Cloud Computing: Principles and Paradigms, Capstone Project Example

Executive Summary

The Australian Corporate Services Agency (CSA), established in July 1996, is a shared service provider owned and operated by two distinct Queensland government departments. CSA contributes services to the Queensland government departments, which are responsible for industries and resources. CSA was founded through the merging and outsourcing of the services provided by these organizations in the form of one distinct company. The underlying beliefs are that shared services can greatly improve the value and enhance the productivity of support functions. This means that the CSA’s business objectives of shared services are strongly influenced by the demand for CSA’s services. The infrastructure of CSA has been designed to effectively deliver 25 major products covering financial, human resource management and administrative functions through a head office and seven service centers. The total workforce of 260 employees ensures a statewide presence of CSA. While the majority of products and services are managed from the head office, CSA’s service centers are able to assist customers more locally with the delivery of services. Basically CSA comprises three service areas in business advisory, support services and corporate information systems led by a general manager. CSA delivers its range of corporate services under a service level agreement to ID and RD. CSA’s mission statement is to “professionally deliver quality corporate services for government.” CSA is responsible for operational and processing functions for corporate services. The company reserves the policy and strategy functions or the customer department

In the case study on business process redesign in travel management the processes involved in an SAP R/3 are assessed. The primary focus of the case study is travel and related expenses. On average, travel expenses represent 7% of total operating costs for most organizations, which makes them the second largest controllable corporate expense. In light of a rise in business travel demands, business travel expenses have required an increase in focus. Requirements for businesses to expand online have significantly changed the travel industry environment in a way that makes managing travel expenses effectively a highly valuable commodity. Travel expense management entails a wide range of factors such as any transaction related to travel planning, and reimbursement of expenses. Travel management; specifically in respect to the reduction of costs have been enhanced through the use of computer systems like the enterprise R/3 system.

But how does an organization find its way to reduce costs and at the same time process high amounts of business travels based on a high quality for the traveler? Is this task an insoluble conflict or can it be a win-win situation for all involved parties? The following teaching case provides the initial stages of a process reengineering project undertaken in a shared service provider for local government departments in Australia. The objective of this project is to reengineer the process of business travels applying a reengineering methodology.

Introduction

The business travel market has a range of different trends that can be identified, such as close financial and functional relationships between suppliers and intermediaries which serve as common characteristics of the market. It’s pointed out within the case study that since the 1970s, travel agencies have used computer reservation systems (CRS) to link to suppliers. The case also notes that over 70% of airline bookings registered through travel agents are done so using CRS. This reveals how significant CRS is to the daily operations of both businesses and airlines. Within this case study, CSA, seeks to upgrade their CRS system to make it more efficient within the evolving e-commerce marketplace. This entails adapting innovative information management as well as asset management information system (AMIS) technology. It’s noted within the case that, “the CRS represents 22% to 27% of the company’s overall market share Sabre, Amadeus, and Galileo. They enable travel agents and travel service providers to market and sell travel around the world. In addition, over 100 airlines and other travel service providers optimize their internal operational requirements and use the modular technology of CRS” (Schallert, 2003, p.295).  It is not a standard practice for organizations to access all travel services from service suppliers. On most occasions, government institutions use their own car fleets, which allow government agencies to disclaim car rentals. CSA put into practice an enterprise system that has resulted in centralized real-time results that establish visibility of their data across the organization. The company specifically utilizes SAP R/3 (Version 3.1H) to satisfy their business needs. This is a system utilized across all organizations of the company including the financial department and human resources since 1998. While initially,

The implementation costs were, as in many other implementation projects, determined by high consulting costs. Before the enterprise system was implemented CSA had to manage several legacy syinnitially stems, which were partly substituted by the enterprise system. A still remaining legacy system is the in-house developed Asset Management Information System (AMIS). AMIS contains a catalogue of owned and leased assets separated by asset fleet, type, make and model, location and business area. Apart from asset register functions, AMIS performs the following additional tasks:  Fuel Card Management: Cost recovery of fleet vehicles’ fuel expenses and control of fuel invoices. Vehicle Hiring: Provision and invoice validation of fleet vehicles for business travels. CSA administers 2,000 fleet vehicles.

