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Businesses, both large and small, based in Alabama can gain excellent online visibility with the services of search engine optimization companies in Alabama. These website optimization experts offer innovative solutions which have been appreciated by many renowned organizations. The various strategies adopted by these companies help in ranking business websites in top positions on leading search engines.

Mere website hosting will not bring in profits to a company; they have to get returns on their investments. For effective returns, their websites should be optimized and have optimum traffic. Search engine optimizers employed in various optimization companies in Alabama have complete knowledge of search engine ranking criteria and they make certain that their client websites rank high in all major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and others. The search engine optimization companies in Alabama are reputable, experienced entities in online marketing. Their professionals spend considerable time with the customers talking about and analyzing the competition, and understanding the markets. The search engine optimization services offered by companies in Alabama are affordable and competitive. Moreover, these companies have proven results in search engine optimization. Their ranking efforts have always been a tremendous success.  

To promote internet marketing, these SEO companies create excellent web pages for their clients, with the help of multimedia professionals, content developers and professional graphics designers. After the pages are designed, SEO professionals work on them to make them most visible to search engines. SEO professionals employ ‘organic methods’ for designing these web pages. This organic method, also called the “White Hat” method, involves only ethical procedures for achieving natural search engine results. 

By being listed in leading search engines, a local business can be easily found through local search and regular search. Search engines will often integrate local search into their search results. Most of the people look for local search tools and directories to find local services. Other than the major search engines, there are smaller search engines that are designed specifically for the local market and have been gaining surprising attention. Now more than ever, all businesses small and large are looking online to drive more sales and traffic to their stores and websites. It is simply the way to stay in line with competition. In Alabama, web optimization service providers are mainly concentrated in Fairhope, Huntsville, Mobile and Birmingham.

Local SEO services are kicking into high gear and many more businesses are looking to this service to increase their company’s visibility. Online marketing makes sense and spending some money in marketing business online with the help of search engine optimization companies in Alabama, is an excellent option to obtain positive results.

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Introduction

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system covers the techniques and concepts employed for the integrated management of businesses as a whole from the viewpoint of effective use of management resources, to improve the efficiency of an enterprise. They have many advantages both direct and indirect. The direct advantages include improved efficiency, information integration for better decision making, faster response time to customer queries etc. The indirect benefits include better corporate image, improved customer goodwill, customer satisfaction, and so on.

Many organizations and businesses in the world today as part of their strategic development plan, advocate for ERP solutions which would help to re-engineer their business processes in order to accomplish their long-term goals.

The ERP market is very competitive and fast growing market, which is attributed to three primary factors:

a) ERP vendors are continuing to expand market presence by offering new applications such as supply chain management (SCM), sales force automation, customer relationship management (CRM) and human resource.

b) To sustain their rapid growth, ERP vendors sell more licenses into their installed base.

c) While ERP originated in the manufacturing market, ERP usage has spread to nearly every type of enterprise including retail, utilities, the public sector and healthcare organizations.

Among the industry players include SAP (Systeme Anwendungen Produkte), Oracle, QAD, SSA, Jenzabar, Datatel, Peoplesoft, Baan, JD Edwards, Scala, Navision, Sungard just to mention but a few. Even within themselves they categorise each other into High-end and low-end range. In Kenya a cross section of companies are indeed on the warpath of undertaking or planning to invest in an ERP business solution. The future will see fierce battle for market share resorting to mergers and acquisition for strategic and competitive advantage.

There is much hype when the vendors are out to move their products, and will always sell and tell you about their success stories and how you will leapfrog into your vision. They never tell you of any failures of such ERP projects, and there seems to be no attention paid to lessons learnt from the famous FoxMeyer Corporation scenario, which lead to its bankruptcy and the lengthy legal battles in the courtrooms with their consultants thereafter. “My basic principle is that you don’t make decisions because they are easy, you don’t make them because they are cheap, you don’t make them because they are popular but you make them because they are right”- Theordore Hesburgh.

If not properly planned for, the investment may drive you out of business. The epicenter for the problems that rock the corporate world as far as ERP or in general IT project failure is concerned has remained the same over the years.

