Knowledge Management in Supply Chain Networks

Julianto
0832200273

Abstract:
Today's business climate has rapidly changed and has become more competitive as ever in nature. Creating value through supply chain integration has become a potentially valuable way of securing competitive advantage and improving organizational performance, since competition is no longer between organizations, but among supply chains. The integration of a supply chain not only focuses on tangible resources and assets, but also on intangibles such as knowledge. Thus, the effective creation of knowledge has become a top priority in a supply chain. Knowledge is becoming the only resource capable of offering competitive advantage and continued growth and prosperity for supply chain partners. This study will be using Wal-Mart case study, how they create a distinct virtual space for knowledge exchange and creation with its suppliers.


Keywords: Knowledge Management, Supply Chain Management, Collaborative Supply Chain, Network Supply Chain, Wal-Mart.

1. Introduction

Today's business climate has rapidly changed and has become more competitive as ever in nature. Businesses now not only need to operate at a lower cost to compete, it must also develop its own core competencies to distinguish itself from competitors and stand out in the market.

In order to create a niche for competitive advantage, companies must look at the big picture of the whole process, and figuring out which process can be reduce, eliminate, raise and create. Creating value through supply chain integration has become a potentially valuable way of securing competitive advantage and improving organizational performance, since competition is no longer between organizations, but among supply chains.

The supply chain is a highly complex area. As a result, it can be a source of great efficiency and cost-savings gains. Companies are realizing that more than ever, supply chain excellence drives competitive advantage, customer relationships and shareholder value.

The strategy on applying SCM will not only impact their market positioning but also strategic decision on choosing the right partners, resources and manpower. By focusing on core competencies also will allow the company to create niches and specialization of core areas.
The integration of a supply chain not only focuses on tangible resources and assets, but also on intangibles such as knowledge. Thus, the effective creation of knowledge has become a top priority in a supply chain. Knowledge is becoming the only resource capable of offering competitive advantage and continued growth and prosperity for supply chain partners.

This study extends the concepts in the supply chain and knowledge management literature on the impact of knowledge management on supply chain performance especially in a complex supply chain network. The study will be using Wal-Mart case study and the discussion will be on Wal-Mart supply chain system, knowledge management system, collaboration with suppliers, knowledge in organization, what kind of knowledge and information does Wal-Mart share with its supplier, and what are the issues and key success in implementing Knowledge Management in their Supply Chain Network.

2. Literature

2.1 Supply Chain Management

According to Turban (2008) a supply chain is defined as a set of relationships among suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers that facilitate the transformation of raw materials into final products. The supply chain includes all interactions between suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, warehouses, and customers. Supply chains also include the organization processes for developing and delivering products, information, and services to end customers.

There are typically three of flows in the supply chain: materials, information, and financial. In managing the supply chain, it is necessary to coordinate all the flows among all the parties in the chain.
1. Material flows. These are all physical products, raw materials, supplies, and so forth, that flow along the chain. The concept of material flows also includes reverse flows—returned products, recycled products, and disposal of materials or products.
2. Information flows. This includes all data related to demand, shipments, orders, returns, and schedules, and changes in data.
3. Financial flows. The financial flows are all the transfers of money, payments, credit card information and authorization, payment schedules, e-payments, and credit related data.

SCM Goals are to reduce uncertainty and risks along the supply chain, thereby decreasing inventory levels and cycle time, and improving business processes and customer service. All of these benefits contribute to increased profitability and competitiveness.

2.1.1 Linear Supply Chain and Network Supply Chain

The rapid development of internet technology has changed the anatomy of supply chain management from a traditional (Linear Supply Chain) into an adaptive and flexible (Network Supply Chain).

In a linear supply chain, the products and information move in a linear flow, from suppliers to the factory, and then to the wholesalers and then finally to the retailers. While in the network supply chain, the products and information can move freely from one entity to another organization. With network supply chain, the organization will always find ways to improve their processes and business activities so it can be better, faster, and cheaper.

A supply chain network is a network interrelated activities of procurement, production, distribution, vendition, and consumption of one or more products, conducted by coalitions of business entities who act collectively within a coalition. In other words, network of interrelated supply chains.


Fig. 1: Traditional Supply Chain vs. Network Value chain

A good example of a successful network supply chain is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart eliminates the role of wholesaler. They directly buy the products from the manufacturers and put them in the distributions centre before they distribute the products to each retail store. However as Wal-Mart keep innovating, the products can move directly from the manufacturers to the customer, or to the retail stores without the needs to manage it in the distribution centre first.

However, the paradigm to change from linear supply chain to the network supply chain is not easy, because it requires:
- In-depth understanding on the new concept and philosophy
- New management structure of supply chain management
- New leveraging technology
- Collaboration among suppliers, customers, and business partners.

The process transitions are described as below:
- Process enablers—management of visibility, velocity, and variability
- Information enablers—management of quality, timeliness, and depth of information
- Leveraging technologies—agents and RFID

In order to achieve success in managing supply chain network where more than one companies interact with each other, an organization must possess and share knowledge about the different facets of the supply chain by engaging their supply chain partners in interlinked processes that enable rich information sharing, and building information technology infrastructures that allow them to process information obtained from their partners.

2.1.2 Problems within Supply Chain

According to Turban (2008), problems along the supply chain can occur between business units within a single enterprise; they also can occur between (and among) enterprises. A major symptom of ineffective supply chains is poor customer service, high inventory costs, loss of revenues, and extra cost of expediting shipments.

Furthermore Turban added that problems along the supply chain stem mainly from two sources:
1. From uncertainties
2. From the need to coordinate several activities, internal units, and business partners.

Actual demand for a product is influenced by several factors such as competition, prices, weather conditions, technological developments, and customers’ general confidence. These are external, usually uncontrollable, factors (solutions: measuring demand in real time and using a demand-driven production strategy).

Other supply chain uncertainties include delivery times, which depend on many factors, ranging from production machine failures to road conditions and traffic jams that may interfere with shipments. Quality problems in materials and parts may also create production delays, which lead to supply chain problems.

2.2 Knowledge Management

Davenport and Prusak (1998) provide a valuable discussion of knowledge: ‘Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents and repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices and norms’.

While according to Probst (2001), knowledge is the whole body of cognitions and skills which individuals use to solve problems. It includes both theories and practical, everyday rules and instructions for action. Knowledge is based on data and information, but unlike these, it is always bound to person.

The European framework for knowledge management (Mekhilef et al., 2003) defines data, information and knowledge as:
- Data. Discrete, objective facts (numbers, symbols, figures) without context and interpretation
- Information. Data which adds value to the understanding of a subject and in context is the basis for knowledge.
- Knowledge. The combination of data and information, to which is added expert opinion, skills and experience, to result in a valuable asset which can be used to aid decision making.

Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) introduce two definitions of knowledge:
- Explicit knowledge deals with more objective, rational, and technical knowledge (data, policies, procedures, software, documents, etc.). Explicit knowledge can be readily detailed in procedural manuals and databases.
- Tacit Knowledge is usually in the domain of subjective, cognitive, and experiential learning; it is highly personal and difficult to formalize. It refers to experience on how to react to a situation when many different variables are involved and it is often resides in the heads of employees.


Fig. 2: Organizational Knowledge Creation

Furthermore, Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) identify four different processes in which knowledge is created and transferred. They are:
- Tacit to tacit through a process of socialization; e.g. the marketing manager discusses and learns about latest sales trends with a sales executive.
- Tacit to explicit through a process of externalization; e.g. another sales executive sends an e-mail putting forward their thoughts on what the new pricing structure should be.
- Explicit to tacit through a process of internalization; e.g. the marketing manager reads and understands the reports to develop a new insight and understanding of the situation (knowledge).
- Explicit to explicit through a process of combination; e.g. the marketing manager combines knowledge from reports produced from the database to produce an overview of the current situation.

Here is a traditional dimension to define what knowledge does an organization wants to know (Zachman 2001):
• Things of the business (What) – What are the things of significance to the organization about which it wants to know something? What resources (physical and intellectual) exist?
• Processes (How) – What does the company do? What should it be doing? How does it work?
• Distribution and geography (where) – Where does the company do business? How do people, materials, money, and information travel from place to place?
• The organization (who) – What is the company’s organization? This whole change in orientation towards knowledge management is having profound effects on the organization. What does this mean?
• Events, agents, responses (when) – What role does time play in the company’s operations? What events cause things to happen? Who responds and in what ways?
• Motivation and Business rules (why) – What are the company’s objectives, and how are they translated into business rules?

