Running head: ENTREPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING 1 ENTREPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING 6 Enterprise Resource Planning Student’s Name University Affiliation Date of Submission 1. How could Organizational Project Management (OPM3) have helped to identify the problems with implementing the demand planning system? The organizational project management team has the responsibility to initiate projects that are paramount tor organizational processes. The OPM comes to the rescue of the organization in different circumstances (Costa, Ferreira, Bento, & Aparicio, 2016). The OPM can initiate projects that help to know the reason as to why specific events took place. It can also initiate projects that test and assess the accountability of some of the leaders of an organization. In the case of Nike, the OPM could have helped to identify the problems by initiating projects. One of the issues that faced the implementation of the demand planning system was the complexity of the system (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018). The complexity of a system affects its users. When a system is too complex, the users might have a challenge using the system. In the case that has been given, the complexity of the system affected most of the end-users. It is important to note that end users are paramount to any system because they are the most targeted stakeholders. The system discouraged end users and that is what affected its effectiveness. The project team could have initiated a testing project (Costa et al. 2016). Before the implementation of a system, it is important to know how easy or hard it is to use the system. Testing the complexity of the system is not a hard task for the project management team before the official implementation of the system; the project management team would have conducted a test using random end-users. After observing the ability to operate the system, the project management team would have collected data that would help to know if it is easy or hard to use the system (Elbarda & Kholeif, 2017). Apart from the issue of complexity, there is the issue of user education. One of the reasons why the implementation failed was that users did not have all the skills and knowledge they needed to use the system (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018). User education is paramount in any field because it helps users to know how to operate or access a system (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018). The project management team could have helped to know if the users had the knowledge and skills needed to operate the system. A project can be initiated to take data from targeted persons. If there was data that helped to know about the level of education that was possessed by users, the organization would have known that it needed to intensify user education. The second problem that was associated with the system was the lack of testing. Systems are paramount and play host to many people as well as operations of an organization (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018). The testing process is crit ...

1. Running head: ENTREPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING
1
ENTREPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING
6
Enterprise Resource Planning
Student’s Name
University Affiliation
Date of Submission
1. How could Organizational Project Management (OPM3) have
helped to identify the problems with implementing the demand
planning system?
The organizational project management team has the
responsibility to initiate projects that are paramount tor
organizational processes. The OPM comes to the rescue of the
organization in different circumstances (Costa, Ferreira, Bento,
& Aparicio, 2016). The OPM can initiate projects that help to
know the reason as to why specific events took place. It can
also initiate projects that test and assess the accountability of
some of the leaders of an organization. In the case of Nike, the
OPM could have helped to identify the problems by initiating
projects.
One of the issues that faced the implementation of the demand
planning system was the complexity of the system (El Hamdi &
Abouabdellah, 2018). The complexity of a system affects its
users. When a system is too complex, the users might have a
challenge using the system. In the case that has been given, the
complexity of the system affected most of the end-users. It is
important to note that end users are paramount to any system
because they are the most targeted stakeholders. The system
discouraged end users and that is what affected its
effectiveness. The project team could have initiated a testing
project (Costa et al. 2016). Before the implementation of a

2. system, it is important to know how easy or hard it is to use the
system.
Testing the complexity of the system is not a hard task for the
project management team before the official implementation of
the system; the project management team would have conducted
a test using random end-users. After observing the ability to
operate the system, the project management team would have
collected data that would help to know if it is easy or hard to
use the system (Elbarda & Kholeif, 2017).
Apart from the issue of complexity, there is the issue of user
education. One of the reasons why the implementation failed
was that users did not have all the skills and knowledge they
needed to use the system (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018).
User education is paramount in any field because it helps users
to know how to operate or access a system (El Hamdi &
Abouabdellah, 2018). The project management team could have
helped to know if the users had the knowledge and skills needed
to operate the system. A project can be initiated to take data
from targeted persons. If there was data that helped to know
about the level of education that was possessed by users, the
organization would have known that it needed to intensify user
education.
The second problem that was associated with the system was the
lack of testing. Systems are paramount and play host to many
people as well as operations of an organization (El Hamdi &
Abouabdellah, 2018). The testing process is critical because it
shed more light on the ability of the system to perform the
duties it was designed for (Elbarda & Kholeif, 2017). The
project management team can initiate a project that can test the
applicability of a system. It is there appears that the project
management department had a role to ensure that the
organization knows if the system was applicable or not.
2. What were the three primary reasons Nike was successful
with the ongoing ERP implementation?
A. Gradual Implementation
Different methods of implementation are at the disposal of

