Date                   May 28, 2009 Level                  Bachelor thesis in Business Administration/Information Technology Authors             Jennie Andersson, Niklas Fridell, Visar Hoxha Tutor                  Marie Mörndal Department    HST Title                    ERP-solutions in small to medium sized enterprises – possibilities and problems Summary          ERP-solutions have penetrated the market for SME: s, offering the same advantages larger enterprises have enjoyed for years. For a significantly cheaper price, SME: s can nowadays acquire ERP-solutions and become more effective and increase their profit.  The authors have examined five SME: s in both the production and service company segment and have come to the conclusion that an ERP-solution would indeed benefit these companies in many levels but also induce certain obstacles the examined companies must overcome, both financial and organizational. Purpose            The purpose of this thesis is to examine if and how SME: s can become more efficient and developed and increase their profit by implementing an ERP-solution. Further, the purpose is to discuss which conditions that exists for the examined SME: s in order to implement an ERP-solution. Method            The thesis consists of a qualitative research where the authors have interviewed either the owner or employees at management level by using semi-structured interviews. The results from the interviews have been analyzed based on the theoretical framework. Result                Several improvement areas have been identified, most typically the processes are lacking efficiency in some areas even if the SME already had an ERP-solution (or similar) or did not have one at all. Most SME: s did lack the financial resources required for an ERP-solution deployment. Conclusion      The findings show that there are development possibilities within the examined SME:s. The biggest revenue improvement would be decreased manual labor and improved processes. An ERP-solution would help the SME: s achieve that since it automates many tasks and are designed with “best practices” in mind. Despite most of the SME:s lacking financial resources for an ERP-solution, there were some exceptions which contradicted the theoretical framework, mainly because they were SME: s but acted under a larger owner/franchise chain.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:08:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo296_1.pdf: 1129587 bytes, checksum: 839ccda265fedc0edf23b1373f6e1038 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / A tecnologia da informação tem contribuído de forma significativa para as organizações desenvolverem uma maior competitividade. O uso de sistemas de informação integrado também conhecidos como sistemas ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) passou a ser largamente utilizado pelas empresas. Com a idéia de integrar todos os setores, ganhar eficiência e ser mais competitivas, as organizações buscam estas ferramentas achando que apenas implantando um sistema obterão os benefícios apresentados por esta tecnologia. No entanto, uma série de fatores organizacionais podem contribuir de forma negativa para a implementação do ERP nas organizações. Desse modo, foi realizado um estudo de caso com utilização de abordagem interpretativa, em duas empresas atacadistas do ramo farmacêutico na cidade de Manaus, para avaliar diferentes fatores organizacionais que dificultam a implantação de ERP. O ERP foi visto como contribuindo de modo substantivo para mudanças estratégicas vivenciadas por estas organizações

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T17:20:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo584_1.pdf: 527949 bytes, checksum: 8ef785c65d0c79d2566fe8b4b86d5ab0 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal analisar a importância das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação - TICs, especificamente do Sistema Enterprise Resource Planning- ERP (Sistema de Planejamento dos Recursos Empresariais, ou Sistema Integrado de Gestão Empresarial), nos resultados empresariais. A justificativa para um estudo desta natureza se prende ao fato de que pouco ainda se sabe a respeito do real impacto dos investimentos em TICs (principalmente em se tratando de ERPs) nos resultados econômicos das empresas, organizações e instituições. Nesse sentido, foi desenvolvida uma metodologia que se baseou tanto numa revisão do estado da arte da literatura (acadêmica e profissional) relacionada à questão do uso de TICs, especificamente a dos ERPs, nas empresas, como também numa análise empírica de casos reais de aplicação dessas tecnologias em empresas selecionadas em um intervalo de tempo entre os anos 2000 e 2008. Ao serem estudadas 19 (dezenove) empresas, clientes de um grande fornecedor nacional de ERPs, a TOTVS, verificou-se que o ERP utilizado de fato gerou impacto na organização dos processos, e nas relações funcionais daquelas empresas, o que, de alguma forma, refletiu nos resultados econômicos por elas alcançados

