The Need For Erp Systems

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

1.1-Introduction

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly" (Henry Bergson)

Adopting for change and managing it effectively is indeed one of the most crucial decisions in the life of an individual or any other business. Globalization has completely changed the way organizations were run; it has affected the major elements of a macro environment in which the business is carried out. The entry of a global competitor in any market poses a threat to the local business, and that organization is left with no other option but to adopt change in order to survive in the market and maintain its existence. The change is not easily accepted by the management of any organization and the uncertainties present in their minds along with the fear of losing, mostly acts as barriers in the change process. Surveys show that in any organization the commonly reported problem faced by management and staff is to deal with furious transition of change process along with surviving in the non-stable environment. Issues can be resolved and complexities might get reduced if the challenges and barriers for change are identified and reported before carrying out the change management process.

"People don’t resist change. They resist being changed" (Peter Senge)

This quotation is brought up in support of the above explanation regarding managers, about their insecurities and fear of losing as discussed above.

Change management has been chosen as a base of this dissertation because of authors general interest in the topic since beginning and besides that the author feels that the change management is essential in the business and the process can be adopted and carried out anywhere in the organization. The process cannot be overlooked by any means as it has significant influence in the overall operations of any business in both short and long terms. Title of this report also includes the terms of ERP, JD Edwards and SAP, so these topics will be covered in the literature review and later in the findings and analysis section of the research. Research has also been undertaken and mentioned in the literature review of what different scholars have said on the change topics like the types of change, Resistance on change, different strategies used for change and the author has also highlighted the concept of Business Process Re-engineering as this is very much related to the change management and the Case study of Shell which has been chosen for the research is an example of Business Process Re-engineering. Author will be using a case study in this dissertation which is an example of a change process. The case study is based on the Shell Pakistan Ltd, the company planned to transform its systems from JD Edwards to SAP globally and the idea behind this was to streamline the processes and the system enabled Shell to increase and improve on its operational performance and efficiency on the path to high performance. The transformation process was basically to serve the global purpose of Shell group and the idea was to remove the complexities and global differences in operations. The new system was available for access in 22 locations by around 17000 users around the globe. The new global SAP adopted by Shell is one of the major business infrastructure investments which has replaced the JD Edwards information systems and introduced substantial business benefits which are to be realized and sustained through the Downstream-One global, standardized business processes. The objective of Shell behind this was to align the many oil products and chemicals companies throughout the world around common principles, programs, and processes. (http://www.accenture.com/us-en/pages/success-shell-exploration-production-co-sap-solutions-summary.aspx) 17/09/2011

The aim of this research will be to generate understanding about the steps discussed in change management process and discussing and commenting on its theories, conducting a primary research using the journals on change management, books and various articles and explaining further why the specific theory on change is quoted in that way. The other part of the research will be on the system transformation in Shell Ltd from ERP to SAP, discussing why was it needed to have a changeover, what steps were taken during the process, author has also discussed the risks faced during the transformation in Shell Pakistan and finally how is the new system performing better than the previous one and to identify how effective it has been after the transformation has taken place and so on. One more objective of the research is to identify the reasons of why people are reluctant to go for change in the business; a survey has taken place in two major organizations Barclays and Reckitt Benckiser and the author has listed the reasons in the findings section of the report. Besides that author has discussed what models have being presented by different scholars to deal with resistance and to manage change and how are they used in the industry, discussion and comparison on various models will be found in the findings section which are meant to deal with resistance to change. The term organisational learning and organisational growth is closely related to the subject of change management, so it is one of the research objectives to understand the concept and theories on this and also discussed is the Greniers model used for organisational growth.

1.2-Research Questions

What models are usually used in an industry for managing resistance to change?

Has the transformation adopted by Shell Pakistan Ltd, in the change process from ERP to SAP been effective?

1.3-Research Objectives

Comparing models for resistance to change proposed by different scholars and understanding the concept of organisational learning and organisational growth

Identify the necessity of transformation from one system to another in Shell

Understand the process of change used by Shell Ltd, for its transformation, and identifying the risks faced.

