Ozark feed and ag corporation the ERP decision-Harvard Business school Case study(Memo writing)
This case study focusses on Enterprise Resource Planning selection and implementation at a mid-sized
animal feed corporation. You will take the role of
Christopher Page, CEO, Ozark Feed and Ag Corporation, who will make the final decisions about the
scope and implementation of a new ERP system.
For this case, we ask you to determine which of three ERP development proposals to select, and to
provide recommendations for implementation. You will first create a decision matrix that will help you
rank the three proposals. We suggest that you consider the appropriateness of each of the proposed
ERP implementations in terms of variables such as cost, complexity of implementation, time-line for
implementation, maturity of the organization, risk and/or other variables that you believe to be
important. You should also carefully consider Ozark’s role in the animal feed industry, its values, and the
organization’s structure when evaluating the different proposals.
Next, you will write a one or two page memo to Leslie Daniels, CFO and Raj Johnson, IT Head, of Ozark
summarizing your decision about which of the ERP proposals you have selected, and provide an initial
set of recommendations for planning and implementing the ERP.
You should include your thoughts on which consultancies to approach, what the vision and blue print for
the ERP should be, who should be involved in the ERP development process, the implementation and
testing process, and a timeline for “Go Live”.
The memo should include your rational for your decisions based on the case narrative and the data
presented in the Exhibits. Consider things such as profit margins and expected growth of industry, the
challenges to customer service and waste caused by manual recording of processes that are not interrelated, and the costs vs. benefits of the different vendor software offerings for Ozark’s key business
applications (See Case Exhibits 3-7).
Please submit the memorandum, along with an Appendix that contains your decision matrix. The
grading rubric for this assignment is as follows:
Decision Matrix and Memo Points
Good Decision Matrix Criteria 15
Decision Matrix Clear and
Understandable
10
Proposal Selection is Well-rationalized 15
Recommendations for ERP
Implementation are Complete
20
Effective Use of Data from Exhibits 20
Total 80