Informationsteknologi introducerades under 1950-60 talet och har sedan dess fått en ökad betydelse i företag och organisationers rutiner. Tidigare manuella arbeten kunde nu till viss del datoriseras och bli automatiserade. Under 1970-80 talet började utvecklingen av mjukvara till datorer ta fart och från tidigt 1990 tal till nutid har informationsmängden Kraftigt ökat. Detta har lett till att den globala marknaden mellan företag och organisationer hårdnat och att strävan efter bättre effektivitet inom dessa är större än tidigare. Tillverkarna av affärssystem finslipar ideligen sin produkt och hävdar stundvis att den möter alla de informationshanteringskrav ett företag har. Ett sådant löfte fick till följd att affärssystem blev den mest investerade mjukvaran bland företag och organisationer på 1990 talet då ”världen” var rädd för datorkrasch vid övergången till 2000 talet. Är då affärssystem så heltäckande som tillverkarna vågar påstå eller hur ligger det till? Uppsatsens syfte är att ta reda på om affärssystemen stödjer företagens arbetsprocess i medelstora tjänsteföretag. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie som bygger på åtta intervjuer med personer som har daglig kontakt via sina arbetsuppgifter med affärssystem samt att fyra olika företag undersöktes. I analysen av insamlad data framkom det att samtliga fyra företags affärssystem inte kunde stödja den arbetsprocess som fanns, av olika skäl. För att nämna några exempel kan sägas att designen och den heuristiska gången i affärssystemen inte klarade av att leverera tillräckligt med information, för att användaren skulle känna sig bekant och hemmastadd med systemet. Men att de positiva effekterna med affärssystemen överstiger de negativa går inte att tillbakavisa då affärssystemen inte skulle existera i den utsträckning de idag gör. Att de underlättar och ger effektivitet i företaget går inte heller det att avvisa då nästan alla företag i dagsläget behöver ett affärssystem för att kunna existera på marknaden. Författaren har kommit till slutsatsen att affärssystemen inte fullt ut stödjer företagens arbetsprocess som de utlovar, men att affärssystemen faktisk bidrar med betydligt mer positiva effekter till företaget än negativa. Företagen skall därför fortsätta använda samt utveckla sina affärssystem. Men tillverkarna av affärssystem behöver lära sig mer om hur arbetsprocesserna i de företag som skall nyttja systemen är, för att kunna skapa en bättre och fullständigare arbetsgång än vad de belysta företagen i uppsatsen har.

