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Week 6 Assignment 3
Week 6 Assignment – Implementation of IT Plan at Hershey’s
ITS831/Lecture/30 - Info Tech Importance in Strategic Plan
Dr. Lisa Bryan
10/07/2018
Venkatesh Chaganti
University of Cumberland’s
Implementation of I.T. Plan
Introduction
This document describes the process of the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in The Hershey Company. ERP is a system that helps a company organize its processes and the data for the company (Ptak & Schragenheim, 2016). This makes the operations smoother and simpler. (The Hershey Company is one of the largest chocolate manufacturing companies there are in North America. The Hershey Company was established later in the year 1894. )-- Cite this – not common knowledge Comment by Dr. Lisa Bryan: Cite this – not common knowledge
It is a multi-national company, and that is why needed IT system to be implemented.
Process of implementation
(In late 1996 the management of Hershey decided to implement IT in its operations. They started a project named Enterprise21. For this project SAP’s R/3 ERP software, Seibel CRM software and Manugistics SCM software were selected. IBM Global Service was there to facilitate the integration of the selected systems. At that time the recommended time for the implementation of the process was almost 4 years, but the management of the company demanded the completion in 2.5 years. The approach of Big Bang was asked to be used instead of a phased approach in which the implementation process was supposed to go through different steps and phases to reach completion. )--- Where did this information come from? Means cite Comment by Dr. Lisa Bryan: Where did this information come from?
Failure of process
(There were multiple problems that started to arise in the operations of the company. These included the problems in the processing of orders, fulfillment of orders and the shipment process. The company was not able to meet the deadlines they set for delivery by themselves. These delays caused a lack of credibility and that translated into financial damages soon. The inventory level increased to a dangerous level because of these delays. The failure in the implementation process was announced by the company in the market that caused the decrease in the stock prices of the company. The overall financial damage that the company had to face was hundreds of millions. )-- No citations?? Comment by Dr. Lisa Bryan: No citations??
Reasons for failure
The most serious mistake was the drastic reduction in the time for the implementation of the system. The time given for the implementation of the process was almost half of the time that was recommended by the experts. The approach of Big Bang was used which was also a mistake as the phased approach is much more reliable (Kapp, Latham, & Ford-Latham, 2016). The system testing stage was also sacrificed which was also a mistake that caused a lot of damage and contributed to causing failure. The system was made operational in the period when the company was having one of the busiest periods of the year. There was a lot of burdens, and there was a lot that was supposed to be dealt with.
Things that could have been done better
There are multiple things that could have been done better to make the implementation of this new system much more helpful. The process could have been completed in the time suggested by the experts. As this could have helped the company to deal with the critical issues in time which were overlooked because they were in a hurry to get the system online. The testing phase is an important step that could have saved the company a lot of trouble but was ignored (Chapman, 2018). The newly implemented system was supposed to be a part of the operations when the company was in periods when there is not much business for the company in the market. This would have given the company some time to deal with the problems and the delays caused by the implementation of the new system.
(References: Comment by Dr. Lisa Bryan: Not APA formatted – books are not scholarly
Chapman, W. (2018). Engineering modeling and design. Routledge.
Kapp, K. M., Latham, W. F., & Ford-Latham, H. (2016). Integrated learning for ERP success: A learning requirements planning approach. CRC press.
