Cloud-ERP Integration Dilemmas in Modern Organizations

Modern organizations are faced with a new dilemma in adopting Cloud-ERP (Cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. Web 2.0 technologies have enabled users to interact and collaborate through social media platforms, changing the way education is approached. However, implementing Cloud-ERP requires consideration of challenges such as cost, security risks, and vendor key issues. IT managers must select appropriate cloud vendors, maintain long-term relationships with them, and ensure data security and privacy. Additionally, integration with other IS applications should be emphasized to overcome transparency and data privacy concerns.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1. CLOUD-ERP...............................................................................................................................3
a. Three key challenges associated with use of Cloud-ERP........................................................3
2. Enterprise 2.0 TOOLS.................................................................................................................6
b. Three key barriers in Web 2.0 tool..........................................................................................6
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
In digital era, most of the enterprises are concentrating towards effective use of new
emerging technologies like Cloud-ERP and Cloud-CRM to enhance customer flexibility and
convenience. During last many decades, dramatic advances in computing storage, power plus
network technology have allowed people to generate, process or share wide amount of
information in unique manner. The present study provides detail about challenges associated
with the implementation of Cloud-ERP in meeting business goals. Furthermore, report explored
enterprise 2.0 technology and barriers associated with its deployment. By conducting this study,
researcher would be able to reduce the impact of the challenges of Cloud-ERP and Web 2.0
technology in a significant manner.
1. CLOUD-ERP
a. Three key challenges associated with use of Cloud-ERP
Opportunities provided by Cloud-ERP are attractive such as fundamentally improve these
practical issues and check and update important data in Cloud ERPs immediately. But before
understand the major challenges associated with the use of Cloud ERP, it is important to know
about the need of it in the organizations. Earlier enterprises were adopted Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) system to support and integrate all key business processes. ERP resources were
internally hosted and maintained by user organizations. However, due to several drawbacks
which include time-consuming, up-gradation issues and high initial investment, management of
enterprises were concentrating towards switch from traditional ERP to Cloud base ERP system
(Cloud Computing Services, 2015). The main reason behind switching from existing to new is
that cloud computing is an advanced IT outsourcing model and it is helpful for companies in
term of reducing cost and better support to existing IT infrastructure. There are several factors
including enhanced system speed and performance, reduced ERP cost, system upgrade and
enhancement which encourages IT managers of organizations to switch over Cloud-ERP (Knorr,
2008).
However, implementation of new cloud base system is not an easy task for enterprises
and IT managers because several kinds of issues also associated with the use of this technology
at workplace. However, some potential challenges and barriers associated with the adoption of
this technique that can be explored as follow.
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Cloud transparency and data privacy: The advance cloud model provides opportunity to
enterprises to store large amount of data from internal hardware and servers of user companies to
third party cloud service providers. In addition, main company has a limited control on the
subscribed cloud services which raise transparency and control related issues (Purohit, Jaiswal
and Pandey, 2014).
Challenges: Despite of that, privacy of these sensitive data that are stored by cloud vendors and
easily movable of data from different servers located in different countries related issues are
creating challenges for enterprises.
Measure to reduce the impact of challenges: However, after applying data protection law and
following regulations developed by government, enterprises would be able to prevent and control
over transparency and data privacy kinds of issues. In the case of, if the organization compelled
to disclose the customer’s data then it is important to make them notify about disclosing of
various information. During sharing of information with the business partners, the organizations
have to maintain the transparency and privacy by using Cloud-ERP system. It has maintained the
limited access of the data and protects the rights of the service users.
Vendor lock-in: It is a situation where a customer is using a service or product which is not easy
switch over to a competitor’s services or products. The fear of it is often mentioned during the
major implementation of the cloud service adoption (Weng and Hung, 2014). The meaning of
could service migration is most of the customers are staying with those services providers who
are unable to meet the needs of service users in right manner. In the terms of technology, it has
known as Peng and Gala (2014) were conducted study to know the perception of IT employees
towards adoption of Cloud-ERP and barriers associated with its implementation. In this regard,
interview was conducted of IT employees belong to different designations.
The result of interview explored that certain legal restrictions made by current cloud
providers and reshape and change an organization’s culture are the major constraints which are
associated with the deployment of this new IT technology From the study, it is clear that cloud
ERP applications and services provided by different vendors can vary in terms of cost,
complexity and security features. It is main responsibility of IT manager and management to
review potential difficulties associated with it before making decisions towards the selection and
implementation of cloud base services (Peng and Gala, 2014).
