Purpose
Johnson & Easton is a manufacturer of personal care products and it is strongly dependent on the efficiency of its supply chain and its ability to meet the demand of the customers. The successful performance of this business requires the use of the most advanced applications supporting supply and demand management as well as planning activities. Having researched various developers of such applications, I have decided to focus on two companies, namely Oracle Corporation and Sage Group. This memorandum is aimed at showing how these companies can be evaluated in more detail.
Criteria for evaluating the companies
It is possible to distinguish a set of criteria according to which these companies can be evaluated. These parameters can be summarized in the following table.
Overall, Oracle Corporation and Sage Group are relatively similar in terms of these criteria. More detailed information about these organizations can be obtained by directly contacting the management of these companies and discussing this order with them. Before placing an order with a developer of online, clients should make sure that the developer can customize its products (Monk & Wagner, 2008, p. 35). One should remember that IT developers have to adapt their programs so that they can fit the structure of companies and the skills of employees (Monk & Wagner, 2008, p. 35). The management of Johnson & Easton should evaluate Oracle and Sage Group in terms of their ability to adjust their products.
Secondly, it is important to remember the after-sale services of these IT developers. For instance, these organizations help their client’s train workers. In some cases, the employees may not understand how certain functions or what kind of steps should be taken in order to perform certain tasks such as billing, scheduling, transfer of data, demand estimation, and so forth (Etezady, 2008, p. 39). Provided that appropriate training is not provided the use of this application will not bring any improvement.
Furthermore, it is important to note that the adoption of a new software solution is a time-consuming process (Sheer et al, 2003). The management of Johnson & Easton should find out how much time it will take Oracle or Sage Group to develop a new solution that supports supply management, inventory management, and demand management (Grabot, Mayere, & Bazet, 2008). This is another issue that should be considered by the management of Johnson & Easton.
Finally, it is important to take into account the pricing policies of an IT developer and its ability to serve large corporate clients and small businesses. The management of Johnson & Easton should focus on the prices that Oracle and Sage Groupsets.
Conclusion
Thus, this discussion shows that the management of Johnson & Easton should pay close attention to such criteria as time-efficiency, after-sale services, the ability of a company to customize its products, and its pricing policies. Certainly, both Oracle and Sage Group offer high-quality products; however, the management of Johnson & Easton should pay attention to these criteria in order to make an informed decision.
Reference List
Etezady, N. (2008). The Impact of ERP Investments on Organizational Performance. London: ProQuest.
Grabot, B., Mayere, A., & Bazet, I. (2008). ERP Systems and Organisational Change: A Socio-technical Insight. New York: Springer.
Monk, E. & Wagner, B. (2008). Concepts in Enterprise Resource Planning. New York: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Sheer, A., Abolhassan, F., Jost, W. & Kirchmer, M. (2003). Business Process Change Management: ARIS in Practice. New York: Springer.