AMERICAN COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Department of Business Administration

Course: MIS
Individual Assignment

Title : Assignment 2
Submitted to: American College of Technonolgy
Student Name Teketel Tarekegn Ambaye

Student ID 277-21A

December , 2021
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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 1. Question 1. What are the main challenges associated with implementing fully-fledged ERP, CRM, and SCM systems?

What are the main challenges associated with implementing fully-fledged ERP?

ERP is the technological backbone of e-business, an enterprise wide transaction framework with links into sales order process-
ing, inventory management and control, production and distribution planning, and finance. Even if it has many benefits such as
Quality and efficiency, Decreased costs, Decision support and Enterprise agility, it also has some challenges.

The costs and risks of failure in implementing a new ERP system are substantial. Most companies have had successful ERP
implementations, but a sizable minority of firms experienced spectacular and costly failures that heavily damaged their overall
business. Big losses in revenue, profits, and market share resulted when core business processes and information systems failed
or did not work properly. In many cases, orders and shipments were lost, inventory changes were not recorded correctly, an un-
reliable inventory levels caused major stock-outs to occur for weeks or months.

In almost every case, the business managers and IT professionals of some companies underestimated the complexity of the
planning, development, and training that were needed to prepare for a new ERP system that would radically change their busi-
ness processes and information systems. Failure to involve affected employees in the planning and development phases and to
change management programs, or trying to do too much too fast in the conversion process were typical causes of failed ERP
projects.

Insufficient training in the new work tasks required by the ERP system and failure to do enough data conversion and testing
were other causes of failure.

In many cases, ERP failures were also due to overreliance by company or IT management on the claims of ERP software ven-
dors or on the assistance of prestigious consulting firms hired to lead the implementation.

The failure of ERP systems or the inappropriate usage of the systems will definitely cause a huge loss for the organization and may
even lead to bankruptcy). For these systems to work they require substantial intellectual, material and managerial resources, a re-
design of business processes and patterns of work flow, and a process of mutual adaptation of the system and organisational
structure In changing business structure and organisational structure, it could be a whole re-engineering process to avoid silos and
systems that are not integrated. Policies and strategies might have to be written or modified to include the new structure. It will

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 sometimes involve some staff being laid off and some new ones employed. A lot of retraining of staff also takes place. All these
have to be done well for the implementation to be successful. In addition, ERP implementation involves many stakeholders; the
project manager, project team members (employees from various business units), internal IT specialists, vendors and consultants.

What are the main challenges associated with implementing fully-fledged CRM system?

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems integrate and automate customer-facing processes in sales, marketing, and
customer service, providing an enterprise-wide view of customers. Companies can use this customer knowledge when they in-
teract with customers to provide them with better service or to sell new products and services. These systems also identify
profitable or nonprofitable customers or opportunities to reduce the churn rate. The major customer relationship management
software packages provide capabilities for both operational CRM and analytical CRM. They often include modules for manag-
ing relationships with selling partners (partner relationship management) and for employee relationship management.

But it has some challenges. Most of them are implementation challenges. These challenges include

 Lack of communication

 Lack of organization wide use

 Lack of technology integration

 Cost

 Setting of clear goals

 Deployment type

 Training

 Convincing the organization to adopt the changes

 Handling data security

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  Moving away from old software

 Finding the CRM for the business needs and budget so on.

What are the main challenges associated with implementing fully-fledged SCM?

Supply chain management is a cross-functional inter-enterprise system that uses information technology to help support and
manage the links between some of a company’s key business processes and those of its suppliers, customers, and busines-part-
ners. The goal of SCM is to create a fast, efficient, and low-cost network of business relationships, or supply chain, to get a
company’s products from concept to market.

Though the benefits of SCM are many, challenges are also considerable.

Developing effective SCM systems has proven to be a complex and difficult application of information technology to business operations. So achieving
the business value and customer value goals and objectives of supply chain management has been a major challenge for most companies.

What are the causes of problems in supply chain management? Several reasons stand out. A lack of proper demand planning knowledge, tools, and
guidelines is a major source of SCM failure. Inaccurate or overoptimistic demand forecasts will cause major production, inventory, and other business
problems, no matter how efficient the rest of the supply chain management process is constructed.

Inaccurate production, inventory, and other business data provided by a company’s other information systems are a frequent cause of SCM problems. In
addition, lack of adequate collaboration among marketing, production, and inventory management departments within a company, and with suppliers,
distributors, and others, will sabotage any SCM system. Many companies that are installing SCM systems consider even the SCM software tools them -
selves to be immature, incomplete, and hard to implement.

2. Question 2. In managing information technology resources what are the main challenges facing IT managers and what are the
success factors that managers should embrace to meet the organizational goals?  

Now time, the IT manager has moved into the center of business operations. Necessity is the mother of invention, and with the pandemic leading to
mass remote working, IT managers have played an integral role in keeping us connected and safer using technology both new and old.

The days of the IT manager working from the side-lines is over. Whilst day to day service delivery is important, today’s IT manager must be proactive
and should play a central role in realizing a business’s strategic potential while delivering its competitive advantage.With new responsibility comes new
challenges – here are some of those in charge face today:

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 1. Evolving cybersecurity threats

Almost 91 percent of enterprises globally have reported an increase in cyber-attacks following the move to remote working,
according to a survey by VMware Carbon Black. In addition, 80 percent reported an increase in the sophistication of the at-
tacks. If a threat is successful, the financial, reputational and operational risks cannot be overstated, and businesses can’t afford
to take the threats lightly.

