New Implimentation of ERP System at the Internal Revenue Essays

New Implimentation of ERP System at the Internal Revenue Essays New Implimentation of ERP System at the Internal Revenue Essay New Implimentation of ERP System at the Internal Revenue Essay The transformation at the IRS gave useful insight to a real life overhaul of a system that was not meeting the needs of its consumers. The IRS has a very expansive group of customers, every person and group that does business, or has business transactions in the USA could be considered its customers. The size of the Iriss customer base increases the need to avoid tenancies similar to what Mr.. Cotter identifies in his article, Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Even though transitions are/should be an ongoing effort to continue to improve, the New IRS is receiving better reviews and headed in the right direction with the right leadership and a goal of continuous improvement. The relationship that the IRS has with its consumers can be temperamental. The article identified that there is a segment of the population that consciously evades the responsibility of paying taxes. It goes on to say that if the IRS doesnt deal with that small percentage of non- compliant citizens, it could cause other taxpayers to feel like they are being treated unfairly. What makes this relationship more complicated is that it is required by law. When a consumer of a good is unsatisfied with the product they are receiving, they can usually go elsewhere and get what they want. With taxes, there is no other way than through the IRS. So if the service is bad, it will irritate taxpayers causing them to turn in poor quality tax returns or Join those who consciously evade paying taxes. The IRS can influence taxpayers desire to pay taxes by making the interfacing system they use easy. A simple tax preparation user system will not discourage taxpayers, whereas a complicated tax system will frustrate taxpayers and cause some taxpayers o choose not to pay taxes altogether. By upgrading the processes that the IRS use to serve the public, they help themselves by having a more efficient system. In Mr.. Cotters article, Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail he lists errors to avoid when making significant changes in the way a company operates. The first error that he addresses is that companies do not establish a great enough sense of urgency. I do not feel like this was a large problem for Mr.. Risotto and the rest of management of the IRS. With a mandate from congress, and a general public unhappy with its services, the IRS had plenty of urgency to start the transformation process. One area that received special attention in the article was the IRS call centers. The country had outgrown the old system and had made feeble attempts that failed to update it. Evidence of a failing system is cited in the article when it talks about the IRS call centers. Mr.. Risotto attributed the unsatisfactory service to long, complicated calls and old IT systems. A cross-functional committee was formed that identified the call centers as a target for improvement. This was a smart plan cause with a state-of-the-art call system, customers wouldnt need to call back several times hoping to get an answer. The new system routed them to an expert on the subject of question rather than a general staff IRS employee that had no specialized training under the old system. Lean Practices. Currently at work, I am going through a Six Sigma training that encourages waste reduction and maximum efficiency. It is interesting to see the parallels between what I have learned from Six Sigma, the articles written by Mr.. Cotter, and the article put out by Iraqi Technology. They all speak of the importance f the need to have a cultural change that will allow acceptance of a new system by the employees and for management to be the champion of the transformation taking p lace. Without company support, any IT system overhauls or company transformations will fail, and the management who half-heartily supported the failed transformation will lose respect and followers. Management needs to create a strong enthusiastic team that will sell the transformation to the company. This team needs to convince the system users that their lives will get better by implementing the needed changes and then be able to deliver on those promises. A great way to keep the momentum of the project going is to celebrate short-term wins. Public recognition for a process improvement will fuel the fire of a company transformation. Employees will see their peers and colleagues get recognized and get excited to Join in the company conversion to an improved place to work. Cotter said, Without motivation, people wont help and the effort goes nowhere. I think that it would be a great improvement for the IRS to contract out collection work to outside sources. It does not speak about the current process, but there are entities out there that robbery could do it better than the IRS. My reasoning behind that assumption is another assumption that government collectors are not paid commissions. If the IRS contracted out the collection line of business to an agency that got paid commissions on what they collected, my assumption would be that the company under contract would bring in more money to get greater commissions. Money is a powerful motivator, and with the legal backing of the IRS to collect, a collection agency paid on commission would be pretty motivated to collect. This also allows the IRS to focus ore on the majority customer and to provide top-quality service to its customers by narrowing its scope. Companies that can focus on one area of service usually are able to do it better than those who choose to operate multiple lines of business. At the end of the article, Mr.. Risotto acknowledged that the IRS is still far from reaching all of its objectives. However, with reliable systems in place, he stated that they were confident they could eventually reach their goal. Having a good perspective of where your company has come from and where you hope to take it can be a great learning LOL moving forward.