Kelleher and Levene (2001), introducing knowledge management as: ‘The capabilities by which communities within an organization capture the knowledge that is critical to hem, constantly improve it and make it available in the most effective manner to those people who need it, so that they can exploit it creatively to add value as part of their work’.

Knowledge Management provides processes to capture a part of tactic knowledge through informal methods and pointers and fairly high percentage of explicit knowledge, reducing the loss of organizational knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).

With this we can define the functions of Knowledge Management System:
• Enable knowledge capture and exchange
• Facilitate the acquisition, documentation, transfer, creation and application of knowledge
• Ensure greater knowledge functionality by make it available to those people who need it.

Heisig and Iske (2003) briefly explained the five core processes the European Framework for Knowledge Management:
1. Identify knowledge: people need to think about what they want to achieve and the knowledge required to make it happen. If knowledge is lacking a knowledge gap needs to be identified.
2. Create knowledge: new knowledge is created by training, learning by doing and problem solving—creating new knowledge for products and services. Innovation is vital to this process
3. Store knowledge: knowledge assets form of the knowledge base of an organization. These assets may be stored in documents or databases or memorized as tacit knowledge
4. Share knowledge: distribution to the right people at the right time. The stock approach is when knowledge is shared via documents and databases; a flow approach is when knowledge is shared person-to-person.
5. Use knowledge: applying what we know, used in the business processes.

2.2.1 IT in Knowledge Management

Many organizations mistakenly assume that KM is about the use of information technology and that technology could replace the skill and judgement of an experienced human worker. Technology does, however, aid in the exchange of information and knowledge within and outside the organization (Davenport and Prusak, 1998).

KM is more a methodology applied to business practices than a technology or product. Nevertheless, IT is crucial to the success of every KM system. IT enables KM by providing the enterprise architecture on which it is built.


2.2.2 Knowledge Management Integration with Supply Chain Management Systems

The supply chain is often considered to be the logistics end of the business. If products do not move through the organization and go out the door, the firm will fail. So it is important to optimize the supply chain and manage it properly.

The keys are collaboration and trust because the model for creating business value is changing. It is generally believed that increased collaboration among supply chain participants leads to lower total cost and enhanced service performance. Companies today participated in extended supply chains, where real operational efficiency and revenue enhancement can only come from greater visibility, integration and synchronization among connected partners. A successful supply chain needs to be customer-focused, flexible, timely, financially accurate and damage-free.

SCM can benefit through integration with KMS because there are many issues and problems in the supply chain that require the company to combine both tacit and explicit knowledge. Accessing such knowledge will directly improve supply chain performance

3.1 Case Study Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is a very good example of how supply chain was managed very well by using technology and knowledge management. Without a doubt, Wal-Mart is one of the best supply chain operators at the moment. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (branded as Wal-Mart) is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores.

Wal-Mart was one of the largest private sector employers in the world, with employee strength of approximately 2.1 million in 2009. It has revenue of 404.16 Billion in 2009. According to analysts, Wal-Mart was able to achieve a leadership in the retail industry because of its efficient supply chain management practices.

The company’s founder, Sam Walton had always focused on improving sales, constantly reducing costs, adopting efficient distribution and logistics management systems and using innovative information technology tools.
Wal-Mart Goals are a focus on satisfying customer needs by:
- Providing customers access to goods when and where they want them
- Low cost structures that enable competitive pricing

3.2 Managing the Supply Chain

3.2.1 Procurement and Distribution

Wal-Mart spent a significant amount of time meeting vendors and understanding their cost structure. By making the process transparent, Wal-Mart could be certain that the manufacturers were doing their best to cut down costs.

Wal-Mart always emphasized the need to reduce its purchasing costs and offer the best price to its customers. The company procured goods directly from manufacturers, bypassing all intermediaries.
Every employee had an access to real-time information regarding the inventory levels of all the products. The hand-held computer enabled the packaging department to get accurate information about the products to be packed. It displayed all information about the storage, packaging and shipping of a particular product thus, saving time on unnecessary paperwork.

3.2.2 Logistics Management

An important feature of Wal-Mart’s logistics infrastructure was its fast and responsive transportation system. The coordinator scheduled all dispatches depending on the available driving time and the estimated time for travel between the distribution centers and the retail stores. The driver was usually expected to take a loaded truck trailer from the distribution center to the retail store and return back with an empty trailer.

To make the distribution process more efficient, Wal-Mart also made use of logistics technique known as ‘cross-docking’. In this system, the finished goods were directly picked up from the manufacturing plant of a supplier, sorted out and then directly supplied to the customers. The system reduced the handling and storage of finished goods, virtually eliminating the role of distribution centers and store.
To gain maximum out of cross-docking, Wal-Mart had to make fundamental changes in its approach to managerial control. Traditionally, decisions about merchandising, pricing and promotions had been highly centralized and were generally taken at the corporate level. The system shifted the focus from “supply chain” to the “demand chain”, which meant that instead of retailer ‘pushing’ products into the system; customers could ‘pull’ products, when and where they needed.

3.2.3 Inventory Management

Wal-Mart had developed an ability to cater to the individual needs of its stores. Stores could choose from a number of delivery plans. For instance, there was an accelerated delivery system by which stores located within a certain distance of a geographical center could receive replenishment within a day.

Wal-Mart invested heavily in IT and communications systems to effectively track sales and merchandise inventories in stores across the country.
Wal-Mart was able to reduce unproductive inventory by allowing stores to manage their own stocks, reducing pack sizes across many products categories, and timely price markdowns.

Wal-Mart made full use of its IT capabilities to make more inventories available in the case of items that customers wanted most, while reducing the overall inventory levels.

Wal-Mart also networked its suppliers through computers. Wal-Mart entered into collaboration with suppliers for maintaining the inventory in its stores and built an automated re-ordering system, which linked all computers between suppliers and its stores and other distribution centers.

3.3 Knowledge Management System in Wal-Mart (Retail Link System)

The feat or restricting inventory growth, while simultaneously opening new stores and staying in stock hack a lot to do with distribution centers and a private truck fleet, but equally important is the company’s Knowledge Management System known as Retail Link.

In 1991, Wal-Mart had invested approximately $4 billion to build a Retail Link system. More than 10,000 Wal-Mart retail suppliers used the retail link system to monitor sales of their goods at stores and replenish inventories. The details of daily transactions, which approximately amounted to more than 10 million per day, were processed through this integrated system.

In existence, more than a decade Wal-Mart has made consistent upgrades to the system that provides suppliers with up to two years of sales history to analyze their business.
Retail Link is said to be in a class of its own because of the sheer amount of information available at the touch of a button. Retail Link manager Calum Macrae (2005) said “anyone with access to the system can get complete information about any one product at any given time. And its last—the average retrieval time on a query is about one minute, pretty good considering the system gets 24,000 queries from the UK alone in an average week.

With Retail Link Wal-Mart has been able to identify particular stores that have in-stock problems and then take action to resolve them. When inventories fall to certain levels or when other criterion is met, the vendor can have new stock delivered to anywhere Wal-Mart needs the merchandise.

3.4 Defining Knowledge in Wal-Mart

With Zachman (2001) framework we can define what knowledge does Wal-Mart wants to know:
• Things of the business (What) – Wal-Mart needs to know how to reduce their cost while increasing their services at the same time. Thus they need to know the cost structure of every product from the suppliers. Other things they need to know are the availability of the products and supplier performance.
• Processes (How) – Wal-Mart is collecting various products from many suppliers. They need to know how to move the goods efficiently. Right from picking up the goods from supplier plants, distribute it to distribution channel or straight to the retail store or customers. Wal-Mart also needs to establish good and sustainable relationships with its suppliers.
• Distribution and geography (where) – Wal-Mart is doing business on a global scale. So Wal-Mart has to cope with different and changing regulatory demands across the regions where it operates; it has to deal with logistical issues on an international scale.
• The organization (who) – Wal-Mart is an industry retail store, thus they would need to know about market preferences for every products from their suppliers. Wal-Mart has to manage each retail store supply chain. With the use of Retail-Link system, their suppliers help them by managing their own products. Information and knowledge need to flow without problems across the networks in order to minimize error.
• Events, agents, responses (when) –Responses is very crucial in the organization. It plays an important role in lead time, inventory turnover and better services.
• Motivation and Business rules (why) – Wal-Mart objective is to provide every products that is cheaper than elsewhere. It means they need to have a transparency between their suppliers, without sharing their information and knowledge it will be very hard to achieve their mission. While they share information and knowledge with their suppliers, Wal-Mart only shared the information and knowledge related to each of supplier products.

