company. Nevertheless, the implementation of such huge systems is still .... application of this framework on the project of implementation of ... gathering all the techniques allowing to facilitate the emergence, maintenance and development of.
1
Implementation and optimisation of ERP Systems: A Better Integration of Processes, Roles, Knowledge and User Competences J. Hermosillo Worley1,2,3, K. A. Chatha3, R. H. Weston3, O. Aguirre2, B. Grabot1 1
LGP/ENIT- Avenue d'Azereix - BP 1629 - F-65016 Tarbes Cedex - France. e-mail: {hermosi, bernard}@enit.fr 2
Universidad Panamericana Augusto Rodin # 498 Col. Insurgentes Mixcoac C.P. 03920. México D. F., México. 3
Manufacturing Systems Research Institute, Loughborough University Loughborough, United Kingdom, LE11 3TU e-mail: {J.H.Hermosillo-Worley, K.A.Chatha, R.H.Weston}@lboro.ac.uk
Abstract: The implementation of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems is nowadays a key issue for companies. The problems that can appear during their integration, which is always a difficult task, are nowadays better identified, even if their origins are often multiple and complex. This study focuses on the integration of the human resource characteristics in business processes, which is a key issue for the ERP adoption and optimisation phases. In that purpose, it is suggested to better adapt business processes to human actors by explicitly taking into account concepts like the role, competence and knowledge of human resources. It is shown on a practical case – the implementation of PeopleSoft™ in a university how these concepts may optimise ERP implementations by better identifying the requirements and possibilities of the workforce, with the final goal of increasing the efficiency and acceptability of the system to be implemented. Keywords: ERP, Human based-process modelling, Competences, Roles, Knowledge. 1. Introduction Industrial information systems are nowadays mainly implemented through Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which are supposed to comprehensively address all the concerned functions of a company. Nevertheless, the implementation of such huge systems is still considered as a complex and risky exercise [Stewart, 01, Davenport, 00], leading to important problems concerning budgets and deadlines [Canonne et al., 02]. As a consequence, an important part of the literature on the subject deals with the conditions of success or explanations of failures of the implementation of ERPs (see for instance among others [Buckout et al., 99, Grabot, 02, Motwania et al,. 02, Al Mashari et al., 03, Bradford et al., 03, Kumar et al., 03, Umble et al., 03]). One of the critical points of the post-implementation is the appropriation of the system by its users [Calisir et al. 03, Grabot 02, Davenport, 00], which is often difficult. An extensive education and training is considered as a critical success factor by most of the authors [Umble et al., 03] but contrary to what is sometimes believed, the appropriation of the system does not only depend on training, even if it remains a necessary condition: it also requires to define how the information system and the actor will be mutually adapted one to the other, not only at the level of the position of a person within the company, but with reference to his knowledge and competences. In that context, an unsatisfactory operation of the system may cause irreversible drifts like demotivation, partial use of the system, or the introduction of local information systems (e.g. using Excel sheets) in order to mitigate the supposed deficiencies of the ERP system. This origin of this problem is often considered as related to business process definition, which should describe the way the human resources are involved in the processes. A process modelling project is so
2 the first step of the implementation phase, aiming at optimising business processes of a company first, then at making the optimised processes and standard software processes consistent [see for instance Bancroft et al., 98]. Methods like BPR (Business Process Reengineering, [Hammer et al., 01]) can be used in that purpose since achieving business benefit from an Enterprise System may require radical restructuring to a process orientation [Stewart, 01]. Nevertheless, the business process modelling phase is itself a difficult step of the ERP implementation. According to [Yogesh, 98], 70% of the BPR projects could be considered as "failures". For Davenport [94], one of the reasons is a non realistic design of the processes, according to a pure "top down" approach, although the identification and participation of the people to be involved in the BPR project is an essential condition of acceptance and success. Even if authors like Hammer and Champy [01] specifically warn against spending too much time studying the current process, the process modelling phase is nowadays recognised as being a key issue for allowing a successful implementation leading to an optimal use of the ERP. In that purpose, dedicated business process modelling techniques are available, among which the 1 Process Chain Diagrams of ARIS [Scheer, 95] is certainly one of the best known . Even if some of these methods (including ARIS) allow distinguishing human resources from other types of resources, most of them more focus on the sequence of activities that constitute the process than on the human actors using the information system. It is a paradox to note that even if processes are mainly modelled by key-users, the actors often feel to be poorly included in the operational process models. Being seldom described by operational models, relations between users and ERP systems are only specified on a purely functional level (tasks to achieve) and do not address the conditions of a true interactivity between the users and the information system. On the other hand, many studies conducted in social sciences have developed competence-based tools and models in order to better describe the involvement of the workforce in a company [Mc Clelland, 73, Boyatzis, 82, Spencer et al. 93], but these studies are seldom related to a business process view. On that statement, a study has been launched by the LGP laboratory of ENIT (F), the MSI centre of the University of Loughborough (GB) and the Panamerican University (M) in order to complement business reengineering approaches by concepts related to the description of human resource characteristics. This approach has already been used in order to address various industrial problems, like knowledge engineering [Hermosillo et al., 03], design of project teams or ISO 9000 v.2000 certification. In all these cases, an inadequate consideration of the workforce characteristics is recognised as being a source of important difficulties. We focus here on the use of this modelling framework for optimizing the use of an ERP system (PeopleSoft™), implemented in a Mexican University (Panamerican University of Mexico). This paper is structured as follows: a short panorama of the research concerning the modelling of human resources is given in Section 2. The suggested general framework, based on concepts like role, competence and knowledge of human resources in business processes, is described in Section 3. The application of this framework on the project of implementation of PeopleSoft™ is described in section 4.
