3 rd year BIS 2006 / 2007
Fergal Carton
Business Information Systems

• Topps
• ERP benefits
• Common data model
• Integration
• Single instance

• Revision

• Basic flows of information (Finance / HR / Sales)
• Understanding requirements for IS support
• Business processes & related applications
• Introduction to ERP systems
• ERP implementation projects
• IS issues in multi-national organisations

Structure your answer:
Convince reader you have read and understood the case by applying a logic or structure to your answer
It also makes the answer easier to read!

Structure your answer:
Different examples (both from case and from your own experience) can be used to maximum effect when drawn in to illustrate a point you are making eg. Time tracking (Genalytics, PPARS, …)

Recruitment
Management reporting
HR Payroll
Training

• Automate manual processes
– Collection of information regarding
• Recruitment
• Personnel details
• Holidays
• Benefits
– Transaction processes
• Promotion
• Salary, commission, bonus calculation & payment
• Transparency, visibility of information
– Access to wider audience of potential candidates
– Access to management reporting
– Access to SOP’s and training material
• Free up HR time from mundane tasks
– Cost saving
– Time spent on research into training development
• Has it meant new types of information / service are available?

• HR processes
• Recruit, Manage, Reward, Develop
• View from Job-seeker and Employer
• Automate without de-humanising
• Placement process
• Search, Contact, Send CV, Aptitude Test, Feedback & Offer
• HR web-sites (eg. for placement companies):
• Compare and score strengths, weaknesses
• Schwabb case study (benefits of web based HR applications)
• eg. Holiday planning from home

Production
Planning
Sales
Distribution,
Order
Management
Integrated
Logistics
Customer/
Employee
Human
Resources
Accounting and Finance

Scalability?
•As-is
Flexibility?
•Best of breed
Reliability?
•Custom solution

All Homes Provide
A roof over your head
A floor under your feet
A lock on the door
Picture
A starter home
Electricity, water, sewer
Your dream home
Uses standard blue prints
Can be built with generic skills
Requires much compromise
Doesn’t have unique features
Is very similar to the next house
Is generic in style and function
Architect develops a custom plan
Requires skilled craftsman
Requires little compromise
Is unique where you value it
Is like no other house
The style and function are specific

• Why ERP ?
– Automate and streamline sales/quote/order/invoice
– Shorten order processing time
– Better inventory control
– Consolidates all sales information
– Improve sales information on customers
– Why reinvent the wheel, use best practice
– Scalability
– Robustness – one system, minimises repetition
– Faster to implement
– Clear upgrade path (linked to vendor): better expansion capability
– Develop ERP skills in-house, useful for further projects
– Ability to implement, large team required!
– Quantifiable outcome & timescale

• More control over process design
• More adherence to specific requirements
• More programmers required
• Own processes may be better than ERP template
• Have we got the resources / experience
– Design
– Build
– Support
• Cost of back fill
• Long term Support issues
• Time scale & cost

• Product configuration details
• Orders are allocated to work in progress
• Not build to order!
and
• Hockey stick
• Long lead times on orders

• What were the potential failure points for the business?
• What are the potential benefits of ERP for
Topps?
• Could any depot deliver any sales order, what would be required of IS?

• One database
• One server
• Wide area network links
• One time zone
• One language
• One set of configuration options
• Standard set of processes (template)

• 9.30 Aula Maxima 16 th March
• 1½ hour paper
• 4 questions, answer two
• 50% per question
• 3 questions of 1 part, 1 questions of 2 parts (25% each)
• Essay type, typically
• Describe …
• Identify …
• Outline …
• Give examples …

• Course notes
• Your own notes from in-class discussion
• Research areas andmentioned in-class
• HR packages, recruitment web-sites (PeopleSoft.com, Monster.ie, …)
• ERP web-sites (SAP and Oracle)
• Placement company HR pages
• Package vs. custom debate
• …
• Case studies and handouts
• EMC 2 : ERP implementation case study
• Adam & Doyle (2001) Enterprise Resource Planning at Topps International Ltd
• James A. O’Brien (2003) Introduction to Information Systems
•
Chapters 7 Electronic Business Systems
• Davenport, Thomas H. (1998) Harvard Business Review
• Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System
• Evans & Wurster (1997) Strategy and The New Economics of Information
• Deimler & Hansen (2001) The On-line Employee
• Human Capital Institute (2006) The Current Landscape of Internet Recruiting
• IS3314 Key terms and concepts defined
• JJ Worrall (SBP, 2006) ERP helps make sales trend forecasting