How can business transformation be driven by a new ERP implementation: the Nice case study

openIn the last years, Nice has carried out several Mergers and Acquisitions operations. For the most part, acquired companies are still operating with their own industrial methods, tools and operating processes, configuring a situation of overall fragmentation in terms of Application Landscape within the Group, and generating various issues like timeliness and granularity of data availability and difficulties in processes integration across companies. Given such context, Nice Management would like to evolve its current Application Landscape, in order to enable the transformation into an integrated “One Company”, operating on the new Microsoft D365F&SCM as the common ERP platform. Furthermore, with the aim to reduce infrastructural complexity and rationalize related costs, such evolution will include switching from an On-Cloud “private” ERP setup to an On-Cloud totally outsourced ERP. This ERP implementation project starts from the revision, optimization and formalization of the business processes as fundamental requirement to then reproduce them on the Microsoft platform and this thesis will focus on the analyzed processes during the project. Taking into account the context and the needs, with the aim to perform a digital transformation of his business, Nice requested support to Deloitte in order to: • Define a Global Template to be applied to all Group’s countries standardizing the ways of working and adopting processes based on best practices as first step to prepare the ERP implementation. • Upgrade the Group’s Application Landscape to the new Microsoft D365F&SCM release. • Rationalize the overall IT architecture, to reduce the related cost and to improve the efficiency of it. This project is being followed by three Deloitte teams: • A supply chain team, which has in charge the Global Template definition and so the study and revision of all company’s processes. • A Microsoft team for the implementation of the ERP after the definition of formalized processes. This one is the team of which I am part and in the first part of the project will support the supply chain team for the definition of feasible processes for the implementation inside the ERP and in a second moment will actively implement the system for the company. In particular, for the ERP side I will be in charge of the definition of the production processes, from the planning based on forecast to the production lines. • A Finance team that study and revise financial processes. Considering the focus that I had during the project and the objectives defined, the Global Template will be characterized in this thesis with reference to following end to end processes. These processes are part of one of the frameworks, based on best practices, used by Deloitte for the analysis and improvement of the processes of a company: • Forecast to inventory (FTI): is intended the process of forecast and demand management and in particular the main phases considered are statistical forecast generation, sales plan generation, demand plan generation and management of demand signals. For Nice company the two critical processes analyzed were demand planning and replenishment planning. • Plan to schedule (PTS): is intended the process of planning based on forecast and in particular the main phases are supply and capacity planning, production planning, master planning (MPS and MRP) and production scheduling. In Nice case the main processes studied were the production plan definition and the raw material procurement planning, due to the criticality of these processes in their context. • Make to deploy (MTD): we intend the set of process that, starting from the planning and purchasing processes, aim to manage the flow of material throughout the whole production and distribution process to cover the demand of the Customers and/or Subsidiaries. In particular the main processes that has been analyzed are production and logistic.In the last years, Nice has carried out several Mergers and Acquisitions operations. For the most part, acquired companies are still operating with their own industrial methods, tools and operating processes, configuring a situation of overall fragmentation in terms of Application Landscape within the Group, and generating various issues like timeliness and granularity of data availability and difficulties in processes integration across companies. Given such context, Nice Management would like to evolve its current Application Landscape, in order to enable the transformation into an integrated “One Company”, operating on the new Microsoft D365F&SCM as the common ERP platform. Furthermore, with the aim to reduce infrastructural complexity and rationalize related costs, such evolution will include switching from an On-Cloud “private” ERP setup to an On-Cloud totally outsourced ERP. This ERP implementation project starts from the revision, optimization and formalization of the business processes as fundamental requirement to then reproduce them on the Microsoft platform and this thesis will focus on the analyzed processes during the project. Taking into account the context and the needs, with the aim to perform a digital transformation of his business, Nice requested support to Deloitte in order to: • Define a Global Template to be applied to all Group’s countries standardizing the ways of working and adopting processes based on best practices as first step to prepare the ERP implementation. • Upgrade the Group’s Application Landscape to the new Microsoft D365F&SCM release. • Rationalize the overall IT architecture, to reduce the related cost and to improve the efficiency of it. This project is being followed by three Deloitte teams: • A supply chain team, which has in charge the Global Template definition and so the study and revision of all company’s processes. • A Microsoft team for the implementation of the ERP after the definition of formalized processes. This one is the team of which I am part and in the first part of the project will support the supply chain team for the definition of feasible processes for the implementation inside the ERP and in a second moment will actively implement the system for the company. In particular, for the ERP side I will be in charge of the definition of the production processes, from the planning based on forecast to the production lines. • A Finance team that study and revise financial processes. Considering the focus that I had during the project and the objectives defined, the Global Template will be characterized in this thesis with reference to following end to end processes. These processes are part of one of the frameworks, based on best practices, used by Deloitte for the analysis and improvement of the processes of a company: • Forecast to inventory (FTI): is intended the process of forecast and demand management and in particular the main phases considered are statistical forecast generation, sales plan generation, demand plan generation and management of demand signals. For Nice company the two critical processes analyzed were demand planning and replenishment planning. • Plan to schedule (PTS): is intended the process of planning based on forecast and in particular the main phases are supply and capacity planning, production planning, master planning (MPS and MRP) and production scheduling. In Nice case the main processes studied were the production plan definition and the raw material procurement planning, due to the criticality of these processes in their context. • Make to deploy (MTD): we intend the set of process that, starting from the planning and purchasing processes, aim to manage the flow of material throughout the whole production and distribution process to cover the demand of the Customers and/or Subsidiaries. In particular the main processes that has been analyzed are production and logistic

Integrating the risk identification process into the objective setting process : a case study.

Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.During the past five years risk management has evolved to such an extent that most companies have developed formal risk management systems whereby their risk identification processes are integrated into their objective setting processes, albeit with different forms of integration. The integration of the risk identification process into the objective setting process is an essential step in the risk management process as it facilitates the identification of those risks that may affect the achievement of business objectives and ensure that plans are developed to mitigate the risks identified. The management of risks is essential to the success of any business whether profit making or non-profit making. This study examines, by way of a case study, the extent to which a specific business unit, within an organisation has integrated its risk identification process into the objective setting process. It then explores the benefits that can be derived from integrating the risk identification process into the objective setting process. In support of the aims of the study the corresponding objectives are to determine the extent to which the unit of study has integrated the risk identification process into the objective setting process, to demonstrate the benefits of integrating the two process as well as recommendations on future research and guidelines on integrating risk identification into objective setting. The study concludes that the integration of the risk identification process into the objective setting process starts by setting business objectives and then followed by identifying those events that can negatively impact the achievement of objectives. The integration of the two processes can happen in practice and that there are benefits to the organisation that can be derived from the integration of the risk identification process into the objective setting process as observed by the study. For future research it is recommended that similar studies involving multiple case studies should be conducted to test the applicability of the integration model to a broader population. Other business units within ABSA, just like the Home Loans Division should use the risk identification integration model to identify business risks they are exposed to, that is, if they are not already doing so, taking into consideration their individual circumstances and business planning processes

The effect of auditors' communication of the professional practice department involvement on audit negotiations

Auditor-Client negotiation about difficult client accounting issues involves the auditor, the client, and various other parties on both the client and auditor side. On the auditor side, the Professional Practice Department has been reported to play a significant role in the financial reporting process, yet is rarely the focus of academic study. In this study, I investigate how communicating the involvement of the Professional Practice Department (PPD) to top management using different influence techniques impacts negotiated outcomes between audit partners and top management. I examine the impact of communicating the involvement of the PPD in the context of two other variables found in prior auditing literature to be important in the negotiation process, auditor type and CFO (Chief Financial Officer) preferred auditor-type. While auditors must attest that the financial statements are free from material misstatement, they also must ensure they foster a functional working relationship with the client. The auditor-client context is unique, and takes place within an on-going relationship where expectations and preferences have been established. Therefore, I examine these negotiation outcomes while incorporating a key contextual variable, auditor-type, in the negotiations. Both the CFO's preference for auditor-type, as well as actual auditor-type will be examined in addition to the specific influence tactic. I use a 3x2x2 fully factorial design to experimentally analyze the impact of two manipulated variable (influence tactic and auditor-type) and one measured variable (CFO preference for auditor-type) on two dependent variables. The two dependent variables are the CFO's willingness to post an adjustment to the financial statements and the CFO's satisfaction with the audit partner. I report the results of an audit negotiation experiment in which 154 highly experienced CFOs responded to a case scenario that incorporated or measured the three key variables (influence tactic communicating PPD involvement, auditor-type and CFO preference for auditor type). My results indicate that using the most aggressive influence tactic to communicate the Professional Practice Department's involvement had a mixed effect on the CFOs willingness to post adjustments to the financial statements. The CFOs in this influence condition that were paired with an accommodating auditor-type reported a higher willingness to adjust the financial statements while CFOs paired with a proactive and advising auditor-type reported a lower willingness to post adjustments. All CFOs reported less satisfaction with the audit partner when the most aggressive influence tactic was used to communicate the Professional Practice Department's inyolvement. Furthermore, the CFO's preference for an auditor-type significantly affects negotiation outcomes. CFOs that prefer more proactive and advising audit partners are more likely to post adjustments to the financial statements, regardless of whether or not. they are informed of the Professional Practice Department's involvement. These same CFOs report a high level of satisfaction with the audit partner and their satisfaction is not impacted by the type of audit partner they are paired with. CFOs that prefer more reactive and accommodating audit partners are less willing to adjust the financial statements and report less satisfaction (dissatisfaction), when paired with proactive and advising audit partners. These results highlight the importance of the existing relationship within the auditor-client dyads and help support findings from auditor-client negotiation research which show that prevailing expectations of the CFO are a contextually important feature of audit negotiation and should be incorporated into more research. I also show that aggressive tactics can help persuade some CFOs to adjust the financial statements; however, consistently pushing too aggressively results in reduced cooperation. Furthermore, there are large costs in terms of the CFO's satisfaction with the audit partner in using aggressive tactics, and therefore, practically speaking the tactic that could potentially be the most effective may result in a lost client

Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, October 3-4, 1996

Minutes from the Wright State University Board of Trustees Meeting held on October 3-4, 1996

Accounting Historians Journal, 1980, Vol. 7, no. 2 [whole issue]

Fall issu