Customer Management - Case Study 5

This full week, 26th to 30th of April, you will complete the Customer Management exercises listed in Case Study 5. But this time you are going to do this exercise quite independently. That is how these exercises are expected to be done. In industry, you do not have a Professor to help you in every step. You are given some basic guidelines and then you are expected to "Go Figure Out". The other reason for this "independant" exercises approach is the fact that we all Professors of ERPare going to SAPLabs in Banglore for rest of the week.

Follow the steps given in the case study. If you have any problems related to access to the system or any other difficulty then please contact Nikhil Kumbhar and Prof Jayant Karsgikar. To resolve some access problems such as forgot password, I have also given authorization to 3 of your classmates - Sanket Rathod, Akshay Gedan and Sagar Shaha.

If you have any problem, please log on this blog page as your comment and I will be able to review your problems from Bangalore.

As mentioned to you in the past please ensure that you dont do the case study mechanically. Keep studying about each information element you update and understand the basic business process underlying what you are doing.

We will meet face to face next week on Monday at 9:30AM.

CRM Project Team Meeting and Project Kick Off Meeting

You now understand what is ERP. But understanding what is ERP is not as challenging as actually implementing an ERP system in organization. ERP projects tend to be very expensive, large numbers of team members, end users, complicated and difficult to understand, very risky etc. Worldwide companies are spending billions of dollars and very large number of engineers are getting employed with handsome packages to implement ERP systems. To get a good understanding of ERP implementation Projects, the best method is to actually work as a member of a real ERP implementation project team. Just learning in classroom how to implement ERP is not enough. Therefore, we have identified an actual ERP project at COEP.

This COEP ERP project will be executed by students. We will follow the AcceleratedSAP (ASAP) methodology. All students of "Intro to ERP" course are invited to take a role in the implementation team. The project will be for a duration of about 3 to 4 months. We propose to kick off the project on Saturday, 24th March and end sometime in July.

Students of ERP course will have the option to work as a team member in one of the following project teams:
1. Technical team members are responsible for all technical activities, like installation of hardware and software, technical configuration, networking, security, user administration, database administration, customization of application programs, web interfaces, data loads and cleaning up etc. etc.
2. Functional Team members are responsible for analyzing business processes, identify gaps, propose solutions either technical software changes or manual procedures, business configuration, document and train end users etc. etc.
3. Project Management team members are responsible for managing project plan, schedules, report project status, communication, organize team events, monitor project risks etc. etc.

 You are encouraged to take up a role as a team member. A team member is expected to devote about 4 to 5 hours every week until the end of winter semester (May 1st week) and there after about 4 hours every day until end of the project (during your summer vacation)

Those students who do not have time to work as a team member, will be expected to participate in this project as observers. The observers will attend all major team events like Project Kick off, Phase closure, Go Live, Lessons Learned and periodic project status meetings.

The work performed by all project team members will be published as shared documents and all observers will be able to view these documents and give suggestions if any.

The project work completed until end semester will be covered by some questions in the end semester exam. Those who work as project team members will get a certificate of completion of one end-to-end ERP project.

If you are inclined to work as Project Team member in any one of the 3 project teams, then you are required to attend the Project Team meeting tomorrow, Thursday 22nd March at 5:30pm in Room #16 of Production Engg dept.

All students are required to attend the Project Kick Off Meeting, on Saturday 24th March, at 12pm in Room #16 of Prod Engg dept. On 24th, morning from 10AM to 11:30AM, the inauguration by Union Minister Sharad Pawar is planned. Immediately after the inauguration ceremony we will meet for Project Kick Off at Room #16.

CRM Exercises

On Wednesday, 21st March, you will start the exercises related to Customer Management. The instructions in the form of MSWord document are available on Moodle. Please use these instructions and start with the creating distribution chain price list. During the customer management exercises you will be taking various job roles like "Supply Planner", "Product Manager", "Marketing Employee", "Sales Representative", "Sales Employee" and "Purchasing Manager". You may therefore find that some times you will need help to get access to some specific work centers. I intend to train up your group leaders to help you on these access related issues. If you find you are not getting access to any work center then please contact your group leader.

As I have mentioned in the past, please be watchful of what data you are entering. Do not complete your exercises mechanically.

During the lab session, please also meet me as a group and review with me the progress of your Process Analysis Assignment.

Friday is holiday for Gudi Padwa. We will therefore have an extra session on Thursday at 5:30pm to compensate for the holiday session.

CRM Process Analysis

Next few weeks we are going to study in detail the CRM process group. The other process groups that are part of an ERP system are SRM, Production, Logistics, Finance and HR. Because of the time constraint, we will get to details of only CRM process group but this will give you an idea about what is involved in process analysis, re-engineering and implementation of an ERP system.

Customer Management consists of 3 main Process areas: Marketing, Sales and Service. Each Process Area is further subdivided into 6 processes as shown in the diagram on the left. For analysis, all these 18 processes are being subdivided between 18 student groups. Each group will have 3 or 4 students. Last time to evaluate Open ERP products, we had groups of 6 to 8 students. These old gropus of 6 to 8 students are now being subdivided to make smaller groups of 3 or 4 students each.

Please look up the spreadsheet http://goo.gl/MAs3g to view the assignment of student with the Business Process Analysis group.

To prepare yourself for Business Process Analysis, use the ByD Help documentation. From ByD Help Library. The Business scenario documentation includes several power-point presentations related to all Business Processes supported by ByD ERP system. Access Business Scenario Explorer presentations for "Marketing-to-Opportunity", "Order-to-Cash" and "Field service & Repairs" process chains.

ByD Help Library has extensive documentation of each business process. As shown in the screen shot on the left side, please drill down to your specific process and read through all the information. Now you are ready to your assignment.










