QUESTION 1

Why did the DuPont Company need to revamp their back-office

systems?
DuPont’s floor product division had no global view of sales
and revenue. It consist of about 500 legacy systems. They couldn’t
do capacity planning across sites that made the same product.
Customers wanted to order online so they need to robust back-
office system that would serve their e-commerce push. And for them
to integrate this plan efficiently, they need to implement ERP
system.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are used by
organizations looking to manage their business functions within a
centralized and integrated system. ERP is commonly used by
companies working within the supply chain to help keep track of
all the moving parts of manufacturing and distribution. However,
ERP can be utilized by a number of different industries including
those in healthcare, nonprofit groups, construction and
hospitality. Organization needing to manage their staff, customers
and inventory can all rely on ERP benefits.
ERP stores all entered data into a single database, allowing
all departments to work with the same information. Additionally,
all this data can be organized, analyzed and made into reports.
ERP systems bring together customer management, human resources,
business intelligence, financial management, inventory and supply
chain capabilities into one system.

Do you agree with the quote that ERP is the “price of staying in
business”?
Yes, of course. Enterprise resource planning software is used
to manage a number of business functions, but how is it any better
than other solutions? Even though ERP may have similar goals to
other solutions and may cost a major investment, its unique
features make it a distinctive competitor in the software market
and will help a business in its sustainability. Here are the
benefits of using an ERP:
 More Money Saved - although many vendors have introduced flexible
pricing in recent years, ERP packages are still a big investment.
For many, the large costs alone can make it seem unlikely that the
program would end up saving your organization any money at all.
But once you get past the sticker shock, it’s easier to see how
ERP systems can provide an excellent ROI.
 Improved Collaboration - The features of ERP applications can vary
slightly depending on the program you are using, but generally,
all systems improve collaboration in some way. As mentioned before,
the centralized database is an integral part of what makes an ERP
unique. With this database, you provide your company with a single
source of truth to work from. This reduces any errors brought on
by working with the incorrect data, further reducing costs.
Moreover, a central database reduces any hesitation or stalling
during projects, since all team members have access to the company-
wide data they need. Additionally, there’s no need to merge
information across various systems or sources. Because all of the
data is compiled, stored, shared and accessed through a single
system, there is no concern about how accurate, complete or secure
the data files are.
 Better Analytics – a central database of information also aids in
improving your analytics and reporting. Since an ERP records and
stores all the data users input, it makes for an excellent business
intelligence tool. As long as your vendor provides strong
functionality, ERP software makes it easier and faster for your
team to generate various reports. Reports that could take days of
research and compilation without an ERP takes just minutes.
 Improved Productivity - with traditional methods, tedious tasks
are completely unavoidable. Tasks like generating reports,
monitoring inventory levels, timesheet tracking and processing
orders have historically taken employees hours to accomplish. In
addition to taking up time, these processes lower employee morale
and open yourself up to human error. After the umpteenth hour of
entering the same line of data into different forms, even the best
staff members are bound to make a mistake.
 Happier Customers - managing your customers has never been so
important. In our digital age, more and more people are turning to
the internet to receive advice on what clothes to wear, what food
to eat and how to live their lives. And with 84 percent of consumers
trusting online reviews as much as they would a friend, previous
customer opinions are more impactful than ever.
 Simplified Compliance and Risk Management - as companies grow and
do business in different countries, it can be difficult to keep
track of all the different regulations imposed on your business.
Even local companies need to worry about various environmental,
information security and human resources regulations. Luckily, many
ERP systems are built with these regulations in mind to help you
 maintain compliance at every stage. Moreover, ERP software provides
built-in auditing tools to assist with documenting things like
chemical use and tax provisions. This makes it incredibly easy to
formulate reports and send them over to the relevant governing
body.
 Improved Inventory Monitoring – a major challenge for growing
companies is tracking and monitoring their expanding inventory
levels. ERP systems utilize barcoding, RFID tags and serial numbers
to keep tabs on your inventory at every stage during the supply
chain. These tools help you keep track of inventory levels at
different warehouses, which items are in transportation and which
items are on the shelves ready for consumers. The increased
warehouse visibility optimizes the pick, pack and ship process
greatly, removing all the guesswork.
 Improved Production Planning and Resource Management - along with
managing your inventory, ERP systems also manage manufacturing.
ERP provides insight into all manufacturing operations including
the shop floor. This enables users to optimize production
schedules, equipment and labor to maximize capacity. Additionally,
ERP manages your Bill of Materials (BOM) and fixed assets. With
this software, users can easily create and edit BOMs along with
keep track of all previous changes. Fixed asset management allows
users to schedule equipment maintenance to reduce unexpected
downtime, improving your profitability and supply chain
relationships.

QUESTION 2
How did DuPont handle change management with its employees? Can
you think of any improvements the company could have made to
alleviate user stress?
Change management and communications were handled in three steps:
1. Project team formation: experienced line managers and
professionals that were highly respected were made full-time
(employees) on the project. The vice president sent out an
endorsement of the project to the world. They consider this
a very critical step.
2. Project sponsor: personal trips were made to 15 major plant
sites worldwide (Andy visited the plants each four times) to
communicate face to face with plant leadership. These trips
ensured adequate staffing for the plant and answered any
questions the plant personnel might have had.
3. Global operations director: her view was that on day 1 of
start-up if any plant had problems (such as if they couldn’t
 ship material) she blamed the plant manage. SO the plant
manager very clearly owned the success or failure of the
project. In addition, there were weekly project team letters,
two full-time teams on change management, Intranet Web sites,
and video tapes with information on the process areas.
Changes, and benefits. Training was handles by professional
trainers, using detailed documentation. Users had to pass a
qualification-based test- which was easy if they attended and
participated in the training sessions. If not, they had to
retain and retest. Training is a journey, not a beginning and
end. Users were trained in the entire process and then were
able to drill down to their own specific job.

QUESTION 3
Research change management and systems development on the
internet.
What is Change Management?
Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare,
equip and support individuals to successfully adopt change in order
to drive organizational success and outcomes.
While all changes are unique and all individuals are unique,
decades of research shows there are actions we can take to
influence people in their individual transitions. Change
management provides a structured approach for supporting the
individuals in your organization to move from their own current
states to their own future states.
Three Levels of Change Management
a) Individual Change Management
While it is the natural psychological and physiological reaction
of humans to resist change, we are actually quite resilient
creatures. When supported through times of change, we can be
wonderfully adaptive and successful.
Individual change management requires understanding how people
experience change and what they need to change successfully. It
also requires knowing what will help people make a successful
transition: what messages do people need to hear when and from
whom, when the optimal time to teach someone a new skill is, how
to coach people to demonstrate new behaviors, and what makes
changes “stick” in someone’s work. Individual change management
draws on disciplines like psychology and neuroscience to apply
actionable frameworks to individual change.
After years of studying how individuals experience and are
influenced in times of change, Prosci developed the ADKAR Model
for individual change. Today, it is one of the most widely used
change models in the world.
b) Organizational/Initiative Change Management
While change happens at the individual level, it is often
impossible for a project team to manage change on a person-by-
person basis. Organizational or initiative change management
provides us with the steps and actions to take at the project level
to support the hundreds or thousands of individuals who are
impacted by a project.
Organizational change management involves first identifying the
groups and people who will need to change as the result of the
project, and in what ways they will need to change. Organizational
change management then involves creating a customized plan for
ensuring impacted employees receive the awareness, leadership,
coaching, and training they need in order to change successfully.
Driving successful individual transitions should be the central
focus of the activities in organizational change management.
Organizational change management is complementary to your project
management. Project management ensures your project’s solution is
designed, developed and delivered, while change management ensures
your project’s solution is effectively embraced, adopted and used.
c) Enterprise Change Management Capability
Enterprise change management is an organizational core competency
that provides competitive differentiation and the ability to
effectively adapt to the ever-changing world. An enterprise change
management capability means effective change management is
embedded into your organization’s roles, structures, processes,
projects and leadership competencies. Change management processes
are consistently and effectively applied to initiatives, leaders
have the skills to guide their teams through change, and employees
know what to ask for in order to be successful.
The end result of an enterprise change management capability is
that individuals embrace change more quickly and effectively, and
organizations are able to respond quickly to market changes,
embrace strategic initiatives, and adopt new technology more
quickly and with less productivity impact. This capability does
not happen by chance, however, and requires a strategic approach
to embed change management across an organization.
Why Change Management?
Change is happening in your organization. Every day, new
initiatives and projects are launched to improve performance,
increase profits, and enhance your competitive advantage. You
could be implementing technology to enable a more mobile workforce,
reengineering a process to ensure regulatory compliance or
pursuing an enterprise-wide transformation around customer
experience.
There is a common denominator for achieving the intended outcomes
of your initiative: people. Your initiatives impact how individual
people do their work: their processes, job roles, workflows,
reporting structures, behaviors and even their identity within the
organization.

Systems Development - is the process of defining, designing,

testing and implementing a new software application or program. It
can include the internal development of customized systems, the
creation of database systems or the acquisition of third party
developed software.
eLink Design aims to produce high quality systems that meet
or exceed customer expectations, based on customer requirements,
by delivering systems which move through each clearly defined
phase, within scheduled time-frames and cost estimates. Agile
methodologies, such as Scrum, focus on lightweight processes which
allow for rapid changes along the development. eLink Design adheres
to important phases that are essential for our developers such as
planning, analysis, design and implementation. Our processes are
designed to ensure end-state solutions meet user requirements in
support of business strategic goals and objectives.

For effective systems development, all of the following steps must

be done:

 Preliminary analysis - describe costs and benefits

  Systems analysis, requirements defined - define project goals
 Systems design - describe features and operations
 Development - the real code is written here
 Integration and testing - bring all the pieces together
 Acceptance, installation and deployment - final stage of
initial development
 Maintenance - system is properly assessed
 Evaluation - entire system developed is properly evaluated

The most effective way to protect information and information

systems is to integrate security into every step of the systems
development process, from the initiation of a project to developing
a system to its disposition.
Scrum is an agile way to manage software development that comes
under the broader umbrella of agile project management. Agile
software development with Scrum is a framework for managing a
process, which embraces iterative and incremental practices. It
has a simple implementation that is designed to increase
productivity and reduce the time it takes to benefit from a
software/product development. In the agile Scrum world, the
software development team knows how best to solve the systems
development problem they are presented.
In the preliminary analysis, eLink needs to find out the
organization’s objectives and the nature and scope of the problem
under study. Even if a problem refers only to a small segment of
the organization itself, then we need to find out what the
objectives of the client are. In digging into the organization’s
objectives and specific problems, eLink may have already covered
some solutions.

Sources:
Anon, (2019). [online] Available at:
https://selecthub.com/enterprise-resource-planning/why-erp-
systems-are-important/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2019].

Elinkdesign.com. (2019). Systems Development | Software

Application | Development. [online] Available at:
https://www.elinkdesign.com/web-services/application-
development/systems-development- [Accessed 10 Mar. 2019].

Auditing in a CIS
Environment
Salanda, Shaira Joy A.
BS Accountancy IV - A