2. Human resource based-business processes A modelling framework has been suggested in [Hermosillo et al., 02] aiming at better integrating human resource aspects in business processes, both for "as-is" or "to-be" processes. This framework has been completed with a generic and graphical process modelling language developed as a part of Enriched Multi-Process Modelling Environment proposed in [Chatha, 04]. The general framework based on “enriched” representation of business process and resulting from the merge of the two approaches is described in the next section, after a short panorama on the domain. 2.1 Process modelling The interest of modelling techniques for analysing the organisation of information/decision systems in 1
See for instance a web site listing these tools at http://is.twi.tudelft.nl/~hommes/toolsub.html
3 companies is known for a long time. Many methods have been developed in the 80's (and even before) in various areas like production management (GRAI), data structure (MERISE, Entity-Relationship, IDEF3...) or software development (OMT, UML, etc.), (see for instance [Vernadat, 97] for a review). Enterprise modelling concepts, architectures and methodologies (such as CIMOSA, GRAI, PERA, etc.) provide means of visualising, specifying and analysing enterprise requirements and designing supporting systems. However, theoretical and practical limitations have been observed in the solution provisions of enterprise modelling concepts with respect to characterising human systems and their potential roles in an enterprise [Ajaefobi et al., 03]. Efficient process-oriented modelling methods have also been suggested more recently, like ARIS [Sheer, 95], IDEF3 [IICE Report, 1995], IEM [Mertins et al., 98]. These methods have usually been applied in order to assess the consistence of a system or a process, and not (with the notable exception of the GRAI method) in order to better analyse the environment of decision making activities. In parallel, many works in the area of Human Resource Management have resulted in modelling frameworks for the workforce competence [Franchini et al., 99], [Harzallah et al., 99]. Nevertheless, these works are seldom related to a process view, and since they are used for describing the role of operators, and not of decision makers, they mainly focus on technical competences. 2.2 Competences and roles in an industrial context The qualification model (still in use in most of the companies) gives a "Fordian" view on industrial manufacturing, allowing for instance the definition of minimum salaries [Paradeise et al., 01]. In response to the necessity to promote continuous improvement and flexibility, a new model has emerged in the 80's: the competence model. Instead of assessing a worker by comparing pre-defined activities related to a workstation with the ability of a worker to perform these activities, it mainly consists in directly qualifying the person on the base of the competences that he possesses and can set to work [Zarifian, 02]. The main goals of the companies that promote a competence approach are identified in [Wustermann, 01] as the improvement of the individual efficiency, the decrease of turn-over or the improvement of the technical competences. Some companies give as the main reason of this choice the necessity to develop new competences required by the enterprise [Strebler et al., 96] while others consider that the concept of competence may provide a common language and facilitate cultural exchanges [Strebler et al., 97]. The strategic interest of competences has been emphasized in the 90's by the work of [Prahalad et al., 92] on the core competencies, suggesting a new way to consider the competitiveness of a company. In most of the recent approaches, a distinction is made between the competences of a person (which we shall call here gained competences) and the competences required by an activity (required competences) [Franchini, 99], [Harzallah, 99]. In parallel, and under different labels, a difference is made between technical competences and behavioural competences [Pilbeam et al., 02], similar to the hard and soft competencies introduced in [McClelland, 73]. Competences can be analysed at the level of an individual, gathering all the techniques allowing to facilitate the emergence, maintenance and development of personal competences [Amherdt et al., 00], but also at a collective level [Vaudelin, 02] or even at an organisational level [Sanchez et al., 96]. A good summary on the different views with which the competences can be considered can be found in the competence cube suggested in the MSI [Weston et al., 03]. Being able to explicit how competences of human resources may be deployed in an industrial process requires in our opinion an intermediary step which can be provided by the concept of role. Organisations can be considered as systems of interacting roles [Katz et al., 66], where a role is considered both as a set of activities or as an expected behaviour. A role can be linked to a workstation, or to an organisational position [Sarbin et al., 68], and the interpretation of the notion of role in the enterprise leads to consider the organisation as a network of roles defined independently from the persons who operate [Singh, 92]. Therefore, the concept of role may be of prime interest in order to describe the interaction of human actors with the computerised information system provided by an ERP. 2.3 Knowledge levels As suggested in [Davenport et al., 98] it is important to draw distinctions among data, information and knowledge. Even if a consensual definition of the three terms can hardly be found in the literature, it seems that a progression between them is universally recognised. We shall consider the following
4 definitions, consistent with [Tsuchiya, 93]: - information is a structured set of data, on which has been added a meaning or an interpretation, - associating information to a context in order to define application or production rules allows the building of knowledge. Inside companies, and more precisely within industrial processes, various types of "informational resources" are requested or produced, either in terms of operational data or information (orders, events, files, documents, databases, etc.), or in terms of actual knowledge (models, algorithms, procedures, methods, decision rules, data related to analysis of synthesis, etc.). The consistence between these elements, which requires first their clarification, is in our opinion a pre-requisite for modelling realistic processes. Two major categories of knowledge can be distinguished [Hesselbein et al., 96]: explicit knowledge constitutes the "learning" of the company, whereas "tacit knowledge" mainly participates to "know-how". For some authors, tacit knowledge, which cannot be formalised, is the kernel of the cognitive wealth of the company. This knowledge can be spread by collaborative working tools, in which the new information technologies play a major role (intranet, groupware, etc.). This knowledge can also be organised through management methods like concurrent engineering, competence management, etc. A part of the tacit knowledge can be explicit but not yet formalised, like all the experience and know-how of the experts which can be difficult to verbalise and to communicate in a structured way; it is also the knowledge which is buried in documents of all kinds, which cannot be retrieved by a simple consultation and has to be explicitly "brought to light". The general modelling framework summarized in next section aims at correlating the concepts of role, competence and knowledge in a way which can be really implemented within the enterprise, especially through the notion of process.
