Need without plagiarism

SAMPLE CASE STUDY QUESTIONS: U.S.ARMY (Chapter 5 of the textbook)

NOTE: these answers are for your reference only. Please do not

quote any of these answers in your own assignment. It is strongly suggested that you research on the assignment case study and

provide references as evidences of research. 2-4 references would be good. Harvard referencing style is recommended.

1. What were the key goals in the Army using an ERP system?

 Common view of the rapidly changing operational environment

 Eliminate boundaries between One Army and One Enterprise

 Synchronize transformation between Institutional and Operational Army

 Optimize the Army at the enterprise level

 Rapidly affect combat operations by anticipating change and providing decisive and dominant combat capability where and when required

 Transform the Army from end-to-end 2. What were the key implementation considerations that were addressed as part of the planning process, especially related to using an integrated ERP and transforming the culture?

1. Sponsorship/Leadership – Successful ERP systems require dedicated and engaged leadership. The Army has a unique situation where leaders rotate, and an ERP implementation can span over multiple sponsors.

2. Stakeholder Alignment – The Army’s previous structure did not require each area to work together. There needed to be tradeoffs in each of the areas to have the best overall solution for the organization, so there needed to be decisions made at a higher level than the area that are implementing the tradeoffs.

3. Cost – Transformation Management (TM) is a key element to the success of the implementation. It must be communicated and accepted by the leadership in advance.

4. Often times when there are cuts to the budget it is the first thing to be cut. 5. Project Lifecycle – TM needs to be part of the project from the beginning and

is key to the overall success of the project. 6. Culture – As with any organization that has a long term history, change will be

a challenge. Leadership must take an active role within the Army to support the change.

7. Communication – The Army has many areas in which communication is key to success, both internal and external to their organization. A good communication plan must be put into place.

3. How was the change management process incorporated into the implementation? The Army used blueprinting, which is a comprehensive set of pilots to test proposed changes and ensure that the proposed changes will work as advertised. Additionally,

the Army evaluated customization of the software versus changing the process on a regular basis. 4. Discuss the pros and cons to customizing the system? Pros – The software will better meet the needs of the Army and their unique processes and business processes. Users will not have major changes and therefore adjust to the new system more readily. Cons – Upgrading to a newer version of the software will be more time consuming and expensive; customizations are not supported by the vendor and customizing can cause delays in the project and possibly destabilize the software.