SAP is a software company whose main product is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. SAP was founded in 1972 in Walldorf, Germany under the name System Analysis and Program Development. (SAP) SAP has more than 54,000 employees with sales and development locations in more than 50 countries. Their revenue in 2010 was € 12.5 billion and based on market capitalization, SAP is the third largest independent software manufacturer. SAP has over 176,000 customers in over 120 countries and markets and distributes its products and services primarily through local subsidiaries. (SAP) ERP software is designed to model and automate many of the basic processes of a company, from finance to the shop floor, with the goal of integrating …show more content…
(Hirt and Swanson, 250) Another benefit companies receive from using an ERP is standardized processes and consistent data. This is important in the energy sector and the oil and gas industry because it allows the business to move rapidly to new markets as well as adjust workloads among offices. (Anderson et al., 119) an ERP system will provide managers with pertinent and timely information on when assets need to be replaced among others which will improve the quality of their decisions. (Anderson et al. 119) With the recent financial scandals, vendors that market ERP have taken advantage of the increased focus on internal controls that grew out of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation. These vendors, including SAP, emphasize that a key feature of ERP systems is the use of “built-in” controls mirror a firm’s infrastructure. They argue that these built-in controls will help firms improve their internal control over financial reporting required by SOX. (Morris, 129) The results of this study shows that companies who use an ERP system are less likely to have an internal control weakness reported for SOX Section 404. This supports the claim that ERP systems help improve internal controls over financial reporting as required by SOX Section 404. Firms with an ERP implementation are less likely to contribute to the internal control weakness on both entity-wide and account-level controls than for firms without.
Pros. An ERP system is a necessary investment for Riordan because it integrates all departments and their respective functions across the organization into a single IT system (UMaine, 2009). There are three main benefits of ERP systems that directly address problems with Riordan’s operations. One benefit is a logical solution to a mess of incompatible applications currently in use by the organization. ERP also allows global access and sharing of organizational data as well. Additionally, implementing an ERP system will help the organization bypass the difficulties and expenses of replacing legacy systems (UMaine, 2009). An analysis of Riordan’s current issues with its Finance
The adoption of the ERP software package throughout the enterprise will have a positive effect on the company. Through the elimination of data conversions and manual data reentry, the company can significantly reduce the time it takes to complete the monthly General Ledger, Income Statement, and Balance Sheet reports. The adoption of a single system instead of three will save Riordan money by reducing the IT staffing needs as it
Today Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is extensively adopted by many organizations regardless of kind and size, mainly because it provides enterprise-wide view of information across all their business operations and help organizations achieve consistency across all their functional departments. The potential benefits of ERP system implementation include improved coordination across functional areas, increased efficiency, reduced operational costs, rapid access to information for decision making, managerial control and support for strategic planning.
Adoption of an ERP system enables an organization to eliminate dozens or even hundreds of separate systems and replace them with a single, integrated set of applications for the entire enterprise.
The most argumentative aspect of the SOX is Section 404. Section 404 requires management and external auditors to report on the competence of the company’s internal control over their financial reporting as an overall effort to reduce fraud and restore integrity to the financial reporting process (Chen, Smith, Cao, & Xia, 2014; Chang, Wu, & Chang, 2008; and Morris, 2011). In light of the SOX and internal control requirement, companies began turning to the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to assist in better controlling and handling financial
Most of the information that was used to compose this paper was taken from prior ERP articles, online reference tools, and ERP books.
In case study III-4, titled “ERP Purchase Decision at Benton Manufacturing Company, Inc.,” describes in detail what a major manufacturing company experiences while considering a substantial investment with the implementation of an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. Among the company’s management personal opinions vary, some doubt the need of such a system while others support and justify the expense. The question at hand; whether or not to implement a costly system with a lengthy transitioning phase? In his attempt to answer this question, Walter McHenry, CEO and President of Benton Manufacturing has formed a two man team to investigate and further
Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) is the core system of any company. In order to facilitate all departments in a manner to improve issues, there are a few things that must be meet to successfully utilize a software system such as ERP. This allows any member within the company to access a single and centralized data source with information regarding products, services, customers and suppliers (Sadrzadehrafiei, Chofreh, Hosseini, & Sulaiman, 2013). The ability to share and access one software benefits the company to improve in areas such as sales and marketing, customer satisfaction, human resources, operations, and more. In addition, business intelligence tools such as ERP systems provide the techniques and solutions managers need to analyze and understand complex business situations, and simplify decision making processes that is of crucial importance during times of financial and economic crisis (Antoniadis, Tsiakiris, & Tsopogloy, S. 2015). This paper explores the definition and functions of an ERP system and the successes and costs of implementation.
"Enterprise Resource Planning is an integrated information system that serves all departments within an enterprise. Evolving out of the manufacturing industry, ERP implies the use of packaged software rather than proprietary software written by or for one customer. ERP modules may be able to interface with an organization's own software with varying degrees of effort, and, depending on the software, ERP modules may be alterable via the vendor's proprietary tools as well as proprietary or standard programming languages" (pcmag.com). After researching companies who offer ERP solutions, I have decided to cover the following; SAP, IBM, AMS, and Oracle.
In today 's competitive environment, organisations need to be reformed to get competitive advantages. The most efficient and effective way to achieve this goal is to introduce a new information system (IS). Chen et al (2012) One of the big systems is enterprise resources planning which is an application software which has a broad set of activities supported by many modules that integrates all business processes and data into a single system which helps businesses keep track and access to all their daily data. Jalal, a (2011)
Defined by Investopiedia.com,” Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a process by which a company, usually a manufacturer, manages and integrates the important parts of its business. An ERP management information system integrates areas such as planning, purchasing, inventory, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, etc. (Investopedia).Today, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are extremely important, especially towards the Manufacturing Business. Looking back at the history of manufacturing solutions, the industry began with Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) systems that, similar to ERP systems, were used for enhancement and basic
SAP, is a company who started in 1972 formed form five former IBM employees in Mannheim, Germany, states that it is the world's largest inter-enterprise software company and the world's number 4 independent software supplier.
According to Leimbach (2008), the success of the German company, SAP AG, leads to its enterprise creating software called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP / SAP ERP) that equips a company with an integrated solution combining the essential business functions of the company itself. The purpose of this report is to analyse the application of System Analysis and Program Development hence, known as SAP / SAP’s ERP systems in business organisations, investigate the challenges and benefits within the SAP’s ERP systems environment, also provide which application suits the SAP’s ERP systems. This report will focus on three main scopes, which are the overview, the challenges, and benefits and recommendation for SAP’s ERP systems application.
SAP is a German based company that is successful in selling ERP systems to businesses. It is stated to have been established in April 1st 1972 in Mannheim by five former employees of IBM Germany ;Hans-Werner Hector, Klaus Tschira, Claus Wellenreuther, Dietmar Hopp, and Hasso Plattner ( Liembach 2008,p.61).
For our research project we interviewed subjects who work all over the globe with companies having millions of dollars in revenue. The subjects have worked extensively with ERP applications, implementations and maintenance with more than 5 years of working experience in this field. Out of these 5 companies researched, 3 of the companies are in the IT sector, 1 is a manufacturing company and 1 is an energy company. Hence, our report contains views covering various domains which implement ERP. All the companies use a streamlined business process which is built around customer requirements, company strategy and which use the company’s resources to the fullest potential. Electronic documentation is used as