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Course purge EssayThey ar universe Website, Manufacturing Support organisation (MSS), Human Resources System (HRS), and Sales and Marketing System (SMS). Public Website provides cultivation nigh apiece of the yields, locations where both(prenominal) integrity arse purchase them, and information about how to get indorsement support. Details of warranty support and defect rates atomic number 18 not tracked, only if the staff has anecdotal stories. The Manufacturing Support System (MSS) maintains the supply chain information necessary for manufacturing the unions carrefours, much(prenominal) as raw materials, vendors, and prices. The Human Resources System (HRS) maintains and tracks force and social welfargons information. And the Sales and Marketing System (SMS) track the sales and commercializeing efforts of the c totallyers sales force. Orders from this presidency are printed and sent daily to the MSS to be filled. As a senior member of the IT Management ag group for SAI Toys, I agree with the Board of bringors and the CEO determination to stay on the forefront of geekness, and therefore the company should integrate all ofits IT schemas.In addition, they want to develop a much robust Web armorial bearing and sell their products admitly to individual customers in addition to selling through traditional retailers, as they before long are doing. My good word is that we need to hire more staff if SAI Toys want to stay on the forefront. The company needs to hire professional computer specialist. The integration of recent the software program product into a newly grow IT system which utilizes in some cases first generation coding on legacy hardware female genitals create operational problems which in-ho determination IT staff may be nable to solve. SAI Toys is not in the computer business. While computers are essential to the intent, manufacture and marketing of their products, SAI Toys would be well served by having their IT sy stems vertically integrated and maintained in a cloud compute environment, eliminating most of their IT department employees in the process (Butcher, 2011). In this report, I pull up stakes show how the company should go about implementing this executive directive. The report should include the sideline sections.The report leave behind also outline the situation, weighs various alternatives, and I leave presents a final recommendation for the company. The report will also include the accepted IT system, overview of the recommended system, the difference between In House and Outsourcing reading, the stakeholders buy-in, the ERP project failed with less(prenominal)ons learned, and the companys ROL amp TCO. Current IT Situation To evaluate SAI Toys, victimization the basic analysis techniques will help us to have an overview of the company and its environment.SWOT is a tool that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. SAI Toys SWOT Ana lysis is to take the information from an environmental analysis and separate it into inborn (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats). The Strengths of SAI Toys are Experienced and successful marketing team, High marque recognition for their unique products, Substantial 25 member IT team, and Quality control ensuring positive consumer feedback.The Weaknesses of SAI Toys are extremely competitive marketplace, Extensive and continuing RampD investment, Cost containment, and Personnel embodys for IT staff (Butcher, 2011). The Opportunities of SAI Toys are Direct marketing and sales to consumers through company operated websites, Emerging international markets immediately ready to hand(predicate) through the internet, and Substantial IT court reduction through use of cloud computing. The Threats of SAI Toys are Loss of market share, Major competitors integrating vertically and selling direct, and Changing technology requiring escalating engineering cost (Butcher, 2011).The Competitive dodging Analysis is the second basis analysis technique to help us to have an overview of the company and its environment. SAI gougenot buckle under the curtain raising of IT system failure given the highly competitive market in which they operate. New product traffic pattern, manufacture, and marketing require that their IT system be fully functional 24/7 with no downtime. To stand up growth and revenue and stay ahead of potential competition SAI Toys will need to invest heavy in Research and Development (RampD) on an ongoing basis (Butcher, 2011).This will include upgrade investment in hiring skilled engineering personnel. Because SAI Toys creates unique products which may exclusively dominate a sharp segment of the market from which all of its revenue is derived, the introduction into the market of a competitors comparable product with enhanced features and lower retail pricing may severely move SAI Toys ability to fuck off sales and revenue (Butcher, 2011). Swimlanes Diagram AS-IS Diagram Overview of Recommended SystemThe various systems currently in place will be replaced or integrated into the new system. Assuming that SAI Toys has elected to develop an integrated IT system in-house utilizing its current IT structure plainly expanding operability to allow all four (4) distinct IT systems to communicate with to all(prenominal) one other, an Organizational cover Performance system evaluation is necessary which will derive quantitative objectives for quality and process action from the organizations business objectives (Butcher, 2011). The new system will be the ERP Implementation. in that respect is a bring of ERP Implementation. While ERP is clearly a software solution for SAI, its effectuation must be done on an incremental basis to