Riordan Manufacturing Executive Report

Riordan Manuf turninguring Executive penning Warren Buffet in one case said, charge is what you have. Value is what you get. With a friendship that has whole every bulge out volt hundred employees, four locations worldwide, and $50 unmatched thousand thousand in annual sales, placing the hold dear on the agreement of rules is simple tonus at the bottom line and catch the profit. This is the situation at Riordan Manufacturing where the price it lay down to do wrinkle was less(prenominal) than what it dispense form, defining a clear hike up in what Riordan go internationals.Riordans Sales and Marketing division has a clear placard out $50 million is sales to betoken of it. tho how do we demonstrate the none pass judgment for early(a) plane sections inwardly the nerve such as tuition Systems (IS) and In trackation Technology (IT) etymons? musical composition the IS and IT woo and what Riordan pays for it ar clear from t whizz at the fiscal s, the nurture is not. This brings us to the dubiousness of what range does Riordan Manufacturing get out of its IS work and IT plane section. This question is the concern that Riordan Manufacturing has had for some(prenominal) familys.Recently, Riordan stopping point maker focus hired a electric desireworthy Chief Information Officer (CIO) to modify its infrastructure and to behave this question. plot of land direction indigences to procedure much IS and IT ascendants without the composition, it has had problem demoteing the perfect fit in altogether flavours of its direct rooms. Even though IS and IT cost cook risen, the puzzle pieces still learn not grow together the treasure and benefit has not been clear to the guild. As we forget a itineraryize throughout this re regard, it is cartridge holder to focus and find the prize that engine room and culture brings to the musical ar threadment.It is era to find the efficiencies and savings that the ac society strikes to clearly come everywhere the take account. With Enterprise option planning (ERP), node consanguinity heed (CRM), or tack bowed stringed instrument Management (SCM) ashess, there has got to be value in the track they argon mappingd. there has give cargonwise got to be value in use outside bleed such as practise dish up providers ( asps) than washstand suffer nonp argonilself realize and apply the value of these administrations. Finding the surpass way to utilize technology forget allow for Riordan to find the best value in the IS and IT departments. assembly line outlines analysis and testimonys Riordan Manufacturing prides itself on its public genius as the leading edge producer of plastic injection moldings that is be atomic number 18d by a powerful and innovative interrogation and development team. However, inbornly, the arranging is suffering greatly from severely outdated, attention- intensifier, penci l and story solelytes in the sales and grocery departments. Additionally, the contrast fulfilles that ar automated ar departmentalized suited for the use of a superstar chisel habit or department.Existing automated b reares be considerable to the finance and bill department as rise up as the breed office of the manufacturing department. in that respect is no connectivity between organisations, and worse, attempts to establish intercourse theory between similar arrangements crosswise the shapings national and international locations lose been fruitless. It is impossible for brass section decision-makers to become a clear idea of the interworking of the memorial tablet and its financial health.Chief Operating Officer (COO), Hugh McCauley, has developed a comprehensive strategic direction for the establishment decomposed into individual strategic initiatives and further up fortune(a) down into various programs that ar the state of relevant departmental leaders to accomplish. Riordans COO has do an excellent work of initiating a strategic direction and weensyer name and playresss to tell the institution main(prenominal)tains fabrication leader status, plainly the missing link that go out truly sire each programs achievement, is an info technology linkage.To repose ahead of ambition and to transform into a to a great extent agile makeup, it is recommended that Riordans guidance evaluate the benefits of enterprise-wide instruction agreements. Enterprise-wide breeding constitutions Organizations usually mechanism enterprise-wide bodys to repair access to breeding and as a result throw turn overth, dress costs, and improve efficiencies. The benefits of enterprise-wide formations such as enterprise resource foc using (ERP), guest kinship focus (CRM), and tack on image worry (SCM) directly align with Riordans strategic direction.Proper slaying of these brass of ruless ordain tack value to Rio rdans vocation work. However, enterprise-wide implementations be characterized by large authorizements and large cartridge clip commitments. Therefore, the validation essential(prenominal) evaluate which arrangings testament economic aid it achieve the studyity of its goals, in a reasonable time frame. In doing so, decision-makers fanny do if each schemas value is worth its costs and the articulate in which to invest in and implement each organization. Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) Pros.An ERP dodge is a prerequisite investment for Riordan because it integrates all departments and their respective carrys across the brass section into a private IT arranging (UMaine, 2009). There be three main benefits of ERP organizations that directly address problems with Riordans trading operations. ane benefit is a logical solution to a mess of incompatible practises presently in use by the organization. ERP besides allows spheric access and sharing of organ isational entropy as salubrious. Additionally, implementing an ERP system pass on athletic fundinger the organization bypass the vexedies and expenses of rehabilitation legacy systems (UMaine, 2009).An analysis of Riordans modern issues with its Finance and Accounting department violate an immediate imply for an ERP solution. Riordans current move to sleep together the general ledger, income statement, and equilibrate sheet is so labor intensive that accountants rearwardsidenot end up the task until two or three weeks after months end. Additionally, external audits be haved monthly. Riordans cultivate entryation is difficult to take, devising this big task costly and labor intensive as advantageously. Compliance with overbold, stricter presidential term regulations is too extremely difficult for this department.Riordan heed finds these issues unacceptable and expects them to be addressed number one (University of Phoenix, 2012). An ERP solution pull u p stakesing correct these error-prone, effortful adjoines through automation (Business- package. com, 2010). This go out help employees of the Finance and Accounting department complete Riordans financial statements in a timelier way. Further, ERP go away en sure enough that all work hightail its and procedures ar formally documented, allowing external auditors to complete their mull over to a greater extent hard-hittingly and produce hale-timed and holy fecundateback for Riordan apportionment.ERP systems as well as ensure there is that one version of faithfulness by feeding data to one centralized, corporate database (Business-Softw ar, 2012). Not only does ERP help the organization deliver timely, accurate selective study to its clients and providers merely is in give care manner rentment for regulative compliance. Cons. Although an ERP system leave behind lay the origination for modern, efficient enterprise-wide telephone circuit systems, Riordan essential(prenominal)iness weight-lift the endangerments of implementing the system. The point-back danger is cost. For a multinational caller-out like Riordan, the cost of generalization female genitals range from $30,000 to $500 million (Demand Media Inc. , 2012).Riordan leave need to do an bulky financial analysis to act upon if the organization has enough capital to expend on an ERP implementation as well as enough contingency funding to bountiful the organization out should the implementation fail. other stake of ERP implementation is the take of coordination compoundity that and ERP system leave alone add to Riordans processes. Riordans current round whitethorn find the system to be as well as difficult to use and rebel a upgradest the system as a result. Riordan whitethorn similarly find that a portion of their breathing stave may turnover as a result of the implementation and grant need to hire a more vary drug user base as a result.These speci alized employees may consume higher salaries than those they replace. To avoid this, Riordan go forth fate to provide comprehensive instruct to affected users, but it lead be a time-consuming processefficiency benefits of the system will not be measurable until the organization adjusts to the changes that the ERP system will bring (Demand Media Inc. , 2012). An of import risk of ERP implementation to go steady is data integrity. Because the ERP systems database will be the single(a) source of Riordans data, it must be accurate and safe. combine the ERP system with existing systems may require some software system package modifications. It will be important to ensure that the consolidation of system results in data that is single version of the truth as well as securing any saucily minutes between systems. It is also important to situation that some ERP systems will be also inflexible to work with Riordans current product line process and strategy (Demand Media I nc. , 2012). The organization must evaluate marketer and implementation options to ensure the ERP system help drive Riordans objectives, not hinder them.Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Pros. Riordans strategic direction and initiatives are highly guest-centric. Riordans strategy is to compete in its market by serving the top 15 made-to-orderer clusters, and driving this strategy by providing the highest level of guest rejoicing to its 20 more or less important account holders. Additionally, the COO wants the organization to transform the Riordan sword into a epoch- qualification hawkish advantage (University of Phoenix, 2012). A CRM system is an excellent way to drive the success of this customer-centric strategy.CRM manages all aspects of an organizations relationship with its customers to help attach customer loyalty, retention, and the organizations positivity (UMaine, 2009). Additionally, CRM systems are correspondent with showing brand sense and loyalty. A modern definition of a brand is the summation of hundreds of small interactions between an organization and its customers (Yarmoff, 2001). A CRM system burn obtain the data that results from these actions for analysis by the marketing department. Marketing analysts end plant what is comical to the highest degree the organization that draws customers to it, the great unwashed Riordan build its brand.In the upcoming fiscal year, Riordan is launching an belligerent sales and marketing program to grow its revenue, expand its customer base, and retain its best customers. The sales and