Question

Westinghouse Electric Takes On The Risks Of A “Big Bang” Project Case study adapted from: [David Hannon, “Westinghouse Electric Company Sees Global Standard Processes as the Foundation for Future Business Success,” SAP Insider PROFILES, January– March 2020 and www. westinghousenuclear.com, accessed August 14, 2020. A Westinghouse Electric Company provides fuel, services, technology, plant design, and equipment to utility and industrial customers in the worldwide commercial nuclear electric power industry. A private company created in 1999 after its predecessor was sold and spun off, Westinghouse has 14,500 employees in 17 countries and is headquartered in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. Shortly after Westinghouse’s creation, the company implemented a full suite of SAP software across the enterprise. For the past 15 years, the nuclear energy industry was in a holding pattern, with steady business throughout but minimal growth. Westinghouse supplied nuclear equipment and services to plants all around the world, and the business was successful. The initial SAP installation served Westinghouse just fine for nearly an entire decade. From 2010 onward, the nuclear energy industry started to expand. Westinghouse began to experience growth in sales, and its legacy SAP installation was not equipped to handle the increased volume of business. Westinghouse needed to update its older system to support new processes, configurations, and functionalities that related to the larger amount of business it was conducting. The company estimated that it would increase in size fourfold over the next few years. Westinghouse opted to launch a sweeping new program to update its IT. The program, called Synergy internally, consisted of 40 different projects, and updating the SAP system was one of the largest. Rather than simply upgrade its existing systems, Westinghouse opted to “re-implement” those systems with much more current SAP technology. Westinghouse did this because its 10-year-old SAP ERP implementation was too outdated. It was easier for the company to simply replace the old SAP ERP systems with a completely new configuration. The division of the Synergy project dedicated to the SAP re-implementation was known as Cornerstone, aptly named because the new system would be the foundation for the company’s future growth. Westinghouse wanted to start with a clean core SAP environment with a completely new reconfiguration. The company’s goals were to convert all existing data that the company wanted to save, as well as add new functionalities that MANAGEMENT WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC TAKES ON THE RISKS OF A “BIG BANG” PROJECT would help the company manage its imminent growth. Westinghouse hoped to add a new general ledger, a new enterprise reporting environment based on SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (BW) and SAP Business Objects solutions, and new implementations of SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In order to ensure that the re-implementation went smoothly, Westinghouse took many precautions to manage the risks involved in such a significant change. First, the company ensured that every element of the Cornerstone project was motivated by a particular business driver or goal. By associating goals with each element of the project, Westinghouse was able to more precisely control the implementation of the new system. Once the elements of the new SAP system came into place, Westinghouse had to decide how to actually roll out the new system. It could have used a gradual, phased approach, adding BN206 - System Administration and Management - Final Assessment Trimester 2, 2020 Page 6 of 10 new systems over a three-year period, but the company instead decided on what it called a “big-bang approach.” Management decided that the company was growing too fast for a slow approach— it needed the new systems as soon as possible, and hoped to recoup the return on investment sooner rather than later. However, while the phased approach was more expensive, it was also much less risky. To manage the increased risk of the big-bang approach, the company brought in a change management consultant. The consultant, John Flynn, helped Westinghouse with both the Synergy and Cornerstone projects, but focused on Cornerstone. Flynn performed a risk assessment study to identify business areas that were most likely to undergo significant change. He identified the Westinghouse supply chain as one of these, since the company’s growth would add many new elements to the chain. Therefore, the change management team spent extra time with Westinghouse’s supply chain staff members to help them understand the new project and its impact on their day-to-day routines. Next, after mapping the risk associated with each element of the SAP reimplementation, Westinghouse had to finally switch, or cut over, to the new system. To handle that event, Flynn worked with business leaders to recruit coordinators for every site in the organization. Each site coordinator had a list of responsibilities and a checklist to complete prior to the system going live to ensure each site was ready when the switch was flipped. Westinghouse dedicated extra staff to answer employee questions in the problem areas designated by Flynn. The company created an automatic call distribution system and email system that routed users across all time zones to the employees most able to answer their questions. For example, Westinghouse expected that there would be many questions about passwords, access issues, time entry, and purchase requisition management after the new system went live, so the company provided extra staff to answer those and other frequently asked questions. This “temporary help desk” handled over 2,000 inquiries during the first three weeks of the implementation. The project team also set up a blog where users could share tips and solutions. The cutover to the new SAP system went smoothly, and the company plans to use many of the techniques that it learned from the implementation in the future. It plans to use the blog as its primary communication method for support solutions and other Synergy projects, and future additions to the SAP suite will be much easier than the sweeping big-bang change. Answer the following questions: 1) Consider the above scenario and identify and discuss the risks in Westinghouse Electric’s Cornerstone project. [6 marks] 2) In your opinion, why was change management so important for this project and this company? [6 marks] 3) Discuss what management, organization, and technology issues had to be addressed by the Westinghouse project team? [7 marks] 4) Should other companies use a “big-bang” implementation strategy? Why or why not? Justify your answer