There are some keys knowledge the writer can identified in Wal-Mart based on case study and references collected:

Table 1. Knowledge in Managing Procurement and Distribution


Table 2. Knowledge in Inventory Management


Table 3. Knowledge in Managing Logistic


Table 4. Knowledge in Cross Docking System


Table 5. Knowledge in Vendor Managed Inventory System


Table 6. Knowledge Sharing with Suppliers

3.5 Issues in Retail Link System

However good the knowledge management system was, if the information and knowledge did not get to the right person or the users are not willing to use it because they do not feel comfortable, then the knowledge will be useless and won’t bring any goods to organization because there is no action taken.

Wal-Mart faced two issues when they first introduced Retail Link system:
1. The knowledge did not get to the right person.
2. Ease of use of the system.

Tom Goughlin, president and CEO of the Wal-Mart Stores Division, said “Early on, far too many companies designated somebody at a low rank to be responsible for the coordination of retail link and we both missed far too many opportunities." According to Coughlin, it is "extremely important" to have people of a high enough rank within a supplier's organization devoted to Retail Link so as to have an impact.

In a bid to get more senior supplier executives to use Retail Link, for example, Wal-Mart developed a new analysis tool called Business-at-a Glance. It is designed to help executives who may be less technologically savvy use the information in the retailer’s database to make quick, fact based decisions

In addition to promoting usage of Retail Link at a senior level within supplier organizations, Wal-Mart also solicits input from suppliers on how to improve the system. Wal-Mart sponsored Retail Link User Groups to meet regularly around the country where participating suppliers can share tips and strategies for increasing the effectiveness of the system. Wal-Mart also has a Retail Link steering committee comprised of members of the supplier community that meets quarterly and is able to share suggestions on how to improve the functionality of the system.

3.6 Key Success of Knowledge Management in Wal-Mart

The successful of KM initiative on Wal-Mart supply chain depends on many factors and can be identified as:
1. Supportive leadership—high-level support removes the resistance to information and knowledge sharing across the networks. According to Cliff & Rhine (2002), unless the top tiers of the leadership hierarchy recognize the importance of knowledge exchange in culture, there is little hope that grass-roots efforts will transform the entire organization. Clearly Wal-Mart CEO visibility in implementing and promoting the use of Retail Link is one of the key successes. The management spent a lot of effort in promoting the use of the system to its internals or suppliers.
2. Clear intentions of what are important—In their book, Working Knowledge, Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusak emphasize that “intentions are important: a firm needs to know what it wants to have a good chance of getting it”. Wal-Mart had a clear view and description of its goals. They know what kinds of knowledge its network is meant to discover and how that knowledge will advance its overall strategy. They provide the right information and knowledge for their suppliers, so the suppliers can do their process more efficiently.
3. Knowledge sharing practices across the networks— Knowledge sharing is about dynamic information exchange and communication. Its technical challenges have to do with interaction, the retrieval of stored information, and the constant gathering of new information. Wal-Mart and its’ suppliers key players, who may range from specialized teams to cross-discipline experts to entire departments, were enabled to interact through the network with one another and with information resources. As part of the process, these knowledge sharing communities were able to produce new collections of information, based on their interaction, conversation, and the content they create and gather, that can be categorized, searched and retrieved.
4. Technology-savvy throughout the organization—While Wal-Mart partners / suppliers may be less technologically savvy to take full advantage of the systems, Wal-Mart developed new tools that are much simpler and easier to use.
5. Information / knowledge filtering to its suppliers, Wal-Mart only provides suppliers with data on their own brands and overall categories, not competitors’ brands.
6. New management structure of supply chain management. Wal-Mart adapting their organizational structure to the business and requirement change.
7. New leveraging technology, Wal-Mart keeps using innovative technology tools such as satellite, Barcode, RFID, etc. They keep upgrading their system and technology.

3.7 Conclusion

The benefits of an efficient Knowledge Management in supply chain management included reduction in lead time, faster inventory turnover, accurate forecasting of inventory levels, increased warehouse space, reduction in safety stock and better working capital utilization. It also helped reduce the dependency on the distribution center management personnel resulting in minimization of training costs and errors.

To support the inter-organizational sharing of resources and competencies in a network structure, communication and coordination need to be maintained. Wal-Mart has successfully redesigned their internal structure and their external relationships, creating knowledge networks to facilitate improved communication of data information and knowledge, while improving coordination, decision making and planning.

The set of processes Wal-Mart has established for efficient retailing are information driven. Processes are knowledge that enables a business enterprise to execute its business. The ultimate goal of a knowledge network is to make the jobs of its users simpler, easier, and more effective. Knowledge networks allow their participants to create, share, and use strategic knowledge to improve operational and strategic efficiency and effectiveness.

Retail Link system helped Wal-Mart and their suppliers accelerate their business. By using Retail Link Wal-Mart and its suppliers get a better handle on the runaway growth of useful information by somehow taking control of the sources of that information and not losing information that had been located and captured. The other was to manipulate information to answer vital business questions in an increasingly complex and fast-changing world. The better the supplier do their process, the more Wal-Mart can sell, and the more quickly it can sell, the more money Wal-Mart will make.


References

Turban (2008) Information Technology for Management, Wiley International Student Version.

Dave Chaffey & Steve Wood (2005) Business Information Management-Improving performance using Information Systems, Prentice Hall

Davenport & Prusak (1998) Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School Press

Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) The knowledge creating company, Oxford Univ. Press.

Probst, G., Raub, S., Romhardt, K. (2001), Managing Knowledge – Building Blocks for Success, Wiley: Chichester.

Kelleher, D. & Levene, S. (2001) Knowledge management - a guide to good practice. London: British Standards Institution.

Heisig, P. and Iske, P. (2003) European knowledge management framework. In European Guide to Good Practice in Knowledge Management

Mekhilef, M et al (2003) European Guide to Good Practice in Knowledge Management.

Cliff Figallo & Nancy Rhine (2002) Building the Knowledge Management Network.

http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/4832 - Knowledge Management (David C. Hay)

http://mohanchandran.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/wal-mart.pdf Case Study | Wal-Mart Supply Chain Management Practices

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_11_41/ai_87146180/?tag=content;col1 Competitive advantage lies in systems efficiencies - Supply Chain - Wal-Mart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachman_Framework

Implementasi ERP SAP Business One pada PT. XYZ

Abstract:
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) merupakan suatu sistem teknologi yang tinggi tingkat kerumitannya. Implementasi ERP mempunyai tingkat kesulitan yang tinggi dan biaya yang besar karena membutuhkan sumber daya yang besar pada perusahaan. Proses pemilihan ERP ini dan vendor yang mengimplementasikannya harus dilakukan dengan tepat. Selain itu harus ada komitmen untuk berubah baik dari pihak manajemen maupun user-user perusahaan. Banyak perusahaan yang gagal dalam mengimplementasikan ERP ini dikarenakan pada saat melakukan implementasi tidak fokus kepada core business perusahaan itu. Ekspetasi yang berlebihan membuat implementasi menjadi lebih lama dan lebih sulit. Pada penulisan ini akan membahas mengenai implementasi ERP pada PT. XYZ, serta apa yang mendorong dilakukannya implementasi dan bagaimana proses implementasi ini mencapai tujuan awal dari perusahaan dengan on time, on budget dan on requirements.

Keywords: SAP, Implementation, Integration


PERUSAHAAN PT. XYZ

PT. XYZ (nama disamarkan) merupakan perusahaan lokal yang bergerak di bidang manufaktur kosmetik seperti perfume, body care, hair care products dan lain-lain. Perusahaan dimulai sebagai home industry yang kemudian berkembang dengan cepat dan sekarang telah menjadi salah satu perusahaan kosmetik terkemuka di Indonesia.
Head Office perusahaan berada di Jakarta dan saat ini telah mempunyai 5 cabang di daerah-daerah yaitu Bandung, Medan, Lampung, Surabaya dan Makasar. Pada saat ini PT. XYZ tidak hanya bergerak di pasar lokal, tetapi jugasudah bergerak di pasar internasional dengan mengeskpor produk-produknya ke luar negeri seperti Malaysia, India, Saudi Arabia, China dan negara-negara lainnya.