The following examples are typical of the projects that failed from statistics available from The Standish group CHAOS database

· The Hershey foods ERP system implementation failure lead to massive distribution problems and loss of 27% market

· The FoxMeyer drug ERP system implementation failure lead to the collapse of the entire company

· The IRS project on taxpayer compliance took over a decade to complete and cost the country unanticipated $50 billion

· The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicle conversion to new software took eight years to complete and public outcry eventually killed the entire project

· State of Florida welfare system was plagued with numerous computational errors and $260 million in overpayments

· AMR Corp, Budget Rent A Car, Hiltons Corporation, Marriott “ confirm” project crumbled having spend over $125 million over four years

· Snap-On Inc project to convert to a new order-entry costed the tools company $50 million in lost sales for the first half of 1998

· Greyhound Lines Inc. “Trips” reservation and bus-dispatch system” failed having spent $6 million

· Norfolk Southern Corp. “Systems integration with merger target Consolidated Rail Corp”. failed having lost more than $113 million in business

· Oxford Health Plans Inc. “New billing and claims-processing system based on Unix International and Oracle Corp. databases” resulted in hordes of doctors and patients angry about payment delays and errors.

· Universal Oil Products Project “ Software for estimating project costs and figuring engineering specifications” resulted in unusable systems

IT projects regularly fall short – and quite few are abandoned entirely. Many IT failures have to do with perceptions and expectations rather than absolute bankruptcy of purpose. Most of the so called failures are better classified as “discouraging successes” events wherein the major purpose is accomplished, but not without a good deal of frustration and inefficiency – and a sour taste in the mouth of many users.

Project risks

The FoxMeyer Corporation Delta III project had the following project risks

i) Environmental- the management had little or no control. They depended 100% on consultants and vendors who obscured them from gaining control. The focus of the project dramatically changed prompting the projects costs to escalate

ii) Execution- the project lacked skilled and knowledgeable personnel. FoxMeyer did not have the necessary skills in-house and was relying on Andersen consulting to implement SAP R/3 and integrate it with an automated warehouse system from Pinnacle. Over 50 consultants were inexperienced and their turnover was high.

iii) Scope- FoxMeyer was an early adopter of SAP R/3. After the project began, FoxMeyer signed a large contract to supply university health system consortium (UHC). This event exacerbated the need for the unprecedented volume of transactions on their HP servers which they could not cope

iv) Customer mandate – the commitment from the top management and users. This was not the case for some of the senior management. There was a morale problem among some of its warehouse workers. The pinnacle warehouse automation integrated with SAP R/3 threatened their jobs. With the closing of the three warehouses, the transition to the first automated warehouse was a disaster. Disgruntled workers damaged inventory, and orders were not filled, and mistakes occurred as the new system struggled with volumes of transactions

Project Factors

Factors that attribute to escalation of costs include but not restricted to

a) Project factors- there was a perception that continued investment could produce a large payoff. FoxMeyer expected a saving of $40 million annually.

b) Psychological factors- the consultants had prior history of success that encouraged them to continue the project. “we delivered an effective system, just as we have for thousands of other clients” (Computergram international 1998). This created the impression that the project would radically improve the company’s critical operations. FoxMeyer bit more that what it could chew but embarking on a fast track project with unskilled staff.

c) Social factors- the consulting company did not externally justify the project. De-escalating the project through abandonment would have meant bad publicity

d) Organization factors-The advocates for the project later were forced to resign because of the delays in realizing the projected savings. A change in management was needed in order to control the increasing costs – which was too late.

Recipe for failure

· When the management is not controlling the scope of the project especially when you expect the consultant to provide a magic bullet, is a recipe for failure.

· Changing the sails in midstream, by certain deliverables expected within a third of the documented times and volumes is a recipe for failure.

