Materials Handling Equipment Corp: Enterprise Systems Drive Corporate Strategy for a Small Business

1. What were the business problems facing MHE? How did they relate to its existing older systems?

            While there can be many problems in a business it seems though it is a declining market. It seems that MHE facing few problems in regards to competition from bigger companies while they reduce the prices. The market was becoming a commodity business focusing on sales of equipment and price which seems moderate for a business. However, while at its Margins were declining. MHE could not differentiate itself from competitors since its business so they decided to drop prices even further which is nothing but chaos. It is more like riding a bicycle with no feet.

2. What were the advantages of working with SAP’s Business One?

            Well after reading it seems the advantages would be Affordable, and powerful enough to address MHE’s business problems. Although it is Configurable, easily implemented, and easy to teach staff how to use the system.  It seems very lenient and nice thing to have. 

3. Why did the new ERP system give the company a competitive advantage?

            There can be multiple reason to why, but to my thought I believe that it allowed MHE to reduce costs and increase revenues which seemed like a good idea at first. It is very important to remember that the ERP system allowed MHE to enter into a new line of business called “customer asset management” in which customers could use an online portal. Now to many this may seem not an important thing but it is very important since now they are able to track the repairs of their equipment and also being able to give the customers visibility into the process. Competitors could not offer this service to begin with. So that’s what I believe.

4. What was the impact of the ERP system on corporate costs and revenues?

            Typically, revenues are something a company should look at. However, in this case Revenues were up 12% and costs were reduced by 30% which I think is very bad for a company.

5. What new revenue generating service was MHE able to provide to its customers? Why did MHE develop a customer portal?

            Well, I think after reading we can all agree that Asset management, in this process customers could see the costs of repairing their equipment. And through the process they can decide about how to proceed for further. It is good because they can now debate into fixing a machine versus buying a new one.