BSA/375: Fundamentals of Business Systems Development

A document analyzing business system development strategies.

Eva Reed
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Running head: Individual Assignment1BSA/375: FUNDAMENTALS OF BUSINESS SYSTEMSDEVELOPMENTBased on the Riordan Manufacturing HR SystemProposal, discuss the importance of theinformation-gathering phase in the HRIS implementation process. What are the key questionsthat need to be addressed during this phase, and how do these questions help define the scopeand feasibility of the project? In your answer, also reflect on how the selection of HRIS vendorscan impact the success of the project.Word Count Requirement:400-500 words.

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Individual Assignment2IntroductionRiordan Manufacturing is an international manufacturing firm that focuses on plastic moldinjections(Riordan Manufacturing, 2012). Riordan has major customers in a variety of industries,including automobile parts, the Department of Defense, beverage companies, and consumer productmanufacturers. Currently, Riordan has more than 550 employees and annual earnings of $46 million.One of the primary parts of Riordan’s mission focuses on their employees. As the missionstates, “We will maintain an innovative and team oriented working environment. By assuring that ouremployees are well informed and properly supported, we will provide a climate focused on the longterm viability of our company”(Riordan Manufacturing, 2012). To fulfill this part of their mission, it isimportant that Riordan understands their workforce, knows who they have working for them, what theiremployees’ skill sets are, and identifies ways to continue recruiting and hiring talented employees, aswell as educating and training current employees.To ensure consistency and effectiveness through all of the human resource-related processes,competitive organizations have implemented human resource management systems, informationsystems solutions that focus on managing the organizations most important assetstheir people.Information-GatheringIn order to make sure that the proposal meets Riordan’s expectations, there are two primaryphases of the information-gathering stage that must take place. The first is documenting and catalogingall of the current processes completed by human resources, as well as other departments that may alsotouch HR process, such as payroll(Heathfield, 2010). A good portion of this phase is probably already

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Individual Assignment3done; if not documented, at least the processes are understood by key individuals in mid-levelmanagement positions. Discussing hiring, firing, training, compensation, time tracking, and other HR-related duties with them will give sufficient information to look at where things are.Once current processes have been identified and documented, the project team can startresearching what solutions are available. Researching existing HRIS (human resource informationsystems) solutions will be a key component, as that is the most likely outcome of the project. While thepossibility of a home-grown system will be considered, typically for a company the size of RiordanManufacturing, an out-of-the-box, slightly customized solution is the best option. It will be important towork with other subsidiaries of Riordan Corporation to learn from their experiences as well, and theirmight even be some advantages to pricing by considering their provider for HRIS systems.JDEdwards and SAP are the two largest ERP systems that offer an HRIS module as part of theirpackage or independent of any other system(HR-Guide.com, 2011). Because they are market leadersand the two most common systems used by Fortune 500 companies, they are also the most expensiveand complex. These systems also tend to provide more benefit the more they are used, as scale is veryimportant, so some of the smaller systems such as Apex, HRMS Solutions, People-Trak and SimpleHRmay be vendors to consider.The primary objective of the information-gathering stage is to answer three questions. First,what are we doing now as far as HR processes? Second, what do we need to be doing? Third, whatsystems are available to do what we need to be doing? While the first two questions are primarilyinternal and strategic, the third will include meetings and presentations by vendors after a RFP is issued.

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Individual Assignment4Throughout this information-gathering process, it will be very important to stay focused on thescope of the project. Larger vendors will sell the organization-wide benefits of an entire ERP system,whichwhile potentially beneficialis beyond the scope of this project. To ensure that the informationwe need is required a specific project plan will be developed to guide the activities of the project team.Any deviations from the plan, including skipping steps or adding steps, will need to be approved by theproject manager.Scope and Feasibility PlanThe scope of this project has been defined by the management of Riordan Manufacturing. Itincludes a project proposal and feasibility study for implementing a human resource informationsystems solution to help fulfill Riordan’s mission of attracting, hiring, and retaining knowledgeable andqualified employees, as well as ensuring current employees are constantly presented opportunities tomaintain and increase their skills. All human resources processes should be considered as part of thescope. That doesn’t mean that all will ultimately be a part of the HRIS system, but they should all beconsidered so that if they aren’t a part of the final system there is a clear understanding of why they areexcluded, not simply because the project team didn’t consider them.The key systems that will be focused on at the outset of the project will be approving andposting job openings, payroll and benefit administration, time and effort reporting, personnel files, timeoff reporting, and HR compliance documentation. Each of these processes has a number of sub-processes that will need to be documented, for example, tax and withholding calculations for payroll.Part of the proposal will be a more detailed feasibility study. At this point, it is certainly asolution that management is willing to consider, and after some very high-level considerations for the
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