<p>Detta examensarbete behandlar affärssystem (även kallade ERP-system) och implementering av dessa. ERP betyder Enterprise Resource Planning och innebär ett integrerat system som innefattar hela företagets verksamhet.</p><p>Att införa ett affärssystem i en organisation är en stor investering och ofta en komplicerad uppgift, det är därför bra om tidigare erfarenheter från liknande implementationer kan utnyttjas. I mitt arbete har jag undersökt vilka faktorer en organisation bör beakta för att erhålla en lyckad implementering. Arbetet har bedrivits i form av en fallstudie där jag genom intervjuer med projektdeltagare har studerat den implementation som Volvo Lastvagnar Komponenter AB i Skövde nyligen har genomfört av affärssystemet SAP R/3.</p><p>Resultatet av undersökningen kan sammanfattas i tre övergripande områden; planering, utbildning och resurser. Dessa områden är alla viktiga att beakta i samband med en implementering av ett affärssystem för att implementeringen skall nå ett, för företaget, lyckat resultat.</p>

<p>När företag ska implementera ERP-system är det viktigt att företaget ser till att få kvalitet på implementeringen. Ett ERP-system är ett informationssystem som ska hantera alla funktioner inom ett företag på ett integrerat sätt. För att få kvalitet på implementeringen krävs att budgeten hålls, att implementeringen blir klar i tid, att processerna i företaget optimeras, att kraven tillfredsställs och att integreringen med andra system klaras av på ett bra sätt.</p><p>Examensarbetet har undersökt om Business Blueprints kan vara en hjälp för företag när det gäller att säkra kvaliteten på implementeringar av ERP-system. Business Blueprints är en modell som guidar företag genom hela systemutvecklingen. Undersökningen har genomförts med hjälp av intervjuer och en litteraturstudie.</p><p>Resultatet av undersökningen som detta arbete omfattar kan sammanfattas med att Business Blueprints är en hjälp för företag när det gäller att kvalitetssäkra implementering av ERP-system.</p>

<p>This thesis describes the development of a SOA-based architecture for integrating large EDI-using manufacturing companies purchasing processes with smaller non-EDI capable manufacturing companies, using online services.</p><p>The underlying need for this project lies with the fact that these small manufacturing companies risk to miss out on business, due to their inability to communicate via the industry standard EDI format. At the same time, getting EDI-capable involves significant investments in software licenses, connectivity services and consulting or training that these small companies may not be ready to make. The mentor company of this thesis project, System Andersson, produces resource planning software for this type of companies and would like to be able to provide them with an easy to use way of “jacking in” EDI support into their businesses, without having to make such significant investments. Ideally this feature would be developed as a standalone subscription based service that could be provided to users in such a way that their existing System Andersson software could connect to it and no further hard- or software would be needed on site. This EDI-enabling should be as easy as to be entirely transparent for the end-user companies. The task handed to the author was thus to develop an architecture for how such a subscription based service could be developed. Furthermore, in order to promote re-use and simplify development, the architecture was to be based on SOA concepts.</p><p>As a result of the project, such an architecture has been developed. The architecture details two services for translating and storing for later delivery a number of EDI message types of the EDIFACT variety. The architecture also specifies communications protocols (SOAP over HTTPS and AS2 over HTTPS) and APIs (web services) for how to communicate with these services. These specifications can be used to implement a system that performs the necessary integration, so that the smaller companies may indeed communicate via EDI.</p><p>The fitness of the developed architecture has been tested by implementing a prototype version of such a system based on it. It has also been validated by way of comparing to how well it adheres to SOA design principles. All in all, this design appears to be quite sound and presents a working solution to the studied problem.</p>