One issue that does arise can be seen in the challenge within the CSA organization to keep the current system intact. The case study notes that the CSA staff is currently fond of this system and is presenting significant resistance to the migration into a new platform or upgrade. Much of this resistance can be attributed to the potential for a learning curve that could come from adopting a new method of operations. As the author note within the case, “the IT staff of CSA is very confident with this system and there is an organization wide high resistance to replace this system. AMIS is not fully integrated with SAP, but communicates in some areas via interfaces with SAP R/3” (Schallert, 2003, p.295). To realize the benefits of the costly implementation and upgrade, CSA is faced to achieve full capabilities and business values by adopting best practices, reducing operational costs and integrating the Financials and Human Resources modules. The IT management believes that a major impact on the way of service delivery will be from the increased integration of information systems and through the improved use of information technology. To realize the benefits of information systems, data shall be captured on one single and early point and converted into meaningful information, legacy systems and business processes need to be integrated, and data and information need to be easy accessible. Some of the key areas on which CSA is focusing involve employee self-service, electronic forms, e-procurement, and travel and expense management.

Project Management Overview

Performance Metrics

Performance metrics are used to measure performance of the project and organizational activities. Two primary metrics that assist in measuring the progress of a project are completion of work in forecasted budget and utilization of resources. These metrics can be utilized within a system upgrade as they help to identify the performance of organizational activities whether the company is moving in the right direction or the wrong one (Lal, 2002,p.22). These metrics involve factors that are generally based on completion of work in forecasted budget and utilization of resources.

Completion of Work in Forecasted Budget indicates parameters related to project costs. Cost measure metrics enables users to assess and identify performance activity through comparing costs. Comparison between both costs can proceeds can me analyzed using this method (Vanhoucke, 2009). Success can be achieved, “when real cost in less than or equals to the forecasted cost, whereas exceed in real cost from forecasted cost denotes a diversities phase of a project” (Vanhoucke, 2009). Cost related measure is one of the appropriate criteria for CSAs to compute the performance of planned project. It is because the project included highly forecasting activities in every action. Every task of the system upgrade has a projected range, which means that completion of intended goals can be measured based on minor milestones going forward and budgetary constraints can be measured as well (Lal, 2002).  CSAs include prediction of human resource cost so, the identification of forecasted cost comes into play to assist stakeholders in ensuring the real cost is required to acquire a real position of whole project. Therefore, the measurement via cost is the appropriate tool to identify the performance of this project.

Utilization of Resources is a metric utilized by every organization in relation to activity completion. Through the utilization of resources, the CSA project can be evaluated for its efficiency in regards to the use assets and other factors that enable it to progress on the intended path.  Through the optimal use of resources organizations can be more effective in reaching their intended objectives and results. An organization can successfully do a task, when it utilizes resources optimally. On the other hand, if resources are not utilized effectively, the estimation of overall activity fails and that activity needs another planning phase. The information regarding cost, work and time reflects the utilization of resources (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, 2002,p.32). In context of this project, the performance can also be measured through such analysis of resource utilization. As CSAs’ main focus is resources so, if resources are not utilized promptly, the progress of project cannot be possible. The measurement of project performance via resource factor is one of the effective ways to identify direction of project progress.

Scope of Project

The primary scope of the project entails the business process redesign in travel management implemented through an SAP R/3 upgrade.  A wide range of other aspects of the system upgrade process are assessed for optimum efficiency in managing financial

Objectives & Constraints

The project’s objective is to reengineer the business travel process by applying a methodology of reengineering.

Statement of Work

CSA’s mission statement states the company seeks to “professionally deliver quality corporate services for government” (Schallert, 2003, p.295).  CSA handles processing and functions related to operations of corporate services. The CSA project team seeks to update and centralize the SAP R/3 system. The work seeks to incorporate services of third party vendors, to gather data from the previous database and enhance the current system by centralizing it into a comprehensive source for collaboration. CSA will also need to setup a technical support team for diagnostic and future errors.

Project Team Members and Responsibilities

The project team members identified within the case that are responsible for the success and implementation of the system upgrade process involves Ken Blake, John Walker, Mary-Lyn Harrison. IT and organizational issues, the project team will develop alternative to-be scenarios and present them to CSA’s IT management as project sponsor. The project team will herewith prepare the decision making of CSA’s IT management under the project management of Mary-Lyn Harrison. For the project team, the implementation of the full-integrated Travel Management solution from SAP seems to be the most coherent step, but the IT management has doubts if this solution would match CSA’s very individual requirements.

