The real SAP® Business one cost : a case study of ERP adoption in an SME

This paper reports on a UK based service management Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) that invested into SAP® Business One. The action research case study highlights the real cost and difficulties faced in moving to the one single SAP system and the process that was followed in order to identify third-party vendors that can integrate or customise SAP® Business One. This paper highlights the additional costs required to ensure a ‘fit-for-purpose’ solution to close the gap between strategic needs and the existing SAP Business One solution. The gap itself is illustrated by highlighting 10 key functionalities expected by the given service management SME. The actual implementation cost of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was found to be approximately double the initial SAP costs. The real costs involve time for, among other things, process reengineering, strategic decision making, software add-ons, staff-training, project-management and software maintenance

Strategic Approach to Farming Success

This paper is an abstract of a new book for farmers launched on April 8, 2005 (Nell & Napier, 2005). The two authors, Wim Nell of South Africa and Rob Napier of Australia, have respectively 28 and 37 years national and international experience in strategic agricultural management. The book is written for farmers across the world and is dedicated to all farmers. The book takes the reader on a strategic journey to farming success, which consists of 11 stages. At the end of each stage the reader has the opportunity to answer some questions that will guide the process of compiling a strategic plan for a specific farming business. The book opens new horizons for the modern farmer to manage the farming business more successfully.Farming success, strategic approach, strategic farming, scenarios, holistic management., Farm Management,

A Critique of the Use of the Balanced Scorecard in Multi-Enterprise Family Farm Businesses

Business strategy is very important to small and medium family businesses as many are both fragile and vulnerable; strategy provides a solid foundation for survival. Various studies have identified that businesses that engage in strategic management outperform those that do not. Despite this knowledge the uptake of many aspects of strategic management by farm businesses has been slow. Although the development of business plans is now common there is often a disconnect between monitoring and strategy. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) was applied to case study farms during both the planning process and as they implemented and controlled their strategic choices to determine areas of difference that restrict or enhance it as a management tool for both family and farming businesses. The BSC was immediately applicable in the strategic management process for those businesses with current business plans. It could be used to test the degree of balance between the goals already identified in their plans. It was able to be used to critique the control measures they had in place and to determine how well they could be used to derive the causal chain from the operational level to family goals. In some instances either outcome or driver measures were recognized as being missing, in others the wiring within the balanced scorecard revealed some strategic measures without linkages.Farm Management,

Value-oriented process modeling - towards a financial perspective on business process redesign

To date, typical process modeling approaches put a strong emphasis on describing behavioral aspects of business operations. However, they often neglect value-related information. Yet, such information is of key importance to strategic decisionmaking, for instance in the context of process improvement or business engineering. In this paper we propose a valueoriented approach to business process modeling based on key concepts and metrics from operations and financial management. A simple case study suggests that our approach facilitates managerial decision-making in the context of process re-design

The Dynamics of International Market Withdrawal

This study focuses on the decision-making process of international market withdrawal within the scope of international market portfolio management. A comparative study of eight withdrawal cases in four multinational firms results in a six-phased decision-making model that is driven by threat-rigidity behavior, failure-induced learning and political dynamics. Two types of international market withdrawal are identified. On the one hand, a tactical withdrawal is the outcome of threat-rigidity and exploitative learning at the level of executive management. A strategic withdrawal, on the other hand, is characterized by a process of failure-induced exploratory learning initiated by middle level challengers. In contrast to a tactical withdrawal, which remains an isolated decision and does not interfere with other international ventures of the business unit, a strategic withdrawal turns out to be a germ of strategic (re)orientation of the business unit’s entire international market portfolio. Whether a market withdrawal turns out to be tactical or strategic ultimately depends on the autonomy, the amount and the relevance of challengers’ market and business knowledge.Economics ;

Measuring performance in healthcare

Hospitals invest in process management and process optimization from an organizational and patient perspective to increase efficiency and simultaneously the quality of their operations. Consequently, the use of process-oriented performance measurement systems gains importance. This study contributes to the development of a dashboard for the process of hip surgery using a case study design. We integrate strategic goals of hospital management and different stakeholders with the analysis of Business Process Management and Hospital Information Systems’ data. Process-oriented KPIs were integrated into the dashboard using a three-step approach. Dashboards enable healthcare organizations to put process-oriented performance measurement into practice

THE STRATEGIC DIAGNOSIS ANALYSIS - AN ESSENTIAL STAGE OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

The strategic diagnosis analysis aims to assess the potential of small and medium enterprises by evaluating their inner resources and the business environment within which these enterprises perform their activity. As a first stage in the strategic management process, the strategic diagnosis analysis ensures the premises for founding, elaborating and operationalizing a competitive managerial strategy. In this context, the paper presents the conceptual criteria which are essential for thematically framing the strategic diagnosis analysis, and the main instruments that can be used by the small and medium enterprises in this strategic managerial process stage.small and medium enterprise, strategic diagnosis analysis, strategic segmentation, strategic profile, technological profile, strategic group

Business process management tools as a measure of customer-centric maturity

In application of business process management (BPM) tools in European commercial sectors, this paper examines current maturity of customer centricity construct (CC) as an emerging dimension of competition and as a potential strategic management direction for the future of business. Processes are one of the key components of transformation in the CC roadmap. Particular departments are more customer orientated than others, and processes, customer-centric expertise, and approach can be built and utilized starting from them. Positive items within a current business process that only involve minor modification could be the basis for that. The evidence of movement on the customer-centric roadmap is found. BPM in European telecommunications, banking, utility and retail sector supports roadmap towards customer-centricity in process view, process alignment and process optimization. However, the movement is partial and not flawless, as BPM hasn’t been inquired for supporting many of customer-centric dimensions

Making the case for action learning as an effective framework for strategy making

Action learning encourages individual reflection, insightful questioning and assumption breaking that result in changes in attitude and behaviour. This learning process provides the potential to explore and solve complex organizational problems, such as, the question of how to develop a future business strategy. Existing literature on the process of strategy making presents a multi-faceted debate, with the ‘Learning School’ of strategic management being one of the main approaches to conceptualise strategy formation. This school of thought suggests that strategy making is a process of emergent learning over time, where strategy makers critically reflect on past experience and adapt their strategies accordingly. Learning from action, change and reflection, is therefore, considered to be more useful in strategy making than formal analysis and subsequent strategy formulation. The premises of the Learning School of strategy making are similar to the premises of action learning, yet, the action learning paradigm has made little or no impact in strategic management literature. This is particularly surprising since the fundamental tenets of action learning could enable it to make an important contribution to strategy makers and business strategy development. This paper makes the case for action learning to feature more prominently in strategic management literature, and particularly, in the Learning School. It proposes that using an action learning methodology can effectively contribute to the development of business strategy, particularly for those organizations operating in competitive environments that are complex and unpredictable. In this type of environment, strategic responses tend to evolve from a process of experimentation, trial and error. Action learning is advocated as a suitable framework to encapsulate this emergent and experimental process and provide a platform for the development of effective strategy making

Logistics and supply chain management: the importance of integration for business processes / Izwan Azmi … [et al.]

This conceptual paper outlines the importance of integration in supply chain management (SCM) by linking the functions of logistics as it applies in strategic business process. Often, business processes are developed at the strategic level but are never identified precisely in logistics or in SCM. Strategic business processes like Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), Customer Service Management (CSM) and Demand Management are not directly linked to logistics or SCM. This paper identifies the literature that expressed the importance of integration and how business processes can be relevant in the execution of key logistics activities in the supply chain context