Permasalahan

Seiring dengan pertumbuhan pesat dari perusahaan maka pihak manajemen menyadari akan adanya kebutuhan suatu Sistem Informasi yang tepat untuk mendukung proses-proses bisnis di dalam perusahaan. Sebelum mengimplementasikan SAP Business One, PT. XYZ menggunakan sistem yang dikembangkan secara in-house, dimana dengan sistem tersebut perusahaan kesulitan untuk mengelola resource dan mendapatkan informasi yang akurat dan tepat waktu.

Berikut merupakan beberapa masalah yang dihadapi oleh PT. XYZ dengan menggunakan infrastruktur Teknologi Informasi yang lama yaitu:
1. Pada umumn ya setiap kota atau divisi mempunyai program yang berbeda-beda dengan database yang berbeda-beda pula. Hal ini menyebabkan pengumpulan data untuk pembuatan laporan menjadi sulit dan memakan waktu yang lama.
2. Untuk stock barang sendiri memang masih menggunakan sistem manual (paper). Sehingga perlu melakukan pengecekan secara manual (ke orang gudang) pada saat akan menjual barang. Hal ini tentu sangat tidak efisien.
3. Laporan keuangan dari cabang sering sekali tidak sesuai dengan jumlah yang telah diterima. Kesalahan ini sangat sulit untuk dilacak dan tentunya memakan waktu dan effort yang tidak sedikit (program error, human error, fraud dan lain-lain).
4. Pertumbuhan bisnis yang cepat dari perusahaan membuat infrastruktur yang lama menjadi lambat dikarenakan jumlah transaksi yang terus bertambah setiap harinya. Selain itu dibutuhkan sistem yang dapat mendukung transaksi ekspor dan impor (perbedaan kurs)
5. Adanya kebutuhan dari pihak manajemen untuk mengakses data dan laporan secara real-time terutama untuk di cabang-cabang, sehingga diputuskan untuk menggunakan suatu sistem yang dapat mengintegrasikan seluruh perusahaan dan dapat diakses dari manapun dan kapan saja.

Solusi Teknologi Informasi

Pada awal tahun 2008, PT. XYZ mulai mencari solusi baru dan mulai melakukan evaluasi terhadap tiga vendor yang berbeda. Pencarian terhadap sistem baru berlangsung selama kurang lebih ½ tahun, dan pada akhirnya PT. XYZ memutuskan untuk menggunakan ERP SAP Business One dengan beberapa pertimbangan:
1. Dilihat dari segi kebutuhan perusahaan saat ini, SAP Business One merupakan solusi ERP yang tepat, tidak terlalu kecil ataupun terlalu besar.
2. Dari pertimbangan harga implementasi, SAP Business One juga lebih murah dibanding dengan ERP yang lain. Meskipun lebih murah bukan berarti perusahaan hemat atau pelit dalam melakukan investasi. Hanya saja fungsi-fungsi yang ada pada SAP Business One dinilai sudah cukup untuk mendukung proses bisnis di perusahaan saat ini.
3. Waktu implementasi yang tidak terlalu lama dikarenakan resources dan configuration yang dibutuhkan saat implementasi tidak banyak.
4. SAP Business One juga memiliki interface yang user friendly.

Implementasi SAP Business One ini nantinya akan dilakukan oleh salah satu perusahaan IT Solution ternama di Indonesia (nama disamarkan), PT.CDE dalam kurun waktu 3 bulan.
Selain mengimplementasikan ERP SAP Business One, PT. XYZ juga mengimplementasikan Citrix yang berfungsi sebagai penghubung user-user di cabang ke pusat dan Cisco ASA 5505 Firewall untuk menjamin security di perusahaan. Namun pada pembahasan kali ini hanya akan membahas mengenai implementasi ERP SAP Business One.

Detail-detail mengenai service implementasi dapat dilihat pada tabel berikut:

Table 1. Implementation Service Details

Implementation Scope
PT.XYZ sendiri tidak akan mengimplementasikan seluruh modul yang ada pada SAP Business One dikarenakan target implementasi dari perusahaan belum mencapai ke sana. Selain itu mengimplementasikan seluruh modul yang ada akan memakan waktu dan resource yang lebih besar. Modul-modul yang akan diimplementasikan adalah lebih yang berhubungan dengan kegiatan operasional, manajemen yang lebih baik dan belum ke arah strategi. Adapun scope implementasi dari proyek SAP Business One ini adalah:

Table 2. Implementation Scope By Module

Selain melakukan integrasi terhadap divisi-divisi bisnis di dalam perusahaan, implementasi ini juga bertujuan untuk menghubungkan cabang-cabang perusahaan di luar Jakarta.
Gambar berikut menunjukkan proses-proses bisnis yang ada di perusahaan dan keseluruhan proses bisnis ini akan diintegrasikan menggunakan SAP Business One.

Gambar 1. Scope of Implementation By Process

Project Organization, Roles and Responsibilities
Untuk menyelesaikan proyek dengan tepat waktu dan sasaran tentu diperlukan penyusunan dan pemilihan anggota team yang baik. Setiap anggota team memiliki tanggung jawab dan peran masing-masing yang perlu dijalankan supaya proyek dapat berjalan dengan baik.
Steering Committee:
- Untuk menyediakan informasi atau mengambil keputusan mengenai hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan policy, issue, scope dan perencanaan dari proyek.
- Biasanya mengadakan pertemuan setiap 2 minggu sekali ataupun upon request
Quality Assurance:
- Bertanggung jawab untuk mengevaluasi proyek SAP untuk ke depannya.
- Me-monitor progress dari proyek, dan membandingkannya dengan perencanaan, apakah proyek sudah on target atau belum (mengadakan pertemuan setiap minggu)
- Memberikan arahan dan masukan kepada user-user yang terlibat baik mengenai SAP solution, integrasi ataupun bisnis proses
- Harus available pada saat critical phase of implementation.
- Menjamin kualitas proyek dan mendokumentasinya pada approval process
Project Manager:
- Bertanggung jawab untuk keberhasilan proyek dan mengkomunikasan detail-detail dari proyek ke team proyek
- Melakukan monitor terhadap progress dan memeriksa apakah koordinasi yang dibutuhkan antara team proyek dengan user-user telah terpenuhi.
- Project Manager XYZ bertanggung jawab untuk komunikasi internal secara formal di dalam perusahaan mengenai implementasi proyek.
- Project Manager PT. CDE akan memberikan dukungan dan metodologi berkaitan dengan issue functional dan hasil yang akan dicapai.
- Memberitahukan status progress dan laporan mengenai implementasi ke seluruh anggota proyek
PT. CDE Consultant:
- Mengidentifikasi, klarifikasi proses-proses bisnis yang ada dan issue-issue pada saat implementasi
- Membuat dan melakukan develop prosedur-prosedur untuk SAP.
- Melakukan kustomisasi dan konfigurasi dari SAP
- Melakukan design untuk report dan form
- Melakukan testing untuk perencanaan integrasi dari SAP
- Memberikan training-training kepada user
- Terus memberikan support kepada user dan Team SAP XYZ after go live.
XYZ Business Division:
• Memberitahukan konsep bisnis dan memberitahukan kepada team SAP. Melakukan integrasi dan interaksi antara workgroups:
o The Finance & Accounting workgroup
o The Sales & Marketing workgroup
o The Purchasing, Logistic & Production workgroup
o The IT workgroup
- Pertemuan diadakan setiap minggu untuk meyakinkan bahwa semua keputusan yang dibuat telah memenuhi tujuan i dari implementasi
- Melakukan pengembangan terhadap detail-detail dari perencanaan kerja implementasi
- Melakukan review terhadap kualitas dan melakukan monitoring terhadap work-group

Implementation Methodology
Tentunya diperlukan suatu metodologi dan perencanaan yang matang supaya proyek dapat berjalan on time, on budget dan on requirements. Berikut merupakan metodologi yang digunakan:

Gambar 2. Implementation Methodology

Proses implementasi SAP Business One ini sendiri terdiri dari 5 fase seperti yang dapat dilihat pada gambar di atas. Adapun kegiatan-kegiatan dan hasil yang ditargetkan pada setiap fase adalah sebagai berikut:
 Phase 1 Project Preparation:
• Plan project
• Set up Implementation standards and procedures
• Execute kick-off
• System setup (Development & QA)
• Production hardware installation
• Phase 1 Deliver: Project Preparation Approval
 Phase 2 Business Blueprint:
• Define system environment
• Gather business requirements
• Collect configuration needs
• Prepare issue and change log
• Document training and testing plan
• Phase 2 Deliver: Blue Print Documentation
 Phase 3 Realization:
• Validate configuration plan
• Validate business processes
• Realize delta requirements
• Run Integration & acceptance test
• Plan key user training
• Phase 3 Deliver: User Acceptance Documentation
 Phase 4 Final Preparation:
• Refine cutover plans
• Train key users and administrators
• Create & staff help desk
• Execute cutover
• Quality check: Final preparation
• Start of production
• Phase 4 Deliver: User Training Documentation
 Phase 5 Go Live & Support:
• Monitor live environment
• Close open issues
• Start long term support plan
• Quality check: Go Live
• Project closing
• Phase 5 Deliver: Go Live Documentation


Gambar 3. Implementation Timeline

Proses implementasi akan memakan waktu 3 bulan dan mulai kick off pada tanggal 1 Juli 2008.
- Project Preparation dan Business Blueprint memakan waktu 3 minggu.
- Tahap Realization Phase memakan waktu 4 minggu
- Kemudian Final preparation memakan waktu 3 minggu, dan mulai go live pada tanggal 21 September 2008.
- Pada tahap terakhir yaitu Post Go Live Support, akan berlangsung selama 2 minggu. Setelah tahap ini berakhir team SAP PT. XYZ akan menggantikan pihak PT. CDE untuk memberikan support kepada user-user.

Selain itu tentu diperlukan proses transfer of knowledge yang baik dari pihak consultant ke user, supaya user-user dapat menggunakan sistem ini dengan baik dan maksimal.

Gambar 4. Transfer of Knowledge Process

Proses transfer dimulai saat implementasi memasuki phase ke 2, yaitu tahap pembuatan business blue print. Sesuai dengan gambar di atas, pengetahuan user akan terus bertambah seiring dengan waktu dan tahap implementasi itu sendiri. Dan ketika proyek mendekati closing date akan dilakukan training dan User Acceptance Test untuk membuktikan kalau user memang sudah bisa menggunakan sistem dengan baik. Selain itu user-user juga diberikan manual dan dokumentasi. Tentunya dibutuhkan komunikasi yang baik dan lancar antara pihak consultant dengan user agar proses ini dapat berjalan dengan baik.

Critical Success Factors
Berikut merupakan kunci keberhasilan dalam implementasi ERP di PT. XYZ:
1. Management Commitment
Keseriusan manajemen dalam penerapan sistem ERP sangat penting. Pihak manajemen selalu memberikan support, baik dari keterlibatan pada saat proyek, melakukan investasi yang diperlukan dan merubah kebijakan-kebijakan lama.
2. Project Manager, Key Users & Implementers Time Commitment
Tingginya komitmen untuk mencapai target dengan tepat waktu baik dari pihak PT. CDE maupun PT. XYZ
3. Change Management Communication
Mengkomunikasikan perubahan-perubahan yang ada kepada pihak-pihak yang bersangkutan.
4. Resolve Issues quickly
Setiap kali ada issue yang muncul berkaitan dengan penerapan sistem akan dibahas dan diambil solusinya secepat mungkin
5. Investment in Training
Investasi dalam training kepada key user sehingga mereka dapat mengerti bagaimana menggunakan sistem dengan baik. User dari cabang diakomodasikan ke Jakarta untuk ditraining.
6. Project Scope
Project Scope yang jelas dan tidak memasang target yang terlalu jauh.
7. Keep it simple & manageable
Tetap fokus pada bisnis proses dan kebutuhan perusahaan. Sebisa mungkin perusahaan mengikuti best practice dari bisnis proses yang telah ada pada SAP sehingga tidak perlu melakukan banyak cuztomization.

Benefits After Implementation
Adapun benefit-benefit yang telah didapatkan perusahaan sampai saat ini adalah:
1. Improve allignment operations across departments
User-user di setiap divisi dan cabang menjadi terintegrasi dan dapat mengakses data secara real time. Dengan adanya integrasi ini maka pengumpulan data menjadi terpusat dan lebih secure, selain itu akan lebih mudah mengatur data yang terpusat.
2. Improve productivity
Dengan adanya sistem yang terintegrasi, perusahaan dapat meningkat produktivitas dengan meningkatkan efisiensi pada saat operasional. User akan melakukan aktivitas-aktivitas yang diperlukan perusahaan saja, dengan begini user dapat lebih fokus pada aktivitas yang lebih penting.
3. Improve financial management function
SBO menyediakan data finansial yang terintegrasi sehingga perusahaan mempunyai control yang penuh terhadap finansial perusahaan. Selain itu, data finansial yang real time akan membantu pihak manajemen untuk memonitor performance financial dari perusahaan sehingga dapat mengambil keputusan-keputusan yang diperlukan pada waktu yang tepat.
4. Simplify & standardize entire order of business process.
Proses bisnis di perusahaan menjadi terstandarisasi dan lebih simpel dikarenakan penggunaan aplikasi yang sama. Selain itu sistem juga dapat membantu mengurangi pekerjaan yang menyimpang karena human error dan kesalahan prosedur
5. Reduced/eliminate paperwork
Pekerjaan dengan sistem manual, menggunakan kertas telah berkurang drastis, sehingga pekerjaan karyawan menjadi lebih ringan dan mudah.

Kesimpulan dan Saran
Kesimpulannya diperlukan pemilihan ERP yang tepat sesuai kebutuhan perusahaan. Dan pemilihan vendor serta koordinasi dan komunikasi antara kedua belah pihak harus dijalankan dengan baik agar implementasi ERP dapat berhasil dengan baik. Dalam hal ini, PT. XYZ telah melakukannya dengan cukup baik. Hal ini bisa dilihat dari keadaan yang lebih baik setelah implementasi dan tercapainya tujuan-tujuan awal dari pihak manajemen.
Untuk ke depannya, PT. XYZ mungkin dapat berpikir lebih ke arah strategic untuk penggunaan sistem ERP ini yaitu dengan meningkatkan proses bisnis dan service level di dalam perusahaan dengan mengimplementasikan modul-modul:
1. Sales Opportunities(CRM)
membantu untuk melacak dan menganalisa peluang-peluang yang ada di pasar dan juga menjaga hubungan baik dengan business partner.
2. MRP (Material Requierement Planning)
membantu forecasting untuk perencanaan produksi ataupun proses purchasing sehingga perusahaan dapat lebih efisien.
3. Service
Mengatur interaksi antara bagian customer service dari perusahaan dengan para customer.

Return on Invesment Analysis on IT Projects

What is ROI Analysis?

ROI Analysis is an approach to build a financial business case, decision makers evaluate the investment by comparing the magnitude and timing of expected gains to the investment costs.

Fig. 1 Return on Investment
Return on Investment has reigned as the measure of not only overall corporate performance, but as a metric in determining allocation and use of corporate resources as well.


Fig.2 ROI Categories for IT

There are two types of ROI for IT projects:
1. Financial benefits include impacts on the organization’s budget and finances (cost reductions or revenue increases).
2. Non financial benefits include impacts on operations or mission performance and result:
- Improved customer or trading partner relationships resulting from implementing technology-based solutions.
- Internal efficiencies related to business cycle time, inventory reductions, etc.
- Metrics related to market growth, increased sales volume, and new market penetration.

Traditionally, companies leader were mostly thinking of “financial” benefits when discussing the ROI of an IT investment. Today, business leaders considered highly the “non financial” benefits of IT investments.

Technology is frequently the subject of ROI analysis. While senior IT and non-IT managers require substantiated ROI analysis for new technology projects, historically IT investments do not have a strong track record for
1. Staying on budget,
2. Being completed on time, or
3. Demonstrating value to the business.
Except for instances where ROI is determined for newer technology replacing current technology, measuring ROI of IT remains a black art.

Challenges in Measuring Technology ROI

There are several challenges in measuring ROI for technology projects:
1. Lack of adequate metrics
- Difficulty of measuring cost savings
- Difficulty of measuring cost increases (help desk expenses, training, impact to existing processes)
- Financial impact on business (new customers, markets, etc)
- Productivity improvements/gains
2. Inadequate IT asset management required for TCO
3. Inability to measure soft returns
- Customer satisfaction
- Improved time to market
- Competitive advantage
- Non-financial impact on business (customer relationships)

The expected ROI of a project can be predicted to a degree based on the type of project under consideration. Projects with goals that impact business processes or execute business strategies are typically more difficult to measure—thus the adage that the projects that matter are the most difficult to measure.