3. Reference Modelling Framework 3.1 Generic process modelling language The generic process modelling language on which this study is based incorporates two prime stages of modelling considered by the CIMOSA modelling framework [Vernadat, 97], namely: “model creation” and subsequent “model execution”. Two other key concept types of modelling have been embedded in it. One concerns the need for sufficient semantic richness when representing activities, states and other entities that constitute a process so that resultant representations could naturally provide the basis of computer executable models of processes for different purposes. The second and related concept type pertains to the need for real time process working, which requires the use of sub-concepts like “supplier-customer relationships” and communication between entities. The suggested modelling tool imports and majors on the use of concepts “business process”, “enterprise activity”, and “resource” as defined previously for CIMOSA process modelling. Importantly, it incorporates these concepts and their method of decomposition. However, it provides its own semantic attributes and definitions for these concepts to facilitate run-time flexibility of processes exploiting role based resource matching and exception handling mechanisms. Effectively, the generic process modelling language is capable of generating static models of processes for different stakeholders in an organisation including process execution perspective. 3.2 Human resources based general model The proposed modelling framework incorporates the following concepts and typologies: - Competence: results from a combined implementation of knowledge, know-how, abilities, attitude and behaviour. It encapsulates the ability of an individual to perform an activity in a job-relevant area as well as what is required from this individual to realise effective performance [Hermosillo et al., 02]. Six general competences categories have been defined: technical competences, organisational competences, analyse and decisional competences, competences of interpretation and formalisation, adaptation competences and relational or motivation competences, which can be directly related during industrial applications to the role classification described below [Hermosillo et al., 03].
5 -
Roles: encompass a group of functions to achieve a purpose, based on the application of competences. Based on Mintzberg’s work [Mintzberg, 79], we identify four generic classes of roles which could be found in any kind of organisation: interpersonal roles (symbol, connection, leader); informational roles related to the information flow (monitor, diffuser, spokesman); decisional roles referring to the decision-making (contractor, regulator, resources distributor, negotiator) and operational roles related to the implementation of knowledge (expert, operator, technical bond) [Hermosillo et al., 03]. These generic typologies on competences and roles can be adapted to the specific needs of each application. - Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. In organisations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organisational routines, processes, practices and norms [Davenport et al., 98]. Furthermore, persons having a given competence can create knowledge, but some actors can also require external knowledge in order to be able to apply their competences. Therefore, identifying the required and available knowledge is also a key point for allowing to efficiently apply competences in industrial processes. These concepts are related with the process modelling principles of the previous section as shown in the general model of Figure 1, using the extended entity-relationship formalism..
Figure 1: General framework model Starting from the top right corner of Figure 1, we can see that the actor occupies a position (job description) characterised by one or several roles (bottom right part of the figure). Performing this role requires competences (centre of the figure). Competences can be required by an activity (centre left part of the figure) or available from an actor (also called gained competences). Both required and available competences are composed of basic competences (top centre of the figure). The left part of the figure shows that a process, aiming at achieving a mission, can be composed of activities, themselves composed of tasks. Performing a task requires a group of functions defining a role.