To examine the effectiveness of SAP implementation and to identify the positive outcomes of the transformation

Chapter-2, Literature Review

2.1-The need for ERP systems

Organizations by far have found that enterprise wide resource planning systems have provided deep rooted benefits in terms of revenues and profitability. ERP systems are packaged systems that have been formulated by gathering knowledge from several business processes in a large number of organizations. The implementation of this system in each organization reveals features and benefits that can be incorporated in the ERP system allowing it to yield and evolve into a better, more business oriented software application for all types of industries and businesses.

When ERP systems are implemented within organizations, both the business side and the technology side of the organization are merged in order to develop better, operationally sound business software for the organization. It has been noted that over the past several years, a large number of organizations have implemented ERP systems spending more than hundred billion US dollars in the procurement of the software. This implies that organizations have found a significant need for ERP systems and have learnt to derive substantial benefits from them as well.

Shang and Seddon (2000) state in their research that there are five areas of benefits which organizations can derive when they implement and use ERP systems. The framework describes the benefits that each firm derives when they implement and ERP system. These five areas within the framework include operational, managerial, strategic, IT infrastructure and organizational benefits through any particular ERP system. Several researchers however, believe that true benefits of any ERP system cannot be classified in a single framework or measure that would help benchmark these advantages. Moreover, some researchers also argue that such benefits from an ERP system are different at each stage of the implementation of such a project.

Shang and Seddon (2000) state that operational benefits generally denote automation of tasks that can help cut costs and the time to learn and relearn a particular process. Automation of tasks can also help cut costs with respect to reducing the amount of manual labour required for the purpose of a particular task. Managerial benefits generally include benefits pertaining to information and its availability to the management for decision making and performance enhancement purposes. Strategic benefits generally include areas of competitive advantage that the organization can exploit through the usage of ERP systems. Infrastructural benefits from ERP systems include sharing and utilizing resources that can provide long term future benefits for the organization in terms of IT technology. This in turn also means flexibility in technology and cutting costs through long term usage of technology. The last dimension, organizational benefits, entails the integration between processes and systems allowing for a common vision that enhances learning within the organization.

2.2- Evolution of ERP systems

ERP systems have evolved over a number of years with implementation in all sort of industries and because they have been repackaged for small and medium industries as well. This has allowed specially the larger ERP solutions to have a strong history of positive change which has enabled these solutions to improve themselves over the years. With the unprecedented and unpredictable growth of electronics and information technology, software solutions have taken a leap allowing better and more improved versions to be presented to the market based on what customers want. For organizational customers, it is imperative that a software solution is presented that helps cater to and integrate all functional units and business processes together to form one information repository. This repository should also cater to business ideals such as low costs, better management and improved decision making. In the 1980’s and 90’s, enterprise resource planning systems came into being that helped in managing larger and more complex organizations. The systems were complex and costly and required longer durations of implementation coaxing organizations to meet reengineering objectives as well. With passing years, ERP systems have from simple inventory management systems, have extended and enhanced themselves to cater to all specifications within a business and to deal with all scenarios pertaining to service and product organizations.

2.3-Change Management and how Organizations Deal with Change

"Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes — it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm" Peter Drucker,(1999)

It has become a generally accepted view in businessthat organizational change is necessary to create a competitive advantage and remain successful—especially for complex organizations (Edmonds, 2011; Wilson, 1992).

However, "one of the most remarkable aspects of organizational change efforts is their low success rate. There is substantial evidence that some 70% of all change initiatives fail" (Burnes & Jackson,

2011, p. 133).

Failure can result in lost market position or credibility, decreased morale, and other negative outcomes (Edmonds, 2011).

Considering the resource-based view of organizational change the organizations are complex systems that risk disaster unless they are able to effectively distribute their resources and learn from the events that arise throughout a change initiative (Marcus & Nichols, 1999)

Change management has recently become a very important process in the industry and its various theories have been accepted and adopted more frequently by many organizations around the globe. Today the organizations are facing more pressure than ever, the continuously changing economic conditions, globalization effects, consumers having more knowledge and awareness about the industry and increase in the level of their expectations are the major factors which have built up the pressure on the organizations. This has made obligatory for the firms to adopt the process of change in terms of its organizational structure, operating activities, working environment, flexible employment contracts, technology, research and developments, marketing activities and so on.

