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Business and Economics

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises

Ac

Unit Revision

Learning Objectives
 Learning objectives

 Disclaimer

To review the unit and reconfirm the structure of the forthcoming


examination
At the conclusion of this lecture you should be able to:

The following slides contain SOME brief points you could have
considered when answering the questions from the practice exam

Describe the unit, topics covered and connection between the topics
Understand the format of the exam, topics covered and marks allocated
Answer questions on the practice exam

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

However, please note that as the points appear on PowerPoint


slides, they are not always fully developed

Further, remember that whilst these questions are designed to be


a useful way for you to test your knowledge, the final exam is of
course an unseen exam!

Slide 3

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Revision

Revision

Practice Exam

Practice Exam

See separate handout for


a copy of the practice exam

Part A Multiple-Choice Questions


Total 20 Marks

A hard copy of this was distributed in the Lecture in Week 11

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Revision

Practice Questions Part A

Practice Exam

Question
No.

Answer

Question
No.

Answer

C: Reference: Topic 1, Slides 7 & 8

11

12

B: Reference: Topic 7

C: Topic 8

13

D: Reference: Numerous topics,

Slide 6

Part B Short-Answer Questions

including Topic 7, Slide 10

B: Reference: Topic 2, Slide 20; p.144

14

A: Reference: Topic 8

D: Reference: Topic 2, Slide 55

15

D: Reference: Chapter 6, p.203

D: Reference: Topic 4

16

D: Reference: Throughout including

Total 80 Marks

Topic 8, Slides 3134

A: Reference: Topic 3, Slide 27

17

C: Reference: Topic 8, Slide 13

A: Reference: Topic 6 + Topic 7 (Slide


19), p.180

18

B: Reference: Topic 9 (Part 1), Slide 40

B: Reference: Topic 5, Slide 56

19

D: Reference: Topic 8, Slide 12;


Practical 10 pp.34

10

D: Reference: Topic 7, Slides 3739

20

A: Reference: Practical 1 and 2, Task


#6 (familiarisation)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

Slide 8

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Revision

Practice Questions Part B

Practice Questions Part B

Question 1 (a)

Question 1 (b)

 Describe what is meant by the term business process. Next, formulate an


argument that details why business managers are increasingly thinking in terms
of business processes

 The SAP ERP system is built around a central database. Explain how this system
affects organisations that choose to adopt it

A business process is a collection of activities that takes one or more inputs and
creates an output that is of value to the customer (either internal or external)

 The anatomy of an ERP system is as follows:

Customers dont care that different functions are involved; they simply want good customer
service that results in timely deliveries
Sharing data efficiently/effectively leads to more efficient business processes
Means you can better respond to the environment
Helps the organisation focus on the right things
This can result in increased satisfaction and therefore perhaps loyalty
Is more reflective of reality
etc.
(6 marks)

Reference: Topic 1, Slide 9; Tutorial 2, Exercises 1 and 2; Magal & Word (2012) Chapter 1
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

S
u
p
p
l
i
e
r
s

As shown, the heart is a common database

Stores transaction data

Means information is stored once

Thus information has a common definition throughout

Through the use of modules this system supports exchanges between the different functional areas:

e.g. Marketing and sales and financial applications

e.g. Supply chain management and

The customers perspective

Numerous reasons why including:

C
u
s
t
o
m
e
r
s

Data can be exchanged between these two areas because of two types of relations

Master files (or master data files) these contain information about entities

Transaction files these contain information about events


As long as tables in a relational database share at least one common field, they can be linked

i.e. customer information in marketing can be shared with sales


etc.
Reference: Topic 1, Slides 14 and 28; Tutorial 2, Exercise 6
(4 marks)

Slide 9

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Practice Questions Part B

Practice Questions Part B

Slide 10

Question 1 (c)

Question 2 (a)

 Briefly discuss TWO (2) characteristics of cloud computing

 Describe what is involved in Sales Order Processing and how an ERP System can
help

 The characteristics of Cloud Computing include:

Sales order processing is the series of activities that take place to record a sales order

High scalability cloud computing allows dynamic ("on-demand") provisioning of


resources

Can be accessed on a self-service basis (i.e. as demanded) in near real-time


No need to engineer for peak loads

High availability and reliability regardless of location and device (e.g. PC, mobile phone
etc.), systems can be accessed using a web browser

If multiple redundant sites are used, well-designed cloud computing is suitable for business
continuity and disaster recovery