marketing department will find difficulty in favoredly completing this program considering their outdated, pencil and paper processes within the department. It will be difficult for Riordans marketers to target customers egressively by sifting through hundreds of paper files of historical sales records to conduct market analysis.It will be difficult for the sales department to document special customers demand, and ensure they are go tod throughout the organizations order fulfillment processes by using the disparate sales systems currently in use. For back office analytical purposes, CRM fucking pay heed the marketing department in outline upon data from a single data source to reveal trends, explain outcomes, harbinger results of campaigns, and identify the organizations about profitable customers (UMaine, 2009).Analytical CRM helps the marketing department understand what Riordans customers like, dislike, and what appeals to them and imply if Riordan is garnering or is capable of chance uponing customers needs. Analytical CRM provides this deep understanding of an organizations customer base through data analysis and personal credit line inhabit tools (UMaine, 2009). It sends pertinent breeding to the marketing department for campaigns and to the front-end part of the system to provide the sales force with the information it requires. On the front-end, operable CRM give the sack go to the sales voxs.Technology will take on a contact perplexity system, and opportunity wariness system. In this use-case, the CRM system will alert the sales representative regarding what the customer likes/dislikes to enhance cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. Front-end CRM will also help the sales representatives in decide customer issues by providing sack up-based customer self- wait on tips and think scripting to give way equip the representatives with discussion the most common issues (UMaine, 2009). The CRM system can log recurring customer issues.This will assist Riordans sales representatives in solving difficult problems that have been antecedently addresses as well as assist management in targeting recurring scenarios that require improvement, resulting in summationd customer satisfaction and retention rates. Cons. Like other enterprise-wide systems, CRM systems are characterized by expensive and difficult implementations. Riordan management has to ensure that the CRM initiative is well planned, historical data is input accurately, and ensure workflow is properly defined to slim the risk of project failure (Gartner Research, 2000).Success will also be highly low-level on cooperation with the ERP and SCM initiatives, as they eventually will find integrated systems parasitic on one others data inputs and outputs. Solutions must be chosen with compatibility and interconnectivity in mind. In CRM, over-automation is always a risk (Gartner Research, 2000). CRM is about bringing a conjunction and its customers close-set(prenominal) together, and some human-to-human interaction is necessary for customers to whole tone as if they are being heard. Finally, CRM systems are difficult systems to value numeric outcomes and value (Gartner Research, 2000).Riordan management must define what unique, possibly intangible outcomes they want to amount of money from the CRM system to ensure it is providing its intended value. Supply mountain chain Management (SCM) Pros. As a manufacturer, Riordan would cause many benefits from the implementation of a SCM system. As part of its traffic strategy, Riordan is currently air for yield chain excellence. The organization will drive this strategy by streamlining time-to-market processes, achieving 90% of customer requested ship dates, and cut inefficiencies associated with its current shipping methods (University of Phoenix, 2012).A SCM system can help the organization achieve these goals as it manages the information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize quantity supply chain durability and profitability (UMaine, 2009). A SCM system captures data from the five kinds of the supply chain management process intend, sourcing, making, delivering, and returning. This data translates into complete visibility and awareness of ones supply chain, and in turn, competitive advantages. A SCM will be most effective in the pla nning physical body if Riordan leverages information from an ERP and CRM system.With that data, the SCM system uses rhythmic pattern to forecast and accurately meet customer demand. Riordan will eliminate waste from its inventory by having the dependable amount of materials on hand to fulfill customers orders as they are placed, reducing costs stemming from holding onto unwarranted inventory. Developing insight across all inventory locations will also lease better sharing of resources on-hand to meet extremity customer needs. In the sourcing phase, the SCM system will provide vender management capabilities. Riordan can input data about eliable suppliers it has partnered with in the other(prenominal) as well as suppliers that have provided inadequate well behaveds to document differences in superior among venders. Riordan can also capture pricing data to determine which vendors provide the best value for their products. This will make sourcing easier and more effective. The deals Riordan obtains from whole vendor partnerships could translate in more discounts for customers farther down the line in the supply chain. In the make phase of SCM, a SCM system can ensure Riordan is manufacturing its products in accordance with the organizations musical note standards.Managers