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13 November 2015
Royal Crown Derby ERP Case Every day in every town, in every state, in every country there are people who start their own businesses. Some of these businesses succeed and some of them fail, so everyday these people are asking themselves “Why did I fail? Where did I do wrong?” Those that fail can be businesses that had been open and thriving for many years, along with those that just opened and never even gets their name out into the market. Failure to market online is actually one of the top reasons that a business ends up closing its doors. It is estimated that approximately 80% of internet users have used the internet to research specific items and make an online purchase. Therefore, a business should be visible to customers during their online research when shopping. Many businesses allow customers who have already ordered items from them to provide feedback about the products that they have ordered and received from that business. Another reason that businesses fail to succeed is that they aren’t looking at this feedback and taking measures to make right the wrongs that society writes about them. Potential customers are looking at these comments- up to 81%, so why would a business owner not look at these comments themselves? Successful companies are able to create a brand, a way of saying “this is who we are and what we offer” and any media, web content and social media all have the potential of making a company’s brand unique, something that stands out brighter than other organizations, something that entices a customer to take a look. When a business brands themselves effectively, they can grow exponentially. (Thorpe, 2014) Royal Crown Derby, based in Derby, England is one of the oldest or second oldest remaining English porcelain manufacturers in the world. Known for their high quality bone china was established in 1750, the organization was profitable and the only significant change was a new factory built in 1878. Up until 2000 Royal Crown Derby was just a factory with a small design department and all of the sales, dispatching, invoicing, forecasting, production planning and purchase ordering were done in Stoke-on-Trent and all of the computers that were at the factory were connected to Stoke-on-Trent and all of Royal Crown Derby’s financial, warehouse and human resources department were taken care of there. Enterprise Resource Planning was not a concept that was implemented at the organization at the time. ERP is a database that is shared allowing a business to support multiple functions through different units of the organization. Instead of maintaining separate spreadsheets or reports for separate divisions of the organization, ERP allows employees to pull reports from one system. (NetSuite Inc., 2015) So, in 2005 a former director for the business, Hugh Gibson led a buy-out, which made Royal Crown Derby an independently and privately owned business and this buy out required the organization to acquire a software supplier and they chose Exel Computer Systems. Though successful and profitable-potential investors wanted the ability to access reports and any other financial data that businesses typically offer investors, once implemented, the software allowed the business provide such reports with a few strokes of the keypad and to dispatch products on the day they are ordered, (Exel Computer Systems, 2009) and run MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) within the first week of having the software installed. MRP is a method that is designed for the efficient planning of the resources involved in running a manufacturing company. If implemented correctly and the company chooses to do so, it can deal with the operational and financial planning for the businesses and has the capability of answering “what if” questions. (INVESTOPEDIA, LLC, 2015)
Various levels of factory production were able to be recorded immediately so that the company could do stock inquiries on a real time system. A real time system helps to control a working environment by receiving data, processing them, and providing results quickly that affect the working environment at that time. The term “real-time” in this context is also used in simulation to mean that the process runs at the same speed as a real clock without significant delay. (REAL TIME SYSTEMS GmbH, 2015) Before the implementation of Exel, orders at Royal Crown Derby could take up to twelve months for special items and customers would have to order these items in January in order to get them for Christmas. The system allowed the warehouse to evaluate previous orders and provide items for customers within 14 days. Inventory could be kept to a minimum and reports could be pulled that would show what the warehouse should keep in stock according to customers wants from previous orders. The organization also had a retail store and restaurant at the warehouse that offered tours, and retail PC’s were installed with till drawers to retain efficiency at those parts of the organization as well. Another implementation was setting up databases for a Collector’s Guild that could keep track of members and inform them of new releases or when their renewals were coming due. (Exel Computer Systems, 2009)
Implementing the Exel software program into their business gave Royal Crown Derby so much more freedom and time for creativity without wasting their time following paper trails, as older companies tend to have to do because they don’t have information at the touch of their fingers. The Collectors Guild offers customers who want to pay for a membership the opportunity to know about new items without having to come to the warehouse/store themselves. The execution of the Exel software, in a sense, brought Royal Crown Derby into a whole other world of collectors, new customers, increased productivity and so much more. Thus far there hasn’t been any negative recourse from their choice. (Exel Computer Systems, 2009) In 2013 Hugh Gibson retired and the company was sold to Steelite International of Stoke-on-Trent. This exchange has not affected the organization as they just keep thriving and coming up with new designs. The artists creating the new items are in the “loop” of what is in style at the moment and create designs to reflect that while still producing some of the highest quality of bone china in the world. Steelite International is an organization that is not only focused on profits, but are aware of corporate social responsibility and are about “giving back” to the communities that support them. (Steelite International, 2015) It was important that Royal Crown Derby maintain a cross functional department structure that preserves the standards that they first started their company on. A look at their website, and a potential customer would probably not be able to guess that it all started in 1750 and has been thriving since. They have created a website that shows that they are just as competitive as companies that have only been around a few years. The implementation of ERP to the organization changed the company for the better as well as the customers who have supported them for centuries. (Royal Crown Derby, 2015)

Bibliography
Exel Computer Systems. (2009, November 18). Royal Crown Derby ERP Case Study. Retrieved November 13, 2015, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9RdfySb8P8
INVESTOPEDIA, LLC. (2015). Manufacturing Resource Planning. Retrieved October 13, 2015, from INVESTOPEDIA: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/manufacturing-resource-planning.asp
NetSuite Inc. (2015). What is ERP? Retrieved November 13, 2015, from NETSUITE: http://www.netsuite.com/portal/resource/articles/erp/what-is-erp.shtml
REAL TIME SYSTEMS GmbH. (2015, September 3). Real Time Systems. Retrieved November 12, 2015, from REAL TIME SYSTEMS GmbH: http://real-time-systems.com/about_us/index.php
Royal Crown Derby. (2015). Royal Crown Derby Made in England. Retrieved November 13, 2015, from Royal Crown Derby: http://www.royalcrownderby.co.uk/
Steelite International. (2015). Steelite International - Giving Something Back. Retrieved November 13, 2015, from Steelite International: http://us.steelite.com/about-us
Thorpe, T. (2014, July 7). The Top 5 Reasons Small Businesses Fail. Retrieved November 13, 2015, from Inc.: http://www.inc.com/travis-thorpe/the-top-5-reasons-small-businesses-fail.html