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Challenge: The customer demands regarding the standardization and interoperability has
increases. Apart from this, switching from one cloud vendor to other is harder for companies.
Different types of issues including substantial financial loss, infrastructure set-up cost, existing
technology support and failure of business processes kinds of difficulties associated with switch
from one on premises software to another on-premises software. Along with this, the moving
application of data has different from one cloud service provider to another. On the other hand,
the challenges are integration challenges and data portability issue.
Measure to reduce impact: Use investigate novel approach to decrease the vendor dependency
and develop cloud computing migration frame work to reduce the impact of Vendor Lock-in.
Integration to other IS applications: In large multi-national firms, a single ERP may not able
to fulfill all business needs and functions. Along with the use of ERP systems, other IS
applications (e.g. legacy systems) are needed to support functional requirement of present
information system. Complexity, low compatibility, and other technical challenges are attached
with the use of Cloud-ERP and they can create hurdle for enterprises in term of attaining their
business objectives in a significant manner.
Challenges: Moreover, it is very challenging task for enterprises to integrate their Cloud base
ERP systems with different IS application due to use of various technologies and platforms.
However, this type of challenge can create issue for user companies in form of supporting
specific functional requirements and satisfy all business needs in a proficient manner (Mell and
Grance, 2011). When a company is using he following system within the firm then it has unable
to integration of the other IS applications with the computer systems and software. The major
reason behind this IS applications and ERP system both are developing on the different
technology and platform.
Measures to reduce the impact: Try to bring the modifications within the Cloud base ERP
system so that the integration of the different IS applications can done.
Examples related to Cloud-ERP case studies and their related issues
Case Study1: Fujitsu
For understanding the issues associated with implementation of Cloud-ERP business
suite, case study of Fujitsu firm was taken. IT department of organization was installed
Salesforce .com SaaS solution in order to reduce ERP cost and better support operations of firm
(Peng and Gala, 2014). However, enterprise was faced several issues during implementation of
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Cloud base system at workplace such as cloud transparency and data privacy and integration of
new system with existing system. Due to these types of issues, IT department of faced issues in
install and improves software packages and upgrading the software package on the PCs.
Case study 2: Fairmacs group
Enterprise offers complete door-to-door services to its customers and it has
700+employees across 14 offices in all Major/ ICD ports in India. Earlier, company was used
Tally which was failed to support business operations of company and manage the requirements
of the organization’s 17 legal entities in a systematic manner (The Fairmacs Group, 2010). In
order to overcome this issue faced by firm, IT department of company was suggested enterprise
to move on Cloud-ERP to upgrade software and enhance system performance. However, IT
manager and staff-members of firm were faced challenges in establishing adequate integration of
new Cloud-System with existing tally applications and back-up of entire data (Weinhardt and
et.al., 2009). Along with this, poor security practices and data privacy related issues were also
raised that was negatively affected data access and storage process of enterprise.
Case study: Easy jet
Easy jet is a company which is providing airlines services to the passengers in the
different areas of the world. Earlier, enterprise was adopted ERP system but it was faced to
grasp business opportunity. Furthermore, management of firm was taken decision to implement
the Cloud ERP system to minimize the costs of the operations. Nonetheless, along with several
advantages, enterprise was facing various issues such as vendor lock-in and poor integration.
Due to complex procedure and complicate cloud infrastructure, profits and financial position of
the company was negatively affected. In order to solve this problem, firm was taken decision to
switch to a different service provider. However, in this whole process, complexity of cloud
infrastructure and cost were increased. Due to vendor switch-in problem, firm was faced
different problems like service dissatisfaction and privacy shared own highly sensitive
information by using cloud system.
2. Enterprise 2.0 TOOLS
b. Three key barriers in Web 2.0 tool
Web 2.0 is a combination of new technologies including wikis, blogs, social networking
and new business models like long tail and webtop etc. Kittowski and their colleagues conducted
a comparative study on the use of Web 2.0 in enterprises. They found that work, innovation
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processes and cooperation are the major impact associated with the use of Web 2.0 in enterprises
(Kittowski and et.al., 2009). Apart from this, the major barriers encounter in implementing web
2.0 can be described as follow.
Uneasiness with openness: The open nature of Web 2.0 technologies can create issue for an
individual employee because all employees are not felt comfortable to share their information
openly to everyone (Pritchett, Pritchett and Wohleb, 2013). Besides that, most of the staff-
members preferred one to one communication rather than use of public and peer-to-peer
interactions at workplace. Due to the openness of the nature of the following tool, the probability
of the access the information by someone else has increased. The result of this, the employees
can used the data for the personal benefits or shared with the competitors.
