SAP ERP - Science topic

I agree with Paula Costa and Sachin Suknunan - Additionally, I add the robustness of IT platform, as well as & offerings of ERP installation & maintenance offerings, in small business environment.

Goods cost calculation and service cost calculation are essential aspects of financial management for businesses. Both involve determining the expenses associated with the production or provision of products or services, but they differ significantly in their calculation methods due to the distinctive nature of what they entail.

Goods cost calculation primarily revolves around the production and sale of tangible products. The key components of calculating the cost of goods include raw materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. These costs are typically categorized into direct and indirect costs, with direct costs directly attributable to the production of a specific product, while indirect costs are allocated to all products based on predetermined methods.

Moreover, goods cost calculations consider inventory management, including the cost of goods sold (COGS), which accounts for the cost of products that have been sold during a specific period. Various accounting methods like specific identification, First-In, First-Out (FIFO), or Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) impact how costs are assigned to inventory and, subsequently, to COGS.

In contrast, service cost calculation is focused on intangible offerings, such as professional services, consultancy, or labor-based services. The primary cost components for services are labor costs, which encompass wages, salaries, benefits, and other compensation for employees providing the service. Overhead costs, like office rent, utilities, and administrative expenses, are also considered.

Similar to goods, service costs include both direct and indirect costs, with direct costs directly linked to delivering a particular service, while indirect costs support the overall service operation. Pricing structures for services can vary, including hourly rates, flat fees, or customized pricing models based on market demand.

In summary, the key similarities between goods and service cost calculations lie in their division into direct and indirect costs. However, their differences are pronounced in the nature of these costs and the methods of calculation. Goods cost calculations are influenced by inventory management and specific accounting methods, while service cost calculations are more reliant on labor and overhead costs, often with variable pricing structures. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for effective cost management and pricing strategies in diverse business sectors.

SaaS ERP cannot be adapted/tailored easily. What does this imply for implementation processes (in comparison to traditional ERP)?

@Celina I am still waiting to hear from our Information Services dept about whether we can get dynamic 365 as part of the university agreement with Microsoft - it isn't cheap otherwise. It seems suitable as it comes with sandbox, data and case studies similar to SAP GBI client. I spoke to some smaller providers but they don't have tutorial material, data or case studies so it depends what you are interested in utilising. ERPsim seems a good option but requires SAPHana as well and costs start spiralling as it's a per head license. If dynamics doesn't pan out I may use sim venture as a cheap (as we already use it) work around. If you come across anything in your search I'd appreciate any update, this search has been more challenging than I expected.

I have a number of articles on post-ERP implementation (www.bizbreed.com). Most recently my work has looked into PLM extensions to Enterprise systems, with a focus on cycle time reduction (in POM 2016). Hence related to what you are looking for.

ERP5 - they are using an interesting approach to automate configuration.See

Wölfel K (2014) ERP5 Starter: Open-Source-ERP-Einführung durch standardisierte Beratung. HMD 49:58–67. doi: 10.1007/BF03340663

Wölfel K (2015) Automated ERP Category Configuration Support for Small Businesses: International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems 11:1–23. doi: 10.4018/IJEIS.2015040101

Wölfel K (2017) Approaches for Automating ERP Category Configuration for SMEs. In: Tavana M (ed) Enterprise Information Systems and the Digitalization of Business Functions. IGI Global, Hershey, PA, pp 66–98

Additionally the system is very flexible.

What exactly is the focus of these interviews?

Substantiating the research question will be the first half of the answer, already.

Following articles could be useful:

Abou-Ghanem, Mostafa, and Khalid A. Arfaj. "SAP/GIS Integration Case Studies & Techniques." Saudi Aramco (2008): 1-12.

Chaudhuri, Somnath. "Application of Web-Based Geographical Information System (GIS) in E-Business." Handbook of Research on Promotional Strategies and Consumer Influence in the Service Sector (2016): 389.

Amouroux, J. M., & Leclerc, J. C. (2015, December). Taking Advantage of Web-GIS Technologies to Globally Manage Petroleum Asset Information. In International Petroleum Technology Conference. International Petroleum Technology Conference.

Aside from busienss aspects, I would say integration and security. Although the dream of vendors is to have one ERP covering the entire organisation, the reality is that it will be part of an IT ecosystem. What you're looking for are typical technical architecture issues. On a technical standpoint, ERPs are not much different than any other software, mainly packages. One solution that increases in popularity is having a cloud-based ERP especially for small and medium enterprises. Aa stated, the main issues are integration with other systems and security in the broadest sense (business continuity and access restrictions).

thank sir. I found the answer from Brown et al. (2002) where they talked about mandated vs voluntary technology. :). In mandated technology actual use does not matter only intention to use measurement will be fine.