limit interruptions to the existing business structure at SAI. Like all IT changes, problems quite a little and will develop. To minimize the partake on SAIs ongoing business operation the behaveance of ERP should follow during the lapses between product launches or product design and development stages and slaying should be accomplished on a step-by-step basis, one application at a time.Limiting IT installations and disruptions to non-critical time periods will take into account the least stressful adoption of the IT structure and allow SAI to maintain its revenue stream without incurring a loss (Butcher, 2011). There are numerous vendors who offer ERP software which would be easily configurable for SAIs proper(postnominal) requirements. Microsoft, Oracle, Sage, Exact, SAP, and Intuitive each offer ERP software solutions which stool manage companies like SAI with up to 1,000 users.Each of these ass incorporate e-commerce chopines into the take and supply chain and provide SAI Toys precaution with instantaneous information reports including warranty claims, product claims, and defective product losses to together with consumer feedback in real-time (Butcher, 2011). few new features in this system will include 1) better customer satisfaction 2) Increased profitability 3) Reduced costs ) Improved quality and processing times 5) Improved business culture by bridging the gap between the production line and circumspection 6) Improved business performance by decocting team members on eliminating dissolution across key business processes and workflows (Butcher, 2011). There are many companies out there that have successfully made the transition from a brick and mortar business to an E-Commerce. The E-Commerce can help the company grow and expand.An e-commerce platform can be utilise for advertising, production, supplier enquiries, negotiations, contracts, orders, billing, payments, and after sales service and other business activities in the process of interactive architectural plan management that can simplify the transaction process (Butcher, 2011). SOA would be of benefit to this project. A Service Oriented Arch itecture (SOA) design principle can be utilized during the phases of systems development and integration. A system based on SOA will package functionality as suite of interoperable service that can be utilize within multiple separate systems from the four separate systems.SOA also in general provides a way for consumers of work such as web-based applications to be aware of available SOA based services. For example, several(prenominal) disparate departments within a company may develop and deploy SOA services in incompatible implementation languages and their respective clients will benefit from a well understood, well defined user interface to regain them. SOA defines integration for widely disparate applications for a web-based environment and uses multiple implementation platforms (Butcher, 2011). Rather than defining an API, SOA defines the interface in terms of protocols and functionality.An end betoken is the entry point for such a SOA implementation. Service-orientation requires loose coupling of services with operating systems and other technologies that underlies applications. SOA separates functions into distinct units, or services, which developers make accessible over a network in order to allow users to combine and reuse them in the production of applications. These services and their identical consumers communicate with each other by passing data in a well-defined, shared format, or by corresponding an activity between two or more services.SOA is therefore a continuum as opposed to distributed computing or modular computer programming (Butcher, 2011). Swimlanes diagrams- TO-BE diagram In-House versus Outsourcing Development The benefits and costs of developing this system in-house versus outsourcing the development or purchasing ready-made are very important to consider. Off-the-shelf ERP packages are tested and proven performers which are an essential requirement for a company like SAI Toys which cannot throw the inevitable downtime ass ociated with fragmented software design and installation.On a cost benefit analysis basis the investment in purchasing an off-the-shelf ERP software package is substantially less than the cost of downtime and system inoperability where an in-house software design fails (Butcher, 2011). The ability of the software vendor to de-bug an off-the-shelf system can be respectd in minutes or hours versus the possibility and probability of several days of downtime with in-house developed software.The purchase price of an ERP software package can be amortized over a useful lifespan of five years or more and when compared to the prospective pass downtime of in-house developed software the advantages of an ERP off-the-shelf solution cannot be ignored (Butcher, 2011). To avoid as many pitfalls as possible in the overhaul of SAIs IT system it is recommended that SAI avoid in-house software development of this magnitude. While some of SAIs IT staff may be proficient in software development there are the issues of minimum and exacting standards employed in the industry which may not be a comity for in-house development.CCMI and ISO certifications should also impact the decision here. CMMI and ISO certification are an inherent part of these off-the-shelf software solutions which pop offs the unsure standards that may be employed in in-house software development (Butcher, 2011). We should develop the system by around best practices for managing the project type to having a better chance of success are Stakeholder Buy-in and Internal political sympathies The stakeholders of this system are essential. Once stakeholders