Erp Failure Cases
Signal International is a reputed multinational corporation based in Australia. The company has a few production plants in countries as far as China and India and they offer resources, franchising and inventory distribution services for a number of international brands including e local markets. The production plants manufacture and sell goods under the banner of "Signal International". When it comes to franchising of other brands each office acts independently without necessarily associating it with another local office in a different country. This means an office can handle staffing, the creation of jobs, manager training, create their own inventory storage processes and the organization of paper records in house if it wishes.
Of the many Erp Failure Cases I came across was the one at Signal International. The company decided to implement ERP systems for all its offices. They hired the services of E-Systems for the implementation an ERP software program called Global Lease. Their subsidiary company Tuukku was referred for consulting and tutorial services. The troubles started off right from the Implementation process. The ERP software is specialized in providing services for companies that follows common practices in all its offices. However Signal international did not have such a system. In addition they have acquired few companies who have their own ways and means of working. This contradiction did lot of mishap in the organizational procedures and the staffing issues didn't help much. People in the respective offices did not use ERP properly or it seems even research on how to do so. Instead they resorted to adopting their own style of working thereby making ERP's intervention meaningless and unproductive.
You cannot ignore the fundamentals of a system and hope if works anyway. Since any system transcends the parts that define it any individual can understand many seemingly different and unrelated systems by using the same principles and any one breakdown as what happened with Global lease can cause a failure.
Any system, no matter how large and complex, may be part of an even larger system and may it self consist of sub-systems that are in turn composed of even smaller systems. The most effective system is the one that can bring the various parts together harmoniously. In the future companies will know that programs should emphasize using a software program for productively rather than following their own practices or making up their own rules. When the first mistake has been committed the only option to avoid a second mistake.
|