Accounting Information Systems - Team Based Assignment
"Response to Request - For - Proposal (RFP) for an ERP System"
Aim: This team based assignment is designed to give you the opportunity to learn about ERP systems and to make decisions based on your investigation.
Assessment: The assignment contains two connected parts:
1. Report (including a letter of transmittal)
2. Presentation
Assignment Facts -
Toa Payoh Technologies Pte Ltd (TPT) a medium sized enterprise with turnover of $250 million per year is considering the purchase of an ERP system.
As they have an urgent need to update their accounting system, they plan on purchasing an ERP financial module as the first step and then over time, they plan on integrating this module as part of a larger ERP rollout through the company.
Mr Sum Ting Wong the CEO of TPT, recently issued a request for proposal (RFP) to three ERP vendors: SAP, Oracle and Microsoft.
To assist the vendors in the preparation of their responses, Sum Ting provided the following information:
- TPT was founded by Sum Ting's father (Ne Va Wong) in 1966. Even though Ne Va is now in his 70s, he still plays an important figurehead role in the company and will have influence in the choice of vendor. Sum Ting has emphasised that whilst the presentation materials be to a high professional standard, it is imperative that they clearly and simply articulate the benefits of the new system and don't just contain "cut and paste" from the company's website as his father would be very disappointed by such anapproach.
- The current IT systems could best be described as "home grown" and have become increasingly difficult to maintain. These systems support the major accounting functions including: sales order processing, inventory control, accounts receivable, accounts payable and the general ledger. These applications use multiple legacy file systems which create both data redundancy as well as data inconsistencies. As could be expected from such a "home grown" "cobbled together" system, almost no documentation is available and it is difficult to produce managementreports.
- Many of TPT's competitors have adopted or are adopting fully integrated ERP systems that enable web based front ends for order processing, order tracking and order follow up. However, TPT's back office systems are in disarray and they cannot offer these services to their clients. One of their largest clients has indicated that they will shift their business to TPT's main competitor Joo Koon Technologies (JKT) if TPT cannot provide a similar (or better) level of service than the current level of service being offered byJKT.
- Ideally the selected ERP system will support, HR, Customer Relationship Management and e-Business. It is anticipated that these capabilities will eventually be implemented in subsequent phases.
- TPT currently has approximately 100 computers, uses a Windows based network system and has a Hewlett Packard server that supports the legacy systems.
- The budget for the new financial module of the ERP system is $1.2 million (including the cost of acquiring the necessary upgrades in hardware, software and networking facilities).
Sum Ting Wong has also indicated to the ERP Vendors that whilst price will be an obvious consideration, their proposal will be evaluated using the following selection criteria:
Selection Criteria
Vendor Related
1. Corporate history as an ERP vendor & market strategy
a. Number of years experience
b. Market share
c. Market strategy
d. Overall strengths
2. Product offerings, integration &scalability
a. Overall ERP product line
b. Module integration strategy
c. Web-based application strategy
d. New offerings
3. Consulting support
a. Support for configuration of organisational data
b. Technical support for system implementation
c. Cost of consulting support
d. Availability of consulting support
4. Availability of training
a. Training in configuration of master data
b. Training in operations.