6 The competences available from an actor are based on informational resources, composed of data, information and knowledge (right centre part of the model). This framework will provide us with a “grid” allowing to interpret problems in the ERP adoption in terms of difficulties to make communicate the informational part of the model (data, information, activities, processes) with the human resource part (competence, role, knowledge...). This point will be developed in section 4. 3.3 Methodology The main steps for implementing this general framework are described by the following points and illustrated by the example detailed in the application section: a. Process definition. This first step aims at identifying the activities involved in the analysed process, in order to: • Elicit and record multiple understandings about current business processes deployed by the organisation, with the objective of developing a unified set of process representations that collectively form a static pool of enterprise knowledge that can be reused for various purposes. • Reuse elicited data to populate and validate multiple “static views” of “as-is” business processes that collectively and coherently provide a "semantically rich picture" of relatively enduring enterprise entities and their interrelationships. • Analyse the semantically rich process model developed in step-2 to identify missing and/or redundant enterprise activities, and entities exploiting dependency relationships, thereby seeking to optimise relatively enduring process descriptions. b. Process Analysis, consisting on defining more precisely the human resources participation within the process, involving: • Roles specification, where each class and type of role is instantiated based on the proposed typology, depending on the specific application needs, • Competences assessment, concerning the required and available capabilities identification of human actors, based on the adaptation of the proposed typology and on the specific application needs. c. Process Improvement, aiming at proposing the improvement strategies by: • Identifying knowledge based enterprise activities so that they can be embedded with knowledge in supporting information systems in order to be executed automatically. • Using a resource selection method to identify suitable resource systems for modelled resource enterprise activities and their parent business processes. d. Process evaluation and validation, where the suggested improvements are tested and implemented in order to validate the application.
4. Use of the framework on the implementation of the PeopleSoft™ ERP
The implementation project of PeopleSoft™ in the Panamerican University (Mexico) started in february 2000, after a managerial decision concerning the information processing and communication improvement, so that the integration of academic and administrative processes, between the three involved sites: Mexico City, Guadalajara and Aguascalientes. 4.1 Description of the problem. The sites of Mexico City and Guadalajara were the pilot locations of the project, with a planned budget of USD 2 million and an estimated implementation deadline of 2 years, considering 3 PeopleSoft™ solutions (cf. Figure 6): Student Administration (7 modules), Human Resources (2 modules) and Finances (8 modules). Nevertheless, after two years of work, a partial implementation was still used in those locations, which was mainly based on the adoption of standard business processes available in PeopleSoft™. After some months, the use of the available software modules in the concerned processes
7 remained low and the users appear to be poorly satisfied. A diagnosis phase based on interviews of the project team and key users led to a first diagnosis: - The lack of top organisational commitment concerning the ERP strategic goals and needs generated adverse conditions for its implementation from the beginning, resulting in an inadequate project diffusion to the university’s community. These conditions have contributed to “hurt” the work environment, producing opposition and resistance to the system’s adoption. - The users did not feel comfortable with the implemented processes, i.e. the standard PeopleSoft™ processes. - The way the users would interact with the system had been poorly modelled, and some users did not fully understand how their daily work was related with the global processes. - The level of the various users, yet very different, had not been taken into account for the specification of the activities in which they were involved. - The first difficulties had made some of the users loose their motivation, up to the point that they tended to perform their activities using different means than those offered by the ERP. This situation had led to a classical “loop“: the system was poorly updated, leading to discrepancies between the reality and the data stored in the system... which then justified the distrust of the users. Based on this preliminar diagnosis and on an instantiation of the methodology described in section 3.3, the following global action plan was built: Process definition: 1. Re-definition of the "as-is, then “to-be” processes in order to provide a better balance between processes as defined by the users and standard PeopleSoft™ processes. Process analysis: 2. Definition of the roles of the users, describing types of interaction with the system. 3. Introduction of a clear distinction between data, information and knowledge. Description of theses flows in the processes. 4. Reallocation of tasks between the ERP and the users. 5. Definition of the competences required for performing a role, according to the data, information and knowledge processed in each activity. Process improvement: 6. Actualisation of access rights according to the identified roles. 7. Analysis of the competences of the users and of the divergence between gained and required competences. 8. Definition of action plans aiming at decreasing the gap between gained and required competences (mainly through training and/or reallocation of people to activities). The first test for the proposed methodology which was chosen by the project team was one of the processes, namely “student admission” since it was considered as typical from the problems which occurred. These first actions are described with further details in the following sections in order to illustrate the points being made in other processes. These actions have now been performed on several other processes of the university, leading to successful results which are discussed with more detail in section 4.5. 4.2 Process re-definition In Figure 2 is shown the original standard PeopleSoft™ (black boxes) which was implemented for student admissions. As a preliminary diagnosis, it has been considered that the semantic model did not allow to describe the process with enough accuracy. The Rich Process Representation (RPR) [Chatha, 04] was so chosen as a modelling tool since it allows to make a distinction between the various components of the processes: activities but also different types of flows or resources (including human resource) and decision makings. One distinguishing aspect of the static process models so developed is that each entity in a model is associated with a detailed construct which articulates four types of attribute namely: General, Subject-Related, Object-Related, and Run-Time attributes. The Subject-Related attributes that are associated with each enterprise activity or business process define resource capabilities needed to carry out these activities; in the case of human resources, competences are defined to specify the
8 necessary attributes. Thereby, a match between the two enables determination of those resources that are best suited for specific enterprise activities. The first step of this new process modelling phase consisted in data elicitation. Relevant data have been summarized in a table, from which Table 1 has been extracted. The second stage has been to produce an accurate model of the student admission process (as-is) using RPR, under supervision of a project leader who was fully aware of what was the standard PeopleSoft™ process. The aim was to make possible the final convergence of the "as-is" and "to-be" processes, the latter being based on a completed version of the standard PeopleSoft™ process.
