Going Beyond Operations with Enterprise Systems

Enterprise Systems have become the preferred type of IT systems in most large organizations in the last few decades. These, large-scale, integrated, packaged software suites have been shown to enable operational efficiency by several prior studies .This paper reviews a number of such studies and identifies a gap in the literature. The primary contribution of this paper is that it proposes that Enterprise Systems can create business value, in addition to operational efficiency, by achieving innovation (in product, process and alliance) and enabling better strategic decision making in the adopting firms. The paper also provides empirical evidence using detailed secondary data that supports this proposition. In addition, this study also provides additional evidence for concepts identified in earlier research. This paper reports on the first study of a research-in-progress and this model will be tested further through extensive primary case studie

Enterprise systems for innovation in products and processes : beyond operational efficiency

It has been widely accepted now in industry and academia that Enterprise Systems (ES) can create value for adopting organizations by enabling operational efficiency. However, given the enormous investments they warrant, the potential of such systems to deliver more than improving operations is emerging as a popular area of investigation. This paper reports a research-in-progress that proposes innovation as a means of creating business value with Enterprise Systems. The primary contribution of this paper is a process model that proposes that Enterprise Systems can enable innovation - in products and processes, and supports it with empirical evidence using three case studies. The intention is to test this model further with more case studies and a survey.<br /

Going beyond operational efficiency with enterprise systems: an empirical study of medium-to-large organizations

© 2013 Dr. Prithvi Jyoti BhattacharyaThe last few decades have seen the widespread adoption of large, integrated, and packaged software suites collectively called Enterprise Systems (ES) as the chosen IT platform for most large-scale and many medium-scale organizations. These software suites have been reported to enable operational efficiency by many prior studies in both academia and industry. However, given the enormous investments made in these systems, adopting organizations expect to create more value than achieving operational efficiency. Despite several claims from vendors and IT consultants about the potential of such systems to deliver more than operational efficiency, there is little empirical research to support these claims. The aim of this study is to a) identify the means of business value creation, beyond operational efficiency, that Enterprise Systems can enable in adopting organizations and b) understand the mechanism through which these systems enable such business value creation. To this end, the study proposes a new framework, with a process model and a variance model, as an attempt to address the above. Further, these models are empirically tested using 100 vendor-supplied customer success stories and three detailed case studies of medium-to-large organizations. The contributions of this thesis are three-fold. Firstly, the thesis presents a new framework based on a review and synthesis of existing literature that proposes that Enterprise Systems can create business value by enabling (a) Mergers and Acquisitions, (b) Innovation in product and service, (c) Strategic Decision Making. Secondly, it identifies causal relationships between such non-operational business value and drivers that enable such value, i.e., (a) ‘Integration’ with ES enables Mergers and Acquisitions, (b) ‘Optimisation’ and ‘Informating’ with ES enables Innovation, and (c) ‘Informating’ with ES enables Strategic Decision Making. Thirdly, the thesis presents evidence of support for such propositions using empirical data. Thus, this study proposes and assesses the potential of Enterprise Systems in enabling business value creation beyond operational efficiency. This study can be treated as a foundation for further research into the use of such systems for non-operational organizational benefits

Role of Enterprise Systems in Business Transformations: A Management Perspective

To survive in the increasingly competitive and complex world of business, a concept that has gained extensive popularity recently is business transformation, and Information Technology (IT) is said to be a strong candidate to enable such strategic endeavours. This paper is based on a research-in-progress and attempts to look at the potential of a specialized kind of IT called ‘Enterprise Systems’ (which has made waves in the industry and academia in recent times) in such transformation efforts. The contribution of the paper is that it synthesizes studies in the related areas of business transformations and the strategic potential of Information Systems (including Enterprise Systems). The paper also proposes a framework depicting how the adoption of Enterprise Systems can enable firms to strategically transform themselves. The intention is to follow this up with a detailed research project to validate the framework empirically

Enabling strategic transformations with enterprise systems : beyond operational efficiency

The last few decades have seen the widespread adoption of large-scale, integrated, packaged software suites collectively called Enterprise Systems. However, most studies done so far have largely focused on the operational efficiency achieved by using these systems. This paper reports on research-in-progress that seeks to explore the strategic potential of Enterprise Systems to enable business transformations. In doing so, a new model is proposed that places the emphasis on the potential of Enterprise Systems to achieve innovation and reshape business strategy, rather than merely focusing on operational benefits. This model proposes that Enterprise Systems, when used to integrate, optimise and informate, can help firms achieve alliance innovation, process innovation and reshaped business strategy. The paper also provides preliminary empirical evidence that supports the propositions. This model will be tested further through primary case studies and a survey. This research, once completed, will assess the strategic role of Enterprise Systems in enabling business transformations beyond operational benefits.<br /