International Journal Of Management & Behavioural Sciences (IJMBS)

Vol. 04 JUNE-2013 ISSN 2278-5671

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67
ERP: AN EFFECTIVE RESOURCE UTILIZATION TOOL FOR
ORGANIZATION

Prof. Amar R. Mudiraj *





ABSTRACT

In todays era of fast growing organization, every organization is facing the problem of resource
utilization, is one of the most difficult and challenging job for the organization. An organization needs
an automatic tool for the resource utilization activities. ERP is one of the latest technologies that many
organizations have undertaken. Typically, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are software
packages composed of several modules, such as human resource, sales, finance and production
providing cross-organizational integration of transaction-based data management throughout
embedded business processes support. ERP supports in different levels of management and different
modules are implementing. This research paper is highlighting the important features of ERP in the
perspective of effective resource utilization tool for organization. Here, I have identified pre and post
implementation details in the layout sub-components of ERP.

KEYWORDS: ERP, Resource Utilization, ERP module

INTRODUCTION
In todays era is rapid development era where everyone looking for fast growth in their work and simultaneously
the organization also want better utilization of resources. Every organization tries to keep limited number of
resource while running any project to control the cost of the project which will also help to increase their
profitability. The resource utilization is one of the most difficult and challenging job for any organization and
every organization tries to reduce the human dependency plus needs an automated tool which helps to increase
the effectiveness in integrity between all different functional aspect of the organization and decrease the human
efforts which might affect the accuracy and rapid response during dynamic situation during workflow. To face
and fulfill all above aspect the organization require an integrated, automated, fast, feasible computerized tool
which help in decision making, strategy planning, monitoring and controlling all the activities done during
organization work.

The above all aspects are having one common solution i.e. ERP. Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) is latest
high-end solution, information has lent to business application. The ERP solutions seek to streamline and
integrate operation processes and information flows on the company to synergize the resources of an
organization namely men, material, money and machine through information.

ERP serves many industries and numerous functional areas in an integrated fashion, attempting to automate
operations from supply chain management, inventory control, manufacturing scheduling and production, sales
support, customer relationship management, financial and cost accounting, human resources and almost any
other data oriented management process. ERP systems are designed to enhance organizations competitiveness
by upgrading an organizations ability to generate timely and accurate information throughout the enterprise and
its supply chain. A successful ERP system implementation can shorten production cycles, increases accuracy of
demand for materials management & sourcing and leads to inventory reduction because of material
management, etc. Moreover it can be used as a primary tool for re-engineering.

ERP Implementation process: - ERP implantation processes have three main phases, firstly Pre-
implementation phase, secondly In-implementation phase and finally Post-implementation phase.Every phase is
unique but interdependent to each other, following table shows ERP implementation in very detail;

Phase Pre-implementation phase In-implementation phase Post-implementation phase.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
* PROF. AMAR R. MUDIRAJ; ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MARATHWADA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, AURANGABAD (MH)
International Journal Of Management & Behavioural Sciences (IJMBS)
Vol. 04 JUNE-2013 ISSN 2278-5671
www.smbs.in
68
Process BPR
+
BE
Development Approach
+
SDLC
Monitoring
+
maintenance
Activity Analysis
Business engineering
TQM
Business modeling

Planning
Design
Implementation
Testing
Deployment
Training
Use
Review
Monitor
Resolve
Control
Maintenance


outcome Ready to implement ERP ERP is ready to use ERP Results and Reviews
Table1.1: ERP implementation model
In the above mention activity every phase has different sub-activities; in pre-implementation phase the
organization doing Business Process Reengineering (BPR) in which analysis current business process to achieve
dramatic improvement, in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and
speed. Ultimately BPR decide the strength and weakness of the organization and give the result to management
need for some improvement in their old and traditional way of working. After getting idea from BPR the
organization has to do Business Engineering (BE) where emerging two concept namely Information Technology
and Business Process Engineering, which helps to maintain total quality management to maintain the quality in
their existing working system and then the business management and modeling has to perform which gives an
idea about different modules of organization and their internal relationship, where the organization gets the
different data models and information which gives the resource requirement and utilization needs through some
automated tool i.e. ERP.