Project Schedule

The group consists of four members and the time frame is from 23/03/2015, Monday, to 29/05/2015, Friday.

Proposed Strategic Alignment

This solution model is recognized for its ability to migrate legacy systems into new ones but for the CSA system upgrade, this process requires strategic alignment. One issue that arises from attempting to migrate from a legacy system to a new system, even when upgrading is that some changes needed within the existing architecture and design so that “cloud computing order to leverage new features in the new cloud computing based system in a way that caters to legacy systems.  Database table partitioning is another method that can be utilized to support multiple workloads. This is great for maintaining different databases and collaborating them in sync with database replication technologies” (Buyya, Broberg, & Goscinski, 2010, p.23).  Other optimization factors also play a significant role in the design of the database. An example can be seen with better understanding migration project, the resource lifecycle, and the phases involved in meeting milestones.  The primary proposed strategic alignment for the SAP upgrade entails aligning old system protocols with new system protocols across all departments noted in the table below.

The above table presents the proposed departments necessary for strategic alignment, specifically assets and administration, financial services, human resources, and information systems.  Each department has its own distinct department relevant for operations which have its own set of travel expenses based on employees. In addition to departments needing to be aligned with the new SAP R/3 system upgrade, there is also a critical need to implement a new system that aligns all of the travel expenses data of each department within in one core centralized network.

Description of Current System

One distinct aspects of the current SAP R/3 system is that its operations are supplemented by Asset Management Information System (AMIS). It should be further noted that AMIS, while it plays a significant role in major aspects of an organization’s operations, the case study is keen to note that it is not fully integrated with SAP.  but communicates in some areas via interfaces with SAP R/3. “In case of accuracy the travel officers will enter the following data into the SAP R/3 Financials and archive the documents: total amount of travel allowances, account code, GST claim applicability” (Schallert, 2003, p.295).  The development of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) creates a situation for the system to be re-engineered to adapt to market trends and align with modification in company scope. It should be notes however that the current SAP R/3 enterprise system is not ideal or optimal for the needs of all corporations and there are changes that could be put in place that can improve the system. The case notes that, “most notably, SAP R/3 has been widely implemented to create value?oriented supply chains that enable a high level of integration, improve communication within internal and external business networks, and enhance the decision?making process. Though many organizations have reported dramatic improvements from SAP R/3 implementation, others have experienced difficulties in getting the R/3 modules aligned with other business components and systems” (Schallert, 2003, p.295). In some through incorporating specific regulatory policy to control the protocols related to business travel expenses, CSA is able to empower travellers to make necessary travel decisions on their own.

Issues

One primary issue that must be recognized within upgrading CSA’s travel expense management system involves keeping track of all the travel records for budgetary management. The inability to completely integrate all expenses within the company’s records is a critical concern that a system upgrade would be expected to resolve. Within the case study it’s noted that, “unfortunately the easy creation of a report in the enterprise system for John Walker is not a reality yet. Mary-Lyn Harrison, senior project officer at CSA, stated, ‘we simply don’t know who is traveling when, where and why, causing how much costs although we capture all data on our travel documents’” (Schallert, 2003, p.295). To counteract and circumvent this issue, CSA management devised a process reengineering project they felt would optimize the flow of information using what they identified as a total Travel Management solution model. This solution model is recognized for its ability to migrate legacy systems into new ones. One issue that arises from attempting to migrate from a legacy system to a new system, even when upgrading is that some changes needed within the existing architecture and design so that “cloud computing order to leverage new features in the new cloud computing based system in a way that caters to legacy systems.  Database table partitioning is another method that can be utilized to support multiple workloads. This is great for maintaining different databases and collaborating them in sync with database replication technologies” (Buyya, Broberg, & Goscinski,  2010, p.21).  Other optimization factors also play a significant role in the design of the database. An example can be seen with better understanding migration project, the resource lifecycle, and the phases involved in meeting milestones. Many factors can impact the success of a migration project, especially in respect to the availability of resources and the necessary skill level of the IT team doing the work. Stakeholders also significantly impact the success of a system migration project, such as availability of skilled IT staff, designing software architecture, and putting in place realistic project planning.

