Erp System Case

The main reason behind NIBCO's decision to implement an organization wide ERP system was to integrate all the operations of the organization over an integrated, single platform, so that problems related to coordinating information and data from standalone systems can be eliminated and the organization can function more efficiently. The company's existing systems were obsolete and were not efficient enough or suitable to meet the growing needs of the organization. The entire supply chain process had to be strengthened in order to meet customer needs and thus, it was imperative that the organization move towards a centralized and integrated platform.

The decision of the company to move towards a cross functional, matrix structure in order to support the integration of the organization's functions and processes for implementing new ERP software was a good move as the re-engineering process was necessary to eradicate obsolete practices and adopt best practices in the organization for supporting this new initiative.

The company's decision to involve representatives from various functional areas to evaluate the various alternatives was also a good decision as it allowed the end users to evaluate the prospective system from their own need's perspective. This process also helped in securing their commitment and buy-in towards the new change.

It was a risky decision on part of the organization to speed up the implementation process by pulling best employees from their regular work towards the project as it would have disrupted the organization's day to day work and processes. Although, it was of strategic importance to complete the implementation as quickly as possible, this move was certainly a high risk-high reward scenario. However, I think that the company made a good move in deciding to speed up the implementation because the three to five year period would have been risky and would have resulted in loss of significant competitive advantage. In order to make such strategy a success, the company needs to focus strongly on clarification of roles and responsibilities to the employees for managing their day to day work versus project related responsibilities efficiently. The company's decision to pull out senior personnel from the operations without any backfilling could put a dent to customer satisfaction. Hence, it was imperative that adequate backup should have been provided for the functions or processes that gave their important personnel to the project team.

The company did a great job in assigning leadership to experienced personnel for technology, change management and coordination areas as it allowed the organization to equally focus on each of the strategic areas for successful implementation.

One of the problematic areas was the selection of implementation partner that did not believe in company's big bang approach. For successful project implementation, it is important