Riordan Service Request Week 2 Draft
BSA/310 Business Systems
June 11, 2012

Riordan Manufacturing
Riordan Manufacturing is a large company that employees over 500 people and has companies in Albany Georgia, Pontiac Michigan and Hangzhou China. All three of these manufacturing plant work as a separate company with its own specially designed software and there corporate Headquarters are in San Jose California. An Intranet is an integral part of information sharing within a company. Most critical information to how a business or operations run, why things are done the way they are done, policies and procedures, and required and frequently used forms can also be housed on a company’s intranet. “An intranet is a computer network with restricted access, as within a company, that uses software and protocols developed for the Internet.” (1) Riordan Manufacturing utilizes an Intranet on their company site, but “underutilizing” might be a more correct description. The Riordan Manufacturing Intranet home page features the company’s Mission Statement, a description of the company, company history, and links to different departments for information, policies and procedures. This information should almost be considered “eyes only” meaning that certain people should only have access to the information. Obviously any employee should be able to reference any and all of the information found on the company intranet, but someone browsing the Internet shouldn’t be able to access this information. There isn’t any security features established to prevent anyone from accessing information on the company intranet. A login should be required to access the information on the company intranet and should be monitored by the IT department.
When Riordan acquired their Michigan and Georgia plants, the financing and Accounting systems compatibility was never address. San Jose uses a fully integrated Windows based software application specifically designed for plastics processors for their processes and assembly manufacturers. This system can be added to because it is a source code application.
The Michigan plant had purchased a software application for their Fd & A and process application in which the vendor is no longer in business. The application runs a DEC Alpha’s, using a VMS operating system.
Georgia has also purchased a vendor developed software application yet it is different from Michigan. It uses a UNIX operating system that uses Windows PC’s as work stations, and is programmed in RPG-400.
The three operating entities basic components for their systems:
• General Ledger
• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Order Entry
• Procurement
• Sales and Purchasing History
• Invoicing and Shipping
• Payroll
• Financial Reporting
• EDI*
• Bar Code Reading*
• EDSS (Executive Decision Support System)*
*San Jose Only
There are several challenges that Riordan needs to overcome to create a system application that runs seamlessly between all of the sites.
Challenges
• General Ledger is costly and labor intensive and is 15-20 days after month end.
• An audit is required each month that is also costly and labor intensive.
• Compliance with government requirements at consolidated level is difficult.
• Riordan finds situation unacceptable and mandates solutions as soon as possible.
Riordan needs a system developed that is compatible all three operating entities plus the joint venture in the People’s Republic of China. The corporate office in San Jose California needs to be able to receive data from the three entities fast and seamlessly. Some data is provided via hardcopy reports and must be re-entered into their operating system, some data is provided via data files but must be converted (redirected) to the proper account codes and many more. The company is spending a lot of money to have employees enter and then re-enter the same information in a different system.
Finance and Accounting
• Needs F & A System Improvements.
• Implement new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software.
Benefits of ERP
• Uniformity of systems at all locations.
• Reports are all completed electronically.
• Faster access to financial data for Headquarters.
• Decreased work hours and expenses for systems support.

The new ERP system needs to standardize throughout the facilities. Hardware should be the same for each facility with slight variations depending on requirements for manufacturing. This would help to lower service costs for different facilities. Upgrades to the system could be implemented more easily. Since the equipment is standard there would be no communication errors between facilities and labor cost would decrease from re-entering data from different systems. Audits each month will be less time consuming. Compliance to government reporting would be simplified if information was broadcasted throughout the organization. The general ledger would not be so labor intensive and could be completed in less time for each month.

Works Cited Page
1) “Intranet” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intranet 6.11.12