ADMISSIONS PROCESS Enterprise: UP Send letter to the applicant 2.2
no School / Faculty
Public Relations
Prospects
Approved?
*Marketing 1.0
Identify “prospects” 1.1
Apply for admission and submit required information 3.1
Process Code: UP+ PeopleSoft
yes
Evaluate "candidats" 1.2
Interview 2.1
Automatic Pass ?
Receive notification 3.6
no "Applicant" Accepted ?
no
- Generate admission exam charges - Apply discount possibilities 1.3
Pay admission exam charges 3.2
- Update the applicant information and status to "accepted" - Confirm the inscription payment amount 2.3
yes
Create and provide grades 1.4.2
Evaluate the exams 1.4.1
Present admission exam 3.3
Update the applicant info and status to "matriculated" 2.4
Receive Grades 1.5
Pay the inscription (partially if possible) 3.4
Submit documents to Student Services 3.5
no
Accounting / Finances
Student Services
- Verify the payment - Receive deposits anc change the status to "Exam payment received" 4.1
"Post Payment" 4.2
Complete payment?
yes
Change status to "Admitted" 4.3
- Receive students documents - Open files – Change status to “matriculated” 5.1
Figure 2: PeopleSoft student admission process (black boxes) and added activities (grey boxes) The static developed models thus proved to be very helpful as a means of formally articulating properties of the process and for finding any missing activities in the process representations previously modelled with the PeopleSoft™ formalism. In can be seen on the model of Figure 3 that actors carry out a number of activities, some in parallel, some in series. Information produced at one activity node is needed by one or more downstream activities associated with the process. Some pieces of information also flow
9 upstream. Thus information flows back and forth from activities to activities during the process lifetime. There is also a number of points in the process where decisions are taken based on the available information. Control accordingly flows from decision points to downstream activities. Understanding this complexity was a pre-requisite for allowing people to really describe a realistic process. No.
Event
Enterprise Activity
Active Resources
1
Start
Student search (collect information / partial analysis)
Public Relations
2
Marketing Information Produced
Recruit Prospect Students (send application forms to students)
Public Relations
3
Potential Student File (data), Enquiry File (Yellow File), Admission Exam Subscription (Red File) Applicants Information, Grade produced
Apply for Admission
Prospect / Student Applicant
Evaluate Applicants
Public Relations
4
Used-Passive Resources Database, General Information of School, Principal Name, Advisor Names, Automatic Pass Accredition Potential Student Database
Potential Student File (data), Enquiry File (Yellow File), Admission Exam Subscription (Red File) Applicants Information, Grade
ProcessedPassive Resources Related Forms
Questionnair e, Blank Forms etc
Related Forms
Automatic Pass Document (when necessary)
Output
Potential Student Information, Professional Studies Selected.
Potential Student File (data), Enquiry File (Yellow File), Admission Exam Subscription (Red File) Applicants Information, Grade
Automatic Pass Applicants Registration (status ‘Automatic Pass’) & List, Admission Exam Applicants (status ‘Admission Exam’) &List
Table 1: Panamerican University Student Admission Process (partial table) After this modelling step, it has been possible to extract from this rich view of the process the key activities which were missing to the standard process for being consistent with the daily work of the actors. The standard PeopleSoft™ process has so been completed with the grey activities of Figure 2, mainly manually processed but helping the people to better understand the link between their work and the operations of the ERP, allowing as a consequence to define the whole as a seamless process. For example, enterprise activities EA14, EA15, EA19 were found to be missing from Figure 2 when the general process modelling concepts were applied. These activities could not be identified using the previous PeopleSoft™ modelling because of the lack of sufficient concepts to capture process semantics. It was possible only to identify these missing enterprise activities when an understanding of passive resource (in this case information) dependencies had been established between and among enterprise activities. This bears an important distinguishing capability of the general process modelling approach. 4.3 Process analysis Definition of roles. The adaptation between the ERP and its users requires a census of information to propose to each actor, as well as the definition of tasks and actions that will be accessible to the users by the intermediary of the system. This implies the definition of a user profile consistent with his role in the process. After an analysis of the enriched process description, it has been decided to divide user roles into three groups namely: Level-1 (Decision Maker), Level-2 (Analyst) and Level-3 (Operator). “L1 Users” are those who can take important decisions and can carry out enterprise activities even when certain exceptions arise. “L2 Users” are those who can do certain kinds of analysis based on the available data and can create presentational outputs (e.g. graphs) and models for analysis purposes, while “L3 Users” are those whose prime purpose is to enter data into the system.
