Enterprise architecture for small and medium-sized enterprises

Enterprise architecture (EA) is used as a holistic approach to keep things aligned in a company. Some emphasize the use of EA to align IT with the business, others see it broader and use it to also keep the processes aligned with the strategy. Although a lot of research is being done on EA, still hardly anything is known about its use in the context of a small and medium sized enterprise (SME). Because of some specific characteristics of SMEs, it is interesting to look how EA can be applied in a SME. In this PhD, we present an approach for EA for SMEs, which combines four dimensions to get a holistic overview, while keeping things aligned. The approach is developed with special attention towards the characteristics of SMEs. Case studies are used to refine the metamodel and develop an adequate method, while tool support is being developed to enable the validation rounds

Erfolgsfaktoren bei der Einführung von ERP-Systemen in klein- und mittelständischen Unternehmen und deren Implikationen für die Hochschullehre: Erfolgsfaktoren bei der Einführung von ERP-Systemen in klein- und mittelständischen Unternehmen und deren Implikationen für die Hochschullehre

Bedingt durch oftmals schnelle und fortschreitende Änderungen im wirtschaftlichen Umfeld stehen Unternehmen vor zahlreichen externen sowie internen Anforderungen und Herausforderungen, was wiederum eine effektive Steuerung und Koordination der innerbetrieblichen aber auch der überbetrieblichen Geschäftsprozesse und -abläufe erfordert. Um diesen Herausforderungen zu begegnen, ist der Einsatz von adäquaten Anwendungssystemen zwingend. Speziell die Nutzung von Enterprise Resource Planning-(ERP-)Systemen, die als standardisierte Systeme die gesamten unternehmerischen Aktivitäten und Geschäftsprozesse unterstützen können, ist zu einem wichtigen Bestandteil der Unternehmen geworden. Ein richtig ausgewähltes und implementiertes ERP-System bietet zahlreiche Vorteile sowohl für Großunternehmen aber auch für klein- und mittelständische Unternehmen (KMU). Die Implementierung eines ERP-Systems stellt jedoch ein komplexes und zeitintensives Projekt dar, welches den Unternehmen große Möglichkeiten eröffnet, diese aber gleichzeitig mit enormen Risiken konfrontiert. Dabei realisieren immer mehr KMU die möglichen Vorteile dieser Systeme, woraus eine konstante Nachfrage nach ERP-Systemen für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen resultiert. Um jedoch von den Vorteilen zu profitieren anstatt von den Risiken „verschlungen“ zu werden, ist es zwingend erforderlich, sich genau auf die Faktoren zu fokussieren, die zur einer erfolgreichen Einführung eines ERP-Systems beitragen. An diesem Punkt knüpft die vorliegende Dissertation mit einem ersten Forschungsschwerpunkt an. Dieser Schwerpunkt befasst sich mit kritischen Erfolgsfaktoren im Zusammenhang mit der ERP-System-Einführung und der ERP-System-Nutzung in klein- und mittelständischen Unternehmen. Ziel dieses ersten Schwerpunktes ist es, einen Einblick in die