REQUIRED: (a) As the CEO of PCSB, explain to your team each of the followings: 

(i) TWO (2) characteristics of ERP that could help to solve the company's problems, as indicated above?

(ii) TWO (2) aspects to consider when selecting an ERP solution provider for the company?

(b) Identify THREE (3) approaches that have been practised by PSCB in deploying the ERP system? Explain why each approach identified is crucial in minimising issues on its ERP project implementation?

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Following a series of mergers, PureChem Sdn Bhd (PCSB), a chemical manufacturing company, faced fragmented Information Systems (IS) among its ten business units. Each unit tracks its financial reporting data independently without integrating with other units' reporting. Users across the departments also have difficulty managing the data processing effectively as their respective department systems have distinct functionalities and system interfaces. A department needs to forward the request on reports from another department(s) that usually takes between 2-5 days to be made available. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) viewed SPP-ERP, a system that has become the industry standard, as a potential solution for PCSB. The ERP project team interviewed ten potential ERP vendors to find the best solution for its company before agreeing on SPP-ERP as the chosen solution. As the CEO indicated, "selection of ERP provider is one of the key crucial aspects to ensure successful deployment of an ERP system". The CEO was made aware that the critical business competitiveness in the chemical industry is the quality of customer service. Currently, the company's performance in handling customer orders is somewhat at par with its competitors. The CEO, however, worried about the company's ability to sustain its competitiveness in the next few years. Hence, PCSB planned its ERP implementation by considering enhancing processes that ultimately speed up its customer service. The focus of the ERP project was on rectifying issues in four essential business functions: materials management, production planning, order management, and financial reporting modules. These were the most problematic functions due to the fragmentation of information issue. Ideally, the team predicted reducing overall customer order processing time from 9 days to 4 days, even with greater efficiency. To realise the ERP project goal, PCSB appointed over 30 key team members in line with the complexity and scope of the project. Each team member reported the progress to the company's executive committee. The key teams comprised functional and technical consultants from the ERP vendor team. While functional consultants have an in-depth understanding of all the modules to be considered in the ERP system, technical consultant comprises ERP system experts with considerable information technology competencies. On Following a series of mergers, PureChem Sdn Bhd (PCSB), a chemical manufacturing company, faced fragmented Information Systems (IS) among its ten business units. Each unit tracks its financial reporting data independently without integrating with other units' reporting. Users across the departments also have difficulty managing the data processing effectively as their respective department systems have distinct functionalities and system interfaces. A department needs to forward the request on reports from another department(s) that usually takes between 2-5 days to be made available. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) viewed SPP-ERP, a system that has become the industry standard, as a potential solution for PCSB. The ERP project team interviewed ten potential ERP vendors to find the best solution for its company before agreeing on SPP-ERP as the chosen solution. As the CEO indicated, "selection of ERP provider is one of the key crucial aspects to ensure successful deployment of an ERP system". The CEO was made aware that the critical business competitiveness in the chemical industry is the quality of customer service. Currently, the company's performance in handling customer orders is somewhat at par with its competitors. The CEO, however, worried about the company's ability to sustain its competitiveness in the next few years. Hence, PCSB planned its ERP implementation by considering enhancing processes that ultimately speed up its customer service. The focus of the ERP project was on rectifying issues in four essential business functions: materials management, production planning, order management, and financial reporting modules. These were the most problematic functions due to the fragmentation of information issue. Ideally, the team predicted reducing overall customer order processing time from 9 days to 4 days, even with greater efficiency. To realise the ERP project goal, PCSB appointed over 30 key team members in line with the complexity and scope of the project. Each team member reported the progress to the company's executive committee. The key teams comprised functional and technical consultants from the ERP vendor team. While functional consultants have an in-depth understanding of all the modules to be considered in the ERP system, technical consultant comprises ERP system experts with considerable information technology competencies. On

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a i Two characteristics of ERP that could help to solve the companys problems as indicated above 1 Data Integration ERP systems are designed to integr... View the full answer