Enterprise Resource Planning Systems - Essay Example

Information Systems Paper Information Systems have helped organizations to achieve a quantum leap in the way that business it conducted. These systems help to automate mundane and repetitive tasks, and also ensure that all resources and departments of an organization are brought together on a single enterprise-wide platform. Information systems form the backbone of any organization in today's age - regardless of whether a company has 5 employees, or 50,000 employees. Some systems focus on particular areas or business processes, while others operate at a higher level, cutting across all functions and departments. The latter is typically referred to as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. A typical ERP platform would encompass all major functions in an organization such as Operations, Inventory & Stores, Accounting, HR, Payroll, etc. Most clients tend to purchase an off the shelf product, and contract a software deployment specialist to make the required customizations to the platform and adapt the system for use at a particular company. I was involved with the specific deployment of an ERP system at a ceramics manufacturing company with roughly 1300 employees. The company was migrating from a legacy FoxPro based system to an MS .net based client-server ERP system, which would encompass all departments and be written in the newer Microsoft .net framework with a user friendly Graphic User Interface (GUI) as opposed to the text based interface for the legacy system. The specific departments that the ERP presently covers is Accounts, HR, Payroll, Inventory & Stores, Commercial Department, Sales, and Fixed Asset Control. The Manufacturing module is being developed and will be integrated into the ERP system over the next 10 - 12 months. The ERP platform, in its present state controls virtually every business process in the company. A closed loop workflow ensures tight knit integration between departments with electronic authorizations and checks at every stage of the process. Global connectivity of the system with users in 2 factories and 4 sales offices meant that user groups had to be able to interact with the system in a secure environment to manage workflows in these remote locations. For the factory locations, the company decided on connectivity through leased lines with direct point-to-point connectivity. However, with the geographically diverse locations of the 4 sales offices, leased line connectivity was not feasible. The company decided to utilize Internet based connectivity using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to be establish connectivity from these remote locations to the main server housed in the corporate office. Connectivity to the system was a critical requirement for all remote locations. In the factory environment, the only way for the factory warehouses to check-in and enter fresh production into inventory is by utilizing the Stores & Inventory module to generate an inward bound Material Note. The Warehouse in turn is required to generate the Material Receipt Note to complete transactions. Similarly, when the Warehouse receives an electronic request to dispatch new products to one of the four remote sales locations, it uses the system to create a Material Dispatch Note that is closed once material is received by the remote location and the ticket workflow is closed in the system electronically. In case of an unplanned system downtime or a network outage, the company's operations come to a standstill since workflows cannot be completed. One of most critical workflows that get affected is the inventory process. No inventory can move in and out of any warehouse of the company until the system electronically updates its records. The company had to put in exception handling for these circumstances, which involve emailing data packets to update inventory and complete workflows when there is scheduled maintenance of the system, or where longer system shutdowns may be required. System security was another important aspect of the system. The company handled security in two stages - user rights, and database security. Under user rights, the system was designed with a specific security table built into it with all users of the system and their corresponding rights entered into this table. When a user would log in, the system would dynamically look up the specific user and determine what rights the user could have in any session of the system. For example, a user in the Stores and Inventory department had no business in the Accounts databases and related menu options. These options were not available to access for this specific user. Similarly, even users within the same department would have varying rights; some would have data 'read-only' rights, while others in the same department would have write access to the database since their particular function required this task. The second level of security dealt with protection of the system and database against malicious attacks from within the system as well as from the outside. Measures that were taken for this specific system included firewalls and user authentication frameworks to prevent unauthorized users from accessing the system, and session tracking tools for monitoring and detecting any compromises in the system architecture. For remote users logging into the system, IP based filtering tools were employed to allow only predetermined IP addresses to log into the system, and additional tools to help detect IP spoofing were installed to prevent malicious users from hijacking the system. It was important to safeguard the system from unauthorized users since workflow processes were protected through specific authorizations required from multiple users before transactions could be carried out. A compromise in security could allow users to carry out complete workflows independently and override the checks and balances built into the system. Similarly, all payments to suppliers were made through the system and electronic checks were generated through the system for disbursement of funds. A user with malicious intent could generate checks if the correct passwords and workflows were targeted. Lastly, all company HR and Payroll information was stored within the system, and this sensitive data was meant to be inaccessible by anyone other than authorized members of the HR department. The ERP system is performing smoothly at the organization and has resulted in significantly increased efficiencies in coordinating company activities. References Harwood, S. (2003). ERP The implementation cycle. Computer weekly professional series. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Nah, F. F.-H. (2002). Enterprise resource planning solutions and management. Hershey, PA: IRM Press. Wagner, B., & Monk, E. (2008). Enterprise Resource Planning. Boston, USA: Course Technology. Read More