Enterprise System Implementation: Drivers, Contribution, and Change Management

This essay highlights the drivers behind the adoption of enterprise systems, their contribution to organizations, and the importance of change management for successful implementation. It provides insights into the benefits of enterprise systems and offers recommendations for their successful implementation.

NAME:
SUBJECT: BISY2005/ISY2005/ISY205 Enterprise Systems
DATE: 21.04.2019
REPROT TITLE:
WORD COUNT: 2005
1 | P a g e

Introduction
Enterprise System is reckoned as the backbone of present entrepreneurship. Irrespective of the
size of the enterprise, Enterprise System adds value to the smooth running and growth of the
organization in planned way. Enterprise System mainly devotes to the purpose of information
management in well-planned way so that the executives of the business can have ready
information in their finger tips for strategy setting and further execution of strategy to
accomplish organizational objective. It is not possible for the small and medium size enterprises
to own tailor-made Enterprise System; instead they depend on the systems readily available in
the market. (Turetken et al., 2017) In this essay we will highlight three significant issues related
to enterprise system and their use in enterprises. They are - a) major drivers responsible for
adopting Enterprise System by any business; b) contribution of Enterprise System to any
business with measurement of such contribution; and c) the required changes of organizational
management necessary for adoption of any Enterprise System. This essay will conclude with
some recommendations to highlight future scope of such Enterprise System with success and
sustainability. (Pankratova et al., 2012)
Principal drivers behind adoption of Enterprise System
Adoption of Enterprise System by any enterprise is featuring as an essential part of running
business. This is because of the present demand of the enterprise management. Main factors for
this adoption are significant drivers, which forces the enterprises to adopt such mechanism that
provides comfort zone for the managers to concentrate on strategy setting and further
implementation. (Salum et al., 2015) Enterprise System is a form of IT application, which is
devised to enhance the correctness and time-worthy approach for the business. These drivers are
reckoned as cost effectiveness, flexibility and scalable measurement option. (Spathis, 2006)
These factors are dominating the business environment in present situation. The latest model of
Enterprise System available in market is Cloud based Enterprise System. This system is the best
possible for SME enterprises for its various friendly features. The main drivers for adopting
Enterprise System are:
a) Enhancement of business agility- Main driver of Enterprise System is to enhance
business agility. It is observed that enterprise adopting Enterprise System has enjoyed
2 | P a g e

competitive edge by ensuring reduction of complexity followed by enhancement of
business agility. Latest mode of Enterprise System in the form of cloud-based technology
had proven enhancement of business agility of organizations for self-service as per
demand and increased level of elasticity. Along with that feature, acquiring IT resources
will cause quick deployment with required increment or decrement of using this resource.
(Guha, 2015)
b) Reduction of cost- This driver is reckoned as one of the major factors behind adoption of
Enterprise System. Particularly, by using cloud base Enterprise System, the enterprises
have enjoyed reduction of licensing and service expenses in considerable amount. Even,
it is observed that effective cost reduction is featured through enabled cloud system on
the domains of consolidation of server, sharing cost of clients and community.
c) Ensuring enforcement of mobility- The numbers of cloud based Enterprise system users
are increasing due to its qualities of omnipresence, cost effectiveness and feature of self-
configurable. This IT facility can assure employees of working irrespective of place, time
and device. Even present adaptation of smart phone devices through gradual increase of
market proves the mobility factor of cloud based Enterprise System a core driver for this
facility. The future will prove worth of Cloud based Enterprise System through exhibition
of more efficient features with winning of competitive edge in the market.
d) Improvement of productivity- Every enterprise is looking for improvement of
productivity. Cloud-based Enterprise System provides that option for the business
entities. This facility can be used for instant mode of messaging, voice conversation, e-
mails, sharing of information with subsequent development, conferencing and other
significant aspects to prove its viability as the best option for development of enterprise
system.
e) Creating new business opportunities- Cloud-based enterprise system is a key player for
generation of new business. The entities with proven track record of its’ self-IT capacity
can have the opportunity to become a provider of public Infrastructure-as-a- Service or
IaaS and Platform-as-a-Service or PaaS. Other business opportunity can be found in the
form of providing spare space capacity of a private cloud for other business organization.
Even software companies have the provision of serving with cloud service in the form of
Software-as-a-Service or Saas and thus can have the provision of expanding their market.
3 | P a g e

