A nice comment/response agreeing with them on the discussion post below is needed please. Initial question (Read and answer question 9-7 from page 366 of the textbook. Which enterprise application should a business install first: ERP, SCM, or CRM? Explain your answer with examples). The discussion below… Enterprise Resource Planning- “Integrate business processes in manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resources into a single platform based on a suite of integrated software modules and a common central database” (Laudon and Laudon 2020). Supply Chain Management software- “enable the firm to model its existing supply chain, generate demand forecasts for products, and develop optimal scouring and manufacturing plans” (Laudon and Laudon 2020). Customer Relationship management- “capture and integrate customer data from all over the organization, consolidate the data, analyze the data and then distribute the results to various systems and customer touch points around the enterprise” (Laudon and Laudon 2020). When a company begins to install enterprise applications it may need to make the decision which system to install first factors may include needs and cost. “Enterprise applications are systems that can coordinate activities, decisions, and knowledge across many different functions, levels, and business units in a firm. Include enterprise systems, supply chain management systems, and knowledge management systems” (Laudon and Laudon, 2020). Enterprise application systems are the systems that keep a company running effectively and efficiently. Without these systems a company would have almost no way to compete with competitors and would ultimately fail. While systems such as Supply Chain Management and Customer Relationship Management are important, you need to obtain a product and you need to relate to your customers; I feel that enterprise resource planning is the most important system to set up first. The reason that companies should start with the ERP applications is simple; all the other applications run off of and feed into the ERP system. A company implementing these systems needs to make sure they can communicate with each other. “Companies implementing this software first have to to select the functions of the system they wish to use and then map their business process to the predefined business process in the software” (Laudon & Laudon, 2020, 343). One example would be Tasty Baking Company, who implemented an ERP system first. “Tasty baking company identified its existing business process and then translated them into the business process built into the SAP ERP software it had selected” (Laudon & Laudon, 2020, 343). Implementing an ERP system can also help eliminate many redundant unnecessary systems within a company as is the case with Alaco. “After implementing enterprise software from Oracle, Alaco eliminated many redundant processes and systems” (Laudon and Laudon, 2020, 344). By implementing ERP systems Alaco was able to cut out some unnecessary systems that it would no longer be able to support, allowing it to focus on working with its new system provided by oracle and focus on adding systems that could work with this system. By setting up the ERP application first companies may be able to cut costs if a company starts with SCM software it designed itself, then went to Microsoft for its CRM system and IBM for another system there may be no way to link them all together. So, by starting with an ERP application the company builds the middle of the wheel first then can assure all the spokes fit in the wheel. Required textbook: Laudon, K. C., & Laudon J. P. (2019). Management Information Systems: Managing the digital firm (16th ed.). Pearson. Thank you!