are on board with the system development, they are likely to go along involved, supporting the program over its lifetime.We can get them to buy-in and support the system development by guardianship them informed throughout the process of the system, including during the evaluation planning, implementation, and reporting phases (Innovation Network, 2002-2012 ). Stakeholders are valuable assets in evaluation planning, fling * Assistance in decision-making about continued and prospective funding * Perspective that helps the program learn, grow, and improve, and * Experience that informs program replication at other sites or organizations.The Stakeholders fall into three levels of program participation or involvement. There are * Primary stakeholdersare typically major decision makers within a program, and are oftentimes the motivators behind an evaluation effort. They are often program staff, supervisors, senior managers, and funders. * Secondary stakeholdershave less receive with the administrative side of the program, but are still important to the evaluation effort. They include program participants and their families direct service staff and possibly other professionals providing subsequent services to program participants. Tertiary stakeholdersare more distant but are likely to be interested in evaluation findings for example, pot ential program participants, the general public, or members of the same profession (Innovation Network, 2002-2012). There are other issues that may arise as a result of the internal politics in our company that could have a negative impact on the project. The best thing to do is to reduce the risk of project failure due to internal issues. Many systems development problems are in practice caused by a failure to perceive that precise stakeholders viewpoints were relevant.That failure causes whole groups of requirements, typically those related to scenarios involving the missing stakeholders to be missed. A same result is obtained when one stakeholder assumes one scope for a product while another stakeholder assumes another. This occurs when a developer assumes that it will be commensurate to design, code, and test software but the purchaser hopes to have everything set-up and operators trained (Butcher, 2011). Stakeholder composition is a good forecaster of project risk and there fore it should be cost-effective to characterize projects at their initiation according to their stakeholder impact.SAI can minimize internal politics by fully evaluating each stakeholder and assuring them that their input is critical to the general success of the project. Each stakeholder then becomes part of the project team and has a vested interest in ensuring the net success of the project. Team meetings bring all of the stakeholders together to discuss differences and eliminate issues which would delay or stick out the project. Each team member realizes that their participation is equally important within their area of specialization or expertise fully under their direct control and unchallenged by direct confrontation.In this manner, each team member must demonstrate how their participation and overall cooperation contributes to the overall success of the project (Butcher, 2011). ERP Project Failures and Lessons Learned Studying ERP project failures is an essential part of project success. By identifying the same or similar issues that lead to failure in one company, SAI can take steps to avoid or eliminate those problems as they arise. Case studies also provide a precursor to the foreseeable problems that occur in ERP implementation allowing SAI management an opportunity to prepare for these problems by formulating a contingency plan.ERP project failures are common but this not unique to ERP. Every system has glitches regardless of the quality of design or the expertise of design personnel (Butcher, 2011). In the Case Study for Implementation Failure at Hersheys Chocolate it was conventional that Hersheys failed to use an incremental method of implementation, instead installing full software during periods of peak business. The resulting hazard from inoperability due to bugs and glitches resulted in a loss of peak season revenue for Hersheys. Both corporate management and IT staff developed an immediate dislike for the ERP implementation.This could easily have been avoided had Hersheys implemented the new software on a step-by-step basis during the off season when sales and revenue would have been less dramatically affected (Butcher, 2011). Hersheys also tried to implement a variety of green light applications simultaneously which added to the stress of a seemingly failed project. In fact, there was nothing wrong with the ERP software but its implementation was a complete failure as the company tried to modify their business processes to suit the enterprise application which created further problems.The lesson learned is that implementation should be conducted one step at a time, each successful Installation reinforcing managements initial decision to purchase. The ERP problems at Hersheys are usually repeated where management fails to realize the complexity of implementation and the necessity to proceed cautiously and maintain focus (Butcher, 2011). Return on Investment and Total Cost of Ownership Some metrics that we can use to determine if the system was a success is a disciplined methodological analysis has been developed calledtotal cost of ownership(TCO).It is designed to properly analyze the full cost of an IT investment. In order to calculate TCO properly, all related costs must be identified and captured. TCO models organize costs into two broad categories 1. Direct costsCosts in this category are usually for activities and investments that are related to IT or support. They can usually be calculated by examining the actual or projected costs of hardware, software, people, and facilities. 2. Indirect costsThese costs are not always visible and can be very difficult to measure and quantify.This type of cost crosses the entire organizations business operations. Some examples of these indirect costs are Administration, Downtime, and End-user operations (Devry, unknown). In order to measure the metrics and figure out when baselines should be determined, we should developed methodologies for deter mine TCO. The first methodological analysis is the Project initiation. This can be one of the most critical phases of a project. The reason why is because the following are determined the expectations of the client, the type of relationship the organization will ave with the client (This can influence the management costs. ), and the projects scope. Ideally, the objectives of the project should be defined at this stage, and the categories for TCO can be aligned with these project objectives. To determine the impact of any deviations from initial projections, an up-to-date TCO should be maintained at all times (Devry, unknown). The second methodology is the Cost Modeling. Through the entire TCO process a major activity is the TCO cost analysis. This continues to be fine-tune as new information becomes available during the project.This activity includes classifying the costs according to the fiscal policies of an organization as well as defining the financial model for the project. The third methodology is the Cost Collection. Once the financial and cost model has been determined, all available cost figures are collected. Once these are entered into the financial model, a baseline is determined. The total cost of ownership that is presented in this deliverable should be considered a snapshot in time. It is important that all stakeholders understand this and that the TCO may or may not change substantially from this point forward (Devry, unknown).The fourth methodology is Evaluation/Final Report. This is the development of a TCO project deliverable that goes to the organizations stakeholders and decision makers. It typically includes the final project evaluation and a correlation of all finding recommendations and results. The last methodology is Ongoing Refinement of the TCO Model. It is very rare for all costs and contract negotiations in a spectacular project to be finalized at the same time. Additionally, an implementation plan usually cannot be determine d at the same time as, or even immediately after, delivery of the final report.As a result, the TCO is an estimate of project costs based on the data and decisions available when the report was researched and written. As key decisions regarding rollout and implementation strategy are reached, the TCO model should be refined to include the most current project cost estimates (Devry, unknown). Another metrics that we can use to determine if the system was a success is Return on Investment (ROI). The ROI (return on investment) is how much profit or cost savings is gained. An ROI calculation is sometimes used along with other business practices to develop a business case for an IT proposal.The overall ROI for an enterprise is sometimes used to determine how well a company is managed. The work performed to determine the TCO can be used to calculate the ROI. Even though many TCO costs are long term, they can be utilise solely to the initial investment or divided between the initial inves tment and serve as an adjustment to the final value. While both methods are valid, they can give different results it is important that the organization establish a policy for ROI computations across all projects (Devry, unknown).One of the more difficult aspects of an ROI calculation is determining the soft, or people benefits. Three considerations that impact these soft benefits follow * Speed of adoptionThis benefit considers how apace employees come up to speed using the new process, system, technology, or tools provided by the implementation. It indicates how quickly employees demonstrate the new skills or behaviors and adapt to the new roles that are required by a change. * Ultimate utilization or participation rateThis evaluates the percentage of employees that are engaged and practicing the new way of doing things.Surprisingly, in many implementations, employees can avoid actively participating in workflows and procedures, and this can undermine the project in subtle ways. * advancementAs the change is implemented, this examines how proficient and effective the employees have become. Many times, this proficiency, or ability to better perform their job function, is a significant part of the changes original motivation. It measures not just the status after the change, but the ongoing improvement to the organization with the new systems, tools, and processes in place and the organizational and job changes fully implemented.Some examples include the time saved in performing a particular operation while using the new system, the improved close rate for sales and contracts brought by the use of a competitive information database, and the amount of waste reduced by new streamlined activities or processes (Devry, unknown). Conclusion In conclusion, my recommendation to SAI Toys is that they need to hire more staff if they want to implement this executive directive.If they cant afford it or can cope with integrating all of their IT systems, then I would sugg est they stick to manufacturing the toys in-house and shipped to brick-and-mortar retailers, such as Best Buy and Target, as well as e-Commerce only sites, such as ThinkGeek. com and Buy. com.