Dq 1&2

"HRIS in Action

A billion-dollar retailer with more than 4,000 stores finds that it cannot move fast enough to beat out

the competition. The organization’s senior management arrives at the conclusion that it would be easier

to achieve the strategic goals enumerated by the board of directors if the various organizational

functions would share information. Shared information would enable them to develop and deploy new

actions and tactics more quickly. The CEO and president have therefore ordered the major functions to

update their information systems immediately so that data sharing is possible. The senior vice

presidents (SVPs) of accounting and human resources immediately conclude that the only solution is to

decide jointly on an enterprise resource planning (ERP) product. An ERP software application is a set of

integrated database applications or modules that carry out the most common business functions,

including human resources, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, order management,

inventory control, and customer relationship management (see www.erpsupersite.com). To speed the

installation along, the SVPs decide on a rapid-implementation methodology that a company down the

street used. The goal is to have the new systems operational in nine months.

Shortly after this decision has been made, the SVP of HR calls you into his office and tells you that you

will be management sponsor for this project. You have to decide on everything. You sit back in your nice

office and think:

What’s the problem with this scenario? It shouldn’t be difficult to select a vendor and then borrow the

methodology from down the street. It worked for them; it should work for us! We’ll call a few vendors in

the morning and find out about cost, time frame, and implementation methods. In the meantime, I

should find out a little more about how to do this and who will be using the ERP. I remember from my

information systems class in college that this is a reasonable first step when it comes to buying software.

What do you think your response would be to this inquiry? As you go through this chapter’s material,

keep this vignette in mind, and see if your answer changes."

"This case is revisited with some additional information that involves the understanding of the material

in this chapter. The additional information will be added to the situation described in the vignette at the

beginning of this chapter.

A billion-dollar retailer with more than 4,000 stores finds that it cannot move fast enough to beat the

competition. The organization’s senior management arrives at the conclusion that it would be easier to

achieve the strategic goals enumerated by the board of directors if the various organizational functions

would share information. Shared information would enable them to develop and deploy new actions

and tactics more quickly. The CEO and the president have therefore ordered the major functions to

immediately update their information systems so that data sharing is possible. The senior vice

presidents (SVPs) of accounting and human resources immediately decide that the only solution is to

decide jointly on an ERP product. ERP software applications are a set of integrated database

applications, or modules, that carry out the most common business functions, including human

resources, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, order management, inventory control,

and customer relationship management. To speed the installation along, they will install it using a rapid

implementation methodology that a company down the street used. The goal is to have the new

systems operational in nine months."

"New Information for the Case: Part 1

After some discussions with department heads from all the departments in the organization, you realize

that a large number of people (stakeholders) will be affected by the new systems. Furthermore, you

come to realize how important HR data really are to these stakeholders. Based on this information, you

think, “Wow, there are far more people who could be potentially using this information system than I

expected!” The old textbook and the vendor information should provide a lot to think about."