· By engaging in other corporate projects c
ompeting for the meager finances midway, is a recipe for failure

· By not having proper change management policies and procedures, is a recipe for failure

· By going for consultants without prior experience or ERP solutions in which you are the only company within your industry, could be a recipe for failure

· If you do not have a knowledge transfer inscribed in the consulting contract, is a recipe for failure

· If the vendor does not understand your business, is a recipe for failure

· If the project has no clear phases, deliverables and quality control components, is a recipe for failure

· If you have not re-engineered your business processes to be compatible with the capabilities of the technology, is a recipe for failure

· Having multiple vendors within the one project, is a recipe for failure

· Not having an external project audit committee, is a recipe for failure

· Not having a clear end-user training program to transfer skills to employees, is a recipe for failure

· Having the project run as a “one-man show”, is a recipe for failure

· Having the management over- committed (excessively ambitious, prompting unrealistic deadlines), is recipe for failure

· Team member not being accountable for actions, is recipe for failure

· Low morale within team, is recipe for failure

· Unclear statement of requirement, is a recipe for failure

· In no standard implementation methodology use, is a recipe for failure

· Inadequate requirements definition (current processes are not adequately

addressed), is a recipe for failure

· Poor ERP package selection (the package does not address the basic

business functions of the client), is a recipe for failure

· Inadequate resources employed by the client, is a recipe for failure

· Internal resistance to changing the ‘old’ processes, is a recipe for failure

· A poor fit between the software and users procedures, is a recipe for failure

· A bottom up approach is employed (the process is not viewed as a top

management priority), is a recipe for failure

· The client does not properly address and plan for the expenses involved, is a recipe for failure

· If any functional gaps have not been identified (GAP analysis), is a recipe for failure

· If the implementation does not take into account future technological convergence, is a recipe for failure

Conclusion

The lessons learnt from the failed ERP projects should be a wake-up call for corporations currently in ERP projects or contemplating to go that way. The lessons learnt can as well, serve as a harbinger for failure or bankruptcy by serving as the jetty for launching the rocket to propel you out of the business orbit. The experiences highlighted provide a litmus test on how to avoid ERP failure. There is one final aspect to be considered in any degree of project failure. All success is rooted in either luck or failure. If you begin with luck, you learn nothing but arrogance. However, if you begin with failure and learn to evaluate it, you also learn to succeed. Failure begets knowledge. Out of knowledge you gain wisdom, and it is with wisdom that you can become truly successful.

References

Alexis Leon, “ERP Demystified”, 2000

Judy E Scott, “The FoxMeyer Drugs Bankruptcy”, 2004

Kim watch “Future Watch”, 2000

Lloyd Rain “ IT Project Failures”, 2005

Computerworld “Top 10 Corporate Information Technology Failures”, 2000

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The LPO industry is still very nascent, but it has already seen a tremendous growth in a short period of time. According to the experts, the LPO industry is expected to experience exponential growth in the coming years. While there remain a number of positives in favor of India backing this growth, there are also some considerable challenges as well. One of them is lesser interest of the young Law graduates in the LPO industry which may deprive the LPO industry from gaining its estimated momentum.

Even though about 80,000 Lawyers graduate every year in India, but the number of them considering LPO as a career option remain very low. This is even more surprising, considering when about 45% of the Lawyers graduating feel that LPO industry pays better remuneration than the old stereotype Law jobs in a Law firm. However, one of the significant reasons for the Lawyers not considering the LPO option remains lack of awareness. This is despite the fact that LPO remained most eminent subject of debate in the media, particularly in times of economic crisis. Further, many students believe that LPO industry offers tasks that are rather repetitive in nature and could made them loose their legal knowledge and other competencies. Many students also think of it as just another form of BPO entity, where they might be required to do a monotonous job which requires no skills or domain knowledge. Clearly, there seems to be a great barrier of perception in minds of these young Lawyers speculating a career in the LPO industry.

However, with the Indian LPO vendors expanding their operations in various geographies and many UK and US law firms enhancing their capabilities in India, there seems to be a lack of talent supply in comparison to this increasing demand. Many experts believe that this dearth in talent supply could be one of the potential obstructions in stopping India from grabbing its estimated 75% share in the legal outsourcing services market. Further, other emerging destinations such as South Africa and Ireland are also expected to give India a stiff competition.

In light of such scenario, one of the significant challenges for the Indian LPO industry remains is to attract this much needed manpower. For this, they need to overcome the current perception which these Law graduates hold about the LPO industry. This requires greater interaction by the LPO vendors with their prospects to increase their awareness about the potential career in the LPO industry.

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