Enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects, a type of complex information technology project, are very challenging and expensive to implement. Past research recognizes that escalation, defined as the commitment to a failing course of action, is common in such projects. While the factors that contribute to escalation (e.g., project conditions, psychological, organizational, and social factors) have been extensively examined, the literature on deescalation of projects is very limited. Motivated by this gap in the literature, this research examines deescalation, that is, on breaking the commitment to the failing course of action with a particular focus on ERP projects. This study is organized as a single-case study of a complex ERP project that was undertaken after a merger of two organizations. It examines how the project team members’ sensemaking is implicated in deescalation. Applying sensemaking as a theoretical lens, this engaged scholarship research contributes to practice by providing recommendations on how to better manage ERP project deescalation. It contributes to theory by providing a nuanced understanding of ERP project deescalation through project team members’ sensemaking activities.

More than 90% of enterprises in Taiwan are small and medium enterprises. These flexible and efficient forces are one of the important foundations for economic development in Taiwan. How large is the number? Based on the data of ¡§The White book of Small and Medium Enterprises in Year 2011¡¨ from Ministry of Economic Affairs, the number is over one million and two hundred thousand! However; taking on strong competition in emerging markets and enterprise globalization, the small and medium enterprises in Taiwan face many challenges. For large enterprises and electronic industry, implement ERP to manage enterprise resources efficiently to respond to immediate changes is the core of enterprise information technology. With limited budget on information systems and specialties from small and medium enterprises, how should they implement ERP? How could they successfully implement ERP? Should they have change management when implementing ERP? Do they have the same key factors as ERP implementation in the large enterprises? Whether there is any particular attention they should pay on? This study conducted multiple case interviews using semi-structures on the objects of ERP-implemented small and medium enterprises to explore the derivation of the processes of each case, what problems and difficulties have they encountered? How to overcome the problems? By the case corporate practical experiences to assess the key factors of successful implementation, coping with the processes and problems of the implementation derivation, we expected to propose the improvement of core enterprise competition and success rate to the traditional small and medium enterprises that will implement ERP in the future. Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning, KSF, Traditional Industries, Small and Medium Enterprises, BPR

Abstract In the wake of diversification and rapid changes in market needs, corporations have to deal with ever increasingly strict demands imposed by both customers and competitors that concern prompt supply, complicatedness in manufacturing technology, life cycle of product, and competition from within the industry. To be able to respond without any delay, consolidate their organization, and take control of operation so as to gain the ultimate advantage in competition, local small businesses must have access to a complete set of managerial accounting information that can constantly reflect the operation of each process and the correctness of information, provide strategic basis for decision making, and provide a mechanism for forecasts and advance warnings. However, selecting a set of electronic tool software that is suitable to a business is more important than anything else in gaining advantage in competition. For the present, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is considered the most viable software that can integrate the internal processes of a business to effect business reengineering and connect with suppliers and consumers to achieve electronic information flow for the system. ERP is an integrative system that has been widely implemented in recent years. It has an outstanding purpose: to help plan and manage enterprise resources in an all-inclusive and integrative manner so that the business can achieve high operating efficiency and immediate improvement, reconstruct its strategic advantages, and reorganize and restart itself. It deserves our investigation whether managerial accounting information can, through the effective application of ERP system, provide corporations with prompt evaluations and make decisions for them and bring about tangible benefits in management. Therefore, this research has defined the major purposes that follow: 1. Pertinent information obtained by local small businesses when they initiate ERP can be subsequently used as the basis for evaluations when others initiate local small businesses. 2. Local small businesses, in implementing ERP, find reasonable analysis or solutions for difficulties they encounter, which will enable other businesses in the future that initiate ERP to reduce possibility of making mistakes and costs by planning in advance and taking preventing measures. 3. Understand how ERP after being initiated by local small businesses help accounting personnel enhance their functions in making spreadsheets and carrying out accounting control, and elevate their analytical skill. 4. Understand that after being initiated into local small businesses, ERP can enable managerial accounting information to bring up effectiveness to users or managers. This research, using case corporations as the subjects of study, was designed to understand the impact of ERP after being initiated on the degree of application of managerial accounting information. As to research design, literature review provided theoretical foundation. Methodology of taking grounded theory, part of qualitative research, was taken to understand the actual meaning of background environment of these corporations. Based on the nature of facts, data were collected, summarized and analyzed through questionnaire survey an case depth interview, to find out how a case corporation is related with managerial accounting information before and after it initiates ERP and to discover the support and impact given by an enterprise after it obtains managerial accounting information. The aspects of such an impact can be used by this corporation to improve or adjust its operation and provide corporations that have not initiated ERP or decided to initiate ERP with self inspection and suggestions to shorten the time frame for initiating ERP, reduce wastes on resources, ensure the effectiveness of using managerial accounting information, gain access to more opportunities so as to ensure perennial existence and create competitive edge for the corporation.

