Assignment #5 Enterprise Systems Questions

Assignment #5 Activity
Nestle Struggles with Enterprise Systems
September 30, 2010
CS460

1.Evaluate Nestle SA and Nestle USA by using the competitive forces and value chain models.

The competitive forces for the Nestle companies were all mixed up. They all had the same suppliers but with different price rates. Each company managed its costumers on its own way, the tread of new entrants into the marked was always there, because any company could came and take over the market if it was more well organized than Nestle. The companies did not applied the value chain model to identify the specific, critical leverage points where the companies could use information technology most effectively to enhance its competitive position by being decentralized they were very unorganized.

2.What were the problems and issues that Nestle SA faced that caused the company to be so decentralized?

Nestle SA had many issues. They had nine different general ledgers and 28 points of costumer entry. They had multiple purchasing systems. They had no clue how much volume they were doing with a particular vendor because every factory set up their own vendor masters and purchased on their own.

3.Do you think it was appropriate for Nestle to distribute the decision making so widely? Explain your answer.

No it’s was not appropriate. They should of first started with a few of the locations to take the time to train their employees appropriately, and to see how all the new changes were going to be working with the employees and to pay more attention on the little details.

4.Why did Nestlé’s initial enterprise system project encounter so many problems? What management, organization, and technology contributed to those problems?

The main problem on their project was the deadline. The deadline was putting too much pressure on the project. The management should have been more organized and take the time to analyze the situation with more detail making the time to train the employees on the new way of running things. The organization had issues too because they wanted to cover s much in so little time. They technology was up top, they just not integrated the systems pretty well.

5.If you had been in charge of the Nestle enterprise system project, what could you have done to prevent these problems?

The main thing that could have been done was to take things slowly and to take the time to see all of the little details and involved each and every employee on the process. Take the time to train each employee to make things easier for them and also to start just with a little part of Nestle.