Kurt Lewin (1940) was the first person to present the idea of "resistance" to changes taking place within an organization. His initial research focused on the elements of individual behavior that must be looked at to introduce an effective organizational change process. The theory presented on resistance was more focused on individuals, and he defined the human personality structure as a complex energy field in which all the actions and reactions could be assumed of as a change in some state of a field. His theory on resistance to change was more like a theory of a system.

Lewin presented a 3 stage model to carry out a change process and dealing with resistance, three steps were defined by Lewin in that model, first step was to unfreeze, second was to implement change and third was to re-freeze. I will discuss the model in more detail later in my research.

Alvin Zander (1950) was close to Lewin as a human being and both of them discussed often regarding their work. Most of Zanders concepts and theories are considered to be close to Levin’s work, however Zander presented a slightly different view on resistance to change, He defined resistance to change as a behavior which intends to oppose and protect a person from the effect of actual or a planned change Dent & Goldberg, (1999, p. 34).

Morgan (1997) challenged Lewin’s 3 stage model of Unfreeze, Change and Refreeze and said: According to Lewin there is a resistance found by opposite forces in any potential change taking place, but considering Lewin’s model the forces are usually external to the change, which holds a situation in state of a dynamic equilibrium. His solution was to reflect upon the fact that successful change always rests in "unfreezing" an established equilibrium by enhancing the forces driving change, or by reducing or removing resisting forces, and then "refreezing" in a new equilibrium state.

Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn (2005) expressed that when employees resist change they are defending or protecting something they value and which seems threatened by the attempt at change.

Eight Reasons for Resisting Change (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2005):

Fear of the unknown

Lack of good information

Fear of loss of security

No reasons to change

Fear of loss of power

Lack of resources

Bad timing

Habit

Coch & French (1948) in Virginia conducted their research in Harwood Manufacturing company, and the objective behind their research was to identify the reasons of why do people resist change so strongly. They concluded from their research that the individuals and the groups who took active participation in the design and development of changes, hold lower resistance compared to others.

Lawrance (1954) completely opposes the conclusions of Coch & French and thinks the results of Coch & French research were misleading. Lawrance suggested that according to Coch & French findings, the group which had the poorest result, (non-participating group) actually in Harwood manufacturing was more actually looking to introduce the change in a progressive way. Lawrance suggested that one of the most difficult problems faced by the business executives is the employee’s resistance to change.

One important point is that people resist change since they are more comfortable with what they know, but fear the unknown and the uncertainty. Here is a list because of which people fear change.

The nature and the reason for change is unknown to them

There is lack of trust in the people who are leading the change.

Organizational redesign can take place in the shape of change of job roles or possibly loss of jobs

There is a chance of technological challenges arising

The employees will be required to move out of their comfort zone

Reduction in stability arises, the continuity of products or services, processes and staff forms a stable operating environment. (Enterprise Strategy, 2008, P-399)

2.4- Implementation of ERP Systems within Organizations

Hammer (1999) presented his views on ERP by saying that the use of ERP software pushes an organization to become an integrated organization which requires a relatively strong understanding on the core business processes, its resource and competences.

Gale (2002) views ERP as a very useful tool for managing operations in an organization and said that the usage of ERP software will integrate information from various sources like, accounting, production, distribution etc., into a seamless computing system.

Duplagia and Astani (2003) conducted a survey on firms using ERP and their findings suggested that integration of function areas, information systems was the most important reason for organization’s going for ERP systems.

(Grabski et al, 2001), Grabski and Leech (2007) prepared a list of all the important control procedures that should be used by any organization during the ERP implementation, and their findings suggests that a single type of control measure was not used, in fact a series of multiple control techniques were used to manage various complexities and different stage. Their research identified five different control techniques which used be used accordingly during the ERP implementation, these were project management, change management, alignment of the business with the new information system, internal audit activities and consulting and planning techniques.