 Other characteristics include:

Reduced costs as services operate in a pay-per-use mode


Superior technology security systems
Portability, Agility, Multi-sharing

Reference: Topic 9 (Part 2), Slide 10

(4 marks)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

Slide 11

Can start from a quotation OR a general inquiry (from the pre-sales event)
Next, items to be purchased are recorded and selling price + order quantity are determined
During sales order processing, the ERP system creates an electronic document
This contains: customer information, material, quantity, pricing, delivery dates etc.
The sales order contains all information needed to process the customers request
The ERP system also checks:
Accounts Receivable to help in determining the customers available credit
Adds the value of the order to the credit balance and compares this to the order to
determine if it pushes them over their credit limit
The ERP system can also help with:
product-specific pricing (i.e. quantity discounts, discounts for certain customers etc.).
expediating the process by retrieving data based on unique numbers from the master
data held in the system

Reference: Topic 2, Slide 26-36; Magal & Word (2012) Chapter 5; Tutorial 3, Exercise 1

(6 marks)

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Revision

Practice Questions Part B


Question 2 (b)

Practice Questions Part B


(6 marks)

 Analyse THREE (3) areas where the application components of Customer


Relationship Management (CRM) can help an organisation such as Qantas that was
detailed in Reading 1 by Cowlyn (2013)
Reference: Topic 2, Slide 52
One-to-one marketing

Customers can be categorised and products, promotions and pricing tailored i.e. for Qantas
Repetitiveness means powerful lifelong relationships can be forged differentiates customers
rather than just products

Sales force automation (SFA)

Involves using software to automate the business tasks of sales including:


order processing, contact management, information sharing, inventory monitoring and
control, order tracking, customer management, sales forecast analysis etc.
For Qantas this means .

NOTE: As per Question 22 (b) in the sample short-answer exam


questions available on Moodle, you should be able to (begin at time =
0), for each activity in a given project:
calculate the earliest expected completion time (TE);
calculate the latest completion time (TL);
calculate the slack time;
state whether the activity is on or not on the critical path
Reference: Topic 3

Call center automation

Question 3

Used to improve customer support with a knowledge management database + routing calls to
suitable agent. For Qantas this means

Other components include:

Sales campaign management helps a company to organise a marketing campaign and


(6 marks)
compile its results

Marketing encyclopedias refers ACF5330


to a database
promotional
literature
Integratedof
Systems
for Business
Enterprises Unit Revision
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ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Practice Questions Part B

Practice Questions Part B

Slide 14

Question 3 (a)

Question 3 (b)

 Discuss the role of the project manager in managing projects and analyse issues
related to managing project scope

 Explain a risk associated with implementing an ERP system and assess how one
of the four buffers discussed in Reading 3 by Olson (2004) could assist

A project manager is typically a systems analyst who possesses a diverse set of skills including:
management, leadership, technical, conflict management and customer relationship
Role: initiate, plan, execute and close down a project + ensure that it is delivered within a timeframe,
budget, scope and quality as agreed to by the customer

They play a key role in the overall success of the system + must carefully monitor progress etc.

Aim to avoid problems like unmet expectations, incompatible language, lack of project definition,
resourcing or sponsorship assisted through use appropriate methodologies, tools and techniques
Manages scope
Scope is: what you agree to deliver with your customer; what you will not deliver; what you charge for; what
you are judged by; what you are paid for and the basis on which the budget and schedule are calculated
Scope creep

Critical path method is a technique available to them to depict and document project plans

Allows identification of how fast a project can be completed, based on time estimates of activities
Means the critical path can be determined this is the sequence of activities in a project which add
up to the longest overall duration. This then determines the shortest time in which a project can be
completed and identifies where there is slack in the project

Reference: Topic 3, Slides 15, 1723; Tutorial 4, Exercises 1 & 2; Reading 3 pp.8491
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

(6 marks)
Slide 15

Risks could relate to:

Organizational fit
Skill mix
Management structure and strategy
Software systems design
Technology planning/integration

A risk: Insufficient training and re-skilling, meaning users are not adequately
equipped to use the new ERP system (related to skill mix)

A resource buffer that could assist with this is to recruit extra staff to train users, mandate
training, run multiple training sessions ... provides many opportunities
Remember: resource buffers are placed before resources that are scheduled as
being related to critical activities to ensure that resources will be available and that
delays will not be caused by shortages

Reference: Topic 3, Slides 2425

(3 marks)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Revision

Revision

Practice Questions Part B

Practice Questions Part B

Reference: Topic 4 (Part 1), Slide 14; Reading 4, p.6

Question 3 (c)

Question 4 (a)

 SAP provides Solution Manager to help manage ERP implementation projects.