Answer 1

CONSIDERING THE GIVEN PARAMETERS THE FOLLOWING CAN BE EXPRESSED AS SHOWN BELOW:

1) THE RISK'S IN WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRICS CORNERSTONE PROJECT:

*** The company chose to refresh its more established framework to help new cycles, arrangements, and functionalities that identified with the bigger measure of business it was directing.

***The company assessed that it would increment in size fourfold throughout the following not many years.

***The program comprised of 40 distinct projects, and refreshing the SAP framework was one of the biggest.

***The objectives were to change over all leaving information that the company needed to spare, just as include new functionalities that would enable the company to deal with its up and coming development.***

It wanted to include another overall record, another venture announcing climate and execute another Customer Relationship Management framework.

Most importantly company is developing at an exceptionally quick rate, so the biggest danger is to satisfy the demand of the clients on schedule if company can't finish the demands of the clients on then it can hurt company's picture in the market and for the clients also.

The subsequent danger related is that the company will utilize big pack way to deal with provide food the demand of the clients which will require colossal speculation just as viable HR to deal with the matter of the company.

2) THE CHANGE MANAGEMENT SO IMPORTANT FOR THIS PROJECT AND THIS COMPANY IS AS FOLLOWS:

***The company guaranteed that each component of the project was persuaded by a specific business driver or objective.

*** It needed to adjust three unmistakable operational districts into a solitary face in each client area.

***The new framework needed to help the company's arrangement to increment worldwide employing.

***By partner objectives with every component of the project, Westinghouse had the option to all the more correctly control the implementation of the new framework.

Utilizing a change specialist helped the company reclassify setups, collaborations, work exercises, and force connections of different organizational gatherings.

***The change specialist was likewise liable for guaranteeing all gatherings included acknowledged the progressions made by another framework.

3) ISSUES ADDRESSED:

Management: The company was becoming excessively quick for a moderate implementation measure.

***It needed to deliver the new frameworks as quickly as time permits so as to recover its quantifiable profit in the near future.

Organization: A staged methodology is considerably less hazardous despite the fact that it's more costly.

***The entire organization must be prepared to execute the new framework as fast as conceivable utilizing the "big bang" strategy actually alluded to as the "cutover" technique.

***Force clients were enlisted from key pieces of the organization to help guarantee a smooth implementation.

***Explicit project subtleties were examined with specialty unit pioneers to pick up their help for the new framework.

Technology: The gracefully chain was one of the region's destined to bear huge change since the company's development would add numerous new components to the chain.

***The company made a programmed call dispersion framework and email framework that steered clients over unsurpassed zones to the workers generally ready to respond to their inquiries.

***The project group likewise set up a blog where clients could share tips and arrangements.

4)JUSTIFYING BY USING A BIG BANG IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY:

Companies should just utilize a "big-bang" or "cutover" implementation strategy on the off chance that they have a lot of trust in the new framework.

***When the implementation begins, there is no returning. On the off chance that the organization has utilized the correct conventional arranging and control devices to oversee and screen the new framework's advancement it tends to be sensibly agreeable that the new framework will work as expected upon fire up.

***On the off chance that the company has not satisfactorily arranged the implementation, it ought not utilize the cutover strategy.

PLEASE UPVOTE ITS VERY NECESSARY FOR ME

THANKING YOU