12. Group Project 3: Exploring the Information Systems in an Organization
13. Description: The MIT is better studied in the actual environment. From here, students are able to relate and integrate the knowledge that you have learn so far and see the MIT in first hand encounter. There are many concept and term that you have came across in our class. Now, in order to better understand it, you are required to explore those organization that you choose from and study in details the IS function in it.Task: You are required to study the IS in any organization, government or private, and come up with a details report on it. In your report, you need to describe the overall IS that runs in that particular organization. Then, specifically, focus down to only one IS i.e. ERP, or CRM, AIS etc, and describe in details of its:
21. Lastly, relate back what you have learn from your case study to the overall objective of your MIT subject. Your report need to be not more than 20 pages long, including appendix and references.Presentation: Prepare a presentation on what you have discovered and present it to the classroom using the format above. Your presentation should take between 30-40 minutes.
23. Based on the task requirement, the MIT subject requires the students to do some research on the Information System (IS) that have been used in the real life organization. Students have to explore the overall IS system which have been implemented by the organization that have been chosen by the students. Since organization implemented a bunch of IS systems to operate their daily routine, the students have to study on one of the specific system used by the organization so that they can have a full understanding towards the organization operation throughout the production process. So this task is mainly focusing on achieving the result based on the categories below:
31. Relate and experience the theories that have been learned in the class with the actual process and procedure that happen in the real life organization
37. In order to gain information about the systems that Proton used, a meeting with Senior Information Manager of Proton Holding Berhad, Mr. Azahari Othman has been held on 1st of April 2011 at Proton Casting Plant situated in Glenmarie, Shah Alam. Before we go further, Proton have 3 branches to operate the productivity. One is situated in Hicom, Shah Alam which is the biggest Proton factory and act as the main head of all operation involve in Proton Holdings Berhad. The second one, is located at Glenmarie, Shah Alam which is focusing more on casting plant and have a main Business IT division that operate for the whole Proton corporation. The last one is situated in Tanjung Malim which is called Proton City because it in house major production process of Proton productivity.
38. So, according to Mr Azahari, Proton Holding Berhad used SAP system or System Application Programming to connect and operate any operation involve in the company. Proton used this system because it acts as one of the business suite solution that compromise and integrate with all other system either in management or production area. Overall about SAP system will be explained further on part 6.
39. Since SAP is the main system used in Proton, it helps the company in four major ways. The four major ways is a below:
45. Since Proton Holdings Berhad is the most establish company in Malaysia, they have used and own also the most establish IS systems to be operate successfully throughout the evolvement of the company within this 25 years. Proton has been used SAP IS systems in whole developing and production process.
46. Before we look closer to SAP system, Proton has its own policy towards the system used. Based on the interviewee, in order to have the system to operate, the program must be in MySQL language. Even though Proton is a big production company, they still choose to use MySQL language because it is an open source program and it is cheaper compared to Oracle which is licensed and expensive. Another things about Proton is that previously most of the Proton system involve UNIX operation system but now they are moving forward in using the Microsoft operation system.
47. Since Proton is a large corporation, they also have three data center to support the capacity of the data and each act as backup data center for the other. This data center is situated in Shah Alam, Tanjung Malim and OUE. This data center has 1 high-end server that integrates with 7 servers. Previously, Proton only has 3 servers to operate but due to high demand in the production process they bought another 4 server.
48.
49. Through all this 25 years of evolvement, Proton has used 3 systems which are INTRA, .net and SAP. SAP in a new implemented system in Proton which have been currently operate for 3 to 4 years. This system is used in order to replace the INTRA and .net systems that have been used for about 5 to 6 years and not sufficient enough to meet the latest technology. Besides this big operational system, Proton allows each division in the company to have their own system but still they have to integrate it with the SAP system. This is due to the needs and requirements involve in each division. Any new created project will have their own division to run. However, Proton still provide or allow some system to be created internally by the IS division. In order to do this, the proposal has to be submitted to the Procurement Council so that they have their budget either to outsourcing it or made internally. Members of the council are include the board of directors and senior IT management.
50. Now let us look at the SAP system used by Proton Holdings Berhad. SAP or System Application Programming is a German global software corporation that provides enterprise software applications and support to businesses of all sizes globally. Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the largest enterprise software company in the world (as of 2009). It is the world-leading provider of business solutions & operates in Kuala Lumpur since 1992. It is also the largest software company in Europe and the fourth largest globally. The company's best known products are its SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) and SAP Business Objects software. Besides Proton, Petronas Company also use this system to manage their productivity and this German company has over 500 clients that use SAP system in Malaysia.
51. As for this project we are focusing in SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) only. Proton uses this SAP ERP because it manages 4 major components such as:
67. Based on the picture above, we can see the integration within the IS system owned by Proton. Since Proton mainly used the SAP system. From here, we can see that the main SAP system which is situated in Shah Alam has to be integrate the result or data wih the SAP from Casting Plant department which situated at Glenmarie, Shah Alam and also combine with the SAP system at Tanjung Malim. This structure shows to us how the integration happens in the company using SAP PI. The yellow boxes are the systems that operate to produce the specific focus.
68.
69. According to Mr. Azahari, the Senior Manager IT in Proton Holdings Berhad, SAP is a proven process and has been used internally or world-wide. Besides that it has a shorter time of development for either a ready-made system and customizes system because some of the system is ready made by the German company. He also said that SAP system have never been corrupted in the entire runtime process compare to other supporting system that used to be corrupted due to the lack of maintaining.
70. SAP system is also used because of its high effectiveness in reporting tools. Previously Proton used Crystal Report Tools to generate the report but this tool only generates report but don’t have any input data area process. Meanwhile, the SAP system provides the input data area and at the same time generates the report. It is also have the best support system and provide the support and backup all the time for the Proton.
71. Besides the main SAP system , Proton also use SAP ERP. The advantage that Proton choose SAP ERP is because:
72. SAP is a powerful tool that integrate multiple business processes and functions into one comprehensive system
73. SAP reduces lack of integration across business line which will raise the risk of duplication, mistakes and inconsistency data
74. SAP provides different approach than their competitors in market. Each piece (module like FI, MM, SD) can operate independently from all other software. And the key benefit of using this approach is that companies can implement individual module that fits the company needs, and have the flexibility to add other module later when their business grows.
75.
76. Our visit to Proton Casting Plant at Glenmarie Shah Alam
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