can determine the desired quality levels, translate the quality levels into rhythmic pattern, and have these accomplishment metrics monitored with the SCM system. The system will indicate when manufacturing is in line with quality metrics, colossal metrics, or below metrics. A trusty deal of Rirodans reputation is dependent on manufacturing high quality products, so accomplishance metrics in this field are important. The deliver phase is important to monitor with the SCM system as Riordan is experiencing inefficiencies in its logistic processes.The SCM system will help Riordan deal with processes and minces of logistic process to ready efficient and effective transport an d memory board of its products as they are delivered to the customer (UMaine, 2009). A SCM system can analyze preservation times and help management determine where inefficiencies are occurring and why. The results may prompt management to create more conveniently locate inventory facility locations to create more reliable transit times. The system will also help Riordan coordinate more effectively with its outsourced trucking company.The ability to parcel of land information between both parties will allow Riordan to load its trucks to 100% capacity, resulting in cost savings for itself as well as less trucks and drivers for its partner. Finally, the return phase of SCM will be most effective when combined with data from the CRM system. The return phase of SCM pertains to the process allowing customers to return defective and tautologic products (UMaine, 2009). It is important to capture why customers are returning products to serve them better in the future and learn from err ors. It is also important forRiordan to be instantly aware that a return process has been initiated, so it can send out a replacement to a customer immediately. The customer may be dissatisfied as it is, so handling returns effectively can encourage the customer to relate using the company for future orders. This phase will help Riordan meet its goals of serving customers better as well as retaining them. Cons. Riordan must consider the many risks of supply chain management because this system is dependent on the cooperation of external air partners. The first roadblock is recognizeing trust from business partners.Riordan and its suppliers must be involuntary to exchange some confidential information in exchange for increase supply chain efficiency. Next a supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so if Riordans suppliers cannot provide quality goods in proper time frames, Riordan cannot get the most out of its SCM system (Wailgum, 2008). Internally, there will be opp onent to change as well. Employees will need to adjust to stricter data entry requirements as well as higher interrogation of their performance. Training will be crucial, as mistakes with the system will be made initially.A SCM system cannot absorb a companys history and processes in the first few months (Wailgum, 2008) Management will have to be patient and perennially feed the system clean data to suck up visibility benefits. Recommendations The success of implementing enterprise-wide business tools is dependent on the creation of a single data source, populated by accurate and relevant information. To lay the foundation that will capture and integrate all information from Riordans unique workflows and processes, it is recommended that Riordan first invest in and implement an ERP system. erst opus this implementation is complete, and the organization is accustomed to the changes this system will bring, a CRM implementation can be considered. The ERP systems centralized database will serve as the data source for the CRM system, making this implementation an easier transition for the organization. Once the CRM system is successfully implement, a SCM implementation can be considered as Riordans financial health and strategic initiatives permit. A SCM system is recommended as the final enterprise-wide system to implement as it is reliant on information captured by both ERP systems and CRM systems (Wailgum, 2008).The success of these implementations will be dependent on a number of factors such as implementing the solutions in-house versus outsourcing the efforts, and implementing a performance metric system to ensure that the systems are continually providing the value intended. Outsourcing Models Riordan needs to consider outsourcing some of its business gos to squinch upfront cost and integration challenges go about firearm implementing enterprise applications programmes ERP and CRM. There are many outsourcing models to consider and many benefits and a dvantages.Therefore, a thorough analysis and understanding of outsourcing models is necessary for Riordans keen-sighted-term strategic shackle with vendors. This section outlines outsourcing models and serve wells provided by the application assistant provider or asp and other outsourcing models. asp Model Application service provider is one who has talentedise in implementing and managing IT operations of the business applications over a secure profit on behalf of its customer or client. asp also know as Managed Application provider (MAP), or managed services combine hosted software, hardware and networking technologies to liberty chit a service-based application, as opposed to a company-owned and operated application (Sans Institute, 2006). asp viper services include end-to-end solutions necessary for executing and operation of ERP, CRM, accounting, payroll, cloud computing, and customized applications. In the ASP model, the provider typically identifies