After analyze the need of ERP in organization In-implementation Phase, where actual Software development life
cycle (SDLC) going to implement, ERP implementation is the special and sensitive process for organization. It
brings together in one platform, different business functions, different personalities, procedure, and ideology
with an aim to pool knowledge base to effectively integrate and bring worthwhile and beneficial changes
throughout the organization. In implementation phase first and most important process is analysis of the current
state and working environment, information, need, resources, objective and goals of the organization. After
analysis the design step going to implement where all the different functional and modular information gathered
together logically. Next process is development of software according to its design using some appropriate
software tools e.g. SAP, BAAN, OracleSoft etc. by getting actual package development .The most and crucial
process is testing, where we have to check whether the ERP is implemented according to its objective or not in
different prospective like functional, managerial, operational etc. if everything goes as per plan then the
deployment of the software package in organization is for actual use. Before handover the ERP into the
organizational people, the ERP development team has to provide special training to give some motivation to the
organizational employee to ERP specifications and the usability terminology. Finally the technical team at
organizational side will use the ERP, for which it is actually implemented.

The Post-implantation phase also continuous, dynamic and time consuming process in nature because none of
the team member guaranty about the problems which may come after the ERP implementation. This phase
reviews the ERP tool and monitor regularly, if any technical issue may arise then according to its nature the
suitable resolving get done for maintaining continuous control over the ERP system.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is an industry term for the broad set of activities supported by multi-
module application software that help a manufacturer or other business managers [6]. Originally, ERP packages
were targeted at the manufacturing industry. ERP is a massive software engine that seeks to provide one
seamless interface to all departments, systems and existing data within the organization. Enterprise Resource
Planning systems are commercial software packages that enable integration of transaction-oriented data and
business processes throughout the organization and perhaps eventually throughout the entire inter organizational
supply chain [4]. A typical ERP system integrates all of a companys functions by allowing the modules to share
and transfer information freely [3], [2].

In this paper, the basic objective is to study and analyze the current ERP module, specifically Human Resource
management to get the difference between traditional workflow and ERP module workflow.

OBSERVATION AND INTERPRETATION
To get the idea for traditional workflow of the HR system before the ERP implementation I study survey reports
and some literature the HR departments functional process.

International Journal Of Management & Behavioural Sciences (IJMBS)
Vol. 04 JUNE-2013 ISSN 2278-5671
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69
The Human Resources module consists of all master data, system configuration, and transactions to complete
the Hire to Fire/Retire process. It providing solutions for planning and managing the companys human
resources, using integrated application that all personal management tasks and help simplify and speed the
process. The Human Resources module has following information and processes.

Figure 1.1 Human Resources modules Components:

HUMAN RESOURCES MODULES COMPONENTS:
Personnel Management
Personnel Administration
Recruitment
Organization Structure
Compensation Management
Personnel Development
Organizational Management
Travel Management
Time Management
Payroll


ERP (SAP)
Human Resource
Sub- Components
Personal
Management
Personal
Administration
Time &
Attendance
Management
Recruitment
Personal
Development
Training
Organizational
Structure
Compensation
Management
Termination
and
Retirement
Management
Travel
Management
Payroll
International Journal Of Management & Behavioural Sciences (IJMBS)
Vol. 04 JUNE-2013 ISSN 2278-5671
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70
Sub-Components Pre-implementation Post-implementation
Personnel management Continues monitoring over the
employee to get his performance
Performance appraisal collected
online and compare their
performance with organizational
goals for better evaluation
Personnel Administration Till the employee will not give any
personal data by its own, it is very
difficult to get this data.
Maintaining employee personal
data, family information,
number of dependant which
help to maintain his personal
data management by the
organization
Recruitment This was very long procedure right
from advertisement, application
receiving, scrutinizes the form, call for
interview, evaluate them according to
their performance in personal
interview and then take the decision
for recruitment.
This ERP module used to
maintain the record of college
visits for recruitment process,
candidates from consultancies
and their resumes; list of
candidates available for full-time
or Part-time work etc.
This HR module can be
integrated with training
management to link with the
initial process of the selected
candidates.
Organization Structure Continues monitoring over the
employee to get his performance and
this become very difficult to take the
comparative analysis of different
employee
This module highlights those
employees who are well
qualified at work and could be
moved to the next level of
hierarchy.
Compensation
Management
Very long term process as collection
of data, compare his performance with
organizational policies and make the
decision.
This module, the top performed
employees are targeted and
supported with the
compensation and retention
scheme as the planned objective
of the company.
This package includes retention
risks, cost replacement, and
noticing a successor.
Personnel Development Continues monitoring over the
employee to get his performance and
this become very difficult to take the
comparative analysis of different
employee
ERP performance module
basically maintains the history of
employees' performance and
determines the number of
employees eligible for reaching
certain level of hierarchy.
Training Long and manual process
Finding eligible candidates for
training then train them, evaluate their
performance for evaluate the results
with total cost of training and its
returns.

