Executive Summary
Within the framework of the existing business environment, competition is really strong. This is why numerous businesses tend to invest in innovative technologies (both hardware and software) intended to advance their position in the market. This report is dedicated to the review of a SAP system that is applied at DEWA. The key objective of this report is to identify the essential benefits and disadvantages of this technology and assess its potential impact on DEWA.
The authors of this report also addressed the challenges that may interfere with the company in the future. The main research question is whether the implementation of SAP will positively affect DEWA’s standing in marketing and business top charts. The findings of this report showed that SAP should be expected to have an exclusively positive influence on the organization. At the end of the report, there are several recommendations intended to facilitate the process of implementation and development of SAP at DEWA.
Findings
Advantages
Flexibility
The first advantage that was identified is flexibility. The custom-designed structure of SAP might allow DEWA to develop their own corporate rules within this particular framework (“DEWA starts operating SAP governance, risk, and compliance system,” 2015). By doing this, they will be able to distinguish between adequate and undesirable transactions. For instance, the lack of balance within the system will block new journal entries. SAP environment can be divided into sections so as to determine the level of access of each particular employee (Graves, 2016). At DEWA, this will help the administration ensure that only qualified employees gain access to sensitive data. The flexibility of SAP can also be defined by its ability to integrate the collected data into numerous types of databases that can be downloaded later in the form of spreadsheets (“DEWA signs MoU with SAP on smart city technology,” 2016).
Customizable Features
Another advantage that has to be taken into consideration is a huge variety of different features that will become available to DEWA after the installation of SAP. The company will be able to manage financial transactions, decision-making procedures, data analysis, organizational performance, and annual reports (“DEWA signs MoU with SAP on smart city technology,” 2016). SAP can be used to perform even collaborative decision-making because it allows the end users to evaluate data from any obtainable source. Therefore, it may be concluded that SAP is in line with the needs of DEWA and can be successfully implemented within the company’s business environment.
Challenges
Unexploited Employee Output
Considering the fact that DEWA is currently on the rise, we should pay close attention to the problem of achieving maximum productivity (“DEWA signs MoU with SAP,” 2016). Therefore, the process of organizing corporate practices may be challenging. The company should carefully address a number of activities that are prone to being erroneous. For instance, it is necessary to get rid of manual information processing. The key goal here is to increase the agility of DEWA.
Real-Time Visibility Shortage
This challenge relates to the idea that it will be hard to integrate SAP properly (overlapping databases, inability to track business performance, etc.) (“DEWA launches third phase of SAP business planning and consolidation module,” 2016). The company will have to concentrate on coming up with a way to create an integrated view of the system. At the same time, DEWA has to be aware of the amount of time it will take to extract and analyze all the necessary data (“DEWA signs MoU with SAP,” 2016). The company will have to speed up their decision-making process and limit the number of risky decisions to an appropriate minimum.
Incorporation Intricacy and Cost
The last challenge that DAWA is going to encounter is the intricacy of SAP and its components (“DEWA ranked No.1 for SAP implementation,” 2012). In the long run, it will take a lot of time and money to implement and manage such a powerful business instrument. Therefore, the company will have to develop its maintenance practices with the intention of successfully integrating SAP and saving time that can be spent on important decisions and other organizational processes (“DEWA signs MoU with SAP,” 2016).
Conclusions
Nowadays, the majority of companies tend to implement sophisticated business instruments intended to improve their growth trend. There are companies that are relatively successful at keeping up with the existing technological progress. This can be achieved by means of cost-effective organizational management and an assortment of multifunctional structures. Nonetheless, the use of such instruments may lead to productivity issues and the advent of bottlenecks associated with organizational processes. It may be concluded that SAP will positively affect DEWA and transform the way that the latter currently operates. This will help the company to overcome the challenges and achieve profitable growth and subsequent success.
Recommendations
Mitigate the High Cost
The first recommendation regarding SAP revolves around the idea that this instrument costs a lot and there has to be a way to mitigate the high price of this instrument in the short run. The authors of this report believe that the company should not purchase all of the necessary hardware and software at once. Instead, DEWA administration has to approach the costs of IT structure first and then address a number of external advisors that will guide the process of SAP implementation. This will slow down the process of implementation but cut the ongoing costs at the same time. In perspective, the employees will have to be trained in order to understand their responsibilities and duties fully.
Facilitate the Complex Structure of SAP
The second recommendation relates to the complex structure of SAP. It will be necessary to install all the features step by step so as to minimize the impact of SAP on DEWA. This will allow the company to help its employees in the long run and get them acquainted with the instruments that are being implemented. It should be noted that the ultimate implementation of the technology will take approximately two or three years, but this kind of facilitation will positively impact the organizational environment in the company.
References
DEWA launches third phase of SAP business planning and consolidation module. (2016). Web.
DEWA ranked No.1 for SAP implementation. (2012). Web.
DEWA signs MoU with SAP. (2016). Web.
DEWA signs MoU with SAP on smart city technology. (2016). Web.
DEWA starts operating SAP governance, risk, and compliance system. (2015). Web.
Graves, L. (2016). DEWA to deploy robots in power and water network inspections. Web.