Adapting SAP And Oracle With CRM System For Commercial Benefits: Feasibility Study And Analysis

Benefits Evaluation

This report depicts the importance of adapting SAP or Oracle together with the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in Clivet to increase the commercial benefit from the competitive marketplace. Clivet is one of the leading Italian air conditioner products manufacturing companies. It produces high quality solution for the climate control requirements and provides controlled cooling system to the consumers in terms of climatic equipments like fan coils, conditioners, air handling unite, chillers and many more electronic devices for their consumers.

However, gradually the numbers of stakeholders including consumers are increasing and due to that reason the manual data management system is becoming unmanageable for the management authority of the business organization. In order to mitigate this issues Clive is willing to adapt SAP and Oracle both technologies along with their CRM system. Before implementation of this project a feasibility study in terms of cost benefit analysis, stakeholder’s analysis and responsibility of the project team members are demonstrated in this report.  

The aim of the report is to build the business organization responsible for the ownership by developing a long term business relationship that will be beneficial for all the stakeholders of the business organization.

• To adapt SAP or Oracle both technologies with CRM for Clivet
• To identify the technical requirements that are needed to develop the system
• To develop RACI matrices, stakeholder analysis and cost benefit analysis

• What are the benefits of adapting SAP and Oracle together with the CRM system for Clivet?
• What are the technical requirements while developing this system for Clivet?
• What are the roles and responsibilities of the project team members and project manager while developing the project?

H_0: Development of SAP and Oracle together with the CRM system is beneficial.

H_1: Development of SAP and Oracle together with the CRM system is not beneficial.

Research philosophy

 Three different kinds of research approaches such as positivism, interpretivism and realism are defined and used by the business organizations to develop the existing situation. It has been found that most of the business organizations those are looking for implementing ERP software end up their consideration with the two biggest behemoths those are SAP and Oracle. Particularly for this case, the researcher will use positivism research philosophy, it will help the management authority of Clivet to understand and select the most suitable frameworks and hidden facts of CRM system.

Research Approach

Depending on the research philosophy, two different kinds of research approaches are generally used by the business organizations such as inductive approach and deductive approach. In order to conduct and complete a research topic, deductive research approach should be undertaken. It will help the researcher to understand the basic tools that are needed to be incorporate while adapting SAP and Oracle together with the CRM system. As deductive method deals with former established theories therefore, for this particular topic the researcher will utilize Deductive research approach.

Research Philosophy and Approach

 Clivet is willing to adapt SAP and Oracle both with the CRM system to become the leading air conditioning manufacturing companies. In order to conduct this study, secondary data collection both in terms of qualitative and quantitative data collection are required to be done. The business is the provision of planned services and prevents the maintenance contracts for the air conditioning products and associated building services at the same time. In order to get full support from the building management services, together along with equipment installation, commissioning and logistics support for the project proper data are required to be collected from valid resources.

According to Norris et al. (2001) many executives are looking to implement ERP software packages, will no doubt end up considering the industry’s two biggest behemoths named as SAP and Oracle. Both the vendors are leaders in the shared market and both of them have efficiently established production lines, strength, weaknesses and risks and products roadmaps of these vendors (Skok and Legge 2002). For these two vendors the roadmaps are not that much different from one another.

The executives are very much concerned about the implementation risks but at the same time, it has been found that in SAP the risk of implementation risk is much higher than the others (Usman, Coombs and Neil 2014). If the software functionalities and customization are considered then, SAP customers are getting much benefit from the Oracle consumers.  If SAP and Oracle are compared with each other then, it can be said that Oracle provides more of customer leveraged cloud computing options and most of the cloud consumers realizes that Oracle consumers get little more benefits from SAP ERP (Zubair and Zamani 2014).