Problems

The primary problem that arises with utilizing SAP, regardless of whether the system is a legacy system or an upgrade, can be seen associated costs. Corporate travel expenses play an intangible but important role in influencing the budgetary makeup of a company. It’s noted within the case that “sometimes, these expenditures are even unaccounted in the organization’s annual budget. Travel and related expenses account on average for 7% of the total operating costs, which are escalating to be the second largest controllable corporate expense. Travel costs were rising from 1996 to 1998 up to 13% and at the same time travel supplier commissions were cut” (Schallert, 2003, p.295). This is the primary problem CSA seeks to address through implementing the SAP upgrade.

In relation to this project cost, time and resource are the tools that shows problem throughout the process. In current situation, where some of the task going to start and some are proceeding, the project manager have to aware of problems that may create problem in the success of whole project. As per the above description, the actual cost of the project going to hike from forecasted cost. Such increment in cost reflects towards the diversion of whole project from the right path (Bohlander & Snell, 2007, p.21). If project need more cost in completion then CSAs has to collect funds and that will take huge time of organization. The main reason behind occurrence of difference between estimated cost, time and actual cost, time is improper utilization of resources. There may be possibility that the technical and human resources are not utilized at that much efficiency, which was estimated (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, 2002, p.45). Due to such problem, the project cannot achieve objective that reflects towards the determination of supportive and technological tool that increase the number of telecommuters.

Part of the argument that supported the idea of skipping over the as-is process model that there is an inherent benefit to developing a form of analysis before going in depth on the process reengineering. It was believed that by allowing time or analysis it would better enable CSA to produce a high powered quality product that would be more reliable for consumers.  As noted within the case, “the project team reported all findings and identified processes to Ken Blake, the business process improvement manager. The next initial project step would be the identification and analysis of organizational and IT issues within the business process” (Demeulemeester & Herroelen, 2002, p.45). The main benefit of a thorough process analysis is that it allows managers and engineers to identify where value is being wasted and it helps to enhance proficiency. This was CSA’s primary objective in developing a value chain and business travel process model. To further enforce the tools necessary to meet the objective of optimized efficiency developed within a process model, data is digitized and steps are automated to create a virtual work environment. It’s standard for this data to be presented within a milestone meeting. It’ s noted within the case that Ken Blake was chosen to verse business process improvements, most likely due to his experience within this field. The core processes related to CSAs business travel routine were travel planning, travel booking, travel, and travel reimbursement. The natural chain of progression saw that CSA employees would see to establishing their own travel plans and bookings, handle the physical act of traveling themselves, document their expenses, and then provide those expenses to CSA. Following the first three milestones, CSA would see to the reimbursement of those trips within a certain set limit mandated in their travel expenses policies.

Value Chain and business Travel Process

The value chain and business travel process entail four distinct factors identified within the case. Each factor is presented as a step from the travel planning to reimbursement process. All stakeholders have their respective requirements which they must meet in order or the value chain and business travel process to be executed effectively. These steps include, travel planning, travel booking, travel, and the travel reimbursement. One distinct factor that is not presented in the diagram below involves the role of the company where they provide the employee with valuable information necessary to support sound travel planning decisions. This is the initial step that adds value to the process.

The summary of the process reengineering project was that it needs to be investigated where resources are wasted, process steps can be automated or data digitalized. This analysis should be presented in a milestone meeting to general management, IT management and process management. It is proposed after this milestone the IT management is supposed to undertake the final decision if the SAP R/3 Travel Management solution should be utilized or alternative solutions should be investigated. Ken Blake has high expectations on the process analysis and from here derived alternative solutions based on best practices for Travel Management. Oppositely he is afraid that there will be still a high uncertainty about various issues which cannot be solved or considered in the solutions, because simply insufficient data are available and the complexity is too high. One of his concerns is the high limitation by the travel policy.

