Enterprise System Recommendation-Sugar Squared
Sugar Squared, Inc. manufactures candy in Riyadh and distributes its products throughout the KSA. The organization has over 300 employees in three locations. Its functional business units currently work in silos, with data pertaining to their various departments held in separate, legacy systems. The company’s revenues are growing, and it has an online retail site.
You have been tasked with recommending an enterprise system to senior management. Address the following:
Which type of enterprise system would you recommend? Why?
What are the benefits of implementing such a system?
What challenges do you foresee in implementing this system? How would you address these?
What are some of the vendors that offer such systems? Is there one that’s preferable given the organization’s needs? Why? What business factors should be addressed in order to make this determination? Explain.
Your well-written report should be 4-5 pages in length, not including the cover and reference pages. Use academic writing standards and APA style guidelines, citation must be at each paragraph, using at least 8 scholarly references, as appropriate.Use extra analysis when you explain.
Introduction to the case
Sugar Squared, Inc. is a renowned candy manufacturer in KSA. The firm has more than 300 employees, and it operates from three different locations in KSA with its headquarters in Riyadh, KSA. Sugar Squared, Inc. uses silos for its production units but the company has separate data centers, and the department collects, organizes, and keeps a record of organizational data. Sugar Squared, Inc. supplies its candies in the entire country three these three locations.
One of the most exciting things about Sugar Squared, Inc. is that it has online marketing and advertisement services along with a retail website even though it is a medium-sized organization. The performance of the company is satisfactory, and its profit is increasing along with its revenue and sales.
The study seeks to provide an efficient enterprise system for senior management of Sugar Squared, Inc.
The recommended type of enterprise for Sugar Squared, Inc.
The type of enterprise that best suits the situation is ERP (enterprise resource planning) for SugarSquared, Inc. A medium-sized production unit intends to increase its business in the coming years. Therefore, the ERP (enterprise resource planning) is a good option for SugarSquared, Inc.
The primary reason behind the selection of ERP (enterprise resource planning) type enterprise for SugarSquared, Inc. is that Sugar Squared, Inc. will be able to make coordinate among a different unit of the enterprise in real-time. It has just three locations in the current scenario, and it is distributing candies to the entire nation through these locations. ERP (enterprise resource planning) will make it easier for the enterprise to supply information among different departments by coordinating and integration specific processes and as a result, better decision-making can be done at a specific time.(Akhavan, 2015).
In the same manner, the ERP (enterprise resource planning) would improve the financial condition and brand name of SugarSquared, Inc. in terms of resources and expansion.
The primary advantage of the ERP (enterprise resource planning) is that it protects the personal property and assets of the owner from lawsuits. However, SugarSquared, Inc. would require paying a little more filing fees for ERP (enterprise resource planning) (Crispim, 2015).
Benefits of Implementing ERP (enterprise resource planning) system
Some of the potential benefits Sugar Squared, Inc. can enjoy through ERP (enterprise resource planning) include:
Easy to Initiate
The ERP (enterprise resource planning) is easy to initiate. There are fewer legal requirements for Sugar Squared, Inc. to form an ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise. Likewise, the parties forming ERP (enterprise resource planning) need to register their ERP (enterprise resource planning) for taxation, and it is a straightforward process. Sugar Squared, Inc. and its partners can easily do these using online forms (Johanson, 2015).
The share of burden or workload
Sugar Squared, Inc. can form an ERP (enterprise resource planning) to share its workload. Because in ERP system work is distributed among departments and each department carry out and integrate it can use the resources and links of its partners to expand its business. The major issue for Sugar Squared, Inc. is that it has just three locations and it has to distribute candies to the entire country from this location. Forming ERP (enterprise resource planning) would make it easy for Sugar Squared, Inc. to increase its number of locations and in the business expansion (Su, 2015).
Improved-decision making
Another advantage of an ERP (enterprise resource planning) is that it would help Sugar Squared, Inc. to improve its decision-making process. The exchange of ideas and debates from different departments often results in useful and innovative ideas. Therefore, Sugar Squared, Inc. can improve its decision-making process through an ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise (Kamalahmadi, 2016).
