Juggling magazines, people, and computers : implementing an ERP system at Canada Wide Magazines / by Gloria Ma.

This paper analyses the ways in which Canada Wide Magazines & Communications Ltd. ("Canada Wide"), a Canadian magazine publishing company, used software solutions to improve its operations and streamline its business processes. It documents and examines the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, a software system that replaced all legacy database and information systems at Canada Wide with a single, centralized database system. This paper details a case study of Canada Wide and the challenges it faced when it adopted the ERP system and underwent a system-wide change. Overall, this paper offers insight into: the production workflow at a magazine publishing company, the drawbacks of functional management, the introduction of a crucial data processing system, and the management of change. It explores the decision-making process of planning for change, and the implementation process of an ERP system.