<p>Web-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems deployed through theSoftware-as-a-Service (SaaS) model are a major disruptive technology in the fieldof ERP systems. The defining features of the SaaS are that they are hosted remotelyand are completely used through the web; they are subscription-payment basedand they operate on a multi-tenant fashion. This technological innovation redefinestraditional technical and economic ERP paradigms.</p><p>This Bachelor’s thesis aims through interviews with vendors, users and consultants,as well as by researching various academical and professional publications onthe subject of Web-based (SaaS) ERPs to study these pehomena, and produce a listof their benefits to SMEs. It also analyses their opportunities and challenges via anumber of interesting facts, thus allowing for thought-provoking observations andspawning of stirring discussions.</p><p>The benefits of Web-based ERPs were reported to be similar to the ones characteristicfor the On-premise ERPs. They furthermore included remote data access, costefficiency,flexibility, scalability, as well as the esublishment of a new customerdrivenrelationship with the ERP vendor. The major disadvantages of SaaS wereconsidered to be security, cost (in the long run), and customizability. These disadvantages,which were first reported years ago, are continuously dismissed by theadavncements and innovations made in Web-based solutions. Findings from previousstudies and trends suggest that issues of security, cost and customizabilityare gradually disappearing as technology improves and industry dynamics becomesmore customer-centric. Security, which was a major issue in 2007 slowlyfaded and is not regarded as the concern it used to be. From 2008 till now the issuesof customizability and TCO have been heavily disputed about Web-based ERPsolutions. The problem of customizability has also been found to be diminishingdue to technologically advanced capabilities of these systems; new systems haveemerged and old systems have improved enough to provide this feature. Cost hasnever been a transparent issue when it comes to IT investments and has beenshown to be higher in On-Premise solutions through the TVO approach whichlooks at other hidden and non-financial costs. All of the above sheds new light intothe once-‘static’ benefits and drawbacks of Web-based solutions, and provides afresh insight into this developing phenomenon.</p>

<p>Medelstora företag som denna uppsats har valt att behandla är i svenskt näringsliv färre till antal än vad det finns små och stora företag. Medelstora företag, som kan sägas är morgondagens storföretag, drar sig ofta för att investera i affärssystem som kräver mycket tid och resurser att få det implementerat. Det har gjort att jag har funnit det intressant att studera medelstora företag och deras handlingssätt när beslutet om att införa ett affärssystem har tagits. Företag av den storleken har dessutom mindre med resurser för att anskaffa och handha ett affärssystem än jämförelsevis stora företag. Detta bör, enligt mig, sättas i relation till att omkring nittio procent av alla affärssystemprojekt misslyckas d.v.s. att projekten inte möter satta budget- och tidsramar.</p><p>I denna uppsats har min uppmärksamhet riktats på att kartlägga vad för slags förutsättningar som medelstora företag behöver uppfylla för att lyckas med införandet av sitt affärssystem. Uppsatsen har bedrivits i form av en fallstudie där införandet av vald affärssystemlösning har studerats i två medelstora företag. Använda datainsamlingsmetoder är intervju och sekundärdata.</p><p>Några av de resultat som denna uppsats har kunnat visa på är att tidsaspekten utgör ett stort hinder för medelstora företag när dem ska implementera sitt affärssysystem. Det är sällan som användardeltagarna arbetar med projektet på heltid utan dem får snarare kombinera sina ordinarie arbetsuppgifter med projektuppgifterna. Det kan medföra att arbetsbelastningen på projektmedlemmarna i perioder kan vara mycket stor, varför en del av deras ordinarie arbetsuppgifter bör låtas övergå på den övriga personalen i linjeverksamheten. Dessa måste i sin tur vara mer förstående för att projektmedlemmarna måste prioritera projektet för att det ska vara möjligt att ta systemet i drift som planerat. Genom avlastning möjliggörs användarnas medverkan. Testningen och gränsdragningsproblematiken, beträffande vad som utgör en standardleverans samt en tilläggsbeställning, är exempel på hinder som har påträffats i de studerade fallen. För att undkomma gränsdragningsproblematiken är det därför önskvärt om kunden och leverantören tidigt i projektet klargör för: vad som avses med en leverans, vad som bör ingå i en sådan samt när och hur en levarnas ska ske.</p>

<p>The dominant design concept describes the evolution from one dominant design to a new one, or in a new industry, the evolution to a set of standards and features that becomes a dominant design for that particular product or sector. Typically the dominant design is used to describe industry trends. This thesis takes the bottom up perspective, i.e. the company's perspective, to identify if, or what parts, of the dominant design model that can be used as an explanatory tool of innovation in the two ERP companies chosen. This thesis has found that some parts of the dominant design model can be used to describe innovation in our two case companies. However, the model has to be altered to fit the particular needs of the software industry and exclude the concept of process innovation, which is a part of the original dominant design model. By considering a company’s existing situation, e.g. customers, market share, partnerships etc. and fitting these facts into our altered dominant design model it should be possible to explain actions undertaken by an ERP company.</p>