Briefly explain TWO (2) of the tasks associated with Phase One (1) of Solution
Manager, which concerns the Project Preparation Phase

 Reading 4 by Davenport et al. (2002) detailed THREE (3) foundations of value. Briefly
discuss each of these and the impact they have on achieving value from enterprise
solutions
Invest resources

Phase 1 Project Preparation Phase:

Entails initial project planning and project procedures


The technical team is organised
System landscape (servers and network) is defined
SAP recommends that organisations set up three completely separate systems i.e.
DEV

QAS

PROD

Build experience

Transport Directory

Hardware and database vendors are selected


Project scope is defined

Watch scope creep!

Project kickoff occurs


Quality management

Involves investment in people, the system and the supporting infrastructure


To achieve value it is important to invest in the aforementioned resources as stored
capabilities. Then, as demanded these capabilities can be unleashed leading to value
For example, investing in people through training means that they know how to use
the enterprise solution leading to less data entry errors etc.

Is concerned with leveraging intellectual property, exploiting organisational knowledge and


utilising aspects such as the best practices that are embodied in enterprise solutions
e.g. by exploiting organisational knowledge and the best practices in an enterprise
solution, an organisation can deliver its products and/or services more efficiently and
therefore more cheaply than competitors

Implement extensively see the next slide


(4 marks)
(6 marks)

Reference: Topic 3, Slides 2631; Tutorial 4, Extra Exercise 4


ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Revision
Practice Questions Part B

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

Slide 18

Revision
Reference: Topic 4 (Part 1), Slide 14; Reading 4, p.6

Practice Questions Part B

Question 4 (a)

Question 4 (b)

 Reading 4 by Davenport et al. (2002) detailed THREE (3) foundations of value. Briefly
discuss each of these and the impact they have on achieving value from enterprise
solutions

 Reading 6 by Kanellou & Spathis (2013) discussed accounting benefits and


satisfaction in an ERP environment. Reflecting on this reading, propose TWO
(2) strategies that an organisation could embrace to enhance the accounting
benefits and satisfaction they experience from adopting an ERP system. In your
answer explain how the strategies would work

Implement extensively

A foundation to achieving value from an enterprise solution is that it is implemented


throughout the entire organisation (i.e. Davenport et al., 2002 required organisations to
implement at least two ES modules to be included in their sample)
Deployment of an enterprise solution can create value through standardisation and
conformity

 Alter accounting practices


 For example, could move to the ABC method, targeted cost and/or introduce
the balanced scorecard to better measure performance
 Introduce standardisation
 Ensure that all transactions are recorded in an approved, standardised format
 This allows meaningful abstraction and helps with meaningful period-to-period
comparisons or to track geographic, divisional, departmental, line of business
or managerial performance.
 Carefully plan the implementation and introduction of the system
 Set clear goals and objectives that model how the organisation could operate
(5 marks)
using the ERP system

(6 marks)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Revision

Practice Questions Part B

Practice Questions Part B

Question 5 (a)

Question 6 (a)

 Briefly explain the Supply Chain Management (SCM) function called Planning
and assess how an ERP system assists with this

 Analyse the relationship between a Bill of Materials (or BOM) and a Product
Routing

The Supply Chain Management (SCM) function called Planning, provided by


SAPs supply chain management module, involves:
supply chain design and
collaborative demand and supply planning.
These functions produce the following outcomes:

The BOM indicates which materials are needed to manufacture that product
i.e. like a formula or recipe (see page 182 of Magal & Word, 2012)
The product routing indicates how (the sequence of operations) to produce a
specified product

Supply chain design optimises the network of suppliers, plants and distribution centres;
and
Collaborative demand and supply planning develops an accurate forecast of customer
demand
Result: demand and supply forecasts are shared instantaneously
Can be enabled via Internet-enabled collaborative scenarios i.e. collaborative
planning.