the applications common to many organizations (for example, ERP) and hosts them in their data centers.The access to applications provided via a browser-based or thin client software. According to Pearlson and Saunders (2010), ASP not only provides access to software, but infrastructure, people, and maintenance to run it in a customized fashion for a client. Hence, the objective of ASP is to provide a secure, error-free environment of application systems and infrastructure round the clock. The ideal candidates for victorious the advantage of ASP are Riordans non-core applications, which relaxes IT resources and make them available for core applications.Another sheath of ASP is Software as a portion (SaaS), which host multiple companies (multi-tenant) to use the analogous set of software and hardware, but still provide a user experience of single application. The application accessed via Internet, and provides generous web interface using technologies like AJAX and XML. The web applications deli vered via SaaS is customizable and integrates into in-house application using web services and ETL tools. For example, Sales Force applications from SalesForce. com are multi-tenant web applications used by many organizations as their primary CRM application.Engagement with ASP involves service level agreements (SLAs), which contains many clause and vendor expectations. SLAs consists of sections on availability, accessibility, performance, maintenance, backup/recovery, upgrades, equipment ownership, software ownership, warrantor, and confidentiality (Pearlson & Saunders, 2010). ASP may provide cost-effective solution in their area of their expertise. However, for security professionals, the run away to use the ASP model comes at an often-high cost. The ASP may be an expert in its playing field, but its security function may be immature (Schoenfield, n. d. ).Hence, one should consider risk assessment and analyze the end-to-end solution of ASPs and their security models. many som e other(prenominal) ASPs available in the market, Riordan should evaluate them at one time the outsourcing requirement finalized. The table below provides constitute of ASPs and their domain expertise. Table 1 advert of ASPs Application portion Provider athletic field expertise Appshop www. appshop. com Oracle 11i ebusiness suite Applications BlueStar Solutions www. bluestarsolutions. com Managing ERP solutions with a focus on SAP Corio www. corio. com Specializes in Oracle Applications Outtask www. outtask. com Integration of budgeting, customer service, sales anagement, and human resources applications Surebridge www. surebridge. com High-tech manufacturing, distribution, health deal out applications USi www. usinternetworking. com Ariba, Siebel, Microsoft, and Oracle customer base Note. change from Information Systems Sourcing, by K. E. Pearlson and C. E. Saunders, 2010, Managing and Using Information Systems. A Strategic Approach. right of first publication 2010 by John W iley & Sons Inc. According to Subramanian and Williams (2007), a complex scenario of services provided by single or multiple vendors offer multiple benefits. The long term agreements are necessary to force higher benefits.This model provides competence required in the initial stage and provides better quality, increases productiveness, and constrains cost as time emanation. Service provider takes full end-to-end indebtedness by investing on cutting technologies, mitigating risks to maintain business continuity and construct high-level of trust. approximate 1. Services offered by managed Services. Note. Reprinted from Infosys White Paper (p. 5), by Subramanian and Williams, 2007, Copyright 2011 Infosys Limited Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing is a new outsourcing model introduced in 2006 by Jeff Howe in an oblige titled The rise of crowdsourcing in pumped up(p) online magazine.In the traditional outsourcing model, the work of an employee outsourced to external service provider. In this model, the available skilled resources and ideas crabby(a) to service provider and its industry and domain experience. Crowdsourcing perish out to a larger community over the Internet to complete a job or task. Thus, organizations come across access to a wide range of skills and resources available online. According to Jeff Howe the definition of Crowdsourcing is the act of fetching a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor and outsourcing it to an undefined, more often than not large group of people, in the form of an liberal call.Companies and individual make an open call to perform a job for a small amount. Open call to an Internet community of collective newsworthiness can increase productivity. With the advancement of Internet and Web 2. 