The vast and rapidly developing nature of cyber-security, coupled with a heavy day-to-day workload, means it can be difficult
for IT Managers to keep up with all the latest threats. To address this challenge, they should consider deploying advanced tech-
nologies and solutions such as SIEM and MDR, to help automate breach detection and prevention where possible.

2. Skills gap

The pace of innovation, the changing threat landscape and the recognition of tech’s key role in business is creating a signifi-
cant gap in the skillset needed to manage modern IT. According to research by the UK government, two-thirds of organiza-
tions have reported a shortage of skilled staff with the ability to manage cyber threats. But without action, gaps grow, which
means lower productivity, fewer sales, and a lack of innovation to name a few.

This lack of skilled professionals in areas like cyber-security can make building and retaining a full internal IT team prohibi-
tively expensive. In this case, co-sourcing can help businesses access the specific skills and experience they need on a cost-ef-
fective, flexible basis.

When approaching the board to secure budget for training, IT Managers must ensure they speak in commercial terms. They
need to clearly communicate and demonstrate the business benefits of additional training for technical employees or extra re-
sources.

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 3. Cloud computing

The global cloud market grew by 33 percent in 2020’s third quarter, in large part as a result of the changing world of work.
The benefits of flexibility and scalability are great, but IT managers must be involved in the decision-making process from the
outset to prevent budget waste and poor decision making, particularly around configurations and licensing.

For those already operating in the cloud and considering new services, it’s essential to consider security across the spectrum.
The best option would be a cross-platform, cloud-agnostic security solution which ensures complete enterprise security, re-
gardless of location.

4. Digital transformation

Digital transformation often bounces off senior leadership’s ears as a buzzword deemed too complex, vague, or expensive to
commit to. However, gaining a competitive advantage in 2021 means that IT managers must focus their efforts in aligning IT
projects to wider business and departmental strategies. The challenge for IT managers lies in driving forward the behavioral
change so that digital transformation and change is the norm and aligned to all operations

5. Outsourcing

Solutions can sometimes create new challenges. This is the case for businesses considering out- or co-sourcing work for skills
not available internally. While this may be necessary to manage skills gaps, IT managers must manage the concerns around re-
liability, accountability, and security.

Going forward, managers must have a strict assessment process in place to control this important investment, while also seek-
ing a real partnership with the outsourcing operations. The days of win-lose relationships are over, well, at least over for those
seeking to really drive their operations and the wider business forward.

6. New technologies

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 New, shiny technology which catches the eye of board members might not always be the best solution to a real or perceived
business problem or area of advantage. It’s all too easy to get swept up with thinking the business is missing out, but this is the
type of spend that creates risk and leads to relationship breakdowns between IT and other departments.

Therefore, it’s crucial that IT managers advocate for a seat at the table and be the voice of reason when thinking about such in-
vestments. They must use their skills and expertise to address this challenge and guide the business towards effective invest-
ment, instead of impulse buys that do little to support longer-term strategies.

7. Asset & data management

The more devices introduced into the workplace, the more monitoring, maintenance and security risks there are to control. This
scaled dramatically through Covid as organizations moved to agile working en-masse. Information governance programs and
mobile device management systems are crucial for managing assets and risk.

8. Hiring & retaining talent

A skills shortage in IT creates fierce competition for attracting suitable candidates, which can make it particularly difficult for
mid-sized businesses to retain their technical talent. It’s not just a higher salary which can tempt IT pros away, but workplace
benefits like flexibility, the opportunity to upskill and more manageable workloads.

For in-demand areas, mid-market businesses will likely find it difficult to offer the work, environment and salary required to
retain an expert with a niche skillset. Instead, consider what technical and strategic skills you really need to have in-house and
which you could access via outsourcing or co-sourcing, for example. Remote working has made the market for this is more
global than ever before.

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 9. Mobile device management (MDM)

The rise of homeworking has increased the use of personal and corporate devices, which can cause serious issues for IT man-
agers. While deploying a BYOD Policy may be seen as a cost-saving measure, it can cause a wealth of security headaches.
Malware intrusion, shadow IT, device loss or theft, data leakage and a lack of corporate visibility are just some the issues man-
agers will have to contend because of them.

For a mobile-first workforce, which we’re increasingly likely to see, managers must ensure they have the solutions in place to
see, manage and control these devices, and strong security policies – that staff are aware of – to back them up.

10. Business intelligence

Data-driven decision making is invaluable and has the power to completely transform any operation. However, while busi-
nesses are generating more data than ever before, most of it is unstructured so it can’t add any real value. Turning it into gold is
one of the greatest challenges facing IT pros right now and doing so can provide insight into every part of a business, from cus-
tomers and operations, through to the wider marketplace.

The challenges faced by IT managers are complex but interconnected. Solutions such as co-sourcing can be applied to issues
such as the skills shortage, and still this process creates fresh challenges. All said, what is fundamental to conquering potential
IT hiccups in 2021 is that managers are given a voice at the decision-making table. If senior leaders want to unlock the trans-
formative potential of tech during a transformative time, then it’s time to let the IT do the talking.

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