In order to survive in this competitive business world, every business must produce or provide not only a better product or service, they must also provide better customer service, minimize their production costs and overhead costs, have a more efficient management system, a highly reliable infrastructure…the list is endless. Many of these can be achieved through a customized enterprise resource planning system (ERP). ERPs serve as “one comprehensive database to house all of [the company’s] corporate information” so that “when you enter new information in one place, the system automatically updates related information.” However, if these systems are not implemented correctly with the necessary change in management of people and technology …show more content…
However, this exercise only served as an identification tool, they were not used to evaluate their current processes leading McDuncan and fellow managers to dangerously assume that their current MRPII system along with there other software packages were accurate and suitable for the new ERP system. They were unaware that they would have to reorganize their operations to fit the system. PowerIT chose the most popular choice today, to purchase a customizable off-the-shelf enterprise system provided by a vendor. The choice of vendor can make or break the success of the system. In this case, the business development manager, McDuncan, made a rash decision. First, he only invited three vendors for detailed presentations, only two of which, responded. Although McDuncan was not impressed by the two presentations, he still chose a final vendor. What he should have done was to continue his search for the right vendor for the company. He “did not consider that he had the option to stop, or review, the acquisition process at that point.” He also did not address his concerns with the CEO and the other senior managers who might have advised him to find a better vendor or even reconsider the project.
The three final options available to PowerIT are: 1) reimplement and modify, 2) consider vendor proposals to