116 research outputs found
Identifying and improving deficient business processes to prepare SMEs for ERP implementation
The study reported in this paper aims to identify, explore and improve hitherto deficient business processes for SMEs in order to prepare them for ERP implementation projects. When business process improvement is traditionally perceived as a task that is particularly related to the ERP project phase, this paper argues that broad changes of business processes should actually be performed well before implementing the system. The research took a Cypriot SME as a case study, and adopted in-depth interview as the main method of data collection. The qualitative data collected was analysed by using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The findings identified that business deficiencies and problems, which can impact potential ERP adoption and usage in SMEs, can be localised across business processes, e.g. sales ordering and stock controlling processes. Disregarding these deficient business processes and business drawbacks in the ERP preparation stage will have implications not just for the subsequent ERP project, but also for the long-term ERP usage
Identifying And Improving Deficient Business Processes To Prepare SMEs For ERP Implementation
The study reported in this paper aims to identify, explore and improve hitherto deficient business processes for SMEs in order to prepare them for ERP implementation projects. When business process improvement is traditionally perceived as a task that is particularly related to the ERP project phase, this paper argues that broad changes of business processes should actually be performed well before implementing the system. The research took a Cypriot SME as a case study, and adopted in-depth interview as the main method of data collection. The qualitative data collected was analysed by using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The findings identified that business deficiencies and problems, which can impact potential ERP adoption and usage in SMEs, can be localised across business processes, e.g. sales ordering and stock controlling processes. Disregarding these deficient business processes and business drawbacks in the ERP preparation stage will have implications not just for the subsequent ERP project, but also for the long-term ERP usage
Towards ERP success in SMEs through business process review prior to implementation
Purpose – ERP systems are not the exclusive concern of large companies anymore. More and more small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are now engaging with the implementation and exploitation of this type of system. However, reports of ERP failure are numerous and frequent. Very often, this failure results from technical and implementation problems. But even more frequently, it is due to lack of preparation, by the companies themselves, for the implementation process. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to identify and explore ways in which SMEs may need to prepare themselves before implementing ERP systems.
Design/methodology/approach – The research took a Cypriot SME as a case study and adopted an inductive approach supported by in-depth interviews as the main method of data collection. The qualitative data collected were analysed by using a thematic analysis approach. Subsequently, a rich picture and concept maps were used to represent the findings generated.
Findings – The study identified that business deficiencies and problems, which can impact potential ERP adoption and usage in SMEs, can be localised across business processes boundaries, such as sales order processing, stock control, and bill of materials management, etc. These business problems were found to be attributed to a variety of organisational, technical and human-related reasons. Therefore, this study established that in order to implement ERPs successfully, organisations may require changes in people's work practices and understanding of technology, ownership and control of business processes, as well as organisational wide policies.
Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to the knowledge of ERP preparation and business process improvement in SMEs.
Practical implications – The findings of the paper provide useful insights for both academic and practitioners who are thinking of implementing ERP systems. The paper contributes to the body of literature on issues that SMEs may need to reflect upon before embarking in a costly and resource intensive process of ERP implementation.
Originality/value – Business process improvement is traditionally considered as the result of an ERP project phase. This is how the large majority of the academic literature and the totality of marketing information by ERP vendors portray it. In fact, the reality of practice shows a different scenario with frequent reports of failure and inadequate ERP implementation. This paper aims at breaking with this myth, by proposing that ERPs cannot resolve the large variety of deficient business processes and internal problems that may exist in SMEs. Therefore, this study argues that SMEs need to prepare in advance by engaging in business process reviews prior to the ERP implementation that is engaging in a pre-implementation or preparation phase
Urban Computing and Smart Cities: Towards Changing City Processes by Applying Enterprise Systems Integration Practices
For developing smart cities, it is necessary to integrate all components of a city as a system of systems. This is facilitated by urban computing as a technology to address the complexity of providing adequate services to citizens through various city sectors/systems. Since business processes across city sectors/systems should be aligned with the objectives of urban computing, Business Process Change (BPC) is also a significant prerequisite of city systems integration for Smart City Development (SCD). However, there is limited research on understanding of BPC and its challenges in SCD, while in the private sector, the BPC best practices for Enterprise Systems Integration (ESI) have already been recognised and implemented. By considering city as an enterprise, this research aims at providing an understanding of similarities and differences between BPC challenges in the two contexts: SCD and ESI. This study collects data through literature analyses, interviews, and document analyses and suggests that many BPC challenges in SCD have an equivalent from the ESI context. In addition, the findings provide new insights through some challenges that are only relevant to the SCD context, so-called unsolved challenges. Consequently, the study developed a comparison framework, which indicates that the learnings from ESI could be utilised for the SCD context, in order to address BPC challenges. This will assist city authorities in designing their SCD roadmap, prioritising BPC challenges based on the efforts employed for ESI, and thinking about addressing unsolved challenges; as well as smart city solution providers to develop solutions for changing city processes
Negotiating Strategic Business Value of BPM Systems: A Balanced Scorecard Approach
There has been a growing interest in how Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives can be used to improve competitive advantage of organizations. Discussion in the current literature is often centered on how operational efficiencies can be gained by the implementation of BPM initiatives. However, to fully realize the strategic opportunities made possible with BPM, it is necessary to take an approach that evaluates BPM not only on the financial aspects, but also on other intangible/ non-financial aspects. In this paper, we demonstrate how the balanced scorecard approach can be used for negotiating strategic business value of business process management initiatives to gain support from the various stakeholders
Towards an unified information systems reference model for higher education institutions
Higher education institutions are currently facing many challenges that are making them to start compete strategically, like other not-for-profit firm. To adequately support such new approach, their information systems and business strategies should be totally aligned. However, the current existing landscape of heterogeneous information systems and applications deployed in many institutions can compromise such aim. Recently, reference architectures and models have emerged as instruments suitable to help company’s decision-makers to cope with such tensions. However, whilst many of such architectural models already exist for several industries, little has been done so far in higher education. In this paper, we briefly review major existing developments in such way before to inductively derive a unified information systems reference model tailored for higher education institutions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
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Investigating enterprise application integration (EAI) adoption factors in higher education: an empirical study
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonThe Higher Education (HE) sector of a country is a key area indicating the progress of cultural, political and social growth and development. Public and social demands as well as technological developments add new challenges for this sector. Consequently, higher education institutions have changed and a more flexible IT infrastructure is required to enable them to adapt efficiently to competitive business challenges. Enterprise application integration (EAI) is a technology that effectively integrates intra- and inter-organizational systems.
Firstly a systematic review of the EAI literature was conducted. From this review, it was apparent that there are no theoretical models for EAI adoption and evaluation for higher education. Hence, this research contributes a conceptual model that includes influential factors derived from the literature and combines them with the proposed classification of influential factors for HE to produce an EAI conceptual model for the HE domain.
To validate this proposed model empirical research was conducted. Then, the model was tested using a qualitative case study approach by means of three case studies that were conducted at different universities. Exploratory, explanatory and interpretive data analysis phases were implemented to find what is the current EAI process of HE and how these institutions currently work. In addition, these phases were employed to identify the EAI adoption factors in HE. As a result of this analysis the conceptual model was modified because of complementary factors that emerged. Therefore, the main contribution of this research is a comprehensive and novel model for EAI adoption in higher education area. The adoption EAI factors were identified by extracting a number of parameters from the empirical data. Several important factors that influence and assist the adoption of EAI in HE were identified. Hence, an additional contribution is the classification of factors in EAI adoption into technical and social factors which provides a better understanding of these factors. A further contribution is the derivation of a new classification of the EAI external and internal pressure factors. The development of a consistent model for the adoption and evaluation of EAI in HE is based on these factors
Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and Knowledge Management: A Review of the Literature and Conceptual Framework
This article provides a comprehensive review of the literature published in various articles dated back to 1998 on the role of Knowledge Management (KM) in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This article follows the literature published in this context focusing on two basic themes: KM supporting the ERP systems and KM integration into the ERP system. All the articles published on the relationship between KM and ERP systems published since 1998 were searched. Articles were sorted out on the basic themes they addressed. Most of the work on the role of KM in ERP systems was grouped into two main categories depending on the research subject matter. Integration of ERP systems being one of these basic themes was further investigated, enlisting all possible research articles published so far. Literature review on the KM and ERP relationship can be concludes that despite different relationships explored in the literature, KM has a vital role to play in the success of the ERP system. It is one of the critical success factors which complements the ERP systems to the extent that its absence will diminish the very essence, that is the adaption of ERP systems for the companies signified by the competitive advantage, market agility, and organization efficiency
Integrated lifecycle requirements information management in construction
Effective management of information about client requirements in construction
projects lifecycle can contribute to high construction productivity; within budget
and schedule, and improve the quality of built facilities and service delivery.
Traditionally, requirements management has been focused at the early stages
of the construction lifecycle process where elicited client requirements
information is used as the basis for design. Management of client
requirements does not extend to the later phases. Client requirements often
evolve and change dramatically over a facility’s life. Changing client
requirements is one of the principal factors that contribute to delays and
budget overruns of construction projects. This results in claims, disputes and
client dissatisfaction. The problems of current requirements management
process also include: lack of integrated and collaborative working with
requirements; lack of integrated requirements information flow between the
various heterogeneous systems used in the lifecycle processes, and between
the multiple stakeholders; inefficient and ineffective coordination of changes
within the lifecycle processes; manual checking of dependencies between
changing requirements to facilitate assessment of cost and time impact of
changes.
The aim of the research is to specify a better approach to requirements
information management to help construction organisations reduce
operational cost and time in product development and service delivery; whilst
increasing performance and productivity, and realising high quality of built
facilities. In order to achieve the aim and the formulated objectives, firstly, a
detailed review of literature on related work was conducted. Secondly, the
research designed, developed and conducted three case studies to
investigate the state-of-the-art of managing client requirements information. A
combination of multiple data collection methods was applied which included
observations, interviews, focus group and questionnaires. Following this, the
data was analysed and problems were identified; the necessity for a lifecycle
approach to managing the requirements information emerged. (Continues...)
New Business Models for Sustainable Spare Parts Logistics: A Case Study
Producción CientíficaAdditive manufacturing of spare parts significantly impacts industrial, social, and environmental aspects. However, a literature review shows that: (i) academic papers on the adoption of additive manufacturing have focused mainly on large companies; (ii) the methods required by SMEs to adopt new technologies differ from those employed by large companies; and (iii) recent studies suggest that a suitable way to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt new additive manufacturing technologies from the academic world is by presenting case studies in which SMEs are involved. Given the increasing number of global SMEs (i.e., SMEs that manufacture locally and sell globally), we claim that these companies need to be assisted in adopting spare-parts additive manufacturing for the sake of resource and environmental sustainability. To bridge this gap, the purpose of this article is to present a case study approach that shows how a digital supply chain for spare parts has the potential to bring about changes in business models with significant benefits for both global SMEs (more effective logistic management), customers (response time), and the environment (reduced energy, emissions, raw materials, and waste).Junta de Castilla y León - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (grant VA049P17
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