Proposed Stakeholder Analysis and Management

Stakeholders and stakeholder analysis originates from the concept of betting and staking and the origin of the term can be traced back to 1708 (Ramirez, 1999, p.101). Stakeholder analysis specifically refers, “the identification and description of stakeholders on the basis of their attributes, interrelationships, and interests related to a given issue or resource” (Ramirez, 1999).  The author further notes that stakeholder analysis can also be defined as establishing an understanding of a system, “through the identification of key actors or stakeholders in the system, assessing their respective interest in that system” (Ramirez, 1999, p.101). For the purpose of implementing a stakeholder analysis for this case study, the latter definition will be utilized. The primary stakeholders represent those who have a direct vested interest in the success of the system upgrade, such as the team members. The external stakeholders and internal stakeholders can be identified as the rest of the individuals This includes high level executives of CSA, entry level staffers, investors, managers, engineers, the community, government organizations, the human resource department, and IT department, to name a few. This includes external and internal stakeholder, while those members of the project team are for immediate in their contribution to the project as a whole. The case study notes that, “the project team started with a collection of all available data at CSA related to the business process and interviewed Ken Blake, the business process improvement manager, and Mary-Lyn Harrison. Ken, who selected the business process with a high priority for reengineering, presumes that some business trips might be not required” (Schallert, 2003, p.295).  The main purpose of this stakeholder analysis is to assess the role stakeholders play in empowering the system upgrade process. Specifically the stakeholders involved in the system upgrade are Ken, Mary-Lyn, Cindy, Astein, Frode and Marte. These six primary stakeholders oversee the system upgrade process for CSA. There are also external stakeholders represented within the CSA employee base such as the four full time travel officers working in four local service centers, as well as one travel officer at the headquarters in charge of arranging business travels. As noted within the case, there is no central travel manager and there is no officer controlling advanced payments travel advanced payments, or one in charge of designing financial reports or compensating travel expenses. The company could significantly benefit from placing individuals in charge of managing these responsibilities. In addition to adding an extra layer to their travel expense monitoring protocols, it will significantly optimize the efficiency of their travel expense management operations.

Proposed Requirements Elicitation Methodology

A sound elicitation methodology can involve any number of techniques used to collect data utilized within cognitive sciences, knowledge, education, engineering, philosophy, psychology, management and a variety of other fields which rely on information to form strategic approaches. There are a range of challenges that arise from establishing sound elicitation methods. As Coughlan & Macredie (2002) notes, “the elicitation or communication of user requirements comprises an early and critical but highly error-prone stage in system development. Socially-oriented methodologies provide more support for user involvement in design than the rigidity of more traditional methods, facilitating the degree of user-designer communication and the ‘capture’ of requirements” (Coughlan & Macredie, 2002, p.47). The authors propose a four dimensional framework structured to optimize productive communication between the designer and the user. The primary resource for eliciting data used within the study is statistical results taken from traveller interviews. The primary method utilized or the purpose of providing a coherent and informative case study analysis of the CSA is literature review analysis

The above chart represents how statistics are acquired regarding travel requirements and dealing with competitive markets.  The data sets can in turn be inputted into the SAP R/3 system for formulating competitive strategies for improved future performance.

Proposed Requirements Statement

A distinct set of requirements are established which reveal the policies necessary for the CSA plan to be effectively implemented. The authors note that, “the overall business travel process is triggered by a reason for a business travel with a specific date and location. It needs to be distinguished between two different process incidences caused by the different characteristics of the business travel”. The proposed requirement for the system upgrade is one that entails re-engineering a system with the ability to keep track of travel expense data and travel records in a way that can be integrated within in traditional budget portfolios. This would represent a significant change from legacy systems as they have failed to document travel records of employees accurately enough to incorporate within a standard budget. The ideal system will be able to handle records necessary for efficient compensation practices. It is proposed that the ideal system will also be able to integrate with new technological innovations such as cloud computing. The case study breaks down the  proposed requirements into A&B requirements noting that, “A: Interstate, 2-3 days, flight For example, travel of a senior manager to a two-day conference in Melbourne. B: Intrastate, 1 day, car. For example, a one-day business travel of a scientist to take water samples on different sites. Based on the reason for travel, the traveler will have to explore the most suitable transport and accommodation for his/her travel purpose” (Schallert, 2003, p.295). The key aspect of the requirements proposed within the case study is the role of the employee. As the employee engages with the system, they are provided information that they in turn use to make travel decisions. The information is filtered through the company’s select list of travel and accommodations. An important requirement related to travel expenses revolves around the obligation of compensation and how payments are made in the process of purchasing travel services. In regards to this, the case study notes that, “A the traveler will require accommodation and flight. The service provider will need to be contacted via telephone to receive detailed information about alternative flights and accommodation. The traveler is not limited by travel policy to directly contact a preferred accommodation and explore vacancies. B The traveler will require a car, but no accommodation” (Schallert, 2003, p.295). It’s further noted that in order for travelers to be able to benefit from the company’s compensation program, they must follow CSA travel policy and make explore available cars within the government car rental provider list. Once the traveler has acquired the necessary information through the above procedure, they still take on the obligation of planning the trip, such as the specific accommodations and the required bookings.  Finally, the case notes that it’s required, “A If the traveler decided to receive travel allowances all regular expenses will be covered expenses beyond have to be covered by the traveler him/herself. B During traveling the traveler will pay all expenses either in cash or via private credit card in exceptions the traveler will hold a corporate card”(Schallert, 2003, p.295). Travel market suppliers provide two main products transport and accommodations. In most cases travel service suppliers refrain from distribute their product directly to the market, but instead provide their services to intermediary travel agencies that allocate these services based on demand and supply. They do this as retailers or wholesalers to their customers. The various travel services are demanded by organizations, which consolidate the need for business travels of their employees. This demand is driven by the diverse travel purposes of each single business traveler.