I am giving below the chart of Anatomy of Enterprise System. It is prevalent in this chart that
in the centre of any enterprise system, there is a central database, which draws data with
subsequent feeding of data to diverse applications with support to diversified functions of the
company. The organization has different level of stakeholders, and enterprise system can
suffice query of every stakeholders in the form of data flow with respective reciprocation at
different level. This anatomy of enterprise system can clearly feature the main quality of
enterprise system as a driver to the business. (Davenport, 1998)
Ways of contribution of Enterprise System to the organization with measurement
Any organization is driven by corporate objectives. To accomplish those objectives, organization
has to fix the strategies with proper way to implement them. Enterprise Systems are proving their
worth to take part in implementation of corporate strategies. So, after implementation, Enterprise
Systems are reckoned as part of the strategic footsteps for any organization and become part of
the business process to ensure support for strategic movement with specific direction. Hence
choice of good Enterprise System to fit the requirement of the business is first and foremost part
4 | P a g e

of any business operation. A proper Enterprise System can contribute operational efficacy with
creation of scope for competitive advantage by innovation. (CGEMagazine, 2015) As per
Ragowsky and Gefen, (Ragowsky & Gefen, 2008) Enterprise Systems have the ability to
improve firm efficiencies through provision of real time information, sharing of data followed by
collaboration, automation and integration of business process. For better utilization of
information from Enterprise System, organizations normally utilize knowledge management
(KM) along with business intelligence (BI) instruments, which can be able to extract necessary
data for effective decision making through proper analysis. Initially the role of IT infrastructure
of organizations serves the purpose of improving value creation and business process of financial
transactions; like order processing with intake, execution and logistics management- based on
web. Enterprise System offers the ability to extend such integration with access to data of
organization using a consolidated system base. With the changing pattern of global business, the
organizations now feel the accessibility of corporate data for the globally approved users always
by the integrated business process, which proves to be a vital factor for success of current
business. To evaluate the quantitative contribution by the Enterprise System for any organization
or performance management of the Enterprise System, there are different knowledge based
processes prevailing for this evaluation. Although Enterprise System generates data; but human
being utilizes this data for their decision making. For this process, human being uses to analyze
or manipulate this data with application of human experience and judgment with the use of
explored knowledge for monitoring different trends followed by decision making. The derived
information is available through the use of standard analytics of business performance and
Enterprise System instruments within the prevailing system. Normally the data generated from
Enterprise System is converted into Excel spreadsheets for easy access to analyze different
business situations by using different excel facilities like graphs, charts, pivot table and other
representations derivable from excel. Business organizations also utilize different mechanism
like benchmarking and Key Performance Indicator or KPI reporting with support from Enterprise
System data as a system to measure performance related to accomplishment of objectives. The
review process of performance directs to making of organizational decision, which helps in
accomplishment of the macro business objective. Additionally, other business instruments to
measure performance like balanced scorecard and dashboards are used for tracking process of
5 | P a g e

realization of goals and strategies with establishment of analytical decision making. (Mathrani &
Mathrani, 2013)
Consideration of Organizational Change Management for successful implementation of
Enterprise System
Normally the organizations make mistake by not opting for organizational change management
while implementing Enterprise Systems with the feeling that it is an unnecessary exercise with
negative cost impact. It is normal thought of the management that mere instruction to the
employees to follow Enterprise Systems would be enough for implementation of Enterprise
System. But this is a wrong concept, as the reality would negate this concept. Change
management is a basic requirement for implementation of integrated Enterprise System. To make
the implementation successful, each user should understand the business process. The approach
for organizational change management has to be based on the objective of the business along
with demographic characteristics featured by region, language, culture and respective
experience. (Devanathan, 2017)
Implementation of new Enterprise System is known as “organizational Revolution”, not a
simple technical exercise. As implementation of Enterprise System is reckoned as a major
organizational transformation, the management has to plan the change management with care
followed by meticulous implementation. Following areas of changes are identified for successful
Enterprise System implementation:
 Management systems and structure of the organization;
 Culture of the organization;
 Business process with respective job design;
 Attitudes, behaviors and skills needed from the stakeholders.
Enterprise systems possess direct impacts on the organization and culture of a company.
Enterprise system is mainly implemented to insert more discipline through bigger management
control imposing greater uniform process in the work culture of the organization. This
implementation would cause break-up of hierarchical structure by using real time information to
ensure higher creativity level. Implementation of enterprise system can generate logical change
in company structure, design of jobs, sequence of work, training process, etc. It is also inevitable
6 | P a g e