Common IT Project types
1. Improvements in Technology Infrastructure
- Results: low if not negative returns are more likely, given increased up-front costs such as training, support, and infrastructure issues.
- Characteristically, projects are associated with lower risk and lower returns
- Examples, replacing existing server environments
2. Task Automation
- Based on technology investments, or capital investments in general, judged on ability to contribute to output, raise productivity or lower costs.
- Characteristically, returns should be quick, as the ability to create a long-term competitive advantage and result in greater market share or profits in unlikely.
- Examples, desktop automation, electronic forms applications, call centers, and electronic project management
3. Applying Technology to Business Processes
- Investment is applied to business processes.
- Result in significantly higher rates of return than single-task automation projects, but carry significantly higher risk. Returns are more difficult to measure given that multiple organizations could be impacted and at least a portion of the returns are soft.
- Additional costs such as added training and support for users, extranet security, and the impact to other applications and data that required re-architecting. Also there is risk with information being used incorrectly to make decisions
- Examples, extranet technology (transformed the way business interact with each other (retailer/supplier).
4. Business Innovation From Technology—Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage
- Investment is tasked with transforming the business, and innovation is the key.
- Characteristics, heavy investment (in terms of equipment, training, people), high risk in term of success (ex.time), and unlimited returns.
- Return is based on the ability to survive, which is hard to quantify
- Long implementation tie provides ample time for market conditions to change, corporate strategies to change, organizational structure and politics to change, making true measurement of the impact of the project nearly impossible
- Example, data warehouse technology, change: the way a retailer replenishes stores, financial services company markets its products, insurer analyzes claims. Data Warehouse implementations can realistically take years—three years typically. Payback period for a successful project is two years or longer.

Case Study of IT ROI
- Microsoft Exchange Server Lifetime Products
- Research by Nucleus Research, http://nucleusresearch.com/library/microsoft-roi/f3.pdf
- The upgrade to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 has enabled Lifetime Products’ employees to access their calendar, contacts, and e-mail remotely and with mobile devices ― resulting in a significant increase in employee and executive management productivity as well as cost savings.


Fig.3 ROI Case Study

Calculating The ROI:
- Nucleus quantified the costs of software, consulting, personnel, training, and other investments over a 3-year period to quantify Lifetime Products’ total investment in upgrading to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
- The key direct benefit calculated is the avoided cost of hiring an additional full time IT employee to handle spam issues.
- Indirect benefits include the increased productivity of personnel in the sales, engineering and IT departments through improved remote email access, and the increased productivity for the rest of Lifetime’s employees due to improved spam filtering.

References
- “Measuring the Value of Information Technology”, Computer Economic$ Report; Aug 1998; 20, 8; ProQuest Computing, pg. 4
- Ward, John, Peppard, Joe, “Strategic Planning for Information Systems”, 3rd edition, 2002, John Wiley and Sons.
- Case Study: http://nucleusresearch.com/library/microsoft-roi/f3.pdf
- http://www.solutionmatrix.com/return-on-investment.html
- http://www.rms.net/lc_faq_other_roi.htm

Benefit of Social Computing In Enterprise

Introduction

Dewasa ini berbagai macam aplikasi yang memfasilitasi interaksi social online mulai mendominasi internet. Banyak jaringan online popular yang berkembang dengan cepat, contohnya seperti YouTube, Facebook, Twitter dan MySpace, yang menarik investasi besar-besaran. Pertumbuhan yang fenomenal ini dikarenakan tersedianya saluran broadband secara luas dan komputer pribadi dengan spesifikasi yang semakin meningkat. Social Computing merepresentasikan langkah selanjutnya dalam evolusi web dan berpotensi memberikan pengaruh besar terhadap dunia bisnis dan masyarakat.

Berikut merupakan beberapa contoh aplikasi dari Social Computing:
• Blog => jurnal atau online yang diterbitkan melalui internet oleh individu maupun kelompok
• Wiki => Merupakan ensiklopedia open source yang dapat ditulis bersama-sama.
• Peer to Peer => jaringan user yang terhubung secara langsung dalam sesi komunikasi peer to peer. Contoh aplikasinya mencakup Kazaa, Gnutella, Napster, eDonkey.
• Flickr => merupakan layanan berbagi foto yang populer dan mudah digunakan. Flickr memungkinkan penggunanya mengunggah, menandai dan berbagi foto dan memberi komentar serta penilaian.
• Social Bookmarking => Merupakan layanan berbagi bookmark
• Slashdot => merupakan situs berita teknologi yang dapat dikomentari dan dinilai
• Youtube => Ditujukan bagi user amatir untuk mengunggah video beresolusi rendah
• MySpace => Myspace memungkinkan user membuat dan berbagi ekistensi multimedia di web. Layanan serupa dapat ditemui di FaceBook dan Friendster.
• Linkedln => Merupakan jaringan sosial untuk profesional bisnis.
• Facebook => Merupakan situs jaringan sosial global yang memiliki user dari seluruh dunia (Apakah saat ini masih ada manusia yang berinteraksi dengan komputer tetapi tidak mengetahui facebook)
• Twitter => situs jaringan sosial dan mikroblog yang memberikan fasilitas bagi pengguna untuk mengirimkan pesan melalui sms, e-mail, atau aplikasi seperti Twitterrific dan Twitbin

Social Computing Overview

Social Computing / Social Network Services merupakan suatu network yang fokus dalam membangun komunitas online untuk orang-orang yang mempunyai aktivitas dan interest yang sama, atau untuk orang yang tertarik dalam menjelajahi aktivitas dan interest dari orang lain. Social computing telah menciptakan cara baru untuk berkomunikasi dan berbagi informasi dan sekarang telah digunakan secara regular oleh jutaan orang, dan kelihatannya social computing telah menjadi bagian dari kehidupan sehari-hari.
Pada saat ini banyak social networking services yang popular di internet yang memungkinkan user untuk mendevelop personal sites, menyediakan informasi, berinteraksi di web, dan bekerja sama.
Contohnya adalah:
• Provision of Personal Sites – Facebook dan Myspace menyediakan social interaction sites, di mana user dapat membangun komunitas online untuk orang-orang yang mempunyai aktivitas dan interest yang sama, atau untuk orang yang tertarik dalam menjelajahi aktivitas dan interest dari orang lain. Intinya adalah user yang menentukan informasi apa dan dengan siapa mereka akan mengshare.
• Information Provision – Website seperti YouTube memungkinkan user untuk meng-upload video favorit mereka atau video buatan sendiri untuk dishare dengan internet user lainnya yang dapat mengview, rate dan memberikan comment. Blog tidak jarang memberikan pikiran-pikiran para pemimpin dengan channel komunikasi yang baru untuk mem-broadcast informasi yang tersedia kepada para user.
• Real-time Communication – Ada banyak provider Instant Messaging (IM), seperti MSN Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL IM, yang memungkinkan user untuk berkomunikasi secara real time dengan text, audio dan video.
• Collaborative Working – Di internet, user-user dapat berkumpul dari mana saja dan bekerja sama untuk membangun single source of content. Contohnya adalah Wikipedia yang telah menjadi salah satu resource ensiklopedia yang populer dalam jangka waktu yang pendek.Teknologi Wiki mempunyai approval process dari author, dalam hal ini yaitu moderator yang melakukan pemeriksaan ketepatan dan relevansi dari content pada saat user ingin berpartisipasi untuk mengubah atau menambah suatu content.

Jika kita perhatikan, maka ada beberapa persamaan yang dapat ditemukan dari aplikasi social computing yaitu:
• Terus berkembang dengan fitur yang terus bertambah
• Kualitas dinilai berdasarkan review dan feedback balik pengguna
• Struktur bersifat bottom-up dan fleksibel
• Organisasi bersifat terbatas
• Berorientasi kepada komunitas

Social Computing Pros and Cons In Enterprise
Ada beberapa konsekuensi negatif dari social computing dilihat dari segi bisnis:
• Lost productivity
Beberapa aplikasi social networking dapat menjadi sangat addictive, sehingga sangat mudah untuk menghabiskan waktu jam kerja. Hal ini dapat mempengaruhi produktivitas dari perusahaan.
• Data Leakage
Sangat mudah bagi para employee untuk menyebarkan informasi-informasi confidential perusahaan baik dilakukan secara sengaja maupun tidak sengaja.
• Privacy
Terkadang orang menulis terlalu banyak informasi mengenai data pribadi mereka, hal ini dapat memacu tindakan kriminal seperti phishing attacks.
• Viruses/Malware
Apabila suatu user mengakses aplikasi social computing di tempat kerja, maka seluruh jaringan di perusahaan mempunyai resiko terkena Virus/Malware.

