System Integration Enterprise Resource Planning

Question: Discuss about the System Integration for Enterprise Resource Planning. Answer: Introduction Enterprise Resource Planning is one of the most effective integrated information systems that can easily manage a set of information system at a time and this aspect increases the efficiency of the information system with respect to organizational demands. This report is explaining about the system integration procedure involved in an organization. In consideration with the fact System Integration, this report is explaining about the system integration overview and about the challenges involved in this implementation. In addition to this, various benefits are also being explained in this report. All of these aspects are being elaborated with respect to a real life case study about UPS. System Integration Overview Developed business industries are growing up and getting improvised with the help of advanced information system. In the contemporary time, according to the need for information system involves a number of information systems within single system architecture. This issue is becoming a great problem within the technical industry (Qin et al. 2014). The system integration is mainly defined as the integrating element for utilizing variety of techniques (Computer Networking, business process management, manual programming and enterprise resource planning etc.). Steps Involved in Implementation of ERP ERP implementation requires ten stages to be implemented: Identification of problem, definition of scope of team, evaluation of the system, Migration of data, Check on infrastructure, Customization, change of management, Technological knowledge, project management and testing, final output measurement. Role of Management and ERP on System Integration Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is one of the most effective integrative system architecture that involves all the single information system working behind any system architecture (McWilliams et al. 2013). System Integration (SI) involves all the existing information system that is working and present a new information system. System Integration adds value to the system and increases the functionality of the entire system architecture. Therefore, the management of any specific organization has to participate for managing this application of system integration (Wegertseder et al. 2016). Management should take part to involve change management within the organization that will influence the employees. System Integration Challenges at UPS Difficult Modification: The modification process in integrating process of a set of existing information system decreases the chances of modification of the new information system that in terms reduces the system sustainability (Hossain et al. 2012). Inefficiency: There are a lot of association done based on the local communication medium within system integration that dont provides accurate information about the situation or about the issues. In contrast with this fact integration of such desperate information system reduces the efficiency. Cost Effectiveness: Desperate information system involves so many problematic situations within it that must be reduced in order to get appropriate results. These problem resolution increases the cost of the system integration (Shen et al. 2012). Partial Inoperability: Data structures of each information system are not same. Therefore, the combined system has less operability compared to the previous system architecture. Typical Challenges faced by UPS during System Integration Project There are mainly two specific challenges that UPS faced during the system integration process of the within their operations. Shipping Errors: UPS identified the shipping errors during the operations. The wrong addresses were being loaded into the box this transferred to a wrong location during the shipping (Wood 2011). Due to this mistake or automotive stage the system efficiency was reduced. The business driver affected for this issue. Mess within System Integration Process: The manual data entry involved into the system process required manual data entry but it was not going like that. All of the important data were being loaded automatically (Wood 2011). The significant system required redundant amount of data to be loaded into the system. System Integration Benefits at UPS Single Work Station: Integration of various system architectures involves difficult operations of work stations (Wood 2011). In contrast with this fact, the integration of system architectures involves single work stations that help to operate all the servers as well as other operations. Energy Saving: Different work stations and servers involves lot of energy within the system architecture. Therefore, the system architecture requires good amount of energy supply (Wood 2011). With the help of system integration process (Information system) it is possible to control the energy usages as well as system operability. Lowering of Labor Costs and Improvised Operations: Management of different platforms and work stations at a time requires huge amount of staffs that increases the workforce cost. This can be lowered with the help of integration of system architecture within any organization. Improvisation of response timing: Integration of the system reduces the response timing of system architecture. In terms this reduces the chances of errors within the system and operations (Wood 2011). Best Practices in UPS during System Integration Process Focus on Customers: UPS provide their important focus on their customer needs and demands. They offered new services and products to their valuable customers. Centralization of Data: UPS had chosen all the data to be centralized within their system integration process that introduces two new data centers for their operations (Wood 2011). Platform setting: Data platforms identified for this purpose were totally based on the IT platforms within their operating fields. Customer Benefits from UPS System Integration Process Accessibility of web-sites: This was the main benefit from the customer point of view resulted from the system integration of UPS (Wood 2011). The system integration translate the service to a better one that make the shipping of packages easy and easy tracking of services were introduced. The web-sites of UPS were easily accessible for the users. Conclusion This report has discussed the system integration process for the betterment of the technical development of any organization. In addition to this, the benefits and challenges of system integration process with a real life case study (UPS Case Study) has been described in this report. All of these have introduced a smart process of maintaining the different information system within single system architecture. System Integration Challenges are also elaborated in this report in order to highlight the negative sides of this technical aspect. References Bernardo, M., Casadesus, M., Karapetrovic, S. and Heras, I., 2012. Do integration difficulties influence management system integration levels?.Journal of Cleaner Production,21(1), pp.23-33. 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