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Dans le contexte actuel de compétition exacerbée, les Systèmes d’Information des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises se basent de plus en plus sur des progiciels tels que les ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning. Compte tenu de l’aspect standard de ceux-ci, il est nécessaire de gérer l’alignement entre les besoins réels de l’entreprise et les fonctionnalités standards de l’ERP. Pour ce faire, nous le considérons sous l’angle des risques en définissant le Risque de Non-Alignement (RNA). Sur la base d’un état de l’art du management des risques dans les projets, nous proposons de le traiter selon deux stratégies complémentaires d’optimisation anticipatives : l’une agissant sur son effet et l’autre, sur son occurrence. Notre état de l’art des méthodes d’ingénierie dirigée par les modèles, moyen pour mettre en oeuvre la première stratégie, montre que les processus d’alignement permettant d’identifier le nonalignement, d’évaluer son effet et d’y pallier restent trop macroscopiques pour traiter réellement le RNA. Notre état de l’art sur le management des facteurs de risque, moyen pour mettre en oeuvre la seconde stratégie, met en avant des lacunes au niveau des outils permettant d’identifier et traiter les facteurs agissant sur le RNA. Pour répondre à notre problématique, nous proposons, d’abord, la méthode « Model Driven - ERP Alignment » permettant de (1) guider finement l’identification du non-alignement sur la base de la norme de modélisation d’entreprise ISO 19440 ; (2) d’évaluer son effet et (3) d’y associer les décisions adéquates. Elle prend également en compte le niveau de granularité des activités ainsi que leurs interdépendances. Nous proposons également l’approche « Risk-Factor Driven - ERP Alignment ». Elle consiste en une démarche d’identification et de traitement des facteurs de risque (FR) sur la base des outils suivants : variables des FR, matrice des liens résiduels entre FR, classification des FR en fonction du cycle de vie du projet ERP et matrice FR / pratiques de gestion. Ce travail étant co-financé par la Région Alsace et une PME de la Région Strasbourgeoise, nous avons adopté une démarche de recherche / action qui a, entre autres, permis d’appliquer et valider nos contributions. / In the current context of fierce competition, the Information Systems of SME are increasingly based on “off-theshelf” products like the ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning - systems. As this kind of system offers a generic solution, the alignment between the company’s real needs and the ERP standard functionalities must be ensured. Therefore, we propose to define the so called Misalignment Risk (MR). Our literature review on project risk management leads us to propose two complementary strategies to manage the MR allowing its optimization: the first one works on the effect of the MR and the second one, on its occurrence. Our analysis of the model driven engineering methods, allowing the implementation of the first strategy, shows that: the alignment processes proposed to identify the misalignment, to evaluate its effect and to mitigate it are too macroscopic. Concerning the means to implement the second strategy, we highlight the weaknesses of the tools proposed to support the identification and treatment of the risk factors influencing the MR. We thus propose, firstly the “Model Driven -ERP Alignment” method allowing (i) the identification of the alignment and misalignment situations in a detailedmanner and on the basis of the ISO 19440 norm, (ii) the evaluation of its effect and (iii) its association to adequate decisions. The granularity level and the interdependencies of the processes’ activities are also taken into account. Secondly we propose the “Risk-Factor Driven - ERP Alignment” approach. It consists in the proposition of a process allowing the identification and treatment of risk factors (RF) influencing the MR. to succeed in following tools are set up: RF variables, RF residual link matrix, RF life cycle classification and RF / management practices matrix. As this work is supported by both the Region Alsace and a SME located near Strasbourg, we follow an action / research approach. It allowed us to apply and validate our contributions.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze the situation on Czech information system market, to predict future trends and to define specific solutions from the SME point of view especially.

In my thesis I deal mainly with the issue of selecting enterprise resource planning system. In the initial passage I describe the ERP systems in general, briefly map their history to the present and mention actual trends and provide categorization of ERP systems. Part of the first passage is devoted to actual trends in the area of implementation of ERP systems and analysis of the ERP market on national scale and worldwide as well. In the following part of thesis I deal with the ERP system selection procedure which is followed by recommended content of ERP inquiry document, analysis and categorization of inquiry documents which were freely available on the internet. This passage ends with chapter devoted to contracts under implementation of ERP system. The beginning of the practical part of my thesis contains short description of selected organization, history of its actual information system and its current status. Main part deals with the concept of the ERP system inquiry document for selected organization. Work ends with a brief summary of the findings and results.

This thesis deals with the ERP system at the interconnection of e-commerce companies and proposing solutions to implement processes in companies that are logical and functional as well, which will assist in the efficient running of the company for profit. Specifies the main characteristics of the ERP system and e-commerce, and the terms of the legal aspects of Internet business and includes variations of the ERP system design with links to electronic commerce.

The paper focuses on a company which is currently in a difficult situation because of the escalation of problems with established information system. The company must also confront the problems with the introduction of a new program supporting core business processes. The only IT company employee often gets in the situations he is unable to solve practically or because of little time time. The aim of this work was to analyse established information system, identify its weaknesses, where there are risks and propose measures to improve and eliminate the identified risks. Own analysis of the information system through interviews with selected staff is followed up with questionnaire methods of ZEFIS portal. After finding the gaps and analysis of the identified risks the measures to eliminate the risks, recommendations for improvement and correcting the shortcomings of the system have been proposed.