ERP Systems Research Agenda

This assignment presents a research agenda for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. It delves into various aspects of ERPs, including their impact on modern manufacturing, risk assessment during implementation, the influence of the implementation process on perceived success, shared leadership in ERP and HR systems, key benefits for small businesses, integration with Business Intelligence, and the adoption of SaaS-based ERP solutions. The agenda encourages further research and exploration of this dynamic field.

Running head: ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING 1
Enterprise Resource Planning
Name:
Institution Affiliation:

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Introduction
The enterprise resource planning systems could be regarded as the most innovative development
in the IT for the last decade (Chang, Kuo, Wu & Tzeng, 2015). Many organization have been
shifting from the functional to the process based information technology infrastructure, and the
ERP systems they have become one of the most widely used information technology solutions
(Al-Mashari, 2003). The concept of this technology has been focused on the standardization, the
synchronization as well as the improved efficiency (Seethamraju, 2015). The ERP systems could
be regarded as the configurable information system packages which have the capabilities of
integrating of the information as well as the processes all across the functional areas within an
organization. The benefits which have been encountered by the use of the ERP system has been
significant (Arik, 2002). Some of these benefits have been coordinating of the processes as well
as the information, reduction in the carrying costs, the decrease in the cycle time along with the
improvement of the responsiveness to the client’s requirements (Al-Mashari, 2003). What has
really motivated the organization in implementing of their ERP system has been their integration
as well as the standardization capabilities, the flexibility of the client/ server architecture, along
with the abilities of driving the effective business reengineering as well as the management of
the major and support processes (Seethamraju, 2015). Traditionally, it has been observed that the
ERP system have been implemented in the capital- intensive industries for example the
manufacturing, construction as well as the defence. In the recent years these systems have been
implemented in the other sectors such as the finance, insurance, as well as the education (Arik,
2002). Currently, these system have now been considered as the standard technology upon to
which the major organizations are operating their business (Chang, Kuo, Wu & Tzeng, 2015). In
this essay it intends to discuss various aspects such as the role and purpose of the ERP system,

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the benefits and the drawback associated to this system, the implementation process of the ERP
system, the ERP solutions to the organizations, and the future of the ERP systems.
The role and the purpose of the ERP system
In the business world organization, the business software usually play a vital role when it comes
to the support as well as its activities to be able to increase on the productivity along with the
efficiency of the business (Chang, Kuo, Wu & Tzeng, 2015). The business software offer
benefits to the organization it also brings about major implication for the firm when they decide
to implement the various type of the business software.
The enterprise resource planning system are usually designed for the distributors, the retailers as
well as the professional services organization basing on their needs (Shaul & Tauber, 2013). The
company by the name SAP Aktiengesellschaft is well known as the world market leader in the
supply of the ERP technology.
The ERP system are implemented in order to offer more accurate data as well as safe time.
Moreover, the system also reduces the asset costs and the financial cycle, increase the
satisfaction of the clients and the globally integrate of the data all across the organization supply
chain (Bi, Da Xu, L., & Wang, 2014). The ERP uses the relational database technology for
integrating of the different units of the organization data system that integrate on all the
processes of the business and sub-processes which are linked as well as unified into the single
system. This system has been designed to be able to focus on various areas of the company such
as the financial, the human resource, supply chain and the marketing (Chang, Kuo, Wu & Tzeng,
2015). The ERP is important to all the needs of the organization and it can be utilized in any
type of the business, despite the objective of the business, size or even the area of the operations.

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This system is able to economize and also improve on the efficiency of the average existing work
process (De Toni, Fornasier & Nonino, 2015). Without the use of the ERP system the modern
organization will not be able to compete well. The purpose of the ERP is to configure and
accommodate different business processes to enable it run more efficiently and effectively.
Benefits and the drawback associated to this system
The benefit which the ERP system bring to the business is that it reduces on the costs as well as
the cycle times, increase on the productivity and the quality, improve on the customer services
through the automation of the basic and the repetitive operations (Seethamraju, 2015). The use
of these system are able to automatically estimate on the demand for the products, the number of
the orders, raw material, tracking of the inventory, allocate on the costs, provide on the schedule
for the production and keeping of the data for the client (Seethamraju, 2015). This system is able
to repeat on these operations and also keeps the data to help the organization in analyzing on the
effects of the changes in the production mix and the volume to be able to maximize on the
corporate margins for the profits.
The ERP system is able to provide the informational benefits especially to the management. It
help the business to achieve better management of the resources such as the employee
management which helps in improvement of the manpower allocation (Sadagopan, 2003). Other
areas would be the inventory management for improvement of the inventory turn and the stock
allocation, production management for optimizing the supply chain and the production schedules
(Leon, 2014). The ERP helps in the improvement of the decision making by increasing of the
market responsiveness, there is also better control of the costs and improvement of flexibility of
the customer services by increasing on the services adjustment and the response customer
demand.