that this implementation process will cause cost increase with unforeseen risk factors. Normally
it is found that the existing set-up of the organization are not matched with the tools, structure
and sorts of information provided in enterprise system. (Smeds, 2010)
There are certain reasons for change management of the organization, who are implementing
Enterprise System in the business process. They are:
1) Implementation of a new Enterprise System is affecting the organization, as a whole with
its application. This is not related to the size of the organization. The exercise of
organizational change management makes the employees ready for the upcoming
transformation; otherwise it may not be well acceptable by them.
2) The employees must know the reason for transformation of Enterprise System with its
merits. It is essential that employees and management think in the same line related to
this transformation.
3) As Enterprise System implementation would feature direct effects on the regular
activities of the employees, it is a must to consider this implementation as a learning
process with effective measures ensured by the initiatives of organizational change
management.
4) It is hard to accept anything by the employees, which they cannot understand. Hence,
familiarization process is to be initiated for the employees highlighting the features
through well-devised change management program with proper execution. (Al-Shamlan
& Al-Mudimigh, 2011)
Following components of organizational change management should be taken care for successful
Enterprise System implementation:
 Buy-in of core team;
 Consideration of cultural ambience,
 Constant engagement of employees;
 Communication is the main tool;
 Effective training strategy for employees;
Conclusion
7 | P a g e

This essay is related to implementation of enterprise system. Main features of this essay are to
highlight identified drivers of enterprise system for any organization, assessment of the
contribution enterprise system with measuring the contribution and requirement of change
management of the organization adopting enterprise system. It is evident that enterprise system
implementation is obvious for any organization to make it updated with the global scenario.
Recommendation is extended as successful implementation of enterprise system to fulfill
company objective is always welcome by the stakeholders of the company, provided proper
training of human resource has been extended for smooth functioning of newly introduced
enterprise system for the organization.
.
8 | P a g e

Bibliography
Al-Shamlan, H.M. & Al-Mudimigh, A.S., 2011. The Chang Management Strategies and Processes for
Successful ERP Implementation: A Case Study of MADAR. International Journal of Computer Science,
8(2), pp.399-407.
CGEMagazine, 2015. Enterprise contribution: A new kind of performance measurement. [Online]
Available at: https://canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/enterprise-contribution-a-new-kind-of-
performance-measurement/ [Accessed 21 April 2019].
Davenport, T.H., 1998. Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System. [Online] Available at:
https://hbr.org/1998/07/putting-the-enterprise-into-the-enterprise-system [Accessed 21 April 2019].
Devanathan, K.V., 2017. Organisational Change Management Strategies for a Successful ERP
Implementation. [Online] Available at: https://www.3i-infotech.com/organisational-change-
management-strategies-successful-erp-implementation/ [Accessed 21 April 2019].
Guha, A., 2015. 5 Key Drivers for Enterprise Cloud Adoption. [Online] Available at:
https://www.comakeit.com/blog/5-key-drivers-for-enterprise-cloud-adoption/ [Accessed 21 April 2019].
Mathrani, S. & Mathrani, A., 2013. Utilizing Enterprise Systems to Manage Organizational Performance.
Conference Paper: International Conference on Information Management in the Knowledge Economy,
pp.92-98.
Pankratova, N., Maistrenko, O. & Maslianko, P., 2012. System Definition of the Business/Enterprise
Model. [Online] Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-33618-8_21
[Accessed 21 April 2019].
Ragowsky, A. & Gefen, D., 2008. What Makes the Competitive Contribution of Erp Strategic. ACM SIGMIS
Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, 39(2), pp.33-49.
Salum, K., Zaidi, A.M. & Rozan, M.Z.A., 2015. Barriers and Drivers in Cloud ERP Adoption Among SMEs.
Journal of Information Systems Research and Innovation, 9(1), pp.9-20.
Smeds, M., 2010. Change management success factors in ERP implementation. [Online] Available at:
https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/12853/master_smeds_matilda_2010.pdf?
sequence=1&isAllowed=y [Accessed 21 April 2019].
Spathis, C., 2006. Enterprise systems implementation and accounting benefits. Journal of Enterprise
Information Management , 19(1), pp.67-82.
Turetken, O., Ondracek, J. & IJsselsteijn, W., 2017. Influential Characteristics of Enterprise Information
System User Interfaces. Journal of Computr Information Systems, 59(3), pp.243-55.
9 | P a g e

10 | P a g e