Improved knowledge, skills, and contacts
ERP (enterprise resource planning) will help Sugar Squared, Inc. to improve its skills, knowledge through sharing of ideas and experience among partners. Likewise, it would improve the links and create new contacts for Sugar Squared, Inc. Sugar Squared, Inc. can improve the skills and talent of its employees by giving them combine training and through an employee exchange program.
Less legal obligations and lawsuits
Need to form ERP (enterprise resource planning) to protect its assets and liabilities. Moreover, it would help the organization to avoid various lawsuits (Kamalian, 2015).
Challenges in implementing an enterprise system
Some of the potential challenge Sugar Squared, Inc. can face during the implementation of the ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise system include:
No legal status of the business
One of the potential challenges for Sugar Squared, Inc. undergoing ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise is that an ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise has no legal status of its own. The death of one of the partners of such enterprise type can dissolve the legal status of Sugar Squared, Inc. Moreover, it has to face various legal complications while undergoing an ERP (enterprise resource planning). Sugar Squared, Inc. would need to hire legal experts or it can take services of various enterprise service providers to understand the legal requirements and complications before moving towards ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise style.
Limited capital access
Another challenge for Sugar Squared, Inc. undergoing into ERP (enterprise resource planning) is limited access to capital as compared to a limited enterprise. The primary reason is that banks and other monetary institutions would do more scrutiny for Sugar Squared, Inc. before lending a loan to it (Mazur, 2016). In the same manner, the insurance companies would do more scrutiny for Sugar Squared, Inc. The firm has to prepare various additional documents to get access to these funds. In the same manner, SugarSquared, Inc. may need to hire more people in its finance department to deal with its financial matters. It would increase its operational cost and reduce the scope and profit margin of the business.
Some vendors offering ERP (enterprise resource planning) system
Some of the potential vendors that can offer ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise system to Sugar Squared, Inc. in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia include NEC Saudi Arabia, ABANA Enterprise Group, Advanced-Data Systems, SAP Software Solutions, SUSE, Ejada, Odoo, and Logicom Distribution (Kulińska, 2014). All these vendors are providing consultancy and field services to organizations looking to go for ERP (enterprise resource planning). Sugar Squared, Inc. can take services from any of these vendors to understand the complete pattern of undergoing ERP (enterprise resource planning). These vendors would help the organization to understand the pros of cons of an ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise in detail.
Conclusion and Recommendations
To conclude, the report recommends the senior management at Sugar Squared, Inc. undergo an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to ensure its operational success and to improve the growth and expansion of the organization. The proposed enterprise system would help the organization to limit lawsuits and improve its distribution in the KSA. Moreover, the company can open new branches in the country to enhance its business.
Another option for Sugar Squared, Inc. is to find an international partner to become a multinational organization. However, it would require numerous documentation and surplus funds to move towards an international ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise. ERP (enterprise resource planning) enterprise style would help Sugar Squared, Inc. to improve the skills and abilities of its employees and it can use the skills and experience of its partner’s employees to improve its performance. Nevertheless, it is not an as simple a process as it seems because it includes numerous legal and financial complications and challenges.
References
Akhavan, P. B. (2015). FQSPM-SWOT for strategic alliance planning and partner selection; a case study in a holding car manufacturer company. . Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 21(2), 165-185.
Crispim, J. R. (2015). Stochastic partner selection for virtual enterprises: a chance-constrained approach. International Journal of Production Research, 53(12), 3661-3677.
Johanson, J. &. (2015). Internationalization in industrial systems—a network approach. . In Knowledge, networks and power Palgrave Macmillan, London., 111-132.
Kamalahmadi, M. &. (2016). A review of the literature on the principles of enterprise and supply chain resilience: Major findings and directions for future research. . International Journal of Production Economics, 171, 116-133.
Kamalian, A. R. (2015). Cooperation networks and innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). International Journal of Management, Accounting and Economics, 2(3), , 233-243.
Kulińska, E. (2014). CREATING THE NETWORKING ENTERPRISES-LOGISTICS DETERMINANTS. LogForum, 10(2).
Mazur, V. V. (2016). Innovation clusters: Advantages and disadvantages. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 6(1S), 270-274.
Su, W. H. (2015). Integrated partner selection and production–distribution planning for manufacturing chains. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 84, 32-42.