In order to develop the SAP and Oracle together with the CRM system the project development team requires maintaining certain criteria. The Project Manager should communicate properly with his or her fellow team members so that they could share their views with others (Gollman 2006). For this project, three frameworks will be applied to Clivet to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the project team members. With the help of RACI matrices the job roles of the project team member will be separated and from the cost benefit analysis whether the overall estimated budget and expected benefit from the investment is beneficial for Clivet or not will be calculated.

In order to evaluate the planned project for the business organization the development team is required to analyze the roles and responsibilities of the project team members and before project implementation, a proper feasibility study is needed to be conducted by the financial management team of Clivet to understand whether the total invested cost is profitable or not (Ahmed, Kok and Loh 2002). If it is found that in the ongoing phase more resources are required then, before implementation that condition is also needed to be considered. Different analytical frameworks will be applied to Clivet to understand the current situation of the business and after adaptation of SAP and Oracle together how much benefit will be generated from it.  

Application of the analytical frameworks in Clivet

Feasibility Study and Cost-Benefit Analysis

Three frameworks such as stakeholder’s matrices, cost benefit analysis and RACI matrices are applied to Clivet to understand the overall commercial association with this project. Before implementation of the project the feasibility study is needed to be conducted. In this case the Clivet business organization is willing to implement CRM system by using both the SAP ERP and Oracle database for managing large set of data and also for managing the Information System of the business organization. In order to keep the information secured from the external attackers the data are needed to keep safe by using encryption or even other data encapsulation format.  

In order to implement this practically in Clivet, the finance department has divided the cost for the different segments such as the hardware cost software cost, cost for speeding the activities, cost for increasing the reliability and flexibility. The total tangible benefit is 504,600.00 and the tangible one – time cost is 2,899,480.00. The total tangible cost is $ 28,260.00.

Tangible Benefits
Category	In $US
The reduced cost	$            270,000.00
The reduced error rate	$            111,000.00
Increased flexibility	$              53,000.00
Increased activity speed	$              45,000.00
planning and control development	$              25,600.00
Others	$                         –
Total Tangible Benefits	$            504,600.00
Tangible One-Time Costs
Category	In $US
The entire development cost	$          2,505,000.00
New hardware cost	$              56,000.00
New software cost	$            150,000.00
Cost estimated for training and development	$                2,580.00
Cost for adapting SAP and Oracle	$            183,000.00
Other Cost	$                2,900.00
Total Tangible One-Time Costs	$          2,899,480.00
Tangible Recurring Costs
Category	In $US
Application maintenance software	$              22,300.00
Increased data storage cost	$                1,580.00
increased cost for communication	$                2,580.00
Leases line cost for new software and hardware	$                         –
Overall suppliers cost	$                1,800.00
Other Cost	$                         –
Total Tangible Recurring Costs	$              28,260.00

Particularly, for this project the roles and responsibilities of the project team members are segmented in different parts and if the team member plays their job roles efficiently then the project will produce successful outcomes in terms of commercial benefit to Clivet. It has been found that, the business organization wants to adapt both the SAP and Oracle which is quite difficult to afford. However, in order to manage large set of data efficiently including the users and the suppliers and also of the employees a proper data base management system is needed to be adapted by the business organization. It will help the employees also to understand what their actual job roles are. The four components of the RACI matrices stand for responsibility, accountability, consulted and informed (Skok and Legge 2002).  Based on the type of business the roles are respectively divided. As for this particular project, the project headers are executive sponsor, project sponsor and advisors. On the other hand the project team member includes the project manager, IT manager, developers and the project sub team includes the project developers and the business analysts. The main role of the project manager is to track and monitor the entire process not only during the project planning and execution but also after the implementation of the project, the project manager should track the project progress efficiently.  