Erfolgsfaktoren bei ERP-System-Implementierung in KMU zu geben und die Unterschiede zu den Faktoren bei ERP-Projekten in Großunternehmen aufzuzeigen. Als konkretes Ergebnis dieses Forschungsstrangs wird dabei ein Vorgehensmodell für ERP-Einführungen in KMU entwickelt, welches auf Basis der Erfolgsfaktoren von ERP-Projekten aus bestehenden Modellen abgeleitet und an die Bedürfnisse und Anforderungen der KMU angepasst wird. Hierbei werden die Erfolgsfaktoren direkt in das Modell mit einbezogen. Des Weiteren resultiert ein zweiter Schwerpunkt dieser Dissertation erneut aus der hohen und konstanten Nachfrage nach ERP-Systemen, welche zu einem sehr stark fragmentierten ERP-Markt vor allem im Bereich der KMU geführt hat mit einer Vielzahl von Herstellern und Systemen. Hier erschwert es diese hohe Marktfragmentierung den Anwenderunternehmen nicht nur, die „richtige“ Software zu finden, sondern auch für das von ihnen ausgewählte System entsprechende Fachkräfte an sich zu binden. Daraus ergibt sich unter anderem auch die Notwendigkeit für Hochschulen, ihren Studierenden und späteren Absolventen dieses geforderte und benötigte Fachwissen, insbesondere in informationssystembezogenen Studiengängen zu vermitteln. Jedoch gibt es dafür keinen standardisierten Ansatz. Die Systemwahl und die Anzahl der Systeme sowie der Aufbau und die Anzahl der ERP-Kurse divergieren von Hochschule zu Hochschule, wobei in diesem Punkt eine Dominanz großer ERP-System Hersteller zu verzeichnen ist. Allerdings ist eine diversifiziertere Einbindung von ERP-Systemen vor allem aus dem Bereich der KMU sinnvoll. An diesem Punkt stehen die Hochschulen und die Lehrenden vor der Herausforderung, wie viele Systeme in die Curricula integriert werden sollten und auf welche Art und Weise und in welchem Umfang diese Systeme vermittelt werden sollten. Daher werden im Rahmen dieses zweiten Schwerpunktes Möglichkeiten und Kursmodelle beschrieben, durch die eine praktische Vermittlung einzelner oder auch mehrerer ERP-Systeme ermöglicht und unterstützt wird. Ziel dabei ist es, einen Beispielcurriculum zu entwickeln, in dem über verschiedene Kurse hinweg, Kenntnisse zu ERP-Systemen vermittelt werden. Die Kurse dieses Curriculums werden dabei auf Basis der Literatur und der Anforderungen von Unternehmen an spätere Absolventen (vor allem resultierend aus den Erfolgsfaktoren des ersten Forschungsstrangs) entwickelt. Des Weiteren werden diese Kurse und die darin eingesetzten Systeme mit den Ergebnissen einer Umfrage an Universitäten und Fachhochschulen zum ERP-System-Einsatz in der Lehre verglichen und auf Basis dieser Ergebnisse angepasst und modifiziert. Als konkrete Resultate dieses Forschungsstrangs werden mit dem zu entwickelnden Beispielcurriculum Handlungsempfehlungen gegeben, mit denen Hochschulen sowohl Kenntnisse zu ERP-Systemen für Großunternehmen als auch zu Systemen für KMU vermitteln können. Dabei steht auch die praktische Kenntnisvermittlung von kleineren Systemen im Fokus, um den Studierenden einen weiteren Blick auf die Verschiedenartigkeit von ERP-Systemen zu bieten

