What is business process and how it is managed?

Business process can be defined as a set of activities involved in accomplishing a specific goal of organization. (RALHAN, 2014). The systematic and continuation process of improving the business processes is called as business process management. ERP is one of business process management tool which can be used to organize all the business operations so that they can be used in integrated manner to manage and automate the business operations related with technology, human resources, accounting and services.

Business requirements includes the concept of delivering services and documentation for business processes to customers or users. The requirements are mainly analyzed by business analyst. In our research report of ERP at Queensland University, the business requirements which need to be automated are:

• Student’s registration process
• Examinations
• Human resource
• Faculty management
• Online result generation
• Placement and training cell

There are many evidences of researches done regarding ERP implementation and its procedures, the selection of vendor in the education system of Australia, but still there is need of research to resolve the issues related to security aspects in ERP system. Universities in Australia are showing their largest investment in ERP but they are continuously planning for new technologies in future. This necessitates the need of more research in the same area. (Smith, 2016).

The outcomes of earlier researches done in ERP implementation in education system shows that the implementation was not as successful as it could be. The studies concluded that ERP system was implemented to improve the services for education stakeholders such as students, professors and staff, but 50% of the implementation failure due to over budget and time expansion. It raised the need of awareness and more focused contribution about ERP in education environment, which is the most important sector of any country. (Shah, 2016).

ERP in the field of education is a fairly new concept of this century. It is now being used in all major corporations to make the management more transparent. The development of new technology and increasing demand of information technology in business processes has led to the growing demand for ERP in educational system. If we compare the traditional method of management and modern ERP, the outcome will be surely better time management and efficiency in processes. (dev, 2016).

Cost effective: ERP implementation has main advantage on the financial status of organization. Traditional education system needs a lot of manpower to manage the day to day activities such as fee collection, admission process, mailing letters and other documents etc. If all of these processes will be computerized, it will save a lot of manpower. (Experts, 2014)Which surely save the most important resource of organization and that is money, which can be used to manage other operations of organization.

Understanding business requirements for ERP in education system

Well organized data: In educational system, there is lot of data to be managed and this data grows year by year. To manage this data in traditional educational system, files were the main tools which were handled manually. (krippa, 2011) There were more chances of errors and inconsistent information. But with the invention of ERP systems all data can be managed through cloud and centralized database, which is now very simple and efficient to manage. With a single click of mouse we can get the accurate information.

Secured data: Data is saved on cloud which is very secured way to preserve useful information as compare to the physical shelves and files. (news, 2016).

Automated operations: By using ERP systems the whole administrative processes can be automated, it reduces the need of manpower and minimizes the possibility of human errors which might occur in processes of fee collection, admission and other operations. (mahopatra, 2013).

Less response time: After the successful implementation of setup of ERP system, the entire processes of education system can be accessed in great way in fraction of seconds.

Focus: The time saved by administration, accounting, services and human resource management operations, it can be used in educational activities that is delivering lectures and exercises.

Although there are so much advantages of ERP, there are some limitations also. For example single failure in ERP can result in inefficient returns on investment. When organization is not capable to gain profit as compare to the costing of the implementation cost of system, then it is a great loss. The main and the most important limitation of ERP is difficult to learn and use. It requires proper training session for earlier staff. (k, 2011).

The objective of this research report is to analyze the descriptive case study of Queensland, which is Australia based university. This University is rooted in Brisbane, Australia and was founded in 1849 in form of Brisbane school of arts. In 1989 the institute reform as Queensland University of technology. With the growing number of students and faculties, the goal of University is now inspired to become a world class University through adopting the culture of computerized technologies. Now the University is focusing on being a Real World’s University. University’s board of director has decided to implement latest technologies which support in their routine functions. It is part of four campus system and now it is known for its national research Centre worldwide. At present there are near about 5000 employees, 40000 students and nine specialization streams including engineering, law, science and technology.

Advantages of ERP in education system

In year 1987, the human resource department of Queensland University was chosen to implement ERP system. (jones, 2015). Till this time everything was manual and paper based. In order to handle the rapid changes which were very frequent in the higher education system that time, it was decided to adopt an integrated system which can handle the administration, human resource and finance departments. A team was appointed for the same, in which executives of director level and managers of higher level were included. (AngelineRajan, 2015). The team recommended that the legacy system of University must be replaced by Integrate ERP system. In this system following points are expected:

• Capable to integrate with finance, HR and admission process
• System should be reliable and in financial limits
• System must be flexible to support the business process.

• Whether it must be software package from single vendor or it must be a module from multiple vendors.
• Which modules must be adopted in the early phase of implementation and what will be the correct timings of the same?