System models

The system model of SAP R/3 entails applications of the SAP R/3 system which are coded in the ABAP/4 (Advanced Business Application Programming Language) programming language. As Kemper et al., (1999) notes, “except for a small kernel, actually the entire R/3 system is coded in ABAP/4. ABAP/4 is a so-called Fourth Generation Language (4GL) whose origins can be found in report/application generator languages. For this reason, ABAP/4 programs are often called reports” (Kemper, Kossmann, & Zeller, 1999, 33). Over the course R/3 evolution and development, ABAP/4 was gradually structured and then restructured with procedural constructs specifically so it had the capacity to facilitate coding of highly complex business applications. An example of this can be seen with the fact that composed within ABAP/4 is a language constructs to program “Dynpros,”  otherwise known as dialog programs with a graphical user interface. These are used for validating and processing entries. SAP has recently expanded its ABAP system model programming language to incorporate object-oriented features, which are often recognized as ABAP Objects.  This enables SAP to utilize Native SQL, but as Kemper (1999) notes, this results in creating some significant drawbacks  such as “(1) The EXEC SQL commands may be database system-specific which renders non-portable ABAP/4 programs. (2) By circumventing the SAP-internal data dictionary, EXEC SQL commands cannot access encapsulated relations (containing encoded/clustered data that can only be interpreted using the transformations maintained in the data dictionary). (3) Native SQL reports are potentially unsafe because Native SQL directly reads database relations” (Kemper, Kossmann,  & Zeller, 1999, 33). The primary factor that should be noted regarding the SAP system model is that with very few exceptions the entire SAP system can be shipped and programmed utilizing SQL.

Data models and requirements

SAP R/3 is recognized as a highly generic and comprehensive business application system structured for a wide range of organizations dealing in different types of operations. This generic nature of SAP R/3 results in it having a substantially large data model with more 13.000 database tables (Kemper, Kossmann, & Zeller, 1999, 33). In order for SAP R/3 to sustain its meta data (the way these table interrelate with one another), it’s required that the system have its own data dictionary. The data dictionary functions like a data library that can be accessed through the SAP application program. This data model can be seen utilized by CSA is recognized in the way they manage the transition from their previous system to their new system. For the mitigation/removal of this problem, a project must be completed within proper way. In term of this project, CSAs can complete further activities with the consideration of past activities. Manager should move towards further tasks to take glance over estimated cost and time. Through this, the project can work on right path and can eliminate the possibility of increment in cost & time. At the same time, the resources can be utilized optimally, when manager have to evaluate its speed and performance time-to-time. The evaluation must be taken into account by manager in some intervals (Morris & Pinto, 2007). Thus, timely evaluation results information related to every task and because of such information, CSAs can identify proper progress and process of project according to the plan.

Process models and requirements

SAP uses the term Logical Unit of Work (LUW) for transactions. The system model of SAP R/3 entails applications of the SAP R/3 system which are coded in the ABAP/4 (Advanced Business Application Programming Language) programming language.