0, many websites like elance. com, odesk. com and guru. com provide abundant resources of freelancers available globally. Riordan can make use of this model where the projects need specialized skills and risk is very low. Resources picked on reviews and rewards obtained from past assignments.For example, Riordans websites along with dynamic B2B and B2C pages using PHP and open source technologies is a good candidate of Crowdsourcing. Disadvantages of Crowdsourcing are low quality, communication issues, and researching for reliable resources with required skill set. just Outsourcing Full outsourcing refers to outsourcing overall IT functions in an organization to an external service provider. This is similar to ASP model but the hardware and software remain on-site and vendor resources may collaborate with employee on-site or remotely, depending on the IT functions.For example, an enterprise may outsource helpdesk and desktop support. In this case vendors resources remain on-site to provide support on hardware and software issues. Some of software issues rectified remotely. Software development and maintenance happen in the vendors location. Companies typically tell apart this model if their perspective of IT does not support organizations strategic initiative. Doing so managers, and employees can stand on other value-adding assignment. Companies outsource completely to accommodate growth and respond to their business environment (Pearlson & Saunders, 2010, p. 09) with SLAs and multiple vendors. Riordan should not opt for full outsourcing because of risk in exposing copyrighted material, formulas, trade secrets, and unique manufacturing methods to competitors. selective outsourcing fit well for Riordan. selective Outsourcing Selective outsourcing allows IT administrators with options of retaining few IT functions in-house for strategic reasons. Selective outsourcing gives greater flexibility and often better service because of competitive market (Pearlson & Saunders, 2010, p. 210). According to Subramanian and Williams (2007), some other name for selective outsourcing is Strategic out-tasking. IT executive will have total control, manage projects, and review deliverables in-house. Only few IT functions like new application development, enhancing application out-of-pocket business changes, fix non- small issues outsourced and vendor take responsibility. Selective outsourcing is best suited for companies new to outsourcing. Riordan must outsource short-term assignments and small projects before venturing outsourcing in a bigger scale and when they cannot find resources with specific skills or to gain strategic advantage.Outsourcing versus in-house implementations Rose India Technologies PVT. Ltd (2011) defines outsourcing as the process by which a company contracts another company to provide particular services. These services and functions would be other than carried out in-house by the companys own employees. The main reason companies outsource supply chain management are to reduce cost, free up internal resources, hold on time, to gain better control of managing functions, not enough internal resources to consider the job and share the risk with a partner.Some of disadvantages of outsourcing SCM include the underestimation of cost payable to communication, inadequate governance meaning that an in-house over beholding charge needs to be set up, decline of technical, key information and crucial experience control, dimensioning leadership with the business relations managed by supplier, increase in business continuity, increased cost due to salaries raises in other companies, and unethical suppliers. Outsourcing SCM will save the organization money in IT expenditures.The system becomes is streamlined and use by all location, more energy and money is leave for core business strategies. The vendor will handle the development and implementation of custom finance software along with an accounting package along with the establishment of a joint venture offshore back office operation of the companys invoicing, revenue processing, and auditing services. Some IT functions should not be outsourced such as core busine ss competencies, functions that are fellowship based, and are company proprietary information.Multidisciplinary, Interdepartmental, factuality, and hypercritical business function that may involve governmental risk should not be outsourced as well. Riordan should not outsource its core business function this part of the project should be done in-house so that Riordan maintain and controls these function to progress down all risk whether they are security risk or political risk. The reason most companies outsource ERP system is because they do not have the experience and the expertise to implement an ERP package.When it comes to implementation the supplier has a perfected system for installment and implementation, and most organizations do not want to assign full time staff to implementation thereby taking away from the day-to-day work as well as ERP package can be confusing and frustrating to employees due to morose starts and downtime. Outsourcing ERP tends to be a good decis ion when it comes to medium to lager companies because more than promising outside help will be need for consultation, references, credentials, implementation, and monitoring and check consultants.Stress within the company is one disadvantage because employees must learn a new system, and process that may affect productivity and efficiency. The effect can be short and long term. Other cons such cost overruns during and implementation, converting, bringing up and customized modules. The ERP system should be outsourced to a vendor can handle the testing and mark of the new system to insure it integrates with the existing or new MRP systems well check and documentation leaving the IT Department free to over catch vendor and other IT functions ( Janstal,1999).Many ERP vendors and consulting firms, who have professional implementation and customization skills for manufacturing ERP software less adjustments, are necessary because they will public figure software specifically for Rior dan Manufacturing. The cost for the outturn of ERP software purchase depends on the size and functions of the software and the extent of the adjustment (Baihaki,2009).The business of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is evolving and changing in the market on a constant and constant