Extending the enterprise: An evaluation of ERP and EAI technologies within a Case Study organisation

It is widely understood that both Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS), provide great benefits in improving the visibility of supply and value chains within and across organisational boundaries. Those enterprises which can realise the benefits of extending their core business processes outwards to clients and trading partners, will be able to create unique supply chain-dependent products and solutions. Thus, such business infrastructures have enabled organisations to expand and improve the effectiveness of their enterprise. One method to achieve this, has been to integrate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems with web-based and other IS systems, using Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technologies. This paper seeks to investigate those factors which contributed to a case organisation’s extended enterprise experiences, by using extant ERP and EAI implementation IS evaluation criteria; and by placing the research results within the context of applicable IS research techniques in the area

Emergence of ERPII Characteristics within an ERP integration context

It is widely accepted that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can provide organizations with efficiency and productivity gains, in terms of aggregating and streamlining internal business processes. It is also well understood that embarking upon the implementation of such an IT project, also presents many risks and challenges to the incumbent corporation, as witnessed by numerous cases in the normative IS literature on this subject. Through the description of a case study organization’s ERP integration experiences, the authors highlight the emergence of those characteristics which define the componentization, and extension of ERP functionalities (i.e. so-called ERPII) in terms of a failed ERP-led, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) implementation within an industrial products organization. As a result of the exploratory research approach used, it is hoped that the definition of such factors will provide an insight into the development and management of such technology investments

Organizational energy: A behavioral analysis of human and organizational factors in manufacturing

This paper seeks to explore the behavior and embodied energy involved in the decision-making of information technology/information systems (IT/IS) investments using a case within a small- to medium-sized manufacturing firm. By analyzing decision making within a given case context, this paper describes the nature of the investment through the lens of behavioral economics, causality, input-output (IO) equilibrium, and the general notion of depletion of executive energy function. To explore the interplay between these elements, the authors structure the case context via a morphological field in order to construct a fuzzy cognitive map of decision-making relationships relating to the multidimensional and nonquantifiable problems of IT/IS investment evaluation. Noting the significance of inputs and outputs relating to the investment decision within the case, the authors assess these cognitive interrelationships through the lens of the Leontief IO energy equilibrium model. Subsequently, the authors suggest, through an embodied energy audit, that all such management decisions are susceptible to decision fatigue (so-called 'ego depletion'). The findings of this paper highlight pertinent cognitive and IO paths of the investment decision-making process that will allow others making similar types of investments to learn from and draw parallels from such processes

Critical Success factors for ERP Implementation: A content analysis of empirical Findings

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are software packages that allow companies to have greater real time visibility and control over their operations. Through a review of the ERP literature, seven critical success factors (CSFs) were identified based on the study of Nah and Delgado (2006). Content analysis was then employed on 16 published articles that reported CSFs for ERP. Correspondingly, this paper aimed to combine various results in order to determine the CSFs that contribute to success in the implementation of ERP systems. We found that the ERP CSFs referred to top management support and championship in a majority of articles, while communication was less mentioned

Understanding Project Team Composition in Enterprise System Adoption: Preliminary Findings from a Field Study

This study’s goal is to investigate and better understand the issues connected with project teams’ building in enterprise system (ES) implementation. The analysis builds on two-phased research conducted among two groups of enterprises introducing ES into their organizations. The investigated issues include the project team composition, the involvement of a system provider’s representatives, project manager’s characteristics, and the composition of a steering committee. The defined issues were investigated in an exploratory manner during the first phase of the study. Next, in the second phase, this study seeks to discover their impact on the ES adoption success using multiple regression techniques. The main findings suggest the importance of a complete implementation team building and the necessity of keeping a high status of the project by appointing people holding high managerial positions within the company. Finally, recommendations regarding the implementation team composition conclude the paper

Effect of Business Characteristics and ERP Implementation Strategies on ERP Outcomes: An Exploratory Study

Although much academic research has been done on various ERP-related issues, little research has focused on the effects of business characteristics and ERP implementation strategies on the outcomes resulted from implementing ERP. Thus, the focus of this study is to explore the effects of business characteristics and ERP implementation approaches on ERP outcomes. To this end, data collected from 256 Korean manufacturing firms were analyzed by Cluster Analysis to identify groups of companies having similar business characteristics and adopting similar ERP implementation approaches. Then, the differences in ERP outcomes among these groups of companies were examined. Results showed that large manufacturing firms with make-to-order production approach had significantly higher perceived benefits in external coordination than other firms

The Conditions of ERP Implementation Projects: Evidence from Practice

This paper analyses the conditions of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementations on the basis of research conducted among practitioners dealing with ERP projects. The study discusses how the researched projects were linked with enterprise strategy, how their efficiency was measured and in what extent they defined implementation goals. The investigated projects were divided into groups on the basis of their duration, scope, company size and success level achieved. The results demonstrate the real need for improvement as regards investigated conditions of ERP projects. The practitioners should be more focused on the business benefits during implementation project, elaborate the mechanisms in order to measure the implementation effectiveness and pay more attention to the definition of measurable implementation goals. The research outcome also reveals that practitioners from most complicated projects are most aware of the overwhelming implementation challenge, while, on the other hand, the relatively simpler projects seem to be underestimated

Cyclical Enterprise System Implementations in Healthcare

Combining an incremental approach with the implementation of an Enterprise System (ES) is seen as a kind of catch 22. Vendors and implementers nevertheless lately tend to adhere to cyclical approaches with shortened implementation times. This way of working approaches the incremental philosophy, but also influences the requirements on how the implementation process is managed in perspective of its ambitions. In this paper we derive a framework to explore ambition level and relate it to the used implementation approaches in five hospitals. From the results we first observe a rise in the use of cyclical approaches. Secondly we see a dynamic relationship between implementation approach and ambition level in four of the investigated hospitals. This means that the hospitals start drifting in their ambition level, implementation approach or even both. We conclude that such a drift in most cases leads to implementation problems if not aligned within one implementation cycle