Knowing A Few Rules Doesn’t Mean You Can Play the Game : The Limits of “Best Practice” in Enterprise Systems.

We examine the common claim that "best practices" are encompassed and represented in Enterprise Systems (ES). We suggest that an ES can at best only represent the ostensive and not the performative elements of work tasks. Thus, representation of best practice in an ES does not take practical action into account. This has two important implications. First, ostensive abstractions of best practice in an ES are a sparse and superficial representation of a "good" business process, at a specific moment in time. Second, the practical understanding required for performance is often ignored in the ostensive representation of best practice in the implementation of an ES. This constrains user and business adaptability. Inflexible coding of ostensive business tasks furthermore leads to rigidity where flexibility should be sought, to keep on top of the competition. Implications and directions for further research are discussed

Reasons behind ERP package adoption: a diffusion of innovations perspective

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages have been widely adopted and it is becoming clear that this is driven by multiple rationales that may be simultaneously at odds and complimentary. In this paper, we aim to develop a greater understanding of these rationales by taking ERP packages to be innovations and analysing their adoption with reference to the theory of diffusion of innovations. In particular, we consider the attributes of ERP packages that may affect their adoption such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexiblity, trialability and observability. We argue that users’ perceptions of these attributes are not always accurate and these ’misconceptions’ can further explain reasons for ERP adoption or rejection. Although our analysis aims to provide rich insights into the adoption of ERP packages, the results of the study are arguably of further interest to the more general study of packaged software and the more established literature on custom development

Selling packaged software: an ethical analysis

Within the IS literature there is little discussion on selling software products in general and especially from the ethical point of view. Similarly, within computer ethics, although there is much interest in professionalism and professional codes, in terms of accountability and responsibility, the spotlight tends to play on safety-critical or life-critical systems, rather than on software oriented towards the more mundane aspects of work organisation and society. With this research gap in mind, we offer a preliminary ethical investigation of packaged software selling. Through an analysis of the features of competition in the market, the global nature of the packaged software market and the nature of product development we conclude that professionalism, as usually conceived in computer ethics, does not apply particularly well to software vendors. Thus, we call for a broader definition of professionalism to include software vendors, not just software developers. Moreover, we acknowledge that with intermediaries, such as implementation consultants, involved in software selling, and the packaged software industry more generally, there are even more “hands” involved. Therefore, we contend that this is an area worthy of further study, which is likely to yield more on the question of accountability

Connectivity via Web Services: An Analysis for Interoperable E-Commerce.

The Web Services platform depicts a systematic, inter operable, and messaging infrastructure on which enterprise systems build sophisticated and dynamic applications for data mobility on the web. This article examine how scalability and interoperability of data using Web Services can promises a dramatic progression for both the technological and the business aspects of ecommerce

E-Business: Factors of EAI Adoption in an Australian Electricity Company

The awareness of the scarcity of literature in EAI adoption in the public sector led to the current study of an investigation into the factors that influenced the adoption of EAI in an Australian electricity company. Using a case study approach and qualitative methods, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with five informants from different aspects of the EAI project. Data analysis was conducted using the grounded theory, resulting in 24 themes, which were then categorized into three broad themes of environmental influence, current problems and perceived benefits. These themes were taken as factors that contributed to the decision making of the EAI project of the case company. The informants considered environmental change as the trigger for the adjustment of the case organization’s strategy. However, they all shared the view that the adoption of EAI was the consequence of a clear identification of the strategic positioning of the organization, the understanding of existing inhibitors and the awareness of the benefits of a chosen technology