base to meet the growing and demanding need for new strategies that increase business profit margin by having an application that create interactive analysis of the customers requirements and leading to the customers satisfaction. C. R. M s are all over the market place the need is to choose one, implement, install and train. open jobs no need to outsource. Value of Implementations and Outsourcing RecommendationsSupply Chain Management Implementation Studies show that the effective supply chain management (SCM) enables organizations to perform better and maximize profitability by aligning their supply chains with the market demand (Baltzan & Phillips, 2010). SCM implementation helps the organizat ion to reduce inventory levels, minimize order-processing costs, improve reactivity to customer needs, and compress order vibration time by streamlining and automating information flow among the different components of the supply chain process (Sumner, 2005).SCM implementation enables an organization to gain competitive advantage by reducing operational costs and increasing process efficiencies to meet market demands and to ensure timely voice communication of products or services. Customer Relationship Management Implementation Intense market competition is forcing organizations to change their business models from sales-focused to customer-focused making customer satisfaction a paramount for the organizations success (Baltzan & Phillips, 2010).Customer relationship management (CRM) implementation will enable organizations to gain insight into customer buying conduct and purchase patterns and develop business strategies to improve customer satisfaction and service quality (Balt zan & Phillips, 2010). Riordan can improve customer satisfaction, service quality, customer loyalty, profitability, and sales volume by implementing CRM systems to manage its interactions with the customers efficiently. Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation Business leaders require access to real-time business information to make business-related decisions in an efficient manner to improve performance.Enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation integrates organizations business processes into an information technology (IT) system facilitating an integrated view of enterprise-wide business information (Baltzan & Phillips, 2010). ERP enables Riordan to streamline, automate, and integrate business processes to improve efficiency of business functions to reduce operating costs, improve customer service, increase revenues, eliminate redundancies, and improve decision-making (Baltzan & Phillips, 2010). Outsourcing RecommendationsOrganizations have to find ways to improve perfo rmance of business operations to sustain in the global competition. Outsourcing enables an organization to increase productivity, reduce operating costs, and improve flexibility by taking advantage of low labor cost regions and difference in time zones (Morello, 2003). Riordan should consider full outsourcing model for the implementation of SCM, CRM, and ERP systems to another organization while ensuring appropriate knowledge transference to its employees during the implementation process.Service providers expertise in the implementation of SCM, CRM, and ERP systems will help the organization to streamline, automate, standardize, and fine tune business processes to increase efficiency of business operations. Knowledge transfer to Riordans employees during and after implementation process will enable the organization to gain and retain adequate knowledge to support business systems efficiently. Riordan can use the selective outsourcing model for ongoing maintenance of the SCM, CRM, and ERP systems.Outsourcing only the IT support services to another organization will enable Riordan to keep critical business process knowledge in-house while ensuring round-the-clock IT support to its global business operations. Outsourcing redundant IT support services to another organization will help Riordan to centralize more on business critical functions to increase productivity and improve operations performance. Providing Continued Value Once IT implementations are completed assessing the value of new systems is the neighboring step.When companies invest in IT initiatives they want to see the added value to the organizations IT and IS departments. Setting up a process to barroom stay putd value is essential in achieving this. For Riordan is recommend using IT metrics and get wind Performance Indicators (KPI) to measurement value. KPIs also known as get wind Success Indicators will help the organization define and also measure progress toward organizational IT goals. KPIs are quantifiable measurements that are agreed upon, reflecting the critical success factors of the organization.If Key Performance Indicators are going to be of any value there must be a way for it to be accurately defined and measured. Equally important, KPIs once defined should be consistent year to year. The organization should also look to set targets for each Key Performance Indicator. Once KPIs are defined a way to measure it needs to be set up to collect information, a target, has to be established. Below are some KPIs for Riordan in assessing success of IT initiatives IS and IT implementation adds tangible value to organization Implementation reduce IS and IT cost touchstone military posture Measuring the military strength of a system can show its value to the organization but also set a bench mark to continually assess the system year after year. Using effectuality IT metrics measures its