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The integrated information systems in the business provide new opportunities to support on the
link between the company and the business (Leon, 2014). The ERP offers E-business through
use of the web integration capabilities which helps to get the customer closer to the business.
Moreover, there are opportunities in the business to business interactive customer services.
The drawbacks which are associated with the implementation of the ERP system are as follows;
one of them is the high cost which is associated to the installation of the system (Bi, Da Xu, L.,
& Wang, 2014). The cost of the ERP can cost up to one hundred million dollars. Based on
research, back in the year 1999, most of the companies spent between ninety million on the ERP
system.
The installation of the ERP system also takes a longer period of time this is a drawback to the
business as they would want to implement it and leap on the benefits associated to the system
(Nofal & Yusof, 2013). The ERP is a complicated system and it more often take more than a
year to be installed and become operation in the business (Chofreh, Goni, Shaharoun, Ismail &
Klemeš, 2014). The installation takes longer because there is study which should be carried out
and reviews made before it is installed so that to match on the requirements of the business.
The implementation of the ERP system could hurt on the processes of the business, break the
relations of the customer and the business require a lot of time to achieve long term goals
(Global, 2010). Moreover, the implementation of the ERP system entails a new procedure to be
able to manage the system, training should be done to the employees on the procedure of the
system which caused many companies change to this new system to be slow.
The implementation of ERP to business

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In the implementation of the ERP process, it is important that the organization to clearly know
the steps which are involved. The following are the steps which are involved.
Discovery: This comprise of the processes which help in defining on the needs, the vision as well
as the scope of the project which the organization is involved in (O'Leary, 2000).
Plan and monitoring: this comprise of the processes which are involved in the developing of
the strategy for the completion of the work, along with the measures of the progress as well as
the corrective actions which are required (Chofreh, Goni, Shaharoun, Ismail & Klemeš, 2014).
This usually takes place throughout the entire process.
Analyze: In this stage it is much detailed level of the discovery and it comprise of the processes
which are involved in the gathering a detailed requirements and analyzing on the customer
business needs.
Build: This involves the processes which carry out the tasks which have been identified in the
strategy.
Stabilize: This usually comprise of set of the processes which are aimed in ensuring that the
solution is able to meet on the requirements of the clients and it is ready for the full deployment
to a live production environment (Global, 2010). Moreover, this also comprise with the readiness
of the client in using the solution.
Deploy: These are the processes which are essentially deployed to the business to the production
environment.

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The business should understand these processes very well to enable proper implementation of the
system to prevent shortcoming which are associated with wrong implementation which could
cost the business a lot of money.
ERP solutions to the organization
The ERP has been accepted business practices since the 90s. The vendors ERP systems allowed
for the organization integration of many of their core function which are part of many business
regardless the industry they are in. The organization in the industries as different such as the
manufacturing and the insurance share common function areas for example the human resource,
project management and the accounting (Hoch, & Dulebohn, 2013). The generic administrative
functions are part of the ERP system which happens to be implemented successfully by the
organizations (Global, 2010). The other part of the system of the ERP is to handle on the core
business processes and it is dependent on the type of industry. The ERP system vendors such as
the SAP and oracle are encountering challenges to their several areas of their products which
have evolved in serving ever more specialized industries with the use of their generic
applications. The ERP systems have been threatened by SOA that has been introduced in the
major organizations. The large companies usually have more resources to be able to implement
middleware solutions as well as build sosphicated applications (Global, 2010). The small
organizations usually depend on the vendor ERP system as well as rely on their upgrades to be
able to add on the functionality at the functional levels. As the Small and the Medium enterprises
adopt on the ERP systems they will continue to provide more middleware to be able to allow on
the customization.
Future of the ERP systems

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The ERP systems has changed more drastically since its conception (Global, 2010). There is new
features, functionality as well as technology which extend the ERP systems across the entire
ERP system across the business to enable it to thrive. The automated processes as well as the
increased visibility have helped in the reduction of the costs, gain competitive advantage along
with adding value to the software investment (Global, 2010). As a result of the advancements as
well as the improvements, there have been a number of the trends which are growing more
rapidly in today market. Some of the trends which to look in the ERP system would include; one
would be the cloud deployment- there would be an increase in the cloud adoption especially to
most of the ERP system. This would reduce on the costs in the capital expenditures as well as the
information technology resources (Al-Mashari, 2003). Other trends would be the social media
integration. Many of the ERP vendors have grown to see the value as well as the growth of the
social media and many business have incorporated it into their systems. The future of the ERP
system is very bright. Gone and those days when the businesses used the spreadsheets and the
manual processes (Lasisi, Owens & Udagedara, 2017). Currently, it is time for the upgrade to
enable the organization to gain the competitive advantage, reduce on the costs and build of a
foundation which is solid for the business. These trends will continue to offer additional
resources to have a better connection to the business both internally as well as externally.
Conclusion
In this essay it has discussed on the concept of Enterprise resource planning system which many
organizations have adopted. The research has discussed various components such as discussing
various aspects such as the role and purpose of the ERP system, the benefits and the drawback
associated to this system, the implementation process of the ERP system, the ERP solutions to
the organizations, and the future of the ERP systems.

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References
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Arik Ragowsky, T. M. S. (2002). Enterprise resource planning. Journal of Management
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Bi, Z., Da Xu, L., & Wang, C. (2014). Internet of things for enterprise systems of modern
manufacturing. IEEE Transactions on industrial informatics, 10(2), 1537-1546.
Chang, B., Kuo, C., Wu, C. H., & Tzeng, G. H. (2015). Using Fuzzy Analytic Network Process
to assess the risks in enterprise resource planning system implementation. Applied Soft
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Chofreh, A. G., Goni, F. A., Shaharoun, A. M., Ismail, S., & Klemeš, J. J. (2014). Sustainable
enterprise resource planning: imperatives and research directions. Journal of Cleaner
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De Toni, A. F., Fornasier, A., & Nonino, F. (2015). The impact of implementation process on the
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Leon, A. (2014). Enterprise resource planning. McGraw-Hill Education.
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O'Leary, D. E. (2000). Enterprise resource planning systems: systems, life cycle, electronic
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Shaul, L., & Tauber, D. (2013). Critical success factors in enterprise resource planning systems:
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