I.T. Sourcing and Development
Endothon’s outsourcing requirements and expectations for the outsourcing provider
The CEO and the board of directors of Endothon (CEO) explained through the senior I.T. team that a new ERP system (Corporate Resource Planning) was needed. The importance of this system is to ensure that it is very compatible with the taste of their client system. The assessment shows that corporate customers and all customers provide data processing systems, applications, and products on their ERP system (Almajali & Tarhini, 2016). The company must urgently configure and implement the ERP system in the next ten months so that it can survive in the market. If the company carries out strict planning of its business, it will outsource this service so that it can be updated, if necessary (Pati et al., 2018).
The main reason why the Endothon Company is trying to outsource this service is that the original ERP system supported by the United States is called Epicor. However, the system has been in operation for 18 years and is also old. The company tried to survive with this system by keeping up with the software system version, but the current system is behind with three versions of the latest update (Pati & et al., 2018). As a result, Endothon decided to use SAP as a confirmation of the ERP system. However, the version and type of platform are subject to vendors, which the company recognizes as a conclusion in its response to the call for proposals. The greatest future expected after the installation of the SAP ERP system is that the implementation can focus on accounting and financial control, personnel systems management, and business aspects.
The Future Need of the Endothon Company for SAP-ERP System
Endothon had high expectations from vendors who wished to bid on the ERP system design. They considered that vendors would provide the best plan for the project and their best activities, which they believed could achieve business objectives (Ali and Miller, 2017). These are some of the planned activities that the project should include, assessing the company’s current activities, its financial situation, its sales, its human resources, its customer service, and the technological environment in which it is tested, provide applications and software and Service methodology. Waiting for an assessment by Endothon’s organization and the structural team would ensure that these areas could adequately address current business needs to meet future ERP needs over the next five years in the United States. The expected aspect of defining a structure and a good governance strategy to control and ensure the best decision-making process for the project and the investment compared to the ERP project.
The legal framework and guidance must be able to support the company’s business objectives, which include the most suitable services for delivery contracts and management control (Kilic, Zaim & Delen, 2015). Connect with all levels of the company’s departmental management and other ERP stakeholders, including I.T. staff, who must be able to identify current and future functional requirements and their preferred business system by Endothon.
It is recommended that previously expected vendors improve their activity and ensure that they are able to effectively select, configure, implement, and maintain the highly functional ERP system that they respect and maintain the current and future needs of the distribution company (Pati & et al., 2018). Prioritize the proposed actions and guidelines to ensure that their projects are based on good business principles and practices. Organize modified seminars in corporate departments to provide preliminary findings and access additional business requirements. Endothon was awaiting reports of final results that included the following.
The five-year project plan, which contains the detailed budget used to try to install and maintain the surrounding ERP system (Pati et al., 2018). The roadmap of tactics, objectives, and certain objectives are combined to provide the functionality of the proposed system. The design of estimated costs is linked to the current supply supported by the system (Ali and Miller, 2017). The duration of the project and the hardware and software requirements, costs, and dependencies of the project’s implementation and the benefits derived from it. Human resources were a major concern, and the training required to fully implement the ERP plan. The final report should contain guidelines and information for the current monitoring and implementation of information about this ERP plan by the company. Consent to start a fully functional ERP implementation no later than ten months after signing the SOW.
Project Sponsors, Stakeholders, and The Steering Committee.
Stakeholders, sponsors, and the project management steering committee are the people interested in the results of the current project. Of course, they are members of the project team, managers, project managers, users, sponsors, and, ultimately, customers. Stakeholders are those who have made sure that they are investing in the project and that they are affected all the time. Their contribution can have a direct impact on the outcome of the project, necessary for its implementation (Chatzoglou, Fragidis, Chatzoudes & Symeonidis, 2016). There are several stakeholders in this SAP ERP system project that the Endothon Company wants to implement to meet the needs of its customers and ensure that they continue to compete with other companies around the world that offer the same services. The company is composed of Endothon executives with experience in several sectors, as indicated in the company’s profile. Members with experience in aviation and executive production. The CEO, with more than 30 years of experience in the international aviation sector, is Maria Sousa. The other interested party is the former Royal Air Force pilot and international aerospace manufacturer. He is the director of operations for Endothon, and his name is John Prescott.
Alice Trebold, who has 25 years of experience in materials and facilities management with many aircraft manufacturers, is responsible for the supply chain. Sam Goodwin, vice president of sales with over 23 years of marketing experience at Intercontinental Aerospace Bazaar. The company has Ann Scofield as vice president of human resources and has more than 20 years of experience in human resources management at intercontinental companies such as Axon, IBIS, and Unilever. CFO Kevin Cahill is responsible for overseeing all of the company’s national and intercontinental financial affairs. Jon Rasmussen is the company’s marketing director. Mei Lee is the new CIO and business expert with over 15 years of experience in leading innovative I.T. services for the assets of various companies. Long-term contracts with companies like Boeing, Cessna and Grumman are some of Endothon’s customers that guarantee the success of the project to get the right service and very quickly. Expansion to Western Europe and the U.K. due to long-term contracts could lead to the completion of the project to meet the needs of users and customers.
The vendor to whom I choose for the outsourcing contract.
The vendor I wish to subcontract in this contract is Bullzai Limited Company. The reason for choosing this vendor is that the company has clear work documentation. The company has a reputation for completing work before the program ends. The company is believed to have many resources that make it very suitable for this contract. The company’s great resource facilitates the quick supply of work to continue its outsourcing activities (Pati & et al., 2018). Bullzai Limited Company is a public company that operates on the Indian stock market with a market share of around 13 billion rupees. Due to the limited time allowed by the Endothon Limited Company, I chose this company because it implements the Oracle web application, which is generally very fast and offers very large configuration options, allowing customizable software for the company without exclusive costs for installation on-site (Pati & et al., 2018).
The company acquires fast and high integration of Oracle Web applications based on free, standard applications with SAP and other third-party applications. The company creates a clear roadmap to ensure that business intelligence is integrated into the ERP application system integration and the dashboard that monitors and reports performance, identifying and resolving exceptions. The company usually involves the steering committee in each phase before moving on to the next phase. This creates mutual trust and promotes accountability on both sides. The company offers an open window for financial audits to examine cost accounting and budget adjustments. They will also conduct a monthly financial review session to balance project costs and provide a solution if the project costs exceed 10% of the budget. Therefore, I can now justify that Bullzai Limited Company is outsourced to provide services to the Endothon Company, and I hope the company will achieve the desired project objectives (Pati & et al., 2018).
References
Almajali, D. A., & Tarhini, A. (2016). Antecedents of ERP systems implementation success: a study on Jordanian healthcare sector. Journal of Enterprise Information Management.
Ali, M., & Miller, L. (2017). ERP system implementation in large enterprises–a systematic literature review. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 30(4), 666-692.
Chatzoglou, P., Fragidis, L., Chatzoudes, D., & Symeonidis, S. (2016, September). Critical success factors for ERP implementation in SMEs. In 2016 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS) (pp. 1243-1252). IEEE.
Kilic, H. S., Zaim, S., & Delen, D. (2015). Selecting “The Best” ERP system for SMEs using a combination of ANP and PROMETHEE methods. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(5), 2343-2352.
Pati, R. K., Hashai, N., & Zahra, S. A. (2018, July). Outsourcing and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effect of Business Group Characteristics. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 12790). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.