2.5- JD Edwards and SAP ERP Systems

ERP systems are used by several organizations across the globe. Shell Pakistan used to work on JD Edwards and then migrated to the SAP in all sister concerns world wide. SAP was customized specifically for Shell and was coined as Global SAP or GSAP. SAP success in the industry of chemical and pharmaceutical is not really impressive in terms of inventory management or operating income in the first four years after SAP implementation. However, over the course of the years, SAP has grown in terms of implementation in several organizations and has moved from a simple manufacturing concern management system to an innovative and critical inventory, manufacturing, selling and distribution and personal management software solution.

SAP is a sophisticated organizational based information system and also a process focused financial management software that was established by SAP AG, an organization based in Germany. SAP has been developed mainly for managing operations. This system is a useful technique for organizations managing their business purposes using the real time data. The main advantage of using real time date over the historical data is that it gives an opportunity to the organization for controlling the events at the very spot (Johnson et al., 2007)

Managing SAP is not a simple task and there is a huge potential of user making mistakes in the system, one approach of carrying out SAP successfully and reducing the negative results obtained from using SAP is to introduce the SAP alignment session for managing all the capital projects. This is a best practice approach which has given positive results in past. The benefits obtained from implementing such techniques can be huge; a study suggests that the data entry mistakes have been reduced to more than 75% by making the use of SAP alignment session. Experts suggest that there are key individuals who should be present and should be part of SAP alignment with business processes. These key individuals can ensure that the implementation of SAP focuses on all the critical processes that are important for the software solution (Gaut, 2004).

The major factors to be considered here are the roles and responsibilities, listing project expectation, reviewing the work breakdown structure, identifying gaps in reaching the objectives and fixing them out and training provided to the staff. Suzanne, Gaut (2004).

Implementation of SAP is not as easy in several organizations because each company has different process and cultural elements that need to be mapped into the system. In addition to that, change management process also has to be managed within the organization. A case has been evaluated further to indicate the nuances that are part of the organization and the software implementation particularly with respect to SAP.

The case study under consideration is a an organization known as Water Corporation which is a government organization providing water management and wastewater services to state within Australia. The implementation of SAP in Water Corporation was started in 1997 and the specific module under implementation was project system. The legacy system within the organization was a conglomerate of various information systems, termed as the General Corporate Systems. The GCS contained the general ledger for accounting; corporation costing system also known as the WORKS; SIMS or the stored management information system which was for inventory management; and CWP which was capital works planning system for project management and working through projects’ cash flows. Various other systems were also working within the organization such a human resource management system, several paper systems. Within these software systems, various integration modules had been run as well which helped keep information silos at bay and allowed for better management of information for decision making.

However, the need for a better and more robust system was quite strong and thus SAP was introduced within the organization. Before SAP was implemented, Water Corporation was primarily being run on mainframe systems with little integration, and with slow speeds making decision making extremely weak. Moreover, with inflexibility and increased requirements towards maintenance of the system it was difficult for the current information systems to continue running within the organizational environment. The age of the case study indicates that the systems running within Water Corporation were prior to implementation and usage of Windows thus resulting in severe inflexibility within the current information systems. Moreover, the organization realized that there were only two options that it had with respect to the current system, either to repair the existing information system or replace it with a better option. Implementation of Windows and Office Suite spurred the decision towards a better and more robust system as well. The decision therefore was taken to implement SAP within the organization and which included the project systems module as well; a relatively new module compared to the other robust ones already implemented in detail in other organizations. The following modules were then implemented within Water Corporation:

The case indicates various elements pertaining to the implementation of SAP modules that help replace legacy systems. It must be noted that each element relates to how business processes have been merged to help launch SAP and thus this has led to significant change within the organization. Any implementation of a new ERP system within an organization can lead to significant threat to the leadership within the company. The organization was primarily a telecommunication company within Australia which was running JD Edwards and was one of the largest telecommunication service providers within the country. The study of this case is critical for various reasons, one of them being the fact that it highlights how JD Edwards ERP system was phased out in favour of the SAP ERP system. This case study has similar implications to Shell and its integration and implementation of SAP while replacing JDE in all the sister concerns.

http://assets1.csc.com/au/downloads/0810_24_Watercorp_BW_to_BI_Upgrade_v1_B_web.pdf

