Commercial off-the-shelf enterprise resource planning systems have been adopted by large companies to support their inter- and intra-business processes. Midsize market firms are now investing in ERP systems too. However, research has indicated that about three quarters of attempted ERP projects turned out to be unsuccessful. A common problem encountered in adopting ERP software has been the issue of misfit. This study focuses on assessing the usability of the ERP misfit analysis methodology, from Wu, et al. (2007), to investigate the ERP misfits. We also develop a decision support system to help identify the misfits. It integrates the methodology into the process to facilitate misfit identification. The results indicate that with this approach, organizations can more easily and systematically determine where the misfits are and the degree of misfits, thereby reducing the risk in implementing ERP. These results provide greater insight for understanding the misfits between the firm requirements and the functions provided by the ERP. They also help to evaluate the efforts needed for ERP customization and business process reengineering for each misfit and thereby help to support decision making in customization or BPR.

Denna explorativa studie beskriver hur den interna kontrollen i organisationer kan påverkas under implementeringen av ett ERP system. Intern kontroll är en del av organisationens ekonomistyrning och består av organisationens rutiner och aktiviteter för att undvika risker och säkerställa att organisationens mål uppfylls. Eftersom implementeringen av ett ERP system är en riskfylld process är det viktigt att förstå hur den interna kontrollen påverkas. För att undersöka detta används i studien ramverket Internal Control - Integrated framework. Datainsamlig genomfördes på en stor IT-organisation där ERP systemet Navision 2009 implementeras och 10 respondenter från olika avdelningar intervjuades. Studiens resultat indikerar att den interna kontrollen främst påverkas negativt under implementeringen av ett ERP system. Enligt studien beror det främst på att personalens användarkompetens i systemet är bristfällig och att det finns tekniska brister i ERP systemet som gjort att det inte fungerat optimalt under implementeringen.

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This thesis deals with the integration of two apparently conflicting manufacturing improvement concepts; Lean Production (LP) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). On the one hand, Lean Production aims at process excellence with a decisive focus on people, emphasizing standardization, material flow, quality and continuous improvement. On the other hand, Enterprise Resource Planning, largely focuses on Information Technology (IT) in order to improve processes and operations. Referring to these basic underlying paradigms, it appears that there are fundamental differences between these two concepts. Based on a literature review in the field of operations and IS, the thesis identifies major differences, compares strengths and weaknesses and looks for theoretical synergies between the two concepts. In the light of the literature review findings, the thesis suggests a theoretical framework for integrating Lean Production and ERP, which is to be tested during the empirical part of the thesis. The theoretical framework is informed by two basic and partly contradictory assumptions, which could be viewed as contradictory research hypotheses. The first assumption holds that due to the fundamental differences, conflicts between the concepts will prevent the application of an integrated framework combining ERP and LP. The second assumption presumes that there were synergies between ERP and LP, which could be utilizable within the application of an integrated framework combining ERP and LP. Based on a detailed a case study, this research shows that the application of an integrated approach was possible in practice. In particular, the research identifies practical conflicts and shows how they could be overcome. In this respect, the involvement of the company's top management turned out as a major success factor for overcoming general preoccupations of each side's proponents against the other. Moreover, the research identifies practical synergies between the concepts and identifies how they could be utilized in practice. In this context, the case study suggests that, amongst others, the concept of LP benefits from ERP's enterprise wide reach and the concept of ERP benefits from LP's ability to attract top management attention. Moreover, there are several conceptual synergies, which could be revealed after removal of the general preoccupations. Eventually the findings are summarized in a new release of the integration framework between LP and ERP, informed by the empirical findings of this research.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are becoming mature technologies to support inter- and intra-company business processes in many intermediate and small organizations. However, these systems are complex and expensive. Research indicated that about three-quarters of the ERP projects were judged unsuccessful. A common problem confronted when adopting ERP software has been the issue of misfits, that is, the gaps between the functionality offered by the package and that required and expected by the adopting organization. This study investigated a systematical approach to facilitate the process of ERP implementation. The methodology includes five steps: Implementation Definition, Operation Analysis, Real Practice, Final Preparation, On-line and Maintenance. An ERP implementation case is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the methodology and provide the experience of misfit solving. With this methodology, the ERP adopting organizations can more easily and systematically implement the ERP package. In addition, the experience provides greater insight for misfit solving confronted in the case, and thereby reduce the risk of ERP implementation.

In diesem Beitrag lesen Sie: • welche Module die ERP-Lösungen aufweisen, • wie viele Projekte im Jahre 2007 durchgeführt wurden, • welches Alleinstellungsmerkmal die Systeme aus Sicht der Anbieter aufweisen.

Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) software is used by organizations to control accounting, manufacturing and customer processes. It is common practice that organizations use more than a singular ERP system and various modules from multiple ERP vendors in their business. Hence, there is a need to integrate systems and find technical solutions that allow the EPRs to communicate. This thesis presents the development of a Generic Integration Layer (GIL) that allows various available ERP systems to exchange data. The goal was to design and develop a module that could integrate different ERP modules, fill the data communication gaps among them, with the goal to minimize the need to use several commercial product for data integration purposes. The developed GIL allows flexible import from different file formats as well as provides verification and updates in a database management server. Moreover, it transforms data into a generic format based on XML that can be read by many modern ERPs. / Master Thesis / Development of a Generic Integration Layer for an ERP system

This work is focused on the problematics of ERP as a Service and its main goal is to identify opportunities for new Czech providers of ERP as a Service. In theoretical part of this work at first is described that, what is provided by ERP as a Service. Further off is this part focused on that, how and under which terms can be and should be ERP as a Service provided. In last chapter of this part are presented world IT trends (for example Lean IT) and its relation to ERP as a Service. In second part of this work was documented the analysis of selected providers of ERP as a Service. That analysis helped to identify opportunities for new providers of ERP as a