2128IBA - ERP Systems, Business Process Improvement & Reengineering

This essay analyzes the role of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in driving business process improvement and reengineering. It discusses the complexities of in-house ERP development, highlighting the advantages of packaged software solutions for integrating business functions. The essay explores best practices for ERP implementation, including training, prioritization, and data migration. It emphasizes the importance of cross-functional integration for competitive success and examines the concept of componentization for web and e-commerce support. The paper also touches on the evolution of ERP through two-tier models and cloud technology. Key takeaways include the purpose of ERP in centralizing information, integrating business processes, and facilitating process reengineering. The essay concludes by advocating for continuous improvement and innovation in ERP systems using the Plan-Do-Check-Act model, with the ultimate goal of enhancing organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Running Head: BUSINESS PROCESSES 1
Business Processes
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ERP basically means the packaged software solutions that serve to offer
integration of the complete range of business functions and processes that present a holistic
business view from a single architecture of Information Technology and information (Klaus et
al., 2000). Unlike the traditional ways of manual management of business processes, ERPs
consolidates all the information, steps and processes in a single platform of a system. Therefore,
it becomes easier to access information that pertains the business process.
The development of an ERP system for in-house is quite complex given the fact that a lot
of resources and huge technological investment will be needed on demand. To maintain the ERP
up and running, a high level of skills is also needed. Therefore, it eats up the time and resources
that would be needed to contribute to the core competency of businesses. It is also very difficult
to upgrade and maintain the ERP application (Deshmukh & Kumar, 2016). Continuous
customization pieces and processes are required for the management of changing processes,
training, and management among others. Therefore, the dependency of a singular developer
would deem risky and detrimental for the company. In case the developer goes missing, the
company’s processes will be jeopardized.
Therefore, the integration of ERP in in-house was quite complex because of the fact that
most proceedings never underwent distribution by commercial publishing houses and the fact
that there were few selected conferences were able to achieve wide publicity by being abstracted
and indexed for the services that were publicly accessible (Alksnis et al., 2015).

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Some of the best practices for the practice of a good ERP system include; adequate investment of
time in training, prioritization and understanding of the key requirements, establishment of Key
Performance Metrics and getting Data Migration out of the way, at an early stage.
The need to integrate across function for a competitive success serves to boost the
efficiency of work process across all departments. For one, it is easier to track the workflow
across all the departments of an organization. Since some work processes in different
departments are linked together, it is easier to see clearly, the specific areas of fault. That way,
corrective measures will be applied. It is also possible to compare the performance of functions
across the organizational departments, alongside developing a coherent and automatic workflow
from one function and department to another. The cross-enterprise business processes in ERPs
are useful for the management of companies that are globally dispersed. For example, a business
with numerous branches will comfortably manage all the functions of every branch. It is also
very important for inventory tracking, order tracking, sales forecasting and revenue tracking.
Therefore, ERPs are very crucial in the management of a company’s supply chain.
Componentization is basically the act of disintegrating or breaking up monolithic and
large systems into individual components and modules for them to work together effectively
(Saker, 2017). Componentization is one of the options for the need to make ERP systems to
support the web and e-commerce. Therefore, there was a need to break up proprietary application
interfaces and core databases and offer customization tools. Ideally, componentization helps
companies in upgrading and implementing a system. Instead of upgrading the entire system for
purposes of gaining additional functionality, a company only needs to incrementally deploy and
upgrade specific components. Componentization maximizes efficiency, drives product

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innovation and increase visibility. Since businesses are increasingly becoming decentralized,
there is more of a shift in the needs of businesses and their accommodation. The economic
recession of 2008 marked a major catalyst for componentization. With the contraction of
information technology budgets, organizations needed to use little to do more. Organizations
began to adopt a hybrid or two-tier ERP model instead of relying on the traditional infrastructure
of ERP. Most significantly, the technology of cloud technology came in handy. The two-tier and
componentization are basically the progressive evolution of ERP. The goals of ERP are
beginning to see the light of the day through the breaking up of ERP into components and
functional modules. The goal of providing apparatus to assist businesses in doing what they do
smarter and better will be easier with componentization.
Some of the key highlights in the paper include:
- Appreciation of the purpose of ERP to offer opportunities that provide information to
organizations in a centralized, cost efficient manner and standardized way.
- The main reason for installing ERP is for the provision of the ability for the integration of
businesses processes.
- The paper examines the types of user request and the case company’s structure.
- It also develops a model for the integration of ERP requests into a Business Process
Reengineering project.
The main things learnt from this paper is the fact that ERP serves the function of driving
an organization to re-engineer a process, rather than doing that itself. ERPs leads an organization
into deciding on the manner in which it wants to run or operate its business at a level that is

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detailed. With more and more maturity of ERP, more strategic and advanced ERP use can be
needed to involve an integration of business processes at a wider level. To do that, users need to
understand fully how ERP functions. That is through such active participations as training and
projects’ improvements.
One things that stands out in this research paper is the fact that the model presented fills
up an important gap in research. The model basically provides directions for further
improvement of ERP projects. It also helps companies to improve their ERP systems and
consequently business processes. The Plan-Do-Check-Act model of continuous improvement
comes out well, in this model. That is, there is a need to undertake process innovation to ensure
the successful ERP use. The improvement process should include or involve improving the
systems integration and extension in a continuous basis. Because businesses process are always
dynamic, it is of great necessity to consequently boost and improve the ERP system. Therefore,
the continuous improvement model of PDCA will serve top provide direction for increased and
continuous innovations.

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References
Deshmukh, A. A., & Kumar, A. (2016). An ERP life cycle and its competitive advantages in
SMEs. International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, 3(6),
369-374.
Klaus, Helmut, Rosemann, Michael, & Gable, Guy G. (2000) What is ERP? Information
Systems Frontiers, 2(2), pp. 141Ͳ162.
Alksnis, G., Asņina, Ē., Kirikova, M., & Meiers, E. (2015). Enabling Support of Collaborative
Cross-enterprise Business Processes for Legacy ERP Systems. Complex Systems
Informatics and Modeling Quarterly, (2), 1-18.
Saker, D. R. (2017). The enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems implementations according
to critical success factors (CSFs) to add value for an organization. Muthanna Journal of
Administrative and Economic Sciences, 7(1), 34-65.