Admission Exam Charges Informed
Payment Forms
Figure 3: Student admission partial process (Rich Process Model) Passive Used Resource
Admission Exam Receipt
H4
Status Change to “Received”
EA118 Verify Payment & Change Status & Permission of Exam
Domain: Pan American University Student Admission Process
Resource Transfer
Resource Transformation
EA16
Admission Exam Receipt
Start
K. A. Chatha
Last Updated
Checked By:
Designed By:
Process Start
H3
H3
Admission Exam (Completed)
Process Finish
Finish
Serial Sequencing
H1
Condition
EA120
Waitlisted Applicants
H3
Synchronous Parallel
Applicant Final Note
H1
Concurrent
R
Failed Applicant List (Admission Exam)
Approved Applicant List (Admission Exam)
Iterative
EA110
EA110
Final List of Approved Applicants
EA19 Update Approved Applicants List
Receive Grades
Approved Applicants List from Interview
Asynchronous Parallel
Applicant Final Note
Complete Application File
Evaluate & Provide Grades (Notification)
BP13
Failed Applicants List from Interview
Waitlisted Applicants
Approved Applicants List from Interview
Admission Exam (Completed)
Approved for Interview Applicants List
Finish
EA18
Rejection Letters Sent
Interview Approved Applicants
Applicants Information
Complete Application File
2 (4)
Intra-Process Communication
PR Student Admission Inquest, Academic Exam Student ID Memorial
EA17 Send Rejection Letters
Applicant’s Recognition Paper
Rejection Letters
Identification:
Inter-Process Communication
Status Change to “Received”
Exam Book
H2
Rejection Letters
EA119
Failed After Interview
Presence at Exam
Failed for Failed Interview Applicant List Applicants List (Admission Exam)
H3
Prepare Rejection Letters for Failed Students
Letter Heads etc
H5: Scholarly Services
Application Program
H4: Receipt,
Admission Exam Receipt
Applicant needing Exam
Approved for Interview Applicants List
Failed for Interview Applicants List
Rich Process Representation
Passive Processed Resource
Active Resource (Individual)
Active Resource (Aggregate)
Enterprise Activity / Business Process
H3: School,
H1: Public Relation, H2: Students,
Admission Exam Charges
H2
H1
EA117
Approved Applicant List (Admission Exam)
Applicants Information
Payment of Admission Exam
BP12
Appraisal
Inform students to pay for Exam & apply discount
Automatic Pass Applicants Registration List
Appraisal for Enrolment
Related Forms
H3
H1
Admission Exam Available Applicants (staus “ Applicant Discount Admission Exam”) needing Possibilities Exam & List
From EA13
From EA13
Appraisal Forms
EA15 Evaluation by School for quick Enrolment
EA14
Appraisal to School for quick Enrolment
Failed for Interview Applicants
10
11 Distinction between data, information and knowledge. The information flows identified in the process modelling phase have been re-considered, leading to a table from which Table 2 is extracted, where each flow is clearly identified. Each flow has then been classified according to the data-information-knowledge classification. Data/Information/Knowledge
Emitting activity previous process 1.0, designed by University
school databases potential studients database
Receiving activity 1.0
student sheet
1.0 1.1 (record of database potential students)
1.1 3.1, 1.4
questionnaire on personnal data
1.1
1.1
query from public relations
1.1
1.1
registration yellow sheet
1.1
3.1
red sheet
1.1
3.1
student status "applicant"
3.1
1.2
Table 2: List of informational flows Reallocation of tasks between the ERP and the users. At this stage, it began clear that a part of the difficulty for using the system was that some boring data processing activities were to be performed by actors although the required knowledge could be made explicit. Making explicit this implicit knowledge could allow to re-allocate the activities to the ERP. A good example is the update of the student status through the admission process. At each step (first contact, registration, selection, examination, final acceptation…), the status of the student evolves, from "applicant" after the first contact to "admitted" after selection. This task was supposed to be manually performed, which required a great attention from the actors, involved at the same time in the management of many different files and activities. In order to solve this, the knowledge required to build this data has been structured using 11 rules, among which some are shown in Table 3. This knowledge structure has allowed to implement these rules into PeopleSoft™, and to automate the process.
