1) Tektronix’s ERP project might be considered to be inherently risky. Why?
Tektronix’s ERP project might be considered inherently risky because over time Tektronix had operated with over 460 legacy systems, none of them having any experience within global standardization. The legacy systems were stand-alone systems which solely met the needs of one business unit, not the entire company as a whole. In times of increasing competition, the CFO, along with management, believed major changes needed to be implemented. Previous attempts at implementing other IT projects also could create a negative aura within the company when discussing the idea for standardization. However, the need to restructure the entire company which operated in over sixty countries was definite and a complex task at hand in order to standardize the system. Along with being complex, the project could also become time consuming due to the lack of integration among such a large company (discussed later), which could cause employees to lose interest in implementation. In addition to the complexity, the company was segregated into three separate classifications: Measurement Business Division, Color Printing and Imaging and Video and Networking.
There were several inefficiencies which occurred through the use of the numerous legacy systems including: multiples of certain documents due to the lack of integration, reentry of certain data on multiple occasions which creates more opportunities for error, and the lack of account management on a global basis. The inherent risk of misstated, erroneous information was extremely large due to this lack of integration within the company. This lack of integration made it increasingly difficult and time consuming to standard ...