Enterprise architecture for small and medium-sized enterprises : CHOOSE

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a coherent whole of principles, methods, and models that are used in the design and realization of an enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems, and IT infrastructure. EA is used as a holistic approach to keep things aligned in a company. Some emphasize the use of EA to align IT with the business, others see it broader and use it to also keep the processes aligned with the strategy. Recent research indicates the need for EA in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), important drivers of the economy, as they struggle with problems related to a lack of structure and overview of their business. However, existing EA frameworks are perceived as too complex and, to date, none of the EA approaches are sufficiently adapted to the SME context. Therefore, in this PhD, we present the CHOOSE approach for EA for SMEs. The approach consists of four artifacts: a metamodel, a method, software tool support, and a visualization. The approach is kept simple so that it may be applied in an SME context and is based on the essential dimensions of EA frameworks. Five steps were taken: first, the problem of EA in SMEs was extensively analyzed. Next, the CHOOSE metamodel was developed during action research in SMEs. Then, action research in six companies was used to develop an adequate method (consisting of guidelines, a roadmap, and stop criteria) and to further refine this CHOOSE metamodel, while different types of software tools (PC, iPad, Android, ...) were developed to enable the evaluation rounds. Finally, a proper visualization was established

Analysis templates for identifying improvement opportunities with process mining

Process mining tools help analysts in conducting a data-driven analysis of business processes. However, identifying improvement opportunities is still a manual task that depends largely on analysts’ expertise and experience with process analysis and process mining tools. In this paper, we present a set of templates that aid analysts in systematically identifying improvement opportunities with process mining tools. Based on review studies, we identified 22 improvement opportunities that can be identified from process logs. Then, we conducted a content analysis of 129 business process intelligence challenge submissions to elicit how improvement opportunities can be identified. Based on this data, we developed 21 templates that guide process analysts in identifying improvement opportunities using Apromore as a process mining tool. We evaluated the templates by combining interviews with survey methodology. The survey evaluation indicates that the templates are useful (score 4.37/5) and easy to use (4.65/5) for identifying improvement opportunities with Apromore

Big data analytics — A review of data-mining models for small and medium enterprises in the transportation sector.

The need for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to adopt data analytics has reached a critical point, given the surge of data implied by the advancement of technology. Despite data mining (DM) being widely used in the transportation sector, it is staggering to note that there are minimal research case studies being done on the application of DM by SMEs, specifically in the transportation sector. From the extensive review conducted, the three most common DM models used by large enterprises in the transportation sector are identified, namely “Knowledge Discovery in Database,” “Sample, Explore, Modify, Model and Assess” (SEMMA), and “CRoss Industry Standard Process for Data Mining” (CRISP-DM). The same finding was revealed in the SMEs’ context across the various industries. It was also uncovered that among the three models, CRISP-DM had been widely applied commercially. However, despite CRISP-DM being the de facto DM model in practice, a study carried out to assess the strengths and weakness of the models reveals that they have several limitations with respect to SMEs. This paper concludes that there is a critical need for a novel model to be developed in order to cater to the SMEs’ prerequisite, especially so in the transportation sector context

Systemic Risk in IT Portfolios – An Integrated Quantification Approach

Recent trends in digitalization, combined with continuous innovation pressure, have led to an increasing number of IT projects that are often accomplished within huge IT project portfolios. Although numerous IT project and portfolio evaluation and planning approaches have been developed and applied in companies all over the world, approximately 25% of IT projects still fail, which may result in a global value destruction of approximately 900 billion USD. One main reason for the numerous failures is the lack of transparency concerning dependencies within IT portfolios. This paper draws on graph theory to present a rigorous assessment of systemic risk that is based on different types of direct and indirect dependencies within IT portfolios. Based on this assessment, an integrated, novel, and quantitative approach to IT portfolio evaluation is presented that strives to mitigate IT project failures as it helps decision makers to evaluate their IT portfolios more adequately

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Investigating the process of process modeling and its relation to modeling quality : the role of structured serialization

