8 Enterprise Applications: Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy

Question 1

What are enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems?

Answer 1

• Suite of integrated software modules and a common central database.
• Collects data from many divisions of firm for use in nearly all of firm’s internal business activities.
• Information entered in one process is immediately available for other processes.

Question 2

How do enterprise systems work?

Answer 2

Built around thousands of
predefined business processes that reflect best practices.
• Finance and accounting
• Human resources
• Manufacturing and
production
• Sales and marketing

Question 3

What is the business value of enterprise systems?

Answer 3

• Increase operational efficiency
• Provide firm-wide information to support decision making
• Enable rapid responses to customer requests for information or products
• Include analytical tools to evaluate overall organisational performance and improve decision-making

Question 4

What is a supply chain?

Answer 4

Network of organisations and processes for:
• Procuring materials
• Transforming materials into products
• Distributing the products

Question 5

What different kinds of supply chains are there?

Answer 5

• Upstream supply chain
• Downstream supply chain
• Internal supply chain

Question 6

What can happen if there are inefficiencies in the supply chain management?

Answer 6

Inefficiencies cut into a company’s operating costs.

• Can waste up to 25 percent of operating expenses

Question 7

What is the just-in-time strategy?

Answer 7

• Components arrive as they are needed.

* Finished goods shipped after leaving assembly line.

Question 8

What is safety stock?

Answer 8

• Buffer for lack of flexibility or uncertainties in supply chain.

Question 9

What is the bullwhip effect?

Answer 9

Information about product demand gets distorted as it passes from one entity to next across supply chain.

Question 10

What are some causes and solutions of the bullwhip effect?

Answer 10

• Price fluctuations -> everyday low prices/low fluctuating prices.
• Order batching -> Frequent ordering
• Shortage gaming -> Forecast on sales history
• Forecast inaccuracies -> Information sharing

Question 11

What do supply chain planning systems do?

Answer 11

• Model existing supply chain
• Enable demand planning
• Optimise sourcing, manufacturing plans
• Establish inventory levels
• Identify transportation modes

Question 12

What do supply chain execution systems do?

Answer 12

• Manage flow of products through distribution centres and warehouses

Question 13

What are some global supply chain issues?

Answer 13

• Greater geographical distances, time differences
• Participants from different countries
  
  • Different performance standards
  • Different legal requirements

Question 14

What areas does the internet help manage global complexities?

Answer 14

• Warehouse management
• Transportation management
• Logistics
• Outsourcing

Question 15

What is the push-based model (build-to-stock) supply chain?

Answer 15

• Earlier SCM systems

* Schedules based on best guesses of demand.

Question 16

What is the pull-based model (demand-driven) supply chain?

Answer 16

• Web-based

* Customer orders trigger events in supply chain

Question 17

What role does the internet have in supply chains?

Answer 17

• Internet enables move from sequential supply chains to concurrent supply chains.
• Complex networks of suppliers can adjust immediately.

Question 18

What is the business value of supply chain management systems?

Answer 18

• Match supply to demand
• Reduce inventory levels
• Improve delivery service
• Speed product time to market
• Use assets more effectively
  
  • Total supply chain costs can be 75 percent of operating budget
• Increase sales

Question 19

What is customer relationship management?

Answer 19

• Knowing the customer

* In large businesses, too many customers and too many ways customers interact with firm.

Question 20

What do customer relationship management systems do?

Answer 20

• Capture and integrate customer data from all over the organisation
• Consolidate and analyse customer data
• Distribute customer information to various systems and customer touch points across enterprise
• Provide single enterprise view of customers

Question 21

What is the business value of CRM systems?

Answer 21

• Increased customer satisfaction
• Reduced direct-marketing costs
• More effective marketing
• Lower costs for customer acquisition/retention
• Increased sales revenue

Question 22

What is a churn rate?

Answer 22

• Number of customers who stop using or purchasing products or services from a company
• Indicator of growth or decline of firm’s customer base

Question 23

What are some challenges of enterprise applications?

Answer 23

• Highly expensive to purchase and implement enterprise applications
• Technology changes
• Business process changes
• Organisational learning, changes
• Switching costs, dependence on software vendors
• Data standardisation, management, cleansing

Question 24

What are some next-generation enterprise applications?

Answer 24

• Social CRM

- Business Intelligence

Question 25

What is Social CRM?

Answer 25

• Incorporating social networking technologies
• Company social networks
• Monitor social media activity; social media analytics
• Manage social and web-based campaigns

Question 26

What is business intelligence?

Answer 26

• Inclusion of BI with enterprise applications

* Flexible reporting, ad hoc analysis, “what-if” scenarios, digital dashboards, data visualisation

Question 27

What is enterprise software built around?

Answer 27

Built around thousands of predefined business processes that reflect best practices.

Question 28

What is the upstream portion of the supply chain?

Answer 28

Refers to a company’s suppliers, the suppliers’ suppliers, and the processes for managing relationships with them.

Question 29

What is middleware?

Answer 29

Enables a company to tailor a particular aspect of enterprise software to the way a company does business.

Question 30

What is the downstream portion of the supply chain.?

Answer 30

Distribution and delivery of products to retailers.