Follow the procedure given below to complete your assignment:

1. Each one of you, read through the Help documentation and review the Business Process Explorer presentations to understand clearly your business process.
2. Get together as a group and brainstorm the activities or process steps involved from beginning to end of the Business Process. Just list out the list on a board. Then discuss the dependencies of these steps and determine the sequence of the process steps.
3. Use Visio (if possible) else use MSWord or Excel to document the process flow chart. Use process flow charting template available to select the symbols to be used in the flow chart.
4. Prepare a separate spreadsheet to list each process step and corresponding other details like Who is responsible for execution of the process step, very brief description of How, When this step is Triggered  to start, What Input data is used by the step, What output or results are generated, What Controls are built into the process step.
5. Finally convert the process flow chart prepared in step3 into a "Swim Lane Diagram" to represent both the process step sequence and responsibility.

From Wednesday, we will meet in the Lab and you will start completing the exercises from case 5. However, during each lab session also review with me your progress on completing this assignment.

Wecome Back

I have as yet not started checking your midterm answer sheets but I am sure, you all have done very well in all your mid-term exams. Congratulations!

Until midterm, we have learned some basics about ERP, we also developed familiarity with the SAP ByD ERP product features, navigation, create master data, use help documentation, self services etc.

Now in the remaining 6 weeks we will get into the details of business processes, which is the core strength of an ERP system. ERP systems increase efficiency of business processes by automating where ever possible, reduce cycle times, increase productivity, build in operational controls, one time data capture/ storage and single source of information for all purposes. In addition, the state of the art ERP systems also have integrated capabilities for analytics and reporting on the data captures, built in workflows, integration with related systems within and outside the enterprise for seamless user experience.

Before midterm, you have already created a new product - Solar Boiler, that Almika will sell in the market. Now we will proceed with following process steps of marketing campaign, create opportunity, product pricing, Sales order and follow up, product delivery, reorder and procure for replenishment. After a brief overview of the full process in the class, we will study in detail the sub-processes in smaller groups and present the analysis in the subsequent class.

We are also starting a CRM implementation project for COEP and you are invited to volunteer as Project team members. The project will commence this week but will be completed in July 1st week. The project Kick off meeting will be held on Thursday, 22nd at 5:30pm.

As expected in any class, we have some students who have done well in exam, lab, assignments etc. while we have some who missed classes, could not complete lab etc. I  am therefore, planning to start extra classes for those who are falling behind to give them a chance to make up. And for those who have done well, and have special interest in this subject, I am planning to give several project assignments mainly created in COEP CRM implementation project.

Monday 19th, we will meet in Room #16.

You got it right, Congratulations!

We have some very quick correct answers:
Yes, this was a 50MB hard disk drive.

Akshat Khanna has left a new comment on your post "Guess what is this?": 
This is the Model 305 Disk Storage unit, later called the Random Access Method of Accounting and Control made by IBM in 1956. One of the first Disk Drives which initially came to the forefront in 1955. 


pradnyil has left a new comment on your post "Guess what is this?": 
This is a hard drive in 1956, made by IBM. 


mustafakl has left a new comment on your post "Guess what is this?": 
It's the first computer that had a hard disk made by IBM 


Congratulations!


Now think of what is happening today.
Probably you are already carrying a USB key in your pocket with storage of about 64GB (more than 1000 times what IBM 305 had). The new database technologies like SAP HANA can now handle more than 50 Terrabyte size of data. But the real huge data is handled by MapReduce framework for data which is measured in Petabytes. For instance Google's "Big Table". If you interested in learning more about these huge databases, then learn Open Source Hadoop and HBase implementations. It is a very exciting technology of future.

Guess what is this?

I

In 1956 this was a major achievement in the world of computers. This equipment is being transported by a special carrier to deliver it to the customer. Make a guess, what is it? Post your answer to this blog.

MidTerm Exam Preparation

MidTerm Exam will be for 30 marks, duration about 1 and half hour as per the schedule released by Exam department. On Wednesday, 7th March we will have a review session in classroom. Please come prepared to ask questions about any topic listed in the syllabus that you have not understood. The presentations available on Moodle should answer most of your doubts and hence p[lease review them.

Syllabus for MidTerm Exam

What is ERP, Definition, History, Evolution of Enterprise Systems Architecture, Evolution of Business Systems, Business Functionality covered by ERP, ERP Modules or subsystems, Business Drivers why ERP is implemented, Main objectives for implementation of ERP, Main characteristics of ERP system,  Advantages or Business Benefits of ERP, Criticality of ERP and it’s Challenges.

ERP Vendors, Open Source ERP, Implementation Partners, Implementation Methodology, Change Management, Project Risks, Project Team, Business Process Re-engineering.

Business Process Definition, Value Chain, Accounting and Finance Applications, SCM, CRM, SRM, PP. PM, QM, HCM, BI, Workflow, BPM, B2B, B2C, C2C, Web Services.

SAP, ByD, Navigation, Help system, Personalization options, Self Services, Material Master, Business Configuration, Master Data Maintenance, Transaction processing, Reporting

Make up session at 5:30pm today cancelled. Test1 repeat on Monday at 5:30pm

As discussed in the class today morning, most of the students who need to retake test1 have another test scheduled at the same time. Therefore, our retest is postponed to 5:30pm on Monday, 5th March.

If you were unable to submit the assignment on "Comparison of ERP features" then please go to Moodle and upload the document before Monday evening. http://moodle.coep.org.in/moodle/mod/assignment/view.php?id=95

If you were not able to submit SAP Navigation form then please resubmit the form at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFBmN2dOUlRENUFYZHFDcWZaYmNVV3c6MQ

If you have not been successful in completing case study 2, 3 and 1 then please come to Lab session on Monday or try to complete it from home.