Enterprise Resource Planning
Essay Preview: Enterprise Resource Planning
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Institute of ManagementNirma UniversityEnterprise Resource PlanningCase write up- Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERPSubmitted By: Meesha Chatterjee (137135)            Vibhu Malaviya (137165)Submitted to: Prof. Nityesh BhattAbout CISCO Established in 1984 with Router as their primary product. By 1997, entered into elite club of fortune 500 and became one of the top5 companies in retur on investment and return on assets. IT Department Pete Solvik joined as CIO in January 1993They were running a unix based software package to support core operating and transactional process of the company. Package was majorly supporting 3 functional areas – FinancialsManufacturingOrder entryWhy ERP The company was able to sustain an annual growth rate of 80%, and legacy system was unable to handle such load because of which there were frequent system outages. This inability of the system to perform a workaround, caused corruption of database which finally resulted in shutdown of the company for two days. This became the defining moment for company’s top management to take the decision of implementing ERP.Implementation if ERP Selection of an ERP product Major Decisions Taken – Pulled out very vest people from their teams for implementationChose KPMG as integrated partner. KPMG saw the opportunity and gave their best people for this project. Took the help and guidance of large companies and research sources like Gartner group and sending out RFP to vendors, finally selected Oracle as a vendor. Approval from Board Two decisions necessary to be put in front of the board – Cost of the projectTime line of the project Through systematic research, taking all factors into consideration the cost was estimated to be $15 million and the duration was taken as 9 months. Implementation of Building Team 5 Tracks (Process area teams)TRACK – Cisco Information system leaderCisco business leaderBusiness and IT consultant (Oracle/KPMG)Additional personnel from business as team memberProject ManagerImplementation of Oracle CRP0 2 week training on oracle to understand technical specs. One small tiger team working on getting application up and runningResults –
Changes were required to fulfil gaps. Priority of ChangesCRP1Each track to make system work within specific areaGenerate detailed documentation for each process/issue. Results-Identified all the required modificationsStandard document to understand the projectFeasibility of product to handle the modificationCRP2 and CRP3Included all the major modifications Decide on after sales support packageResults-A centralised data warehouse to use all Cisco applicationsChanged company structure and process according to product Renumbered the productChanged Bill of material structureChanged most data according to new system Green signal to system GO-LIVEGO LIVEHardware issues Inability of software to handle the volume of transactions.Workaround by team Responsibility of vendor to solve hardware issue (without increasing the cost).Stress testing not done, which resulted in data leak. All IT team worked together for the next two months to solve all technical issues. Q1. What factors had made the difference between success and failure of Cisco ERP project?No shortage of funds, since the growth rate was huge and so were the revenues. Enthusiastic employees; agreed to change and adapt to the new environment along with putting great efforts to make the ERP project work. Support from the top management became one of the major reason for success of the project. Choice of selecting KPMG as the integration partner as well as Oracle as the implementation partner. Both were keenly interested in building up a successful ERP system. Q2. Where had they been smart? The initial decision to implement ERP project became a major decisionSelection of the team for implementation of the project.Selection of KPMG as an integration partner. The program manager from KPMG that headed the project was previously the director of an IT company that had put in various parts of the ERP system. Proper planning was done in phases (CRP) which enabled better control and timely completion of the project. Q3. Where had they been just plain lucky?No major accident took place from the loss or leakage of data during cut-over. The team they chose proved to be very efficient and hardworking. The failure of legacy system at the time when the team approached board for approval of ERP project. Q4. Do you think the CISCO team can do such a project again if they had to?Yes I think Cisco can handle such a project again. Few of the major reasons are – Smart and hardworking workforce. Support of the top managementTechnical Knowledge Huge amount of resourcesERP Life Cycle – Implementation and Support Activities at CISCO SystemsPre implementation ActivitiesSelection of integration partner – KPMG Seeking guidance from “Big Six” and the Gartner GroupPreparation of RFP to send out to vendorsConducted due diligence by visiting a series of reference clientsDemonstrations conducted by each vendorDeciding on a budget of $15 millionGetting the budget approved by the boardsProject preparationCISCO chose the best people to be a part of the implementation teamEstablishing Project Management Office and the Steering CommitteeWell defined structure of the teamThe project was made as the company’s top seven goals for the year.The implementation strategy was to do everything at one, instead of going for a phased implementation.The first task of the teams was to undergo rigorous “immersion” training in two 16 hour days for the entire application suiteBusiness BlueprintingThe team realized during CRP 0 that they needed significant number of changes for the software to run effectively.Documentation of all issues. Modifications tagged colour coded (Red, Yellow and Green) according to the severity.Each of the modifications went to the track leads and anything that was Red had to go the Steering Committee for approval.Customers and products were renumbered and bill of material structure was changed RealisationCustomization of the system. As a development for gaps another service support package for after sales support was chosen and its implementation also began.Testing of the system, both hardware and software, to see how well it would stand up to the processing loads and the transaction volumes required to run Cisco’s growing business.A final test was conducted with a full complement of users to see how the system would perform front to back, with a full transaction load.Final Preparation and Go liveThe cut over was scheduled for February after complete testing. The functional leads presented their piece of the process and said “yes” or “no” on whether they were ready to go.SupportContinues vendor commitment and support from Oracle, the hardware vendor, and KPMG, the integration partner led to an eventual stabilization of the software and improved performance.The president of the hardware vendor was their executive sponsor