Contact my PhD student Mohanad alhebishi on m.h.alhebishi@2014.ljmu.ac.uk he is collecting data on Saudi universities on similar implementations

The Project description of ERP SAP E-LEARNING TRAINING COURSES is attached! 

Using E-learning in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Training: A Case Study to Assist Curriculum Designers in Turkey is an article which presents results of a research on integration of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) e-Learning model into the university curriculum. 

Usability is defined in ISO 9241-11 standard fitness-for-use in specific context. Therefore you need to identify contexts that you interested in measuring the usability. Context is defined in the ISO: User, Tool, Task, Environment.

According to Forrester Research, Business Intelligence is often defined in two ways - broad and narrow. The broad category includes topics like DW, MDM, Predictive analytics, Data Quality. The narrow definition means BI-suites as traditional reporting platforms. I assume you are focusing on narrow BI-reporting platforms.

Considering your topic and interest, you should combine ISO and BI issues.

Users: BI-admin, BI-developer, BI-Power user, BI-consumer. Each technology provider has a slightly varied version of these user groups. All user groups have one or more tools that are developed for their tasks.

Tools: Admin Module, web-tools, client-tools, graphical client-tools, mobile tools etc. The same functionality can be provided with different technological tools at the same time. For example SAP BO has had their ad hoc-reporting tool (WebI) as a rich client and web-version with nearly identical functionality. On the other hand, KPIs might have been constructed with WebI or XCelsius dashboards, although they are completely different in their usability and technical flexibility. There can be several tools for one activity but also one activity can be done with many alternative tools. Also in a single BI platform.

Tasks: Administrating, data gathering (building semantic layers, ad hoc-ETL), data manipulation (build reports, explore data sets, create KPIs, statistics), data publishing (static reports, drill-in reports, KPIs, graphics). There is huge difference how easily each task can be done and how significant limitations each tool has. One tool might be really easy to start with but soon you end up in significant restrictions. You simply cannot do something, although BI suite seems to have a tool for it. Or doing something requires massive efforts and becomes very risky network of human errors and technological workarounds.

Environment: Desktop in office, mobile out-of-office, offline in wilderness, cloud-based multi-context use. Again, the same task can be done in various environments with different tools. Mobile tablet can be used to build a new report or you can analyze millions of rows data completely offline in wilderness.

Each BI suite varies a lot in their usability and completeness even in this quite general level.

In conclusion.

You can not compare SAP Business One or OBIEE unless you define and decide more general use cases and frameworks. What you are actually evaluating. You need generalized categories that can be used limit your evaluation:

a) user types and their needs,

b) tool types and their required features

c) task types and their aims

d) environments.

Then you need to develop tests for each category. Then you need to perform the test to measure whether tools pass them or how they pass. In fact, a lot of tasks can be done with all major BI suites - it just depends how these are done and by which tool. And what kind of restrictions you might end up having problems with.

For example, SAP BO or Microstrategy are really easy to use on top of semantic layer. However, building the layer requires significant work and understanding. To accomplish something you might need to redefine semantic layer or even data warehouse. Also each BI suite has probably several tools for each task. They vary according to easy-of-startup but also flexibility-in-the-end.

I would say that there is no such thing as and you will not find "the best" or "the most complete" BI Suite. It depends on what you are trying to do and what you want to include in your comparison. Each BI suite has own advantages and specific limitations.

Some interesting more theoretical discussion references for BI-research.

Hsinchun, Chen. (2012). Business Intelligence and Analytics: From Big Data to Big Impact. MIS Quarterly, Vol. 36. PP.1165-1188

Watson, H (2007) The current state of business intelligence, Computer.

Surajit Chaudhuri, Umeshwar Dayal, Vivek R. Narasayya: An overview of business intelligence technology. Commun. ACM 54(8): 88-98 (2011).

For empirical real BI-case research check for example BISE Journal by AIS library or Springer library.

BI Suites are evaluated yearly by Gartners Magic Quadrants for Business Intelligence Platforms and Forrester Research (Wave Reports?) about Enterprise Business Intelligence Platforms. Both reports have a huge lists of BI Suites and even larger llists of technologies that they have been following, but did not perform full-scale evaluation.