3. organizations that have plans to implement. An organization can
implement a plan at once thus reaching all targeted parties. At
the same time, an organization can implement its plans
regionally. The last option of implementation focuses on
individual countries (Elbarda & Kholeif, 2017). In this case, an
organization can decide to implement its plans by targeted the
nations of operations. The method or strategy that was used to
implement this system was a gradual implementation. The
company started to implement the system in the Canadian
region (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018). According to the case
study, the Canadian region was the smallest. It, therefore,
means that the organization started by focusing on smaller
regions.
When an organization implements its systems and strategies
from bottom heading to the top, it gains ad advantages against
organizations that use the vice versa method. The reason behind
it is associated with costs and knowledge of the attitude of the
users. The gradual implementation helps an organization to
work within its budget. At the same time, the organization gets
to monitor the performance of the system (El Hamdi &
Abouabdellah, 2018). The organization gets to know if the
system is serving its purpose or not. There is the advantage of
saving costs in the case of backfire. When an organization
implements a plan gradually, it can back down if it realizes that
the plan is not working. At the same time, the organization is
presented with an opportunity to make changes that might prove
not to work as the organization expects (Elbarda & Kholeif,
2017). It is better to pull out in the initial stages than invest a
lot of time and resources and end up implementing a system that
is not beneficial to the organization or users. The gradual
implementation of the ERP helped the organization to strategize
on the next step (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018). The
organization had an opportunity to monitor the whole process
and that is one of the reasons why it was a success.
B. Increased Budget
The initial budget of the system was $100 million but the entire

4. project ended up costing the organization $500 million. In this
case, it is important to note that the figures are not directly
connected to the effectiveness of the system (Elbarda &
Kholeif, 2017). The role that the increased budget played was to
perfect the system. The successful implementation of a system
is dictated by the components and specifications of the system
(El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018). For example, when an
organization uses a system that is advanced and has a lot of
helpful features, the system becomes easier to implement
because it is already appealing to the people that it targets. The
increased budget covered all the special needs of the system.
Therefore, the quality of the system, as well as its effectiveness,
was attractive and appealing to end-users.
C. User Training
As opposed to the demand planning system, the ERP factored in
the aspect of teaching its users how to use the system (El Hamdi
& Abouabdellah, 2018). More than six thousand end-users were
trained and that means that they had the knowledge and skills
they needed to work with the system. In this case, the
implementation was smooth because the people who
implemented the system knew what the users needed and went
ahead to provide it (Elbarda & Kholeif, 2017). The knowledge
of the end-user can affect the implementation of the system. A
system is designed to help end-users or collect data from them.
When it is hard for the system to help the users, the users tend
to seek help from other places (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah,
2018). As a result, the number of people who use the system
decrease by a significant percentage.
3. Why was a phased rollout the correct decision for Nike?
The nature of the system that an organization is dealing with
affects the approach that an organization should take. At the
same time, the complexity of the system affects the
implementation approach. Nike was dealing with a new system
and that meant that there was a dire need to have a unique
approach (Elbarda & Kholeif, 2017). A phased rollout is the
gradual incremental process of a system or software. When an