Pada umumnya aplikasi social computing standar ini mempunyai beberapa issue dan tidak memiliki security yang standar dan bisnis relevansi yang dapat digunakan di dunia kerja, namun banyak perusahaan yang sekarang sudah menyadari benefit dari penggunaan teknologi ini dan ketika sudah dimodifikasi sesuai dengan kebutuhan enterprise, social computing dapat memberikan banyak benefit bisnis. Social Computing pada level Enterprise dapat memberikan benefit dari kolaborasi dan team building, di sisi lain ia juga dapat meng-maintain organizational security dan data privacy. Social computing juga membantu orang untuk mencari dan menghubungkannya dengan network yang lebih luas untuk suatu subject khusus – memberikan pendekatan yang lebih inovatif dan fresh dalam menyelesaikan masalah dan mencari tantangan baru di marketplace.

Channel komunikasi seperti blog dan forum online, dilengkapi dengan gabungan teknologi seperti social bookmarking, menyediakan tool yang powerful untuk berbagi informasi, membina dan menjaga hubungan baik antara orang-orang yang mempunyai bidang industri yang berbeda ataupun terpisah jauh olek jarak. Hal ini sering disebut sebagai collective intelligence ataupun wisdom of the crowd, tempat berkumpulnya para expert di bidangnya dan tempat mereka berdiskusi dan berbagi pengetahuan.

Sebagai bagian dari transformasi bisnis, pemimpin sekarang lebih fokus ke effort dari karyawan dalam mengembangkan inovasi dan pertumbuhan dari perusahaan. Di pasar global market sekarang, sangat susah untuk mengdiferensiasikan produk-produk dengan benchmark yang sudah umum seperti harga. Salah satu cara untuk mendapatkan competitive advantage adalah dengan cara sebagai yang pertama di pasar. Untuk benar-benar berbeda dari yang lain, mereka harus tahu memanfaatkan kekuatan dari corporate knowledge. Dengan mengumpulkan, maintain dan sharing pengetahuan ini ke semua departemen di dalam organisasi, perusahaan dapat mendapatkan manfaat dari collective intelligence ini dengan baik. Dalam hal ini menggunakan solusi social software level enterprise merupakan cara yang tepat untuk mencapai tujuan ini.

Benefits of Social Computing to IT

Benefit dari social computing untuk departemen IT tidak boleh dianggap terpisah dari keuntungan bisnis. IT pada saat ini sudah merupakan bagian dari bisnis seperti halnya di departemen lain. Kunci benefit IT pada saat mengimplementasikan social computing kepada end users adalah IT dapat menyediakan tool-tool yang tepat kepada end users untuk menyelesaikan problem-problem bisnis. Mempunyai teknologi-teknologi ini di suatu enterprise dapat mendiferensiasikan IT sebagai departemen yang inovatif dan resourceful, dengan insight apakah yang dibutuhkan oleh end users supaya dapat lebih produktif. IT pada dasarnya bukanlah suatu cost center, melainkan suatu departemen yang dapat menyediakan teknologi yang tepat untuk meningkatkan business process.

Tentu saja, IT juga harus memperhatikan infrastruktur yang dimiliki, supaya solution social computing dapat berintegrasi dengan baik ke dalam lingkungan bisnis yang sudah ada. Penggunaan solution social computing langsung dari vendor tentu saja menyediakan control dan governance yang lebih “enterprise ready”, hal ini tentu berpengaruh kepada kecepatan dan ketepatan dari implementasi dan deploymentnya.

Social Computing Benefits to Enterprise – Driving Innovation Through Collaboration

Di tahun 2006, suatu study dilakukan IBM dan lebih dari 700 CEO dari seluruh penjuru dunia berpendapat ada 4 top strategies untuk tetap kompetitif yaitu:
1. Finding new areas of growth
2. New products or services
3. Engineering new in-house processes
4. Business models
Ketika ditanya darimana sumber-sumber ide yang mengarah ke strategi itu muncul, CEO mengidentifikasi employees, partners dan clients sebagai tiga jawaban teratas.


Pada study yang sama, kemampuan untuk berkolaborasi diidentifikasi sebagai faktor kunci kompetitif yang memisahkan out-performers dengan under-performers pada term kemampuan untuk berinovasi. 75% dari CEO mengindikasikan bahwa kolaborasi sangat penting untuk memberikan strategi baru bagi perusahaan. Walaupun aspirasi kolaborasi sangat tinggi, tetapi implementasi aktualnya dengan baik sangatlah rendah. Ketika ditanyai hanya setengah dari CEO yang mempercayai kalau perusahaan mereka sudah terkolaborasi di atas moderate level.

Business leader saat ini cenderung mencari jalan untuk membangun culture di mana kolaborasi di antara corporate boundaries merupakan bagian fundamental dari struktur organisasi. Mereka menyadari kebutuhan untuk menciptakan lingkungan yang kolektif di dalam organisasi di mana teaming efforts diperlukan. Sebagai tambahan, mereka juga mengetahui ide-ide yang inovatif juga dapat muncul dari kolaborasi hubungan dengan customers dan business partners.

Ada beberapa cara social computing dapat memberikan banyak benefit kepada bisnis. Contohnya, teknologi tersebut memungkinkan user untuk berkolaborasi di dalam suatu project atau peluang-peluang bisnis tanpa tergantung dengan perbedaan waktu atau tempat. Menurut suatu survey yang dilakukan pada December 2006 oleh US CIO Confidence Poll Online Survey, ada 3 alasan kuat mengapa suatu enterprise mengadopsi social computing yaitu:
• Meningkatkan efisiensi dan produktivitas dari bisnis
• Membantu peningkatan kreativitas yang nantinya dapat membuat organisasi menjadi innovator
• Memberikan solusi untuk gap yang ada di perusahaan dengan menyimpan dan memanage knowledge-knowledge yang penting/informatif

Tentunya sebagai senior eksekutif, CIO mempunyai peran yang penting dalam membantu untuk membuat kolaborasi sebagai bagian yang utuh dari strategi bisnis perusahaan dan memungkinkan kolaborasi baik untuk orang-orang ataupun system. CIO dapat memimpin implementasi dari teknologi kolaboratif ini, baik implementasi di organisasi IT itu sendiri ataupun dengan pihak enterprise di luar

Getting Started with Social Computing

Ketika mempertimbangkan bagaimana untuk memulai suatu supporting online communities dengan social software, sangat penting untuk memulai dari internal intranet deployment sebelum membangun suatu extranet site yang dapat diakses oleh strategic partners dan customers. Ini akan memberi employee kesempatan untuk menggunakan software dan membangun disiplin2 yang diperlukan. Contohnya employee harus menyisihkan sedikit waktu setiap harinya untuk mengisi blog. Tentu saja, organisasi perlu mendukung kegiatan investasi dari waktu kerja ini. Imbalan dari kemudahan mengakses informasi-informasi yang valuable ini akan membuat individual, team dan organisasi bekerja dengan lebih cepat dan efektif.

Bagaimana cara kita mengetahui kalau bisnis yang dijalankan dapat mendapat benefit dengan menggunakan social software. Caranya adalah dengan mengidentifikasi apakah di perusahaan tersebut menghadapi tantangan-tantangan seperti berikut:
• Do you need a more efficient, yet informal way for small groups and teams within your organization and supply chain to collaborate and problem solve (outside of e-mail)?
• Do you spend too much time trying to track down the current experts on certain topics within your organization?
• Do you want to do more to promote creativity and the sharing of knowledge and key information resources within your organization?
• Do you have a sense for the critical pockets of knowledge and expertise within your organization?
• Is there much opportunity for people to communicate and connect across organizational boundaries, such as departments or locations, to solve problems in an interdisciplinary way?
• Are you worried about losing critical expertise and tacit knowledge as key staff retires or move on to other opportunities?
• Are you looking for way to attract and retain younger talent?