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Zugl.: Magdeburg, Univ., Diss., 2009

M. Tech. Business Administration / An Enterprise Resource Planning system is complex software that ties together and automates the processes in a business. The benefits of having an Enterprise Resource Planning system included having a single database that allowed the data to be available across all business units. Small, Medium Enterprises, and Large South African companies, have introduced Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as a means of improving productivity and efficiency over the past few years. Various South African companies have experienced difficulties in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems because they are costly in terms of finance and time. This study aims to analyse the degree to which the South African company Iliad Africa has benefited from the implementation of an ERP system.

D.Tech. Organisational Leadership. Business School. / The development of a quality framework for services in a shared services environment was the focus of the study. The shared services model has recently become an attractive organisational structure with many conglomerate multinational corporates. Shared services can be defined as a concentration of internal support services, professionally managed as an internal services business unit rendering the necessary services to the organisation’s business units. The shared services concept is not about centralisation. It is based on the existence of an internal supplier-customer relationship, where the power of the demand and nature of the services rest with the various business units. The literature has shown that the benefits of the shared services model include a reduction in the operating costs, improvements in efficiency of the corporate and in a higher level of internal customer satisfaction. Many practitioners have documented the fact that a reduction of operating costs stems from the elimination of duplicated services and providing service offerings at a greater economy of scale. In addition, business units can concentrate their efforts on the improvement of sales, thus lowering the percentage of the cost of sales. Efficiencies are improved by acquiring better technologies made possible by proportioning the costs to the various business units. The customer satisfaction levels of services from shared services centres have not materialised as per the literature. In recent research, shared services customers reported that they were dissatisfied with the quality of services and felt that there is a need for intervention to improve the quality of the services. One of the popular interventions for improving quality is a quality model.

The water system on Maui Island in Hawaii is an integral part of the island’s infrastructure, affecting energy, agriculture, waste, and domestic systems. Both the built and the natural water systems are likely to be altered over the coming decades. Maui’s two major industries are agriculture and tourism, which compete for water and land resources. Maui faces high costs for food and fuel it must import, and agricultural efforts might shift from plantation-scale monocropping to energy production or diversified agriculture for food. Simultaneously, land use changes (like deforestation), climate change, and cyclical droughts affect Maui’s freshwater supply. Water planning and management based on careful assessment can be valuable tools for a community expecting that water will become increasingly scarce. Since water plays a large role in many other systems, choices about water allocation and use can help the island move toward solutions of multiple problems at once, including energy scarcity, coastal protection, and financial health. This work provides a dynamic snapshot of Maui’s current built and natural water systems, then analyzes two potential water management actions: pumped storage hydroelectric facilities built on existing reservoirs and use of secondary treated wastewater to irrigate biomass for power. Based on cost estimates and alternative solutions, neither of these applications are currently judged viable. / text

Effective information and resource management are the most important factors driving businesses to success. In today's dynamic and turbulent global business environment, there is a strong need for organisations to be competitive under all circumstances. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can be used as a strategic tool, helping companies to gain competitive edge by integrating all business processes and optimising available resources. While ERP systems are powerful packages, many companies are not fully satisfied with their systems, because ERP systems do not always fulfil all company’s business needs. This work is meant to promote ERP systems by presenting one of them – the MFG/PRO by QAD, discussing its common and unique properties, sharing particular working experience and proving that this ERP system can be perfectly adapted to suit the needs of all companies. New methods for adaptation of ERP system according to organizational needs have been developed. Methods incorporate database, application and user interface modifications. Implemented modifications caused a reasonable improvement in MFG/PRO’s capabilities.

Requirement and supply projections for dentists Aim of the study. To prepare requirement and supply projections for dentists in Lithuania for the next decade. Objectives. 1) To evaluate the changes in number and distribution of dentists in Lithuania in 1993-2004; 2) To evaluate the drop out from undergraduate studies of students of the Faculty of Odontology of Kaunas University of Medicine; 3) To evaluate the retention in profession of dental graduates of Faculty of Odontology of Kaunas University of Medicine; 4) To determine the requirement for dentists until 2015; 5) To forecast supply of dentists for the next decade. Methods. While estimating the number and distribution of dentists in Lithuania the data of Lithuanian Health Information Centre were analyzed. While estimating the distribution of dentists by age and gender in Lithuania the data of Health Care and Pharmacy Professionals Licence Registry were analyzed. While estimating the drop out from undergraduate studies and retention in the profession, cohort analysis of the matriculates of Faculty of Odontology of Kaunas University of Medicine was carried out. The requirement for dentists was evaluated by carrying out the Delphi survey. Supply of dentists was projected using computer simulation model by J. Dewdney. Results. In 1993-2004 the number of dentists per 10 thousand population increased from 5.3 to 6.6 in Lithuania. There were 2272 dentists in Lithuania in 2004. Only one third of them were working in districts... [to full text]