5. organization is dealing with a new system, it is risky to design a
complete system without knowing if the system will attain
positive results or not. The incremental process helps in
different ways (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah, 2018). An
organization might implement a system with the expectation
that the system will work then the system ends up not working.
If the organization had implemented the system in its entirety, it
means that the losses would be high because the organization
has already spent on the project (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah,
2018). However, when the organization uses a phased rollout, it
is easy to know if different phases are operating in line with the
expectations of the organization or not.
The case of Nike is associated with the implementation of a new
system. Considering the fact that the organization was working
with the systems for the first time, the phased rollout was the
best option (Elbarda & Kholeif, 2017). Also, there is an aspect
of the nature of the system. Not all systems are favored by a
phased rollout. Some of the systems are hard to change
gradually or in phases. In the case of Nike, the systems could be
increased gradually. The reason behind it was that the systems
had different phases and sections (El Hamdi & Abouabdellah,
2018). The complexity of the system was also another factor
that was associated with the approach that was taken (El Hamdi
& Abouabdellah, 2018). When the system is complex, it is
advisable to make sure that the approach is lenient to help break
the implementation process into different and smaller phases.
Doing so helps to avoid huge losses that can be incurred by
implementing the system in its entirety.
References
Costa, C. J., Ferreira, E., Bento, F., & Aparicio, M. (2016).
Enterprise resource planning
adoption and satisfaction determinants. Computers in Human
Behavior, 63, 659-671.
Elbardan, H., & Kholeif, A. O. (2017). Enterprise Resource
Planning, Corporate Governance and
Internal Auditing. Springer Books.

6. El Hamdi, S., & Abouabdellah, A. (2018, April). Literature
review of implementation of an
entreprise resources planning: Dimensional approach. In 2018
4th International
Conference on Logistics Operations Management (GOL) (pp. 1-
7). IEEE.
MITS6004
Enterprise Resource Planning
Assignment 1
Case Study and Presentation
March 2020

7. MITS6004 Assignment 1 and 2
Copyright © 2015-2019 VIT, All Rights Reserved. 2
Objective(s)
This assessment item relates to the unit learning outcomes as in
the unit descriptor. This
assessment is designed to analyze business/ enterprise activities
and to identify problems,
weaknesses, strengths and threats and entities interacting with
the enterprise. This assessment
improve presentation skills and give students experience to
apply knowledge to identify, make
recommendations and devise solutions for an ERP
implementation topic and writing a report
relevant to the Unit of Study subject matter.
INSTRUCTIONS
Assignment 1 – Case Study and Presentation - 10% Due
Session 5

8. Case Study: Nike ERP Implementation
• BACKGROUND:
Nike was founded in 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight in
Beaverton, Oregon. It
began as Blue-Ribbon Sports (BRS). In 1972, BRS introduced a
new brand of athletic
footwear called Nike, named for the Greek winged goddess of
victory. The company
employs 26,000 staff around the world with revenues in fiscal
year 2005 of $13.7 billion.
It has facilities in Oregon, Tennessee, North Carolina, and the
Netherlands with more than
200 factory stores, a dozen Nike women stores, and more than
100 sales and
administrative offices. Its subsidiaries include Cole Haan
Holdings, Inc., Bauer Nike
Hockey, Hurley
International LLC, Nike IHM, Inc., Converse Inc., and Execter
Brands Group LLC. As of May
31, 2004, manufacturing plants included Nike brand, with 137
factories in the Americas
(including the United States), 104 in EMEA, 252 in North Asia,

9. and 238 in South Asia,
providing more than 650,000 jobs to local communities.
• OBJECTIVE
Nike grew from a sneaker manufacturer in the early 1970s to a
global company selling a
large number of products throughout the world. Nike’s sneaker
supply chain was
historically highly centralized. The product designs, factory
contracts, and delivery are
managed through the headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. By
1998, there were 27
different and highly customized order management systems that
did not talk well to the
home office in Beaverton, Oregon. At that time Nike decided to
purchase and implement
a single- instance ERP system along with supply chain and
customer relationship
management systems to control the nine-month manufacturing
cycle better, with the
MITS6004 Assignment 1 and 2

