An Overview of Enterprise Resource Planning for Intelligent Enterprises

INTRODUCTION Enterprise resource planning systems can be defined as customizable, standard application software which includes integrated business solutions for the core processes and administrative functions (Chan & Rosemann, 2001). From an operative perspective , ERP systems provide a common technological platform unique for the entire corporation allowing the replacement of mainframes and legacy systems. This common platform serves to process automation as well as to simplify current process either by an explicit reengineering process or by the implicit adoption of the system " best practices " (Markus & Tanis, 2000). Finally, the common centralized platform allows the access to data that previously were physically or logically dispersed. The automation of the processes and the access to data allows the reduction of operating times (thus reducing operating costs) while the latter serves to a better support of business decisions (see e.g., Umble, Haft & Umble, 2003 for a detailed review of ERP benefits). ERP is considered to provide businesses with new opportunities to acquire knowledge (Sri-vardhana & Pawlowski, 2007), being the sources of knowledge the aforementioned best practices from the ERP, and the ERP software company's staff during the implementation phase. At present, ERP systems are either used or implemented in a large number of enterprises. According to Genoulaz and Millet (2006), up to 74% of manufacturing companies and up to 59% of service companies use an ERP system. In addition , more than 70% of Fortune 1000 companies have implemented core ERP applications tional plus strategic), or without objective (Law & Ngai, 2007). The adoption of an ERP system with operational objectives is aimed at improvement operating efficiency together with the reduction of costs, while companies implementing ERP with a strategic objective would experience a change in business processes, improving sales and market expansion. A widespread critique to ERP systems is their high total cost of ownership (Al-Mashari, Al-Mudimigh & Zairi, 2003) and hidden costs in implementation (Kwon & Lee, 2001). Besides, ERP systems impose their own logic on an or-ganization's strategy and culture (Davenport, 1998), so ERP adopters must adapt their business processes and organization to these models and rules. Consequently, organizations may face difficulties through this adaptation process which is usually carried out without widespread employee involvement. This may cause sore employees, sterile results due to the lack of critical information usually provided by the employees; and also late delivery, with reduced functionality, and/or with higher costs that …