Technical problems: It is found that earlier employees were often faced technical issues when
using Web 2.0 tools and might not work well in the absence of adequate knowledge about the
proper use of this technology. Along with this, employees were also facing various technical
issues with the implementation of Web 2.0 tool such as more difficult to monitor and secure the
information, not provide the systematic control over creating, storing or deleting information and
increase the interruptions of the outside or external factors. Besides that, employees were also
facing bandwidth, email overload and losing business to competitors related problems due to
lack of support of mobile devices. The negative impact of bandwidth and poor internet can be
seen in form of the lack of connectivity which affects the working efficiency of the employees of
the firm. On the other hand, it has not provided the data privacy to the employees and other users
so that anyone can easily access the information.
Time: It is another barrier in term of learning new technologies and implement concept in a
significant manner (An and et.al., 2010). Along with this, technical support, time for planning,
budget and expertise of employees are the other major problems that can create hurdle in
successful implementation of Web 2.0 technologies within organizations.
Measures to reduce the impact of key challenges: IT managers within enterprise can overcome
the challenges of this tool by applying various strategies including effective use of Fuzzy
Ontologies and emphasizing on improving collaboration and functioning of this learning tool
effectively. With help of taking case study, role of a Web 2.0 tool within enterprise and its roles
in enhancing online collaborative learning can be understood.
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Examples on implementation Web 2.0 tool in different organizations and issues associated
with it
Case study 1: Taiwan University
In order to know the issue associate with the implementation of Web 2.0, 55 students of
information technology and management at a university in southern Taiwan was taken. In this
regard, different learning activities including two-week wiki activity, Advanced Dynamic
Programming and programming language course had connected. The positive impact of
deploying Web 2.0 tool can be seen in form of increasing engagement of students in
collaborative learning, better facilitate teamwork, improving their professional knowledge and
effectiveness resulting from the wiki activity. From the result of study, it was found that students
were faced several technical problems at the time of use this web 2.0 technology such as
bandwidth, poor internet connectivity and lack of support to mobile devices. In addition,
negative impact of this technology can be seen in form of failing to attain learning goal and
guide students toward successful learning. In addition, by assigning authentication and aware
students about use of web 2.0, managers can be allowed to students to access the course’s wiki
page without a complicated registration process and authentication related issues (Chou and
Chen, 2008). It can help in reducing security related problems.
Case study 2: The Walt Disney Company
The American corporation was used Web 2.0 technologies and IT managers of enterprise
were used blogs and wikis as communication tools in 2004. However, situation of firm was not
good and it was faced several issues during implementation of Web 2.0 technology. Time and
technical problems in establishing bi-directional communication with their stakeholders and
communities, email overload and losing business to competitors were the major problems were
raised from deploying this technique (Jennifer, 2007). The other negative impact of Web 2.0
technologies can be seen both internally and externally at Disney in term of email overload and
information sharing problems. However, many employees reported problems were faced
problem to take up and support the new technology and interact with their existing network
system. Nonetheless, employees are still facing some problems regarding web content
management on the technical side. By increasing security and awareness about technology,
managers would be able to overcome issues faced by implantation of web 2.0.
Case study 3: Web 2.0 in higher education in US universities
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In the present time, the US universities have used the Web 2.0 tool in higher education
which has changed the student learning styles. With the help of this tool, the teachers are able to
access the many types of free tools for teaching and learning supports. It has also increase the
percentage of online enrollment of student in the different courses of US universities. However,
due to uneasiness with openness and unawareness about use of web 2.0 technology, students
were faced a lot of problems. Managers can reduce these types of issues by increasing awareness
among students and work on solving the technical issues like bandwidth and support associated
with this tool. By using following management guidelines, the universities of USA will be able
to easily provide the valuable knowledge and information to the students and enhance the
capabilities. In addition to this, it has also assisted the colleges to give the more interaction with
the working practices of different industry.
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REFERENCES
An, Y. And et.al., 2010. Teaching with Web 2.0 Technologies: Benefits, Barriers and Best
Practices. [Online]. Available through:<
http://www.aect.org/pdf/proceedings09/2009/09_1.pdf>. [Accessed on: 2 December
2015].
Chou, N. and Chen, G., 2008. Engagement in Online Collaborative Learning: A Case Study
Using a Web 2.0 Tool. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching.pp.574-582.
Cloud Computing Services. 2015. [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.emc.com/corporate/glossary/cloud-computing-services.htm>.
[Accessed on 28 November 2015].
Knorr, E., 2008. What cloud computing really means. [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.infoworld.com/article/2683784/cloud-computing/what-cloud-
computing-really-means.html>. [Accessed on 27 November 2015].
Kittowski, N. and et.al.,2009. A Comparative Study on the Use of Web 2.0 in Enterprises.[Pdf].
Availablethorugh:<http://www.bollettinoadapt.it/old/files/document/
21984frank_f_2009.pdf. [Accessed on: 1st December 2015].
Mell, P. andGrance, T., 2011. The NIST definition of cloud computing.
Peng, G.C. and Gala, C.J., 2014. Cloud-ERP: A new Dilemma to modern organizations?. [Pdf].
Available through:< http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/79123/3/WRRO_79123.pdf>.
[Accessed on 1 December 2015].
Pritchett, G. C., Pritchett, C. and Wohleb, C., 2013. Usage, Barriers, and Training of Web 2.0
Technology Applications. [Online]. Available through:<
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1015771.pdf >. [Accessed on: 2 December 2015].
Purohit, Jaiswal, M.P., Pandey, S., 2014. Challenges Involved in Implementation of ERP on
Demand Solution: Cloud Computing. IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science
Issues. 9(4).
Weinhardt, C. and et.al., 2009. Cloud computing–a classification, business models, and research
directions. Business & Information Systems Engineering. 1(5).pp.391-399.
Weng, F. and Hung, C. M., 2014. Competition and Challenge on Adopting Cloud ERP.
International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology. 5 (4). pp.309-313.
Weng, F. and Hung, C.M., 2014. Competition and Challenge on Adopting Cloud ERP. [Pdf].
Available through:< http://www.ijimt.org/papers/531-D19.pdf>. [Accessed on 1
December 2015].
Woodford, C., 2015. Cloud computing. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.explainthatstuff.com/cloud-computing-introduction.html>. [Accessed on 29
November 2015].
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APPENDIX
Web 2.0 has allowed users to interact and collaborate with different elements of social
media. The major application areas of Web 2.0 tool are podcasting, web content voting, tagging,
blogging, social networking and social bookmarking. Along with this, it is a power full tool for
the education and it has brought the major changes on the education.
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Illustration 1: Applications of Web 2.0 Tools
(Source: An and et.al., 2010)

Web 1.0 and 2.0 both have the significant difference. In Web 1.0, the information of the
different writers have gathered by the various media companies. After this, it has transfer to the
internet where the users have used it according to their requirements by huge efforts. On the
other hand, in Web 2.0, the information of the writers have directly transmitted on the internet
where the information flow has managed by sorting, filtered and rated by the users.
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Illustration 2: Difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0
(Source: An and et.al., 2010)

CONCLUSION
On the basis of the present report, it is clear that Web 2.0 and Cloud-ERP technologies
emerged as an important technique in dynamic changing business arena. However, along with
several advantages of these technologies several drawbacks such as cost and un-availability of
smooth operations and train employees to mitigate the security risks etc. are associated with the
implementation of these kinds of tactics at workplace. Nonetheless, by applying various
strategies IT managers and network administrators would be able to overcome challenges
attached with the deployment of these techniques in a proper manner. On the other hand, there
are various issues related to the use of Web 2.0 and Cloud ERP systems which are required to the
be resolve very soon.
RECOMMENDATIONS
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Illustration 3: Benefits of Cloud ERP
(Source : Peng and Gala, 2014)

 Selecting appropriate cloud vendors and maintaining long term relationship with them for
resolving Vendor key issues.
 It should responsibility of IT manager and management to consider additional set of
cloud-specific requirements before implementing the module. Besides that, it should duty
of organization and IT department to follow network security, backup and restoration
procedures in order to reduce security of Cloud-ERP (Weng and Hung, 2014).
 In addition, Integration to other IS applications should be solved by emphasizing on
integration issues and increasing awareness about additional integration difficulties of
cloud ERP before implementing it.
 By fulfilling parameters of cloud management like integration, privacy and security, IT
manager would be able to overcome transparency and data privacy effectively.
 Apart from this, SaaS-based ERP also raised the question of data security and privacy of
IT technology used within enterprise (Woodford, 2015).
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