10. Copyright © 2015-2019 VIT, All Rights Reserved. 3
goal being to cut it down to six months.
• PLAN
The company developed a business plan to implement the
systems over a six-year period,
with multiple ERP rollouts over that time. The plan called for
the implementation of the
demand planning system first while working through the ERP
system and supply chain
implementation.
• IMPLEMENTATION
The demand planning system was implemented first for reasons
that made a lot of sense.
The total number of users was small in comparison to the ERP
system and was thought to
be relatively easy to implement; however, this turned out not to
be the case. When the
system went live, there were a number of problems related to
the software, response
time, and data. In addition, training was not adequately
addressed, causing the relatively

11. small number of end users to use the system ineffectively. The
single-instance ERP system
and supply chain implementation plan differed from the demand
planning system and
called instead for a phased rollout over a number of years. The
ERP system
implementation went much more smoothly. Nike started in 2000
with the
implementation of the Canadian region, a relatively small one,
and ended with the Asia-
Pacific and Latin America regions in 2006, with the United
States and Europe, Middle East,
and Africa in 2002. This included implementing a single
instance of the system, with the
exception of Asia-Pacific, and training more than 6,300 users.
The total cost of the project
as of 2006 was at $500 million—about $100 million more than
the original project budget.
• CONCLUSION: WHAT WAS LEARNED?
The demand planning system interfacing to legacy data from a
large number of systems
that already did not talk well with each other was a root cause
for misinformation and

12. resulted in inadequate supply planning.
The demand planning system was complex, and end users were
not trained well enough
to use the system effectively.
System testing was not well planned and “real” enough to find
issues with legacy system
interfaces.
• The overall business plan for all the systems and reasons for
taking on such a highly
complex implementation were well understood throughout the
company. Thus, Nike had
exceptional “buy-in” for the project and was able to make
adjustment in its demand
planning system and continue with the implementation. The
goal was to ensure business
goals were achieved through the implementation, and not so
much to get the systems up
and running.
MITS6004 Assignment 1 and 2

13. Copyright © 2015-2019 VIT, All Rights Reserved. 4
• Nike exhibited patience in the implementation and learned
from mistakes made early in
the process.
• Training was substantially increased for the ERP
implementation. Customer service
representatives received 140–180 hours of training from Nike,
and users were locked out
of the system until they completed the full training course.
• Business process reengineering was used effectively to clarify
performance-based goals
for the implementation.
CASE QUESTIONS
1. How could Organizational Project Management (OPM3) have
helped to identify the
problems with implementing the demand planning system?
2. What were the three primary reasons Nike was successful
with the ongoing ERP
implementation?

14. 3. Why was a phased rollout the correct decision for Nike?
Sources: Koch, C. (December 7, 2004). Nike Rebounds. CIO
Australia’s magazine for executives.
Submission Guidelines
All submissions are to be submitted through turn-it-in. Drop-
boxes linked to turn-it-in will be set up in the
Unit of Study Moodle account. Assignments not submitted
through these drop-boxes will not be
considered. Your report should be limited to approx. 1500
words.
Submissions must be made by the due date and time (which
will be in the session detailed above) and
determined by your Unit coordinator. Submissions made after
the due date and time will be penalized at
the rate of 10% per day (including weekend days).
The turn-it-in similarity score will be used in determining the
level if any of plagiarism. Turn-it-in will check
conference web-sites, Journal articles, the Web and your own
class member submissions for plagiarism.
You can see your turn-it-in similarity score when you submit
your assignment to the appropriate drop-

15. box. If this is a concern you will have a chance to change your
MITS6004 Case Study and Presentation - 1
Copyright©2015-2018VIT,AllRightsReserved. assignment and
re-submit. However, re-submission is only
allowed prior to the submission due date and time. After the due
date and time have elapsed you cannot
make re-submissions and you will have to live with the
similarity score as there will be no chance for
changing. Thus, plan early and submit early to take advantage
of this feature. You can make multiple
submissions, but please remember we only see the last
submission, and the date and time you submitted
will be taken from that submission.
Your document should be a single word or pdf document
containing your report.