Introduction
Enterprise systems are software packages that use information technology in data storage, computation, and transmission of internal and external communication structures of an organization. Many organizations use this system in the supply chain management, customer relationship management and knowledge management.
Management is very crucial for any organization since all decisions are from the top to the bottom. Wrong decisions affect the overall operation of the organization leading to the downfall of the business. The management therefore, should ensure that their supporting processes, data analysis, reporting, and information flows are in their best practices to survive in the market (Tarn 5).
Benefits of enterprise systems
Enterprise systems bring together all the processes and workflow of the organization making it easy to communicate the activities and programs to be undertaken. This improves the efficiency of the employees, as they are aware of their expectations and duties. The system allows storage of all the data allowing the organization to file only the necessary data. This makes the organization to improve its data entry strategies (Tarn 17).
The system matches the organization and its objectives with its customer requirements leading to an overall improvement in its activities. This stimulates the productivity and development of the organization. The system demonstrates the connection between the organization performance and the employees. They provide a response to the demands and concerns as they occur to improve visibility into the end counts and delivery errors resulting into faster and improved organization performance (Davenport 230).
This system ensures coordinated interdepartmental flow of information. This enables the management and their employees to develop skills necessary for handling their work responsibilities. It therefore becomes easy to manage functions and policies of the work force in a way that contributes the success of an organization (Tarn 20).
The organization is able to improve its customer satisfaction through enhancing customer experience, relationship during product or service delivery. They ensure their services are available whenever the customer needs it by allowing the customers and the employees to have access to the required information of the organization (Tarn 22).
This system helps achieve a consolidated picture of the objectives, policies, and plans of the organization linking all the activities from the top management to the employees. This leads to a better planning and follow up of the organization strategies and performance reducing costs of operation and inventory to maximize the organizations production and developments (Davenport 240).
Challenges in the application of enterprise systems
The system stores all the information entered by the user. Some of the users avoid summarizing their reports and records making it difficult for the management to access all the key concepts in the data. This leads to delay or wrong decision making due to information overload. The organization may end up delaying their products and services to their customers due to the organizations inability to fulfill its activities on time. This leads to customer dissatisfaction affecting the organization image and volume of sales (Davenport 246).
This system is prone to errors and omissions during its analysis and application. It provides the management and the business analysts with reports and records on electronic technology. This data is very confidential and any mistakes affect the overall activities of the organization. Some of the top management officials have taken advantage of this system to involve in corruption reducing growth of the organization (Davenport 283).
The benefits derived from the system are by how well the management is able to use it. It becomes very difficult in determining the capabilities of employees during hiring and firing, decentralized decision-making, and standards of reliance on the technology. The management has to keep pace with the changes in the technology and the organization to benefit from the system (Tarn 27).
Conclusion
Enterprise systems are very useful in the day-to-day activities of an organization as they ensure appropriate communication and operations that enable profitability and survival in a competitive environment.
Works Cited
Davenport, Thomas. Mission critical: realizing the promise of enterprise systems. New York: Harvard Business Press. 2000.
Tarn, Michael. Enterprise systems education in the 21st century. New York: Idea Group Incorporation. 2007.