Lately, the focus of organizations is changing fundamentally. Where they used to spend almost exclusively attention to results, in terms of goods, services, revenue and costs, they are now concerned about the efficiency of their business processes. Each step of the business processes needs to be known, controlled and optimized. This explains the huge effort that many organizations currently put into the mapping of their processes in so-called (business) process models. Unfortunately, sometimes these models do not (completely) reflect the business reality or the reader of the model does not interpret the represented information as intended. Hence, whereas on the one hand we observe how organizations are attaching increasing importance to these models, on the other hand we notice how the quality of process models in companies often proves to be insufficient. The doctoral research makes a significant contribution in this context. This work investigates in detail how people create process models and why and when this goes wrong. A better understanding of current process modeling practice will form the basis for the development of concrete guidelines that result in the construction of better process models in the future. The first study investigated how we can represent the approach of different modelers in a cognitive effective way, in order to facilitate knowledge building. For this purpose the PPMChart was developed. It represents the different operations of a modeler in a modeling tool in such a way that patterns in their way of working can be detected easily. Through the collection of 704 unique modeling executions (a joint contribution of several authors in the research domain), and through the development of a concrete implementation of the visualization, it became possible to gather a great amount of insights about how different people work in different situations while modeling a concrete process. The second study explored, based on the discovered modeling patterns of the first study, the potential relations between how process models were being constructed and which quality was delivered. To be precise, three modeling patterns from the previous study were investigated further in their relation with the understandability of the produced process model. By comparing the PPMCharts that show these patterns with corresponding process models, a connection was found in each case. It was noticed that when a process model was constructed in consecutive blocks (i.e., in a structured way), a better understandable process model was produced. A second relation stated that modelers who (frequently) moved (many) model elements during modeling usually created a less understandable model. The third connection was found between the amount of time spent at constructing the model and a declining understandability of the resulting model. These relations were established graphically on paper, but were also confirmed by a simple statistical analysis. The third study selected one of the relations from the previous study, i.e., the relation between structured modeling and model quality, and investigated this relation in more detail. Again, the PPMChart was used, which has lead to the identification of different ways of structured process modeling. When a task is difficult, people will spontaneously split up this task in sub-tasks that are executed consecutively (instead of simultaneously). Structuring is the way in which the splitting of tasks is handled. It was found that when this happens consistently and according to certain logic, modeling became more effective and more efficient. Effective because a process model was created with less syntactic and semantic errors and efficient because it took less time and modeling operations. Still, we noticed that splitting up the modeling in sub-tasks in a structured way, did not always lead to a positive result. This can be explained by some people structuring the modeling in the wrong way. Our brain has cognitive preferences that cause certain ways of working not to fit. The study identified three important cognitive preferences: does one have a sequential or a global learning style, how context-dependent one is and how big one’s desire and need for structure is. The Structured Process Modeling Theory was developed, which captures these relations and which can form the basis for the development of an optimal individual approach to process modeling. In our opinion the theory has the potential to also be applicable in a broader context and to help solving various types of problems effectively and efficiently

From business logic to business process : designing strategy-aligned business processes