Jika perusahaan tersebut menghadapi salah satu kendala di atas, maka kita dapat memulai implementasi dengan melihat sisi internal dan external perusahaan itu sendiri.
Looking internally:
• Find fertile ground for a social software pilot.
• Search for departments or small teams that might be using social networking software already, perhaps through a hosted service model.
• Locate potential early adoption groups within the organization that would be visible and credible champions to drive viral adoption in an organization-wide rollout.
• Identify collaborative projects that are unstructured and don’t have existing work plans or workflows established.
Looking externally:
• Scan the Internet for examples of corporations with external blogs and investigate how they are using them to communicate with customers.
• Locate a recognized industry expert in one of your areas of interest who has an active blog. Does she or he also have a set of social bookmarks at a site such as de.lici.ous? Could these blogs and bookmarks be valuable to you in your professional development? Could they be valuable to a larger team working on a related project?
• Investigate the policies and guidelines other companies have put in place on the appropriate use of their social software applications.
• Check in with industry analysts and researchers on how business is using and will use social software in the future.
• Investigate available product offerings, such as:
- IBM Lotus® Connections software
- Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS)
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS)
- Oracle Collaboration Suite

Kesimpulan
Pemimpin eksekutif pada masa ini cenderung mencari inovasi bisnis sebagai pertum-buhan atau income baru di perusahaan. Salah satu dari factor kunci dalam mengembangkan inovasi di dalam suatu organisasi adalah dengan membangun culture dan infrastruktur yang sesuai untuk mendukung kolaborasi dan sharing pengetahuan untuk para karyawan yang terhalang oleh batasan-batasan di dalam organisasi. Dengan membangun suatu komunitas berbasis infrastruktur yang menggabungkan pengetahuan, IT dan pemimpin bisnis akan membantu mengembangkan sharing knowledge, best practices dan akan mendorong inovasi yang dibutuhkan untuk mendapatkan competitive edge di masa yang akan datang.

Ori, Deposito dan Saham, which one?

Jika anda mempunyai uang dan berencana untuk melakukan investasi, mungkin pertanyaan pertama yang akan muncul adalah investasi apa yang sebaiknya saya lakukan, apakah investasi ini mempunyai resiko yang tinggi, dan bagaimana dengan ROI dari investasi ini. Dan tentunya anda pasti akan berusaha untuk mencari investasi yang resikonya tidak terlalu tinggi, namun di sisi lain dapat memberikan return yang cukup memuaskan.

Selama ini masyarakat baru mengetahui beberapa cara berinvestasi antara lain deposito untuk mencari aman atau berinvestasi di saham untuk yang mau cari untung besar (tentunya dengan resiko lebih tinggi). Keamanan deposito terlihat dari nilai capitalnya yang tidak berubah, namun mendapatkan keuntungan dari bunga. Misal kita punya uang 100 juta, maka jika didepositokan pada bunga 9% maka dalam setahun akan menjadi 100 juta + 10% dari 100juta = totalnya 110 juta. Ini murni menabung. Sementara kalau saham, yang dicari justru capital gain, yaitu spread dari perbedaan harga pokok dari saham itu sendiri. Misal, beli saham TLKM 6 juta pada harga 6000, lalu menjualnya pada harga 7000, maka akan mendapatkan 7 juta, atau capital gain nya sebesar 1 juta. Namun kalau harganya jatuh menjadi 5000, akan mendapatkan kerugian 1 juta juga.

ORI atau Obligasi Ritel Indonesia merupakan surat utang yang dikeluarkan oleh pemerintah dan dijual secara ritel/eceran, karena itu dinamakan Obligasi (Surat Utang) Ritel Indonesia.

Karakteristik ORI
Obligasi Ritel Indonesia sendiri mempunyai beberapa karakteristik sebagai berikut:
a. Kupon untuk pembayaran bunga ORI bersifat Fixed Coupon Bonds dikarenakan sifat bunganya tetap dan dibayarkan secara periodik
b. ORI bersifat Secured Bonds dikarenakan pemerintah diharuskan membeli kembali ORI tersebut dengan harga perdana 100% pada saat jatuh tempo
c. ORI bersifat Retail Bonds dikarenakan setiap unit ORI diperjualbelikan dalam nominal kecil
d. ORI bersifat Konvensional Bonds dikarenakan diperhitungkan dengan system bunga dan bukan bagi hasil seperti sukuk.

Keuntungan Investasi ORI
Ada beberapa keuntungan berinvestasi di ORI:
1. Kupon dan harga pokok ORI dijamin undang-undang.
2. Kupon lebih tinggi daripada rata-rata tingkat bunga deposito bank BUMN
3. Penjaminan pemerintah untuk membeli kembali ORI dengan harga 100% pada saat kita membeli ORI tersebut pada saat jatuh tempo
4. Bunga yang cukup tinggi yang harus dibayarkan pemerintah yaitu sebesar antara 9.5% - 10% setiap tahunnya dan sifatnya fixed rate atau bunga tetap
5. Pada saat sekarang ini ORI bisa diperdagangkan kepasar skunder
6. ORI dapat dipinjamkan / dijaminkan kepada pihak lain misalkan untuk pengambilan kredit dibank
7. Risiko gagal bayar (default risk) adalah risiko dimana investor tidak dapat memperoleh pembayaran dana yang dijanjikan oleh penerbit pada saat produk investasi jatuh tempo. Investasi pada ORI terbebas dari risiko gagal bayar sebab Pemerintah berdasarkan Undang-Undang SUN dan Undang-Undang APBN setiap tahunnya menjamin pembayaran kupon dan pokok SUN, termasuk ORI sampai dengan jatuh temponya.

Resiko Investasi ORI
Tentu saja berinvestasi di ORI juga mempunyai resikonya tersendiri:
1. Risiko pasar (market risk) adalah potensi kerugian bagi investor karena adanya kecenderungan penurunan harga ORI di pasar sekunder akibat kenaikan tingkat bunga. Kerugian (capital loss) dapat terjadi apabila investor menjual ORI di pasar sekunder sebelum jatuh tempo pada harga jual yang lebih rendah dari harga belinya. Risiko pasar dalam investasi ORI dapat dihindari apabila pembeli ORI di pasar perdana tidak menjual ORI sampai dengan jatuh tempo dan hanya menjual ORI jika harga jual (pasar) lebih tinggi daripada harga beli setelah dikurangi biaya transaksi.
2. Risiko likuiditas (liquidity risk) adalah potensi kerugian apabila sebelum jatuh tempo. Pemilik ORI yg memerlukan dana tunai mengalami kesulitan dalam menjual ORI di pasar sekunder pada tingkat harga (pasar) yang wajar. Apabila pemilik ORI membutuh-kan dana, ORI dapat dijadikan sebagai jaminan dalam pengajuan pinjaman ke bank umum atau sebagai jaminan dalam transaksi efek di pasar modal.

Berikut merupakan Tabel perbandingan saham, deposito dan ORI:

ORI bisa dikatakan menabung, kalau nasabah membelinya untuk disimpan sampai akhir jatuh tempo. Contoh ORI001 jangka waktunya 3 tahun. Beli ORI 001 10 juta dengan bunga 12%, lalu disimpan selama 3 tahun, maka saat jatuh tempo, nasabah akan dapat 10 juta + 36% = 13,6 juta.
ORI sendiri bisa juga dipergunakan untuk mencari capital gain seperti saham. Beli ORI 001 10 juta dengan bunga 12%. Pantau harga obligasi di bursa obligasi, atau lewat realtime info provider, atau lewat koran. Jika ORI oversubscribe (banyak peminat), maka harga aslinya (100%) bisa saja menjadi misal 105% pada hari ke dua. Jual ke bidder yang berani memesan pada harga 105%. Jadilah pada hari kedua tsb, nasabah tadi mendapatkan kembali 10 juta + 5% capital gain = 10 juta 500 ribu.

Prosedur pembelian ORI tergolong mudah. Calon investor dapat membuka rekening di bank, mendaftar menjadi nasabah agen penjual, kemudian menyetor uang ke rekening agen penjual sesuai jumlah investasi yang dikehendaki. Setelah itu investor mengisi kelengkapan formulir pemesanan disertai lampiran fotokopi KTP.

Kesimpulannya, ORI ini benar-benar cara yang menarik untuk berinvestasi. Bisa untuk investasi seperti deposito, namun bisa juga untuk spekulasi mendapatkan capital gain.