Assignment: Milestone Two Guidelines- Service-Oriented Architecture
Submit a paper discussing the three major ERP vendors: SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics. Compare the SOA in a table format, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each system. Discuss which system you would recommend for your organization and your rationale and justification for your decision.
Specifically, the follow critical elements must be addressed:
- Comparison between the three major ERP vendors
- Advantages of the various ERP vendors
- Disadvantages of the various ERP vendors
- Recommendations and Rationale for decision making-a comparison between the three major ERP vendors and a recommendation for your
organization.
Project One: Board Presentation: Overview
Organizations in every industry are continually attempting to streamline business practices and processes, efficiently allocate resources, and improve overall business value. More and more, information technology (IT) provides the best solutions for organizational issues, making it important for IT professionals to gain an understanding of resource management and business needs, both at the procedural and technical levels. As such, your project for this course centers on the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. You will be constructing a proposal for decision-makers that explains the function and value of such systems and will develop a basic structure and implementation plan for an ERP system catered to the organization outlined in the scenario below. This project will provide you with the opportunity to highlight the value of ERP systems and to make recommendations for improving enterprise resource management in an organization.
The project is divided into five milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules One, Three, Five, Six and Seven. The submissions will occur in Modules Eight and Nine.
In Project One, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
• Integrate software and technology used in collecting, storing, and sharing data into cohesive enterprise resource management systems
• Evaluate the effectiveness of tools and technology for managing enterprise resources within specific industries
• Assess the extent to which existing and proposed information systems have the potential for consolidating technologies and successful integration into organizationalenvironments
• Analyze existing and proposed business processes for opportunities to improve efficiency across enterprises
• Construct enterprise resource planning proposals that address organizational needs and optimize business processes
Scenario
Imagine you are the IT director of the George Washington School District, a 30,000-student district spanning 30 elementary, six middle, and four high schools. As the district expands, you are continuously trying to improve the use of technology across the schools, specifically in the areas of resource and information management.
The superintendent has informed you that the district was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve technology within the district, and the board is awaiting your determinations on what improvements may best serve the district. After meeting with the IT staff and talking to faculty and staff across the district, you have decided that integrating a district-wide ERP system would be the best use of the grant.
Currently, data is stored centrally in the district office as well as in each of the 40 school databases. The IT team provides maintenance and support for the student information system, a district portal, 40 individual school websites, voice-over-internet protocol (VoiP), and the individual district office departments. The district office consists of the human resources department, budget, maintenance and operations, accounting, information technology, education technology, child welfare and attendance, risk management, special programs, and the special education department. The student system consists of a 2014 SQL Server with a Microsoft Access front end database. The business system is a proprietary system that runs on an IBM AS/400 Mainframe.
Ideally, you would like to connect the following systems: student information system, human resources system, payroll, research and assessment, and risk management. In order to appropriate the recent funds to implement the ERP system, you must brief the school board at the next meeting on your proposal and the value of enterprise resource planning for the district. Additionally, you must construct a proposal detailing how the funds will be utilized and the steps for implementation of an ERP system. While the board members will be primarily concerned about your presentation and your expected allocation of funds, IT staff will need the detailed proposal to prepare for implementation and potential challenges. Therefore, it is important to balance the technical needs with the organizational needs while drafting your written proposal in order to connect with both audiences. Be sure to provide the appropriate resources and examples for support when necessary. In the professional IT world, research is key, and supporting your claims becomes one of the most successful means of persuasion.
Prompt
Your board presentation must address the following prompt: What value could the ERP system provide the George Washington School District and, in general, how do you plan to allocate the grant funds?
Specifically, the follow critical elements must be addressed:
I. Introduction:
a) Summary of Issues: Summarize the IT issues that the district is facing because of its lack of an ERP system. In other words, provide a brief assessment of the existing information systems (the technology/software/hardware) used throughout the district and how effective or ineffective the current systems are. Explain your reasoning, and provide examples or instances of issues to substantiate your claims.
b) Current Business Processes: Analyze the current high-level business processes (the procedure that each terminal, such as each school, employs to store and analyze information, for example) used in relation to the flow of information shared across the district to identify areas that could be altered to improve efficiency.
c) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems: Provide an overview of enterprise resource planning systems. Specifically, review the concepts of ERP for board members to facilitate their understanding of the purpose and functionality of the concepts. Be sure to address the following questions:
i. What is ERP and what is itspurpose?
ii. What are the leading tools?
iii. What are the types of systems that you can connect to ERP systems?
iv. What types of reporting can ERP systems produce?
II. Examples of Use: What other organizations or school districts utilize ERP systems? Provide a brief evaluation of that organization's use of a particular ERP system/tool for managing enterprise resources. To what extent has the implementation within this organization improved the management of resources?
III. Pros/Cons of Implementing ERP: Weigh the pros and cons of implementing an ERP system for George Washington School District. Some areas to consider include cost, limitations of reporting, and impact(s) on current users and process.
A. Limitations: Assess the extent to which there are limitations of ERP that will not allow for consolidation and successful integration of all existing and potential systems. Will the ERP system be able to connect to all systems? Is there any information that might be difficult to obtain from the ERP system? How can you address these limitations? Provide sources relevant to the scenario to support your claims.
B. Key Considerations: For George Washington School District, what are the key considerations before implementing an ERP system? What level of implementation needs to happen (full, partial, etc.)? What software purchases are necessary? Will you need to purchase software to implement the ERP design?
C. Integration of Software and Technology:
1. Integration: How will you handle implementation? Outline a brief big-picture plan for handling integration of software and technology that attends to the key considerations around data collection, storage, and sharing across the district. To what extent will you need to integrate different software and technologies?
