is because there are not very many people who know how to use the different information technology systems therefore; they might not be able to use the systems to its maximum capability. Additionally, it might take them a lot of time to learn how to use the system therefore, leading to losses. The top management should not consider throwing away their old system but instead they should try to use the systems together so that they can be able to resolve any issues that might arise in the process.

In case of a break down, it would be very bad for a company that depends on the use of the information technology. This means that work would be disrupted so that the machines should be fixed. In conjunction to this, instead of making it better, it will make it worse if the information technology systems are affected by viruses or an electricity breakdown. This will make the business to be shut down for hours until the problem is resolved therefore, it is not advisable to depend only with the information technology.

What went wrong with the ERP implementation? Note four (4) major issues.

What went wrong with the implantation of the HPT enterprise resource planning was that the company management never followed the correct procedure used in business process reengineering. Due to this, there were four major issues, which led to the failure of the system. One of the major issues that were made by Vicro Company in the business process re-engineering was that first, they never consulted with experts in purchasing the best enterprise resource planning system. This led them to buying the wrong system.

The second major issue was that they never considered the use of the compatibility of their business with the HPT enterprise resources planning system they were purchasing in order to implement it (Khosrowpour 5). They bought a system, which was not compatible with the kind of work they were doing therefore, it led to them making loses instead of making profits. Moreover, there is no way through which those two systems could work because they were not compatible.

The third major issue that the company made was that it did not get enough information in relation to the best vendor of the system and the terms and condition of the system. Most of the vendors forced their customers into their terms and conditions leading to lack of information sharing incase a problem arises that will be helpful to his employees. Finally, the forth-major issue was the use of force by the management in implementing the enterprise resource planning system in relation to the business reengineering process, which led to resistance from the employees.

What could Vicro have done differently to make its BPR successful?

What Vicro Company could have done differently to improve the enterprise resources planning is by the use of the correct procedures of implementation. The management could have done a study on the different kinds of systems, which could have been best suited for the business re-engineering process. They should have done this by employing a team of information technology experts who would be able to help them in coming up with the best system, which is best suited for the company. In addition, these experts would have been able to come up with a lot of information in relation to the system and the best vendors who could sell the system with the best terms.

The management of the company should have also taken the initiative of talking to their employees about the system they are going to implement, that is, the enterprise resource planning. They should have done this by educating them on why and how to use the system so that they could reduce the kind of resistance they experienced. In conjunction, the management could have tried and explained to the employees that there was nobody who was going to get fired (Khosrowpour 7). This would have reduced the fears, which the employees were experiencing at that time leading to resistance.

Lastly, the management could not have depended on the system wholly. This is because of the many problems, which might have come up with the system making it very difficult for the company to use. These problems could have also caused the company to shut down their business processes so that the systems could be made. Therefore, the company should have first considered using the old system and the new system to work in parallel with each other. This would have reduced the problems of shutting down the business due to the new system.

Would you have stayed away from HPT ERP?

If I was one in the management, I could not have stayed with the system HPT enterprise resource planning because it was not bought in accordance with the company’s type of business. I could have sold it to another company and bought the new one, which is compatible to my specification following the best procedures of business reengineering process. Therefore, this means that I could not have used the system HPT enterprise resource planning in business reengineering process.

 

Works Cited

Khosrowpour, Mehdi. Annals of cases on information technology. Southfield, MI: Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2004. Print.