Report on ERP (Enterprise resource planning) Implementation in Apple Inc.

Introduction of ERP (Enterprise resource planning) Implementation in Apple Inc.

Along with the emergence of globalization, enterprises in these modern days have to struggle in competing and survive in a tough business competition. Each enterprise - no matter in which market industry that they are doing their business in – definitely requisite to alter their business operations, in order to survive and even win this tough competition. In consequence, every single enterprise has to create appropriate plan which will able to support its business operation and will eventually lead the enterprise to achieve its main goals.

The tendency of enterprises has been acknowledged to generate more profit within the lowest cost as possible. In addition to this, it appears that the enterprise has also appreciated that it is fundamental for them to be reactive and to be consistently altering the requirements and needs of both internal and also external customers.  This is where the Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP system presents its functions. This system is typically tailored by the enterprise with a purpose to maintain their organizational resources. On the other hand, it is essential to be noted that the change management will also be required for the ERP implementation in the company (Chofreh, Goni, & Klemeš, 2018).

In this paper, we will discuss the change management characteristics, the importance of change management to the ERP implementation which has been performed by Apple Inc., the reasons why the employees might resist the changes, along with the example for successful ERP implementation in Apple Inc.

Brief Description of Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. may be one of the most attractive brands in the whole globe. Apple was founded by , , and  exactly on April 1, 1976, to manufacture and trade PCs. It was initially incorporated as , and was eventually changed the name to become Apple Inc. on January 9, 2007, with a purpose to reflect its switched concentration toward customer gadgets. Apple Inc. has approved itself on being a company at the crossing point of imagination and innovation, Apple has made the absolute generally adored, and utilized, items in the world.

Apple Inc. has famous with its products of hardware items include , the , and the . Apple software integrates the Mac OS X functioning outline, the iTunes media program, the iLife suite of sight, sound along with the creativity software design, the iWork suite of productivity software design. The company works with the support of further than 250 retail sites located in nine different countries along with an online store in which all the equipment and software design products are traded.

Apple Inc. has 123,000 full-time workforces and has been maintaining 504 retail locations in 24 countries starting in 2018 (Kenney & Zysman, 2019). From the earliest starting point of any market activity performed by Apple, the corporate methodology is centered around being a market leader, and thus a market creator, by concentrating persistently on the customer experience. Also, not only a concentration with existing products or management, new products and management are structured, created, and persistently sought after to satisfy the end customer.

Overview of the change management characteristics in Apple Inc.

The current changes at Apple have presented that the company has been applying an Incrementalist Model of its decision-making process. Based on this model, the managers would pick activities that possibly differ fairly from the previous business activities when taking on any type of decision that brings down the failure risks to have appeared in this company. This procedure is frequently known as "muddling through" and it suggests that the managers will be rarely in making typical decisions that are radical from their previous decisions in the past. Along these lines, the managers would stay away from the failure risks by rolling out little changes that may prompt to the totally new business activities in the end. In spite of the rational basis as the decision-making model, the incremental method suggests small business activities since the managers are blocked by an absence of complete data.

Ever since Tim Cook continued Steve Jobs as Apple's CEO, he has tried to roll out gradual changes at the company. While Jobs held a great part of the decision making control as his leadership control, Tim Cook has appointed a portion of the ability to the members from the official management. Nonetheless, the change can't be delegated to become radical due to the fact that there are significant decisions must be affirmed by the CEO. Then, Tim Cook has changed Apple's "innovation first" method in the company's business plan. Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple centered its assets to the revelation of new technologies that have the capability to change the market of technology. On the other hand, Tim Cook has concentrated on restructuring Apple's business tasks with the goal that the organization will able to reduce its operational expenses (Cohen, 2015). Anyhow, innovation will still endure a key piece on the business strategy of Apple Inc.; for this reason, it is fair to say that Apple Inc. has been performing incremental change management.

The importance of change management to ERP implementation

One of the issues with organizational change management is that it is a frequently misjudged idea that the executives are experiencing difficulty in getting the works done. At the time a company is working with its customers, a company finds that the executives would regularly either 1) essentially partner the organizational change with end-user preparing, or 2) see it as a delicate, elusive, and optional piece of an ERP execution spending plan. Sadly, the two perspectives on organizational change can't be a lot further from reality (Altamony, Z. Al-Salti, & Elyas, 2016).