2. Organizational Needs: What organizational needs and factors need to be considered when planning for integration? Will you need to hire a consultant to ensure proper implementation or will your IT staff be able to support the new system? What type of training will be required for your users and who will have access to the system?
IV. Closing Statement: Return on Investment: What is the goal of the ERP system? How can the information in an ERP system add value to the organization? How can we ensure the implementation will be worth the investment?
Project Two: Structure and Implementation Proposal: Overview
Organizations in every industry are continually attempting to streamline business practices and processes, efficiently allocate resources, and improve overall business value. More and more, information technology (IT) provides the best solutions for organizational issues, making it important for IT professionals to gain an understanding of resource management and business needs, both at the procedural and technical levels. As such, your project for this course centers on the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. You will be constructing a proposal for decision-makers that explains the function and value of such systems and will develop a basic structure and implementation plan for an ERP system catered to the organization outlined in the scenario below. This project will provide you with the opportunity to highlight the value of ERP systems and to make recommendations for improving enterprise resource management in an organization.
In Project Two, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
• Integrate software and technology used in collecting, storing, and sharing data into cohesive enterprise resource management systems
• Evaluate the effectiveness of tools and technology for managing enterprise resources within specific industries
• Assess the extent to which existing and proposed information systems have the potential for consolidating technologies and successful integration into organizationalenvironments
• Analyze existing and proposed business processes for opportunities to improve efficiency across enterprises
• Construct enterprise resource planning proposals that address organizational needs and optimize business processes
Prompt
Assuming that you obtained board approval to move forward with this project, you will next create a structure and implementation proposal that details the steps required to complete the implementation from start to finish. Remember: you are providing an implementation strategy for IT staff that outlines the structure and steps for successful implementation. When you make assumptions based on the context and scenario, be sure to identify them and explain your reasoning. As a professional, you will want to provide support for your assumptions and conclusions to ensure your projects maintain validity.
Specifically, the follow critical elements must be addressed:
I. Introduction: Provide an introduction that lays the groundwork for your proposal and tells the audience the importance of the proposal and how, in general, it will benefit the school district.
II. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP):
a) Existing Systems: What existing systems will need to be replaced, updated, or integrated with new software? Assess the existing systems for their potential to be successfully integrated into thenew structure.
b) Enterprise Resource System: Provide your justification and rationale for the specific type of ERP system you have selected. Why was the tool you selected the best choice for the school district? What particular aspects were appealing for providing a cohesive representation of resources across the district?
c) Software Integration: Which systems will you include in the ERP? What type of information will you need to identify from each system? How will you integrate collection, storage, and sharing tools to ensure a cohesive representation of district resources?
d) Visualization: Provide a visual representation of the overall structure you intend to implement. This should include a view for both board members and IT professionals to refer to. Be sure to make reference to any remaining systems and highlight how the new system will allow each remote office to link to the centrallocation.
e) Assessment of Proposed Integration: Assess the extent to which you feel the new system will have consolidated the old variety of disparate systems that currently exist. How will such consolidation improve efficiency across the district? Provide appropriate support to your reasoning.
III. Implementation:
a) Timeline and Steps: Include a reasonable timeline for implementation. Some things to consider: Is there sufficient time between milestones? What milestones and key deliverables will be required to complete the data warehouse from start to finish?
b) Tools: What tools are available to help integrate existing software? What criteria will you use to determine how effective the tools are in meeting the needs of the organization?
c) Business Processes: How will you determine the workflow of common processes within the organization? To what extent will the ERP system improve efficiency of business processes?
Milestones
Milestone One: Overview of the Implementation Process
In Module One, you will submit a two- to three-page paper discussing an overview of the implementation process. Provide an overview of the implementation process (e.g., the ERP life cycle, business process reengineering, project management, and change management). Discuss the role of staff, vendors, consultants, and the organization in making the ERP implementation process successful.
Milestone Two: Service-Oriented Architecture
In Module Three, you will submit a two- to three-page paper discussing the three major ERP vendors: SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics. Compare the Service- Oriented Architecture (SOA) in a tablet format, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each system. Discuss which system you would recommend for your organization and your rationale and justification for your decision.
Milestone Three: Board Presentation
In Module Five, you will create a Board Presentation that addresses the following prompt: What value could the ERP system provide the George Washington School District and, in general, how do you plan to allocate the grant funds?
Milestone Four: Implementation Proposal
In Module Six, you will submit the Implementation Proposal to the School Board. Assuming that you obtained board approval to move forward with this project, you will next create a structure and implementation proposal that details the steps to complete the implementation from start to finish. Remember: you are providing an implementation strategy for IT staff that outlines the structure and steps for successful implementation. When you make assumptions based on the context and scenario, be sure to identify them and explain your reasoning. As a professional, you will want to provide support for your assumptions and conclusions to ensure your projects maintain validity.
Milestone Five: Presentation and Implementation Revisions
In Module Seven, you will use the feedback provided by your instructor from Milestones Five and Six to improve the Board Presentation and Implementation Proposal you submitted. Assume that the Board liked your proposal but had several questions regarding the implementation schedule, more specific costs, and how you would address potential roadblocks. You really want to have a solid and bulletproof plan, so you use your feedback to make revisions to submit to the Board one last time.
Submission: Presentation to the Board
In Module Eight, you will submit the Presentation to the Board. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course.
Submission Two: Structure and Implementation Proposal
In Module Nine, you will submit the Structure and Implementation Proposal. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.