Roles (activities)	Project leader	Project team members	Project sub teams
	Executive sponsor	Project sponsor	Advisors	PM	IT manager	Developers	Business analysts
Project initiation
Project request	A/C	R/A	NA	R/A	A/C	NA	NA
Feasibility study	I	R/A	A	R	R	NA	I
Development of business case	I	A/C	I	R	R	I	I
Project planning
Project charter	R/A	A/C	A/C	R/C	R/A	I	I
Scheduling	C	C	C	R/A	R/A	A/C	I
Additional plans	I	I	I	I	I	I
Execution
Deliverables configuration	NA	NA	NA	R/C	R/C	R	R
Status reporting	NA	NA	NA	I	R/C	I	I
Control
PCM	NA	C	C	R	A	A	A
Closure	I	I	I	R/A	I	I	I

In order to evaluate SAP and Oracle together with CRM, it is needed to satisfy all the group of stakeholders. Earl’s multiple methodology is used while evaluating this system for Clivet. As the organization operates in the digital domain thus, most of the best practices are required to be defined by the development team. In order to gain competitive advantages from the market the stakeholder analysis is needed to be done appropriately.

Roles and Responsibilities of Project Team Members

Clivet is willing to incorporate the SAP and Oracle together with CRM system and for developing this project the stakeholder group are needed to be identified. For CRM three major stakeholder groups such as the board room directors of Clivet, employee and users of Clivet and external constituents are there.

Positive stakeholders are referred to as those stakeholders those who are normally benefited after the successful completion of the business project. On the other hand, negative stakeholders are those who found only negative resultants from the project.  

The project might be positively or it might be negatively impacted by the stakeholders group.  Both internal and external stakeholders influences the project either positively or either negatively. If the management team ignores the stakeholders expectations then, it will impact the project negatively such as late delivery, lower quality etc. Even if the management needs more resources for panning the project then support from the HR manager is also needed efficiently. Moreover, the PM should manage the influence of the stakeholder’s relation to the project management requirements. By balancing the need of the stakeholders the PM could meet the expectation of the stakeholders.

 As the stakeholders influences the project outcomes similarly, in order to get success in project the stakeholders are required to be influenced. The stakeholders of this particular project can be influenced by acting along with transparency and by using appropriate power along with caution.

 In order to reduce the range of risks, Clivet should develop asset of risk management approaches in terms of technology, business processes, people and strategy as well. When the company’s annual revenue budget is considered SAP is found to be the most costly option for the business organization. In the total cost of ownership, the average of the SAP consumers spend over 4% whereas, the Oracle consumers spends 1.8%. Therefore, if Clivet adapts both of these technologies, then overall budget will become very high.

The potential social problems of Clivet after implementation of SAP and Oracle together, cannot be evaluated with the help of Earl’s multiple methodology. However, those might be analyzed or even planned for diminishing the stakeholder’s matrices.

Stakeholder’s group	Perceived profit	Required changes	Panned commitment	Perceived resistance
Shareholders	The data are precised on the cost and the cost of the users over the services.	Not required	It is dependent on cost and risk of the  project	Low
Service management engineering department	The cost required for overall services optimizes the resources.	It will help to evaluate the service cost.	Not yet planned	Low
Finance team	It will have an accounting for the expansive devices	Based on the real time information, the accounting rules might be changed.	Low	Medium
HR management	The HR management authority will manage the overall management process including the financial and the service level management.	Open communication is required to be adapted	Low	Low
Equipment suppliers	It will help to achieve data regarding the current situation of the digital devices.	The management should improve the API for making internal communication.	Not yet planned	Low

Conclusion

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that, both the vendors are beneficial for Clivet. However, if the owner wills to implement both the technologies together then, it will give complimentary advantages to the business organization by mitigating the potential risks. The budget estimated for Clivet, is based on software and hardware requirements and at the same time the productivity and service will increase if Clivet adapts both SAP and oracle together for managing the confidential data efficiently. The roles and responsibility of the project team members and the requirements and expectations of the company’s stakeholders are also elaborated in this report. Overall it could be said that, three analytical frameworks such as RACI matrices analysis, stakeholder’s analysis and cost benefit analysis are done considering the required hardware and software. Thus, it can be said that if Clivet implements both SAP and Oracle ERP for improving the CRM, system then it will be very much beneficial.

References 

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