<p>An implementation project of an ERP system results in large changes. Organizations</p><p>that face an ERP implementation project have several risks to</p><p>consider in order to avoid problems that cause failures. The purpose of</p><p>this research is to extend existing models and create a method for implementation</p><p>of ERP systems. The method has then been employed to an</p><p>ongoing project at the department of Procurement and Supply at Ericsson</p><p>Mobile Platforms in Lund. Objectives for the research are to consider</p><p>which implementation strategy can be used and how an organization can</p><p>minimize risks.</p><p>The research approach and methodology is influenced by the qualitative</p><p>research method since it was necessary to gather qualitative facts instead</p><p>of quantitative facts. Included is also a case study due to the research is</p><p>executed within Ericsson Mobile Platforms in Lund.</p><p>There are two main opposite implementation strategies, Big Bang and</p><p>Step-by-Step. The choice of implementation strategy depends on number</p><p>of factors like the size of the organizations, complexity and resources.</p><p>A method of ERP implementation has been put forward as a result of the</p><p>integrated models. The method includes an overall model and a check list.</p><p>Risk identification is a problem that many implementation project faces, a</p><p>way to solve this is to make a careful risk analysis, a risk matirx with several</p><p>identified risks are putted forward throughout this study.</p>

<p>Background: Today also smaller companies (SME) are implementing enterprise resource planning systems. One difference is that the SME have smaller resources regarding people and finance which can cause some problems if they are not aware of this. The company we have studied have undergone an organizational change and simultaneously implemented an ERP. Two parts of the implementation of the ERP worked just as intended and the third and last part experienced some major difficulties.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the situation in which a small company undertake two major changes almost simultaneously, one of which is the implementation of an ERP. This matter when an SME is implementing an ERP is not well researched since it is only in the more recent years that this type of organization feel the need for it and therefore have ventured into this. The aim of this thesis is to add to the theoretical field of small organizations introducing enterprise information systems.</p><p>Method: This is a qualitative study conducted in the form of a case study. The main data sources have been semi structured interviews, combined with observations and a document study. The data have been analyzed inductively.</p><p>Conclusion: The implementation of this ERP has gone bad in one area due to several cooperating mistakes. SME’s have some circumstances that does not apply to the larger organizations. In a SME every person carries greater importance in the success or failure of the implementation. Preparation is equally important in an SME as in larger organizations.</p><p>Suggestions for further research: The field of ERP in SME's have not been very thoroughly studied since it is a comparatively new field. Further research in this matter would be of some value.</p>

Enterprise systems (ES) implementation, especially Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP), is an extensively researched topic in recent years. Existing papers focus mainly on the success or failure of the project analyzed from the client’s standpoint. Although authors agree that a successful implementation requires the participation of consultants from a Value-Added Reseller (VAR), little or no work has been published that examines the topic from this perspective. While it is true that this kind of implementation is not strictly related to the traditional software development lifecycle, the two have many things in common and the former can benefit from software engineering techniques. Intellectual capital found in the heads of consultants, developers, project managers, and all other project stakeholders is VAR’s main asset as well as in most of software-related organizations. Hence, it is critical to preserve it in order to safeguard the foundation of these organizations. The goal of this paper is to propose rationale management as the basis of knowledge preservation for enterprise systems VARs. Enterprise systems implementation process, including its actors, challenges, and the knowledge that surrounds it, is examined to justify the proposal. To assess the perception of real-world VARs about knowledge management applicability and their existing strategies, a questionnaire was applied to 3 executives. Their answers confirmed that knowledge is considered vital to their organizations but the methodologies as well as the tools currently utilized to preserve it are rudimentary and distant from the theoretical literature. / text

Ο σκοπός της εργασίας είναι να δώσει στον αναγνώστη την δυνατότητα να γνωρίσει τον κόσμο της τεχνολογίας των πληροφοριών, την πελατοκεντρική φιλοσοφία και ειδικότερα την λειτουργία και τον διαχωρισμό των επιμέρους επιχειρηματικών εργαλείων που ονομάζονται CRM. / The objective of this paper is to make the reader familiar with the IT(Information Technology), the customer-centric philosophy and especially the functionality and the classification of the most common business tools called CRM.