ID RULE 1
COND IF
RULES TABLE – STUDENT’S STATUS OP FACTS / CONSEQUENCE DESCRIPTION AND AND
THEN IF RULE 2
AND AND
THEN IF RULE 3
AND
THEN
RULE 4
IF
AND AND AND
THEN RULE 5
IF THEN
AND
Potential Student File data is complete Enquiry File (yellow file) is presented by the prospect Admission Subscription (red file) is received Status = “Applicant” Status = “Applicant” Grade is > 80 Automatic Pass Accreditation Status = “Automatic Pass” Include in Automatic pass applicants registration list Appraisal for Enrolment Status = “Applicant” Grade is < 80 Status = “Admission Exam” Include in Admission Exam applicants registration list Status = “Automatic Pass” Included in Automatic pass applicants registration list Appraisal for Enrolment Approved for Interview Status = “Interview” Status = “Interview” Result from Interview = “Approved” Include in Approved Applicants list from interview
Table 3: Rule base for updating the student status (partial)
12
Definition of competences. According to the knowledge and information required by each role in order to process its activities, competences have been defined for each role together with their required level. These competences, both technical and behavioural, are shown in the upper table of Figure 4. The "levels" mentioned in the columns refer to the various roles (see above) whereas the level of a competence required by each role is specified by a number, using a 1-3 scale. User Requirements Functional Requirements Capability to choose correct software Procedures Implementation in software Adapt new technologies in the work Oral communication W ritten communication Problem-solving with applications Creativity Quick learning Teamwork Network working Adaptability Decision making Open mindedness Database management W ord (use of) Use of spreadsheets Excel W ord excel interface Crystal reports Public relationship Email Internet Graphics Statistics Operating system Programming Modelling Information interpretation
Level-1
Level-2
Level-3
2 2 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 1 2 3 3
3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 3
3 2 2 2 2 3 1 2 3 3 3 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2
Capabilites of Available Resources Available Capabilites Capability to choose correct software Procedures Implementation in software Adapt new technologies in the work Oral communication W ritten communication Problem-solving with applications Creativity Quick learning Teamwork Network working Adaptability Decision making Open mindedness Database management W ord (use of) Use of spreadsheets Excel W ord excel interface Crystal reports Public relationship Email Internet Graphics Statistics Operating system Programming Modelling Information interpretation
Person-1
Person-2
Person-3
Person-4
Person-5
Person-6
Person-7
2 3 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 3 1 3 2 3 2 2 3 2 3 2
2 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 3
2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 3 2 3 3 1 2 2 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 3 3
2 2 3 1 2 1 2 2 3 2 2 1 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 1
2 3 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 2 1 3 3 1 3 2 1 2 1
2 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 2 2 2 2 1 2 3 2 2 1 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 1 2 2
3 3 1 2 3 2 2 1 2 3 1 1 2 3 2 1 3 2 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 1
Figure 4: Required and available competences
13 4.4 Process improvement Actualisation of access rights. All roles were linked to each activity of the process, and the corresponding access rights have been given to the roles. A comparison is made is Table 4 between the previous access rights and the new ones, leading to less people being allowed to access each activity. Process
Stakeholder
New accessibility
Public relations
L1 L2 L3
EA-15, EA-18 EA-16, EA-17, EA-19, EA111 BP-11, EA-13, EA-120 BP-11, EA-11, BP-13 BP-12, EA-110
Financial services
L3
EA-112, EA-113, EA-118
Scholar services
L3
EA-114, EA-116
School Student Admissions : « Student administration » PeopleSoft module
Assigned roles L1 L3
First accessibility EA-15, EA-16, EA17, EA-18, EA-19, EA-111 BP-11, EA-11, EA13, BP-12, BP-13, EA-120, EA-110 EA-112, EA-113, EA-118 EA-114, EA-116
Table 4: New access rights Analysis of the available competences. In the lower table of Figure 4 are shown the levels of competences available in the departments involved in the admission process. These data were obtained by a self-evaluation of the people, followed by a validation by their seniors. In the opposite of what was feared, this point did not set any problem, and the actors even expressed their interest in knowing explicitly on what criteria their work was assessed. The initial allocation of the actors to the activities of the process has first be considered, and the required competences have been compared to the available ones using a radar visualisation. A typical result is shown in Figure 5, from which three types of indicators expressed: - the superposition between required and gained competences (expressing then the adequacy between the person and the role), - the missing competences (showing how often the level of gained competences was under the required one) - the over-competences (showing how often level of gained competences over the required one). During these experiments, we have verified that these three indicators provide a very efficient way of assessing the global performance of the allocation of roles to people. Definition of action plans. Two main types of actions can be decided in order to increase the efficiency of role allocation: - planning of training periods for increasing the level of competences of the actors on the points to be improved, - re-allocation of the roles. In that purpose, the following method was adopted: A validation group was formed by seven users involving all the stakeholder: School, Public Relations, Financial Services and Scholar Services. In order to determine which person was best suited to each role, a matching between them was then carried out. In this example, it has been supposed that all those people available can carry out functional requirements as posed by the roles required. Consequently comparison is made between their competence levels. Thus the following steps were repeated for all people in respect of the L1, L2 and L3 user roles required: 1. Find the difference between competences possessed by each person and the competences required. 2. Find cumulative shortcomings, cumulative over-competences, and total number of equal competences. 3. Give ratings to available people by applying the following criteria to the results obtained during step-2. • An active resource is given a maximum rating if it has a minimum cumulative shortcoming. • If, for two or more active resources, the cumulative shortcomings are equal, then over competences are taken into account. The resource assigned a maximum rating is that with maximum over competences.
14 • •
If for two or more active resources have over competences that are also equal then the “Number of equal competences” is taken into account. The resource given maximum rating is that which has the maximum Number of equal competences. Now, if for two or more active resources the “Number of equal competences” is also equal then both resources are given the same rating.
autonomy 5 communication respect of rules 4 creativity organisation 3 2 stance to stress management of time 1 0 adaptability information transmiss open mind
decision making capac
delegation roblem understanding ucturation and formalisation taking responsabilities of documents required competences gained competences Figure 5: Comparison between available and required competences The method was then applied for selecting resources related to role requirements, leading to suggestions in order to re-allocate the roles to the actors. Of course, other criteria are considered for getting the final allocation, since the management of human resources has of course to take into account many nontechnical constraints. Anyway, this technique allowed to explain the reasons of some of the reallocations to the actors. Another interesting point is that occasionally, it appeared that very efficient people were considered as having important lacks of competences. This indicated that other competences than those identified can be used in order to perform the considered role. It is then interesting to explicit these competences, in order to introduce new degrees of freedom in the system (leading to considerations such as: "role R requires (competence X with level Y) OR (competence Z with level T)"). 4.5 Final results The newly defined process has allowed the actors to better "integrate" the part of the information system performed by the ERP in their daily work. The results have also been very positive for the human resource management department of the University: implicit things, like criteria of allocation of people to work positions, attribution of training periods, etc. were clarified, leading to a better acceptation. Several suggested modifications in PeopleSoft™ interfaces were performed in the concerned module. Similarly, trainings have been planned in two ways: (1) allowing to set in adequation the required role competences levels with those available by managers and system users, and (2) allowing people to take full advantage of the system’s capabilities. Furthermore, the results showed in this first experiment were assessed allowing for instance to use the general model in several other processes, supporting a more consistent and realistic implementation of PeopleSoft™ modules and improving the system acceptation by its users. The actual project progress is shown in Figure 6, where it can be seen that:
15 • • •
a total of 7 modules have been implemented and are now in fully operation (The totality of the Human Resources Solution and 5 modules considering Student’s Administration), 2 modules are now being upgraded and studied with the proposed general model (1 concerning Finances and the other from Student’s Administration), finances represents the “weakest” solution group, with 7 non implemented modules.
Finances
Accounting Version 7.6
Projects
Accounts Accounts payable receivable
Budget
Fixed Assets
Student's Administration
Cash and Purchases Investment and Mgt. Inventory
Academic Community Structure
Human Resources Human Resources
Records
Mexican Payroll
Scholarships
Admissions
Student’s finances (cash desk)
Academic Consulting Not implemented Upgrading Implemented and operating
Figure 6: Actual project advancement 5. Conclusion Optimising the adoption of an ERP system by its users is a difficult challenge, which requires in our opinion to make evolve both the system (through interface adaptation, etc.) and the people (by defining clearly their role within consistent and optimised processes). It is already clear that allowing people to set into question the way they interact with the information system was felt as a very positive point by the actors, and resulted in a much more efficient implementation and use of the ERP system. The results of our research and work are encouraging, but remain still as one critical factor among others to successfully implement an ERP system. Anyway, there is in our opinion evidence that the analysis of the role of human resources in correlation to the technical or information processing processes is a key factor for improving the organisation performance through a better adoption of ERP systems Furthermore, it is also clear that these very positive results have been obtained after a huge effort, performed on several processes, but yet not ended. Extending the experiment to the rest of the processes and modules will require more time and money, which are both scarce resources. A last analysis shows that the Panamerican University has invested more than USD 5.2 million until March 2004, with a re-estimated deadline of 3 years (2007) and an extra budget of USD 1.6 million per year that can be seen as “sunk costs”. Nevertheless, this project has also shown important benefits for the organisation, since several critical administrative problems that could ever occasioned a great danger for the operation of the university have been identified and corrected. Further, the analysis has made evident the lack of common goals and institutional rules allowing to constitute an adequate synergy between the different areas and units which conform the Panamerican System. As a consequence of these factors and
16 of the positive results lately obtained, it has been decided to completely address the ERP system optimisation in the university and to extend it to the other units of the Panamerican System, as it can be seen in Figure 7. General Council
Panamerican University Academies
IPADE Business School
CEPII Panamerican Center of Research and Innovation
Biomedical Unit
Economics & Management Medicine
Humanities
Human Resources Dept.
Technology
Juridical Dept. Corporative Administration Special Programs
ERP implementation (PeopleSoft) Figure 7: The future PeopleSoft extended implementation in the Panamerican System . For us, it is now certain that this kind of method has imperatively to be included earlier in the process reengineering phase, in order to benefit from the initial effort made in the process modelling. The results of this case study allowed a real assessment of the real applicability and interest of the suggested framework in both an industrial and service contexts. References Ajaefobi J., Weston, R., A Competence Approach in the Experience Feedback Process. IFIP 2003, International Working Conference of the IFIP WG 5.7: Human Aspects in Production Management, Karlsruhe, Germany, October 5-9, 2003. Al Mashari, M., Al Mudimigh, A., Zairi, M., Enterprise Resource Planning: a taxonomy of critical factors, European Journal of European Research, n°146, pp. 352-364, 2003. Amherdt C.H., Dupuich-Rabasse F., Emery Y., Giauque D., Compétences collectives dans les organisations, Presses universitaires de Laval, 2000. Bancroft, N.H., Seip, H., Sprengel, A., Implementing SAP R/3, 2nd Edition, Manning, Greenwich, Great Britain, 1998. Boyatzis R., The competent manager, Wiley, New York, 1982. Bradford M., Florin J., Examining the role of innovation diffusion factors on the implementation success of Enterprise Resource Planning systems, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, n°4, pp. 205-225, 2003. Buckout S., Frey E., Nemec J., Making ERP succeed: turning fear into promise, Journal of Strategy and Business Technology, n°15, 1999.
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