The team concluded that the best of breed approach would be best for the initial implementation, as a mix of ERP system and legacy system will be best for starting. According to the requirements, the organization can choose different software modules in combination with traditional system.

Higher education system is now become a big business and universities are now continuously facing challenges to maintain their identity in world of commercialization in education sector. (bhavani, 2007). Due to this for all the software vendors, educational institutions are now lucrative industry and they can increase their revenue in billion dollars. ERP system can be used in education sector to redefine the operations and administrative functionalities. Full-fledged use of ERP system will make universities more standardized. Some of the ERP vendor modules we are going to discuss here are:

The implementation of ERP system in education institution is the critical step for the effective management. If the implementation process is successful, all the tasks from financial management to exam attendance and the publishing of result will be simplified. In present scenario the educational institutions are completely dependent on the computerized operations and the legacy systems are almost vanish, to keep up the advancement of latest technologies the system in higher education must be updated and well managed. Prior to the implementation of ERP system at Queensland University some practices must be done. Such as:

The decision of ERP implementation must be analyzed properly. It ensure that the organization is well versed with the benefits of ERP implementation. A managing team must be created for the same, who will be responsible to define the objectives of the whole requirements and plan accordingly. The process of analysis must also be automated.

There are different ERP vendors are available hence the requirement must be clear so that proper selection can be done. Before choosing the vendor proper analysis is recommended. After the selection of ERP system, the implementation process can be start in following steps:

• Create database and gather all the required data
• Training of existing staff
• Go ahead

Limitations of ERP in education system

In the implementation of ERP system, security is very critical hence the security policy must be developed in ERP system models. (Bluemner, 2013). In this section we are going to elaborate the current trends which are popular in education ERP systems. First of all it needs to be decided what things must be secured and then how we can do it. The facets of ERP system, where the security problems may arise can be classified in three categories:

• At network layer
• At presentation layer
• At application layer

These all layers of OSI layer are important as the business operations, user interface and the interaction with database exists in these layers. Whenever any user interacts with the ERP system and do any type of transaction, the security concerns may arise. The experts of ERP system will never deal with these security concerns. (wengy, 2017). These concerns can be handled by the experts of network security. At the presentation layer, the user interface which can be window screen, browser or any application window are openly accessible to any user and cannot be restrict for the security concerns by the ERP experts. It can be handled by the restricted server which can be CITRIX server between the user interface and ERP system. The application layer which contributes in the business operations through database can be restricted by implementing authentication and authorization concepts in database.

Risk 1: unsupported software

Queensland University can often face situations of running software which are outdated and not supportive with the current ERP system. There might be chances when the requirements change and the system cannot cope up with the existing products. (Bluemner, 2013). It can be seen many times that the server and browsers are not compatible to execute some applications. It may happen because of the unavailability of advanced plugins. So, it is recommended that the software must be updated on regular time intervals.

One of the major problem with the current ERP system may be the problem with the functionality of the analyzing data. Sometimes it happens that the available tools are not capable to access the data. In this situation, users might switch over to some options or tools for analyzing data. Some of the tools might be Microsoft Excel and Access.

To maintain the system risk, the control must be implemented on the ability to make any kind of changes in program settings. It is equally important that the unauthorized access of data and updates in business operations must be controlled. The most important is program settings which must be secured from the unwanted changes in configuration settings.

Case study of Queensland University

Delay in the updates of ERP systems in organizations is also one of the most challenging risk. It is recommended for the Universities, that if there are chances of software updates, it must be accomplished on time, otherwise it will be reflected in the software vulnerabilities. The main problem with the updating of ERP system is that it is very difficult. This is the reason that most of the organizations are running on their older versions for years. (Mike, 2017).

If the security standards are not compatible with the current business operations due to this the legacy ERP systems might get unsuccessful. There may be the chances when the financial transactions might get failed due to this incompatibility and the payment operation will be affected.

The security challenges of ERP implementation process can be resolved by following some precautions, such as: (Paul, 2016)

• Plan properly
• Ensure that the selection must be accurate
• Ensure about the collected data
• Follow the testing phase before implementation
• Provide training to staff for the change management
• Active communication with the IT staff

Conclusion

ERP systems are beneficial to improve the business operations. It is equivalently beneficial for the Educational institutions nut needs a thorough evaluation. In the analysis process of ERP system mainly focus need on technical issues which are related with implementation processes primarily. Next factor must be the security of ERP system, which is also highly desirable to achieve the benefits of organizations. The security concerns are highly recommended otherwise it will surely affect the educational outcomes and the delivery of operations.

The negligence of accurate ERP model to evaluate the effects of information system on business operations in ERP system is still needs more efforts. It is possible after the imperative study of whole education system in organization. The selection of ERP system model and its security tools are also important for the success implementation of ERP system.

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