This module tracks the newly
enrolled candidates who are
under training process.
It also maintains the course
description, course availability,
review course assessment, traces
the training cost and fixes a
training budget.
The most important thing about
this module is that, the e-
learning training sources are
connected to the employee's
desktop which can be used on
requirement.
Finally, ERP records the
employee's performance during
the training period which will be
International Journal Of Management & Behavioural Sciences (IJMBS)
Vol. 04 JUNE-2013 ISSN 2278-5671
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71
Table 1.2 Workflow change Difference between Pre-implementation and Post-implementation

LIMITATION
The ERP is very vast and broad area for research and it also has multiple number of different module and again
these module further divide into sub-module so my research is get restrict to only at HR module and that
research at primary level of considering very basic and core aspect of HR module .

FUTURE SCOPE
As in previous section, I have mentioned the ERP is very vast and broad area for research and it also has
multiple numbers of different modules. This literature covers introductory aspect and it requires extending at
different modules of ERP like finance, sales, Production etc.
useful to be reviewed by the
training supervisors
Travel Management Long and Manual process This module is integrated with
personal and organizational
development where the total
expense on the employee
organization and their outcome
get compare with its cost
Time and Attendance
Management
Time consuming process difficult to
control because of following reason
like Fake Attendance, proxy
attendance in work
This module is integrated with
Payroll module.
Apart from the roles of Payroll
systems, it also concentrates on
the sick leave of the employees.
Time and attendance are easily
recorded to the system by
scanning the employee barcode
which is located in every
employee's identity card
Payroll Manual and difficult job for account
department like calculate monthly
attendance, calculate his monthly
salary according to its attendance,
distribution of salary personally
Employees attendance and their
time of entry to work and exit
are entered in the system to
determine the number of work
hours.
This module tracks, check and
reports both the hours of work
and respective wages of
employees.
Payment is directly transfer into
employees bank account create
transparency in Payroll system
It also includes the process of
calculating the taxes and deducts
from the salary and also
garnishee wages for charity
purpose like child support and
for cancer patients.
Termination and
Retirement Management
Continues monitoring over the
employee to get his performance and
this become very difficult to take the
comparative analysis of different
employee
Depend upon the feedback
report from different level the
organization can make the
decision whether the employee
should continue in his job or get
terminate
Also it help to get the decision
at the time of his retirement any
additional compensation like
bonus or any pension scheme
should provide according to his
service done in the organization
International Journal Of Management & Behavioural Sciences (IJMBS)
Vol. 04 JUNE-2013 ISSN 2278-5671
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72

This literature also helps to consider primary aspect of ERP with special reference to SAP. There are some other
vendors who implement ERP tools like BAAN, OracleSoft etc. So, their might be some changes may find. Their
might be get to consider some different ERP implementation methodology that may change the workflow,
mentioned in this paper.

CONCLUSION
Human Resource is a vital part of every successful organization. The information received from this section is
required to have a continuous flow and accurate evaluation for the professional development and for the social
welfare of the workers. Thus, ERP is represented as a useful tool to help and make the users easier and focus
their work in a direct relation with staff, skills and aspiration of an individual related to the objectives and the
goal of the company.
In today's emerging business environment, large companies have no options to avoid such massive IT packages.
Basically its aim is to mechanize work flow and generate cost savings. For the present competitive scenario,
lagging ERP technology seems to be unsuccessful for a firm. Thus, ERP systems have the possibility either to
confine or expand the organization's capabilities and lead a pathway to competitiveness.

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12. Diagrams and Tables:-
a. Table1.1: ERP implementation model
b. Table 1.2 Workflow change Difference between Pre-implementation and Post-implementation
c. Figure 1.1 Human Resources modules Components: