The Supply Chain

As Turban, Leidner, Mclean and Wetherbe (2008) noted, problems along the supply chain may occur because of uncertainties or from the need to coordinate various activities, internal units, and business partners. A solution that an organization can apply in order to deal with and solve various problems and improve its supply chain constitutes Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). “An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a generic term for an integrated computing system. It is a customized packaged software-based system that handles the majority of an enterprise’s information systems requirements. It is a software architecture that facilitates the flow of information among all functions within an enterprise. It sits on a common database and is supported by a single development environment. ERP systems are customized to support an organization’s business processes” (Watson & Schneider, 1999, p.3). For universities and educational organizations, ERP constitutes an information technology solution that integrates and automates admissions, recruitment, student records, financial aid and most academic services such as admissions, registration, recruitment as well as administrative services such as human resources, accounting, payroll, etc. (Rico, 2004). The implementation of an ERP can provide great benefits to an educational organization and can help improve its supply chain. An important benefit of ERP is that it provides greater levels of flow. In specific, ERP provides greater levels of information flow along with a higher quality of information and hence, it allows the educational organization to rapidly transfer information from one place to another and in fact, when information is transferred quickly and efficiently, the organization will be able to act on the data within a short period of time (Exforsys Inc, 2000). An ERP also increases cost effectiveness. Although an ERP installation requires a huge initial investment and adequate training, it reduces significantly the cost of operations in an organization (Srivastava, 2009).

Moreover, ERP systems enhance the work efficiency. Specifically, ERP systems enhance the efficiency of the whole organization by smoothly integrating its various divisions while they also help reduce paper documents and provide an online format for quick storage and retrieval of information (Srivastava, 2009). ERP can improve workflow and efficiency and for instance, following completion of online requisitions, workflow processes can forward the form along the approval path more rapidly than with traditional paper methods and this is something that can reduce the likelihood of missing documents and return quick feedback on the status of a request (Swartz & Orgill, 2001). Furthermore, ERP is powerful because it allows an organization to become highly flexible and hence, be able to quickly adapt to changes that occur and in fact, flexibility is very important today and if organizations are not flexible, it will be difficult for them to stay competitive (Exforsys Inc, 2000). The multiple software modules of the ERP aid the coordination of various functions in an organization and this integration provides an opportunity for the various divisions to share a unified database while it also ensures proper communication within the organization (Srivastava, 2009). As Srivastava outlined, “This centralization of data in one place eliminates the problem of synchronizing the changes made by different departments and people. It also reduces the risk of loss of confidential data, by applying difficult-to-crack network security models. ERP systems also provide an efficient method for data recovery, in case of a system crash” (¶4) Additionally, as Rico (2004) noted, with ERP, the new systems offer improved services for staff, faculty, and students and involve less cost and risk than legacy systems while also, academic, administrative, and student data are standardized and the educational organization’s data is globally accessible over the Internet. ERP systems can also provide controls and program alerts and for instance, alerts can use automated email to warn budget managers about budgets that are in danger of running out of funds while also, similarly, controls can be implemented in order to prevent individuals for overspending budgets (Swartz & Orgill, 2001). As King, Kvavik and Voloudakis (2002) noted, institutions of all types and sizes found benefits of their ERP implementations such as improved service levels, and enhanced accountability because of better and more easily accessible information. Moreover, additional benefits of ERP systems may include reduced staff requirements, improved admissions, increased student enrolments, shorten cycle time of school processes, enhanced school security, cutting down costs and employing less labour, increased cost-efficiency and making school operations cost effective, and improved counsellor productivity (Softforall.com, 2009).

References

Exforsys Inc. (2000) The Advantages and Disadvantages of ERP. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from http://www.exforsys.com/tutorials/erp/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-erp.html

King, P., Kvavik, R.B. & Voloudakis, J. (2002) Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in Higher Education. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERB0222.pdf

Rico, D.F. (2004) ERP in Higher Education. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from http://davidfrico.com/rico04f.pdf

Softforall.com (2009) School Management ERP System Description. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://www.softforall.com/SoftwareDev/SourceCode/School_Management_ERP_System08100068.htm

Srivastava, S. (2009) Benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Retrieved February 28, 2010, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/benefits-of-enterprise-resource-planning-erp.html

Swartz, D. & Orgill, K. (2001) Higher Education ERP: Lessons Learned. Using this framework for ERP could save your University millions of dollars. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0121.pdf

Turban, E., Leidner, D., Mclean, E., & Wetherbe, J. (2008) Information technology for management: Transforming organizations in the digital economy (6th ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Watson, E.E. & Schneider, H. (1999) Using ERP Systems in Education. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 1(9). Retrieved February 25, 2010, from http://www.student.seas.gwu.edu/~sachinkp/OrgScience/a3-watson.pdf