You work for an ERP software development and consultancy company. Your current role is an ERP Project Manager responsible for the sale of your company''s ERP software to a client. For many months your prospective ERP customer with hundreds of regional stores has been analysing the hundreds of assumptions built into the & #163;800,000 ERP software you are selling. So far, you have knocked yourself out to try to make this sale. If the sale goes thru, u will reach your yearly quota and get a nice bonus. On the other hand, loss of this sale may mean you start looking for other employment. The accounting, human resources, supply chain (including procurement and purchasing) & amp; marketing teams put 2geda by the client team have reviewed the specifications and finally recommended purchase of the software. However, as you looked over their shoulders and helped them through the evaluation process (commercial and technical evaluation), you began to realise that their purchasing procedures – with much of the purchasing being done at hundreds of regional stores – were not a good fit for the software. At the very least, the customising will add & #163;250,000 to the implementation and training cost. The client team is not aware of the issue and you know that the necessary & #163;250,000 is not in budget. Prepare a report that identifies the purchasing, procurement and supply issues and make some recommendations based on your analysis. You will be required to make some assumptions. As in the real commercial world, key decisions have to be made on the information that is available. Additional guidance on approach and assessment Some key purchasing, procurement and supply issues that you can critically assess for the above scenario are as following: (i) Purchasing and Procurement decision making criteria (ii) Information flow and decision making flow coordination (iii) Real time and accurate purchasing and procurement information (iv) Consistency in decision making across multiple supply chain units (v) Procurement evaluation procedures by the client team (vi) Sustaining an ethical supply chain practice (vii) ERP Projects procurement and purchasing practices have the highest inconsistencies. Specification non-conformance and requirement creep had been captured extensively by literature and practitioners. But the root cause for this could also be due to the discrepancy of information flow coordination during procurement phase of the project. You will be assessed on: & #183; Your ability to analyse the situation using a range of theoretical concepts introduced in the module – background research and literature review; & #183; Your ability to identify and critically evaluate the key issues – scenario initial analysis and interaction with purchasing, procurement and supply issues; & #183; Flow and consistency of argument supported by literature (references and bibliography) and practice based evidence; & #183; Your ability to present recommendations that are clearly supported and justified by your analysis. For this part of the assignment, the written submission, in report format, should consist of approximately 2,200 (excluding footnotes and appendices). An executive summary and any appendices are additional to the word count. Appropriate and relevant diagrams, process flow charts, figures, illustrations, tables etc. are permitted. Requirements: Compliance with the University Report Writing Guide: A contents page including page numbers. A list of tables and figures used. An executive summary. Numbered sections and sub sections in systematic order (e.g: 1, 1.1, etc). Conclusions. Recommendations if appropriate. Reference section (actual sources used in the report). Bibliography (other relevant books you may have read during your research but you have not specifically referred to). Appendices, if needed, at the end. A standard referencing system MUST be used, for example: In the body of the report, use: (Van Weele, 2002). In the reference section, use: Van Weele, A.J. (2002). Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. (3rd edition). Thomson Learning. London. A MINIMUM of distinct 20 references to demonstrate wider reading, from a variety of authoritative, credible and relevant sources, is expected. Evaluation must be made based on evidences from authoritative literature, electronic references and credible source. Avoid using unconfirmed reports.