SAP Implementation (Essay Sample)

SAP Implementation: "NIBCO's" ˜Big Bang
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Overview
NIBCO INC is a plumbing supplier company and the management sought to change its old information system, but many consultants were against adoption of the big bang approach. The company management had to implement a new SPA R/3 in ten plants of the company (Brown et al., 2012). Similarly, the company had to revamp its supply chain to align the company with customer needs. Arising out of the need for a better supply chain process the need to implement a new information system appear. From 1995, the company sought to see the best way through which to achieve the objective of implementing a better information system. However, there were concerns that the company had an inadequate information system, and a consulting company stated that it was better to integrate the system change over 3 to 5 years but the company finally chose to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system through the big bang approach (Brown et al., 2012).
Reasons for implementation of ERP system
There was a need to harmonize information across the departments using the new ERP systems. Before adoption of the system there was little coordination, and various access points of data and information made it difficult to verify data. Furthermore, the company was expanding and hiring new employees and this required a better information system that would not stall when numerous changes were made. The ERP system was important to keep track of the on goings in the company and the management would have control over operations following the expansion. Thus, the use of ERP system would also enable the management to tackle issues better because information was more coordinated and this would in turn improve operation efficiency.
Pros and cons of the ERP system in NIBCO
There are various advantages of implementing an Enterprise Resource ERP system. NIBCO was able to manage cross functional operations better than the old system could handle. There is an increased user interaction especially during implementation and this eases upgrading to newer versions of the system (Phillips, 2013). Furthermore there was an integration of the whole system allowing easier communication and this improved efficiency. The system also became successful as the project intuition and implementation involved the company's personnel, consultants and application providers. Since it was able to keep track of activities, the ERP system enables the management to remove redundancies and improve efficiency (Kerzner, 2013). Nonetheless, the ERP system implementation cannot be replicated to other organizations and another company would have to make numerous changes in using the system.
Analysis and recommendation
Implementation of the projects utilizes an instant change over approach and this required the cooperation of employees, consultants and the management. According to Donagher, (2013) the approach is riskier as one mistake may derail the whole system , but ...