2.6- J D Edwards

JD Edwards is a comprehensive, integrated application enterprise resource planning software that combines business value, standards-based technology, and deep industry experience into a business solution with a low total cost of ownership. JD Edwards offers a choice of databases, operating systems, and hardware so the organizations can establish and expand their IT solution to meet business requirements. JD Edwards solution could be used by organizations in various ways for instance, Asset lifecycle management, supply chain execution, manufacturing and engineering, customer relationship management, procurement, project management, financial management, tools and technology, human capital management, etc. Rowena Hawsley (2007)

2.7 Comparing JD Edwards and SAP

Based on a study about comparing both the ERP solutions, it has been found that both have certain features, advantages and disadvantages in comparison to each other, allowing organizations to derive certain benefits based on which software is implemented.

It has been noted that ERP vendors are now more focused on other elements of the organization as well such as supply chain and customer relationships as a result of which new modules and improved versions of existing modules have come into play. Both SAP and JDE have focused on these elements with the knowledge in hand that customer is the core focus within any business because this is how an organization runs.

2.8 Architecture Differences

It has been noted that environment of the systems can be broken down into databases as well as server platforms, where it has been observed that SAP has more platform options compared to JDE. Moreover, SAP supports more databases compared to JDE since JDE only supports oracle based databases. With respect to user interfaces, there is inconsistency with respect to SAP while JDE provides standardized interfaces in this scenario.

With respect to structure, there are four elements that can be studied, metadata, programming, web page development and web services. Both SAP and JDE have a long way to go with Meta data, while with web pages, Oracle or JDE fares better because it uses known languages to formulate them, while SAP uses a lesser known language called ABAP. In programming again, JDE fares better because it uses PL/SQL while SAP primarily utilizes ABAP. Both JDE and SAP have not worked on web services and will do so in the near future.

The ideology behind a core ERP system is that it should be able to provide excellent integration within the enterprise. Both SAP and JDE are excellent in their integration ideology allowing them to explore and exploit business processes to their advantage. As a result, both software systems are excellent choices for any organization for the purpose of implementing an enterprise wide software solution.

The next element pertaining to the two systems is the point related to education. Both software solutions are complex and require detailed instructions as well as training in order to implement and use the system. It has been noted that both these software have online facilities where people can learn about the software and its implementation. Moreover, there are a large number of certifications available as well that can help in certifying specific vendors and individuals for the purpose of implementing the software in a corporation.

In this context, studying both the software solutions gives the fact that there is no right or wrong option for the purpose of implementing an ERP solution within an organization. In addition to that, the context in most cases therefore turns out to be primarily costs and time towards implementation that may guide an organization towards one software and against another. Since both of these software offer similar benefits and have similar features, there is no right answer to which software should be purchased.

2.9 Business Process Re-engineering and its Importance for Information Technology

"Formalization, structuration, codification, standardization, and depersonalization of the rules of the game in the transnational space" (Djelic & Quack, 2003, p. 5)

To successfully achieve these aims, adapt to globalpressures, and create a sustainable competitive advantage, the multinational organization may launch extensive change programs (Wilson, 1992)

In the early 1900's, Henri Fayol presented the concept of re-engineering, to conduct the undertaking toward its objectives by seeking to derive optimum advantage from all available resources. Although the technological resources of our era have changed, the concept still holds. About the same time, another business engineer, Lyndall Urwick stated it is not enough to hold people accountable for certain activities, it is also essential to delegate to them the necessary authority to discharge that responsibility. Lloyd et al, (1994)

Chan and Peel (1998) conducted a survey of 37 companies in 17 different industries to investigate the causes and the impact of BPR. They concluded that the primary reasons for BPR are increasing efficiency (internal) and improving customer service (external). Francis and McIntosh (1997) identified

causes for the emergence of BPR such as consumers, competition (global), technological development, and IT. Most companies are function- or department-oriented, and not process-oriented. Often, many people are involved in order fulfilment, but no one tracks a product and reports the status of an order directly. Reengineering makes one individual responsible for the complete business process (Self 1995).

