ERP Implementation Gone Terribly Wrong: The Case of Natural Springs

A Russian start-up company successfully introduced bottled still water to the Russian market and, despite the rapid growth of competition, three years later remained the market leader. The firm’s CFO convinces the CEO of the need for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. He justifies the ERP as the means to enhance financial and administrative controls, to prepare for an IPO, and, among other reasons, to create efficiencies by better linking the St. Petersburg headquarters with their bottling facility located 100 miles to the north. The implementation fails, primarily due to widespread resistance within the factory as well as from the firm’s COO. The Case provides students with a rich look at implementation and counter-implementation of information systems as well as the high-level politics that can often seemingly mysteriously impact systems implementation. Further interest and opportunities for discussion are added via the Russian context and the transition to free markets, as well as the technical and operational work-arounds often required to deal with the inadequate public infrastructure often found in less developed parts of the world or, as in this case, in sections of a particular country

Future Security Approaches and Biometrics

Threats to information security are proliferating rapidly, placing demanding requirements on protecting tangible and intangible business and individual assets. Biometrics can improve security by replacing or complementing traditional security technologies. This tutorial discusses the strengths and weaknesses of biometrics and traditional security approaches, current and future applications of biometrics, performance evaluation measures of biometric systems, and privacy issues surrounding the new technology