Architecture of the Application Server

SAP put in place its own locking scheme. This means the system is managed through the use of a centralized server. These are used for validating and processing entries. SAP has recently expanded its ABAP system model programming language to incorporate object-oriented features, which are often recognized as ABAP Objects.

This enables SAP to utilize Native SQL, but as Kemper notes (1999), this results in creating some significant drawbacks such as “(1) The EXEC SQL commands may be database system-specific which renders non-portable ABAP/4 programs. (2) By circumventing the SAP-internal data dictionary, EXEC SQL commands cannot access encapsulated relations (containing encoded/clustered data that can only be interpreted using the transformations maintained in the data dictionary). (3) Native SQL reports are potentially unsafe because Native SQL directly reads database relations” (Kemper, Kossmann, & Zeller, 1999, 33). The primary factor that should be noted regarding the SAP system model is that with very few exceptions the entire SAP system can be shipped and programmed utilizing SQL.

Proposed Candidate Evaluation Methodology

There are also candidate solutions that can work alongside SAP Travel Management that can be evaluated for their efficacy to support the system. For example, Amadeus e-Travel Management has long worked as a system that seamlessly integrates into workflows and customers’ SAP infrastructure. Amadeus offers an end-to-end solution for managing the full trip lifecycle. This includes individual areas, like travel request, travel booking, travel planning, and travel expense management.

The primary aspects of the system that can be integrated within SAP include Amadeus e-Travel Management for SAP Travel Management, which enables online self-booking tool to work in collaboration with on-site solutions like SAP Travel Management. Another candidate solution that can be implemented alongside SAP Travel management is the Amadeus e-Travel Management system for SAP Cloud for Travel and Expense. This is a system where online self-booking tools are integrated within SAP cloud based solutions enabling administrators and customer to access data related to SAP Travel management through the cloud. SAP has had a long running, over 12 year, technology partnerships and they have a proven track record of joint customers. Incorporating Amadeus and systems like into the SAP system can help with future enhancements and support. Through incorporating systems like Amadeus that can supplement SAP Travel Management operations to be more efficient in facilitating travellers, there can also potentially be less strain in the SAP system itself.

Proposed change management solution

The primary proposed changes that could come with management solutions for the CSA system upgrade could come from incorporating telecommuting as an alternative to business travel to reduce the cost of travel as a whole. Telecommuting entails the use of web-based tools such as video chat, text messaging, e-mailing, or web based infrastructure that enables stakeholders to interact with one another. It should be noted that while this would not serve as an effective tool for business travel scenarios it would benefit the company financially on many other levels. Another proposed solution can be seen with organizing travellers more distinctively into groups of identification. For example, “the project team is thinking to categorize all travellers into frequent, casual and non-frequent travelers to establish travel profiles which will be treated in a same way. These travel profiles would determine the travel policy. To some extent Ken would also like to focus on an organization-wide corporate card solution for travel expenses in order to streamline travel expenses” (Schaller, 2003). The reason why this would apply effectively within the CSA case can is due to the fact that it allows more conscious awareness of the exact types of travellers, but also enables the company to hone in on their wants and preferences. For the mitigation/removal of a problem, a project must achieve its intended resolution. In term of this project, CSAs can complete further activities with the consideration of past activities (Morris & Pinto, 2007). CSA can identify proper progress and process of project according to the plan. The company could significantly benefit from placing individuals in charge of managing these responsibilities. In addition to adding an extra layer to their travel expense monitoring protocols, it will significantly optimize the efficiency of their travel expense management operations.

Conclusions & Recommendations

In some through incorporating specific regulatory policy to control the protocols related to business travel expenses, CSA is able to empower travellers to make necessary travel decisions on their own. Another key factor that must be taken into account can be seen with the added benefit of incorporating telecommuting as an alternative to business travel. As business becomes more web-based, telecommuting serves both as a valued alternative and as an effective resource capable of keeping CSA competitive within the market. It is also noted that, there is no central travel manager and there is no officer controlling advanced payments travel advanced payments, or one in charge of designing financial reports or compensating travel expenses. The company could significantly benefit from placing individuals in charge of managing these responsibilities. In addition to adding an extra layer to their travel expense monitoring protocols, it will significantly optimize the efficiency of their travel expense management operations.

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