Business process reengineering is also quite often linked to the ERP implementation as the ERP systems embed business processes, thereby restricting and enforcing organizational routines. ERP implementation decisions determine the extent to which work processes will depart from past practices in favour of redesigned business processes or business processes (Huang et al .2004, Wenrich and Ahmad 2009), (Hammer and Champy, 1993), (Davenport and Stoddard 1994), (Boudreau and Robey 1996

Better techniques are required in order to identify hot business process design and ERP configuration decision will impact future business operations and management control. The business process re-engineering benefits of enterprise resource planning systems are often touted, however, the opportunities for continued process improvement after ERP implementation have rarely been explored. ERP systems embed and reinforce the execution of prescribed business routines. (Marting and Cheung 2005), (Severing V. Grabski et al, 2011

2.10 Case Background

Historically, Shell supported autonomy and entrepreneurship in operation and decision making in their local offices throughout the world (Sluyterman & Wubs, 2010)

In the early 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Empire ushered in a new push toward privatization, deregulation, and economic liberalization and a move away from authoritarian political regimes and centrally planned economies (Sluyterman & Wubs, 2010)

Among the changes they made included eliminating Shell's organizational layers and the matrix structure and reorienting the organizational structure around five worldwide businesses: exploration and production, oil products, chemicals, gas, and coal. These changes were made in response to financial pressures and demands for greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness. To avoid the potential risks of these changes, the company introduced a "global business operating model in 2004 that standardized and simplified business procedures in order to facilitate learning and speed up action" (Sluyterman & Wubs, 2010, p. 811)

Chapter-3, Research Methodology and Design

Research Definition

Research Methodology and Research Design

Collection of Data

Source not used

3.1-Research Definition

Research in any organized or replicable process means "to know", the term research has its roots in Latin, it identifies and describes difficulties, within certain limits. It can also be described as performing a methodical study in order to prove a hypothesis or answer a specific question. There are two types of research, Primary and Secondary. Secondary research is to investigate and collect data that has already been collected for some other purpose and using that information to fulfil objectives. Primary research is also knows as field research, the collection of first-hand information directly from the available source. The main features of any research includes systematic problem solving which identifies variables and tests relationships between them, collecting, organizing and evaluating data. Logical, so procedures can be duplicated or understood by others. The data collected from investigation could be qualitative or quantitative. The quantitative methods are used to measure the numerical data. These can be presented using graphs. The method has its complexities and is kind of difficult to design initially but provides high standard detailed information. Few common quantitative methods used to present information includes ratio analysis, budgeting, forecasting, comparison of financial information and conducting surveys. On the other hand qualitative methods are more subjective in nature and examine the less tangible aspects of the research as compared to the quantitative analysis. The most common qualitative methods include focus groups, interviews, observations, sampling, questionnaires and case Studies (Water Corporation)

3.2-Research Objective and design

The objective of this research is to study and analyze the change management process conducted in Shell Pakistan. The expressive study also includes understanding the mind set of people involved in change and getting their feedback on it. To achieve the research objectives primary research has been done mainly to collect qualitative data which will be used in collection to give analysis on the transformation process. various techniques have been used for collection of qualitative data, the most prominent of all was completion of questionnaire by the staff involved during the change process few other methods used were extensive face to face and telephonic interviews, extracting information about the transformation process given online and extensive study of the internal reports of Shell Pakistan prepared for its system change process. The questionnaire was prepared consisting eighteen questions which focused on the system transformation process in Shell Pakistan from JD Edwards to GSAP. The objective for writing below questionnaire is to analyze the performance of JDE from the users i.e. whether the users are confident to use JDE as a preferred ERP & what in their view are the strengths & weaknesses of JDE. The below questionnaire also analysis the usage of SAP as a change & provides them a platform to mention whether the training being provided is adequate, the performance of the learning & development department,  their line managers support to implementation of SAP. The questionnaire also identifies their confidence in using SAP & shifting from JDE to SAP.

3.3-Data Collection

Data collection methods are essential and helpful for clustering material systematically, in a more organized way and if the data collection is done randomly, there will be difficulties in answering investigation queries in a decisive manner.

There are various methods which can be used for data collection few of them include

All the information available

Observation

Face to face interviews

Written Questionnaires

Focus Groups

Projective methods, scaling, planning

3.3.1-All the Information available

Mostly there is a vast amount of data which can be found, which already has previously been collected by others for some different purpose but this does mean that it has been analysed as well. Collecting such data is relatively inexpensive, there is a chance that such data or information is incorrect or misinterpreted so in order to reduce the chance of mistakes or misrepresentation authentic source must be known from where the data is being collected. In order to achieve the research objectives in this project, reports published on Shell and information available online on its transformation process will be used. Apart from that the internal reports which were used during the change process were requested from the staff working in Shell and the relevant information was extracted from it which has been mentioned in this report.

3.3.2-Observation

This method involves selected, viewing and recording behavior in an organized way and characters of living beings, objects or phenomena. One that is mostly-used data collection techniques is the observation of human behaviour. In the case study of Shell this method will not really be useful to accomplish the objective and complete the research as the research is based on a process which already has taken place so observation method is not possible and won’t help the cause. Therefore this method of data collection has not been used for this dissertation.

3.3.3-Face to Face Interviews

This is normally used for collecting qualitative data, in this the person is mostly questioned orally and this could be done individually or in a group. For this project in-depth interviews have been completed with people who hold expert knowledge and skills in this field. During the face to face interview session, few sensitive topics can be covered and the opinions of the interviewee can be recorded on different issues. For this project this method has been one of the most effective methods of research along with the questionnaire as the feedback was taken from the people who were actually part of the team and who experienced change, only people who experience it can define the best.

3.3.4-Written questionnaires

This method involves a written questionnaire which is usually presented to individuals involved (directly/indirectly) in that specific situation in order to get their feedback and record their experiences related to a particular event. The primary technique for data collection has been a self developed questionnaire which includes open ended questions demanding detailed explanations. The questionnaires were distributed to the people concerned with the authors topic and their feedback has been used to analyze the findings later in this project. Questions prepared in the questionnaire are interlinked to each other and have been organized them in such a sequence that they are leading to the next stage. Mostly subjective, along with few objective questions have been used to collect as much data as possible for the analysis to be done.

3.3.5-Focus Groups

This is another way in which qualitative information is collected. Usually this involves a group of individuals who gather together to provide their opinions on various topics. In regards to this report a combined view has been used of the group of people dealing with system transformation in Shell and that view will be used below in this report, for analysis.

3.3.6-Projective methods, scaling, planning

Making use of charts and graphs is useful in this method for displaying and explaining relations between variables. The findings from the questionnaire are explained by extensive use of these techniques in this project. For analyzing most of the questions answered, pie charts and bar charts are used to illustrate the results. This will be found in my findings section.

3.3.7-Collection of Data for the Project

Feedback of around more than 150 people both as individuals and in groups has been taken in this project, for different questions. Most of these people are part of the chain management team in Shell, besides that feeds are taken from the management of Shell Pakistan to accomplish the research objectives. Survey has been done in two different organizations to record their point of view on the resistance of change. The data collected to accomplish the research objectives, is divided into two sources:

Primary Source: The primary data consists of information collected through surveys, face to face interviews and interviews on telephone, a questionnaire was issues to be filled out from which the attitude of people was known on the change process. The questionnaire has been attached at the end of this report which was used in completing the research.

Secondary Source: The secondary data has been collected and recorded mainly from internet, and going through the reports on change management in Shell, the report on terminal operations on Shell was read from there a lot of information on the ERP and SAP implementation was taken and recorded for analysis.

3.4-Source not used

Quantitative data collection method normally involves data in numerical form such as statistics, percentages, etc. In layman's terms, this means that the quantitative researcher asks a specific, narrow question and collects numerical data from participants to answer the question. In this project the qualitative method was not really used as the questions in my interview list were very subjective and detailed in order to achieve my research objective.

3.5- Research Timeframe

Defined time limit was set for undertaking both primary and secondary research and data collection, a timeframe of 5 weeks was kept in which all kind of relevant information was to be extracted and collected. Most margin kept was for the written questionnaire, 3 weeks were provided to record the collect and record the response of the staff and it was achieved within the allocated time.