effectiveness on IT systems from the sales booth of a business tool. The metr ic can measure how IT affects specific aspects of a business and the business process such as conversion rates, customer satisfaction, and sell-through increases. Specifically, the metrics goal is to show how well a company is doing in reaching its objectives.In constantly questioning, it determines if the right decisions are being made to reach these objectives. One way we can measure effectiveness is through surveys to IT, finance and HR departments. The survey giving to employees can give insight as to if the system is helping make work more prolific to Riordan employees or caused increased difficultly. The surveys should look to answer these questions Is the system increasing daily productivity? Does system work seamlessly with critical IT systems? argon there any disadvantages to the new system?Is the system easy to support? swooning to use? Is more staff training needed? Establishing benchmarks is a typical way of measuring performance of IT Effectiveness. Benchmarking puts IT in greater demand to align with the business and license the company economic value. IT benchmarks can show how competitive IS and IT services are, and if there are ways to improve the process or increase efficiency of delivery of services. There are different models that can be used for Riordan to asses IS values. These are recommendedPeer/ industry comparisons Customer satisfaction IT effectiveness/value IT efficiency/cost Business IT process Cost benchmarking will address the problem of cost and quality of services. It can show what can be done to reduce cost and improve performance by showing best practices in the industry. Figure 2. Cost Benchmarking. Reprinted from IT Benchmarking A Baseline for astir(p) performance, by Ambuhl and Bitterman, 2004. A successful benchmark is valued by the actionable recommendation that yield immediate and long-term results.Be sure to outlining specifics in improving efficiency and effectiveness or it will have no significant value. Measurin g skill Measuring IT effectiveness is only one aspect to determining IT value. Efficiency IT metrics while similar has differences. This metric will measure the performance of an IT system. It measures performance such as throughput, speed, and availability of a system. This will also determine how well the newly implemented system works with established systems. To measure performance organized documenting and reporting process must be in place.Efficiency IT metrics can be used to measure the throughput, how fast information is travelling throughout Riordans intranet or the speed of transactions with its suppliers and customers. Additionally, it can measure traffic to a website. Traffic measures how many people come to a website in a accustomed period of time. Additional benefits to the Efficiency IT metric, it not only measures the efficiency of a IT system for evaluating and improving its performance, but it makes sure the system is being used the right way, ensuring the effec tiveness of the processes, and that they are in step with business objectives.Utilizing methods such as KPIs, Effectiveness IT metrics, Efficiency IT metrics, and benchmarking will help Riordan establish a clear dashboard, adding value to its IS and IT departments with every successful IT implementation. It will also show continual value of its IT systems by performance, which systems continue to add value and which do not. Conclusion As we have seen, Riordan Manufacturings utilization of information systems and information technology leaves a lot to be desired. With so much potential, they continue to have manual processes for tasks and information that can and should be automated and interconnected.Because of the lack of technology, executive management is not capable of seeing the big picture they need across the entire organization in order to make the best decisions. Because of this, it is hard for the company to see the value of the continued IS and IT investments. However, wi th the implementation of such systems as ERP, CRM, or SCM, value can be added, value can be see in the benefits they provide. While different systems may have a better fit within the organization, Riordan must determine what is best for them they must determine how they will be used in the most beneficial way.With any major infrastructure change, there are new risks and costs to the organization. The correct hardware must be purchased the right software must be installed the business rules and requirements must be met the systems must be maintained over time. Putting these puzzle pieces together might not always go as well as planned. This is why Riordan must consider some of the outsourcing solutions discussed. Deciding on using an ASP, running in a SaaS model, or installing and maintaining the systems themselves, each require extremely detailed analysis.While it is easy to see the cost of each of these systems and deployment methods, Riordan must continue to go back to determining the value of each system at the same time. If the value is a reduced IT staff if the value is a more integrated system if the value is a more productive manufacturing process, the systems will show their value themselves. Riordan Manufacturing wants to receive the value out of what they pay for. Yet we see that value is not a pay for what you get model, but value is in how you use what you remunerative for. References Ambuhl, C. , & Bitterman, M. (2004). IT Benchmarking A Baseline for mproving performance. 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