Since we are so frequently requested to the more improved describe organizational change management, its main parts, along with the reasons why it's so fundamental to ERP achievement, the companies are getting accustomed to clarifying organizational change with regards to how the achievement or disappointment of ERP frameworks regularly lays on the manners in which the authoritative perspectives are tended to (or not).

As Apple Inc. has found and disclosed to numerous customers throughout the years, preparing is a generally minor bit of a viable organizational change management procedure, yet few non-change specialists comprehend what the various "product" identifies with.

It should be said that Steve Jobs' way to deal with development isn't generally a mystery, the particular subtleties might be, however the methodology is plain old business and IT system, Steve Jobs gets it, he plains, gets the business and integrates with IT strategy. An applicably executed  structure, for instance, , necessitates a sturdy company system that tends to focusing stress. In order to achieve the delicate business profit by the technology cost, it is vital for the company to acquire business drivers, business systems, along with the forthcoming stage bearing combined with the proper application.

The fundamental  must be positioned on the crossing point  procedure. The finest business procedure is constantly seeking cautiously for both up and coming business sector openings, and for improving the incentive. In that type of business structure, there are revenue, gainfulness, customers’ preservation, and customers securing occasions while also focusing on the absorbed determinants within the profitable center. At the crossing point of that business system is placed , , along with the  strategy meeting to empower the business technique. In the end, related to some wealth assumption it's around the ways that the profit is used, or not, which measures compensation and success along with its arrangement.

Reasons why the employees might resist the changes

The employees might resist the changes that appear in the workplace for many various reasons. The main reason for this issue appeared to be a bed execution and improper application of the change itself. However, resistance derived from the employees is a normal thing. In fact, this resistance has occurred to be on-going situations, and in some circumstances, it will remain there until the employees will finally able to realize the real benefits from change and observe the achievements to be more valuable rather than the threats to their self-interests. Below are some reasons why some employees might resist the change in the workplace (Petrou, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2018).

·         Fear of job loss

This has been appearing as the main reason why some employees resist the changes. In a management setting, technological improvement, business process, the changes in products and systems will surely followed by cost reduction, streamlining, efficiency, and working smarter. All of these simply mean that there might be some roles that will be reduced or eliminated. Thus, it is obvious if the employees might think that the changes are quite destructive to their roles in the company.

·         Lack of communication approach

The employees might also resist the changes if the management cannot make a proper communication approach to them. The reason is due to some employees might unable to understand what type of changes needed, what is the purpose, and how the changes will be performed. For this reason, proper communication needs to be performed by the management to give accurate details regarding the changes.

·         Peer pressure

The employees who have a great relationship with one another will definitely resist the changes that they think might harm the positions of their co-workers.

·         Panic of failure

Some employees might resist the changes due to they have panic or fear they might be unable to adjust to the changes and eventually lead to failure.

            Thus, even for a giant company like Apple Inc., the management still needs to make and practice proper strategy and approach to make sure that the changes will be successfully implemented.

Example of successful ERP implementation in Apple Inc. and why

            The strategy performed by Apple Inc. was grounded on confidence that acquiring the  would really lead the company to have full control of their own future. By scheming certain resolutions that were slightly well-matched throughout the application, , along with the layers contained in its hardware, Apple Inc. has succeeded in assuring all of its products. The ERP vendors were eventually shifting form obtaining and combining packages toward a strategy of acquiring, the whole technology stack, either via the acquisition if various technologies, or throughout the organic improvement (Abas-erp.com, 2014 ).

So far, there has no unsuccessful ERP implementation performed by Apple Inc. The reason might be due to the company has been adjusting its change management to support the ERP implementation in the company.

Conclusion of ERP (Enterprise resource planning) Implementation in Apple Inc.

Every single enterprise has to create an appropriate plan which will able to support its business operation and will eventually lead the enterprise to achieve its main goals. This is where the Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP system presents its functions. An applicably executed  structure, for instance, , necessitates a sturdy company system that tends to focus pressured has been performed by Apple Inc. Even though the employees might resist the changes that appear in the workplace for many various reasons, but Apple has succeeded in implementing ERP with acquiring the  would really lead the company to have full control over their own future.