Het ontwerpen van strategisch gealigneerde bedrijfsprocessen vereist een coördinatie tussen de strategie en de processen binnen een onderneming. Binnen het onderzoeksgebied van het Conceptueel Modelleren kan deze coördinatie verwezenlijkt worden door het gebruik van waardemodellen. Modelleertalen voor waardemodellen brengen zowel de creatie van waarde binnen de onderneming, als de uitwisseling van waarde tussen de onderneming en haar ruimer netwerk, in kaart. Binnen dit doctoraatsonderzoek wordt het gebruik van deze modelleertalen gecombineerd met het bedrijfsmodel van de onderneming, een concept dat zijn oorsprong vindt in Strategisch Management. Het combineren van conceptuele modelleertalen met relevante raamwerken uit de management literatuur zorgt er voor dat conceptuele modellen ontwikkeld kunnen worden binnen een afgelijnde strategische context. Hierdoor worden concepten gebruikt die een duidelijke betekenis hebben voor de eindgebruikers binnen de onderneming, waardoor het eenvoudiger wordt voor hen om de uiteindelijke modellen te begrijpen. Het onderzoek binnen dit doctoraatsproefschrift is opgesplitst in drie delen. Het eerste deel (hoofdstuk 2) beschrijft de ontwikkeling van een integrerend raamwerk voor het bedrijfsmodel, zoals het gepercipieerd wordt binnen Strategisch Management. De belangrijkste reden voor dit onderzoek was het gebrek aan een gemeenschappelijke visie binnen dit onderzoeksdomein. Het raamwerk werd ontwikkeld door middel van een literatuurstudie en leidde tot de identificatie van 10 elementen en hun onderlinge relaties binnen het bedrijfsmodel. De toepasbaarheid van dit raamwerk werd geïllustreerd door het toe te passen op de Southwest Airlines gevalstudie. Het onderzoek uit hoofdstuk 3 bouwt verder op dit raamwerk aangezien het gericht is op de realisatie van IT support voor de ontwikkeling van bedrijfsmodellen. Hiervoor zijn we nagegaan welke modelleerconstructen, die gebruikt worden bij het opstellen van waardemodellen, geschikt zijn om de elementen binnen het bedrijfsmodel weer te geven. Nadien zijn deze modelleerconstructen gecombineerd tot het nieuwe business model viewpoint binnen VDML. Deze modelleertaal werd recent ontwikkeld door de Object Management Group als een standaard voor het modelleren van de waardecreatie en –uitwisseling door de onderneming. Het VDML business model viewpoint heeft als doel om het begrip van de eindgebruikers over de onderliggende bedrijfsinformatie te vergroten. Dit effect werd nagegaan door het uitvoeren van een experiment, waarvan de statistische resultaten aantonen dat het gebruik van dit nieuwe model een significante en positieve invloed heeft op het de accuraatheid en de snelheid waarmee eindgebruikers de onderliggende informatie kunnen afleiden. Het laatste deel van het onderzoek (hoofdstuk 4) is gericht op the realiseren van strategische afstemming binnen de bedrijfsarchitectuur. Dit werd verwezenlijkt door de ontwikkeling van een modelleertechniek die gericht is op de creatie van business architecture heat maps. Deze techniek steunt op raamwerken uit Strategisch Management om de relevante elementen binnen de bedrijfsarchitectuur te identificeren. In dit opzicht maken we hier dus ook gebruik van de onderzoeksresultaten uit hoofdstuk 2. De realisatie van de heat maps is gebaseerd op het toevoegen van een kleurencode die zowel de prestatie als het strategisch belang aanduidt van de elementen binnen de bedrijfsarchitectuur. De creatie van deze heat maps wordt ondersteund door een software programma dat ontwikkeld werd via het ADOxx platform. De voorgestelde modelleertechniek werd toegepast en geëvalueerd door middel van drie gevalstudies bij een grootschalig internationaal bedrijf dat software ontwikkelt. De resultaten van deze gevalstudies hadden tot doel om de voorgestelde modelleertechniek verder te verfijnen, waardoor een mooie balans gevonden werd tussen het bijdragen van kennis aan de betrokken onderzoeksdomeinen en het bieden van een oplossing voor een praktisch bedrijfsprobleem

Business process modelling in ERP implementation literature review

Business processes are the backbone of any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Business process modelling (BPM) has become essential for modern, process driven enterprises due to the vibrant business environments. As a consequence enterprises are dealing with a substantial rate of organizational and business processes change. Business process modelling enables a common understanding and analysis of the business processes, which is the first step in every ERP implementation methodology (blueprint phase). In order to represent enterprise processes models in an accurate manner, it is paramount to choose a right business process modeling technique and tool. The problem of many ERP projects rated as unsuccessful is directly connected to a lack of use of business process models and notations during the blueprint phase. Also, blueprint implementation phase is crucial in order to fit planned processes in an organization with processes implemented in the solution. However, business analysts and ERP implementation professionals have substantial difficulties to navigate through a large number of theoretical models and representational notations that have been proposed for business process modeling (BPM). As the availability of different business process modeling references is huge, it is time consuming to make review and classification of all modeling techniques. Therefor, in reality majority of ERP implementations blueprint documents have no business process modeling included in generating blueprint documents. Choosing the right model comprise the purpose of the analysis and acquaintance of the available process modelling techniques and tools. The number of references on business modelling is quit large, so it is very hard to make a decision which modeling notation or technique to use. The main purpose of this paper is to make a review of business process modelling literature and describe the key process modelling techniques. The focus will be on all business process modeling that could be used in ERP implementations, specifically during the blueprint phase of the implementation process. Detailed review of BPM (Business process modeling) theoretical models and representational notations, should assist decision makers and ERP integrators in comparatively evaluating and selecting suitable modeling approaches