Teknik Group ERP Implementation

XAT 2012 · DM · Hard · Decision Making

All XAT 2012 questionsMore Decision Making questionsAll CAT DM

Passage / data set

On the basis of the information given in the following case.

Teknik Group of industries had businesses in different sectors ranging from manufacturing, construction, fish farming and hotels. These different businesses operated as semi-independent units managed by the unit level managers. Teknik's management had an internal consultancy group called as Business Advisory Group (known internally as BAG). The 15 experts in BAG were hired personally by Mr. Teknikwala, the owner of Teknik, who wanted this core group of experts to help his organization grow fast without facing the typical growth hurdles. Most of them were specialists in fields like law, information technology, human resource management, and operations management. Almost all of them had experience spanning decades in the industry. Whenever any of the units faced any significant problem, the unit level managers would put up a request for help to BAG. Over a period of 20 years, Teknik's revenues grew from 100 crore to 10,000 crore with guidance of BAG and due to Mr. Teknikwala's vision.

Things changed after the unfortunate demise of Mr. Teknikwala. His daughter Miss. Teknikwali took up the family business. She was an MBA from one of the premier business schools. She preferred that BAG developed new ideas and therefore inducted freshly graduated MBAs from premier business schools. Now the entire group constituted of 50 specialists, out of which 35 were the old time members. She also changed the reporting relationships in the BAG group with some of the older members being made to report to the new members. In IT team, Mr. Shiv, a newly recruited MBA, was made in-charge.

After one month, all business units were caught up in the ERP fever pushed by Ms. Teknikwali. In a meeting, Ms. Teknikwali asked Mr. Shiv to complete implementation ahead of schedule in 6 months instead of 14 months. Not willing to disagree, Shiv committed to this deadline without consulting his team. He then enforced weekend work and threatened formal disciplinary action. The older members felt alienated, attendance dropped, and work quality suffered.

Question 1 of 6

Which of the following could have been a better response of Mr. Shiv to Ms. Teknikwali's request to re-schedule the ERP implementation?

  1. A.

    Look at industry best practices regarding fast-tracking of ERP projects and then commit to a new deadline.

  2. B.

    Consult the external consultant who was involved with ERP customization and implementation.

  3. C.

    Create a smaller team of all the new recruits of BAG and present the idea to them alone.

  4. D.

    Eliminate the reliance on external consultants as they would be slow.

  5. E.

    Present the idea to BAG members and ask them to look at the feasibility of the entire plan.

Question 2 of 6

Which of the following can be identified as the immediate cause for the problems in BAG?

  1. A.

    Ms. Teknikwali's decision to appoint Mr. Shiv as project lead for ERP implementation.

  2. B.

    The incompetence of the consultant who was implementing the ERP project.

  3. C.

    Lack of information about what was happening in the ERP project.

  4. D.

    Infighting between new recruits and the older members of BAG group.

  5. E.

    Unilateral decision making by Shiv.

Question 3 of 6

How should Mr. Shiv cope with the situation now? Choose the best option, considering Mr. Shiv's career would be at stake if the ERP project fails, and assuming that for carrying out the options, he has the necessary authority to do so.

  1. A.

    Resign from BAG. The project cannot be done as per the re-scheduled time-table. Get a job in another company based on BAG's brand-name.

  2. B.

    Inform Ms. Teknikwali about the situation and get help from her to deal with the old time members. Some old members need to be fired so that others are also disciplined.

  3. C.

    Align the new members of the BAG group to his side by promising them rewards at end of the project. Obtain approval from Ms. Teknikwali for the same.

  4. D.

    Develop work-routines aligned to the ERP project requirements. Hire extra resources for dealing with other ad-hoc requirements and for the ERP project requirements.

  5. E.

    Create a joint team of old members and new members within BAG to take care of ad-hoc requirements. They would be socialized in out-bound programmes like mountaineering etc., which will be conducted during week-ends.

Question 4 of 6

Of all the problems being faced in BAG, which of the following is neither discussed nor hinted at?

  1. A.

    Ms. Teknikwali's lack of faith on older members to implement new ideas.

  2. B.

    The inability of the younger members to work along with the older members of BAG.

  3. C.

    Mr. Shiv's intention to impress Ms. Teknikwali by agreeing to a tougher deadline.

  4. D.

    Ms. Teknikwali's lack of understanding of the complexity of an ERP implementation.

  5. E.

    Mr. Shiv's lack of understanding of the sensitivities of the older members of BAG.

Question 5 of 6

After her father's demise, the best way Ms. Teknikwali could have gone about dealing with BAG group would have been to:

  1. A.

    Discuss with the members as to what their views were about the company and solicit ideas on how to make it grow further.

  2. B.

    Retire the entire team and hire a fresh team according to her criteria and her requirements.

  3. C.

    Hire an external consultant who would have interacted with the BAG members on her behalf.

  4. D.

    Ask the unit managers about the performance of the BAG group's performance and productivity. After that have discussion with BAG members about unit managers' performance.

  5. E.

    Break down BAG into different sub-groups. It would be easy to tackle one sub-group at a time and do what she wanted to achieve.

Question 6 of 6

It can be inferred from the above case that implementation of an ERP package in an organization requires creation of a team that has:

  1. A.

    a mixture of experienced employees and newly graduated employees

  2. B.

    only young people with education in top schools and colleges

  3. C.

    sufficient number of people who are networked with powerful stakeholders in the organization

  4. D.

    right amount of problem solvers along with those who are abreast of the latest ERP technology

  5. E.

    people who have been involved with operations for a long duration of time along with people who are aware of the latest in ERP technology

Practise this under exam conditions

Sign in to solve it with a live timer, the on-screen CAT calculator, and streak and accuracy tracking across every question you attempt.

Solve in the workspace