Reference: Topic 5, Slide 55

Thus, theres an obvious relationship between a BOM and a product routing


The relationship is defined via the component assignment
This refers to a technique that assigns components in a BOM either to
a routing or to a specific operation within the routing

Reference: Topic 6, Slides 1421


(5 marks)

(4 marks)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Practice Questions Part B

Practice Questions Part B

Slide 22

Question 6 (b)

Question 6 (c)

 Assess the role of demand management in the material planning process and
detail an outcome and the financial implication of this phase in production
planning and execution

 Manually generate a spreadsheet, similar to the format shown in Tutorial 10, for
Global Bike Incorporateds sales of water bottles for January through June.
 In preparing the manual spreadsheet, use the following information:
Make the sales growth rate of 10 percent an input value;
Calculate the base projection using the previous years values that are shown
below;

Demand management provides the link between strategic planning (SOP) and
detailed planning (MPS)/(MRP)

The primary task of demand management is to create revised PIRs (Planned


Independent Requirements) for materials
The result of demand management is called the demand program
Demand management is carried out automatically by the ERP system

Sales Volume

Jan

Feb

March

April

May

June

Previous Year

880

843

821

800

765

754

An outcome of demand management is:

PIRs for each material included in planning


These represent requirements for the materials for specific quantities and specific
dates

Financial implication

Assume that the special marketing promotion last year resulted in an increase
in sales of 250 water bottles for February, and a special marketing promotion
this year will result in an increase in sales for January of 300 water bottles
and February of 500 water bottles

None (as no FI, CO or material documents are created)


(5 marks)

Reference: Topic 7, Slides 3739 ; Magal & Word (2012) pp.294-295


ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

Reference: Topic 7, Slide 26; Tutorial 10, Exercise 4


Slide 23

(6 marks)

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Revision

Practice Questions Part B

Practice Questions Part B

Forecast

Jan

Feb

March

April

May

June

Previous Year

880

843

821

800

765

754

Promotion
Sales

Question 7 (a)
 For the Financial Accounting (FI) module in the SAP ERP system, explain the
organisational data credit control area and business area
Credit control area
An organisational entity which grants and monitors a credit limit for
customers
It can include one or more company codes

250

Previous Year (base)

880

593

821

800

765

754

Growth:

88

60

83

80

77

76

Base Projection

968

653

904

880

842

830

Promotion

300

500

Sales Forecast

1268

1153

10.0%

Business area
An organisational unit that represents a separate area of operations or
responsibilities within an organisation
Further, value changes recorded in Financial Accounting can be allocated to
business areas

904

880

842

830

(6 marks)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

Financial statements can be created for business areas and these


statements can be used for various internal reporting purposes

Reference: Topic 8, Slide13

Slide 25

(4 marks)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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Revision

Practice Questions Part B

Practice Questions Part B

Slide 26

Question 7 (b)

Question 7 (b)

 Appraise how an ERP System might help an organisation to overcome problems it


may face with respect to inconsistent record keeping. In your answer include some
critique of how an ERP system helps with financial transparency

 In your answer include some critique of how an ERP System helps with financial
transparency

For example, each of the marketing divisions may maintain their own records and use
different formats for doing so
Thus, analysis by region or division may be carried out by hand

Transactions get their own unique document numbers, thus quick access to the data

Think about the implications of this on decision making!

Similarly, production data may be maintained with paper records

Thus, before the data can be analysed it must be typed into a spreadsheet leading to
errors!

Consequently the organisation may be devoting much time and effort to generating
reports to work around the current limitations in their present systems
See the next slide for ideas on financial transparency

With an ERP system, a vast amount of information is available for reporting purposes
All transactions in all areas of a company are posted to a centralised database

Documents posted to the centralised database can be controlled


Provides for better customer service
Accounting records are maintained in a common database. Thus, queries are
easy as are standard reports etc.
Companies with properly configured and managed ERP systems have direct links between
their financial statements and individual transactions that make up the statements
The drill down feature in the ERP system, which enables a user to drill down from
a report to the source document (transactions) that created it, makes it easier for the
company to confirm the integrity of their reports + financial transparency
i.e. if a company detects an unusually high figure in a report, like a sales report, they
can readily double-click on the figure in the report
This will drill them down to the specific sales orders that constitute the figure etc.

Reference: Topic 8, Slide 6


(6 marks)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

Slide 27

Reference: Topic 8, Slide 30


(6 marks)
ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

Slide 28

Key Points
 In this lecture we have covered:
A review of the unit
Topics covered and connection between the topics

Good luck
and best wishes
for the rest of your studies,
or for those finishing this semester,
in your working life!

Format of the exam


Structure, topics covered and marks allocated
Questions on the practice exam

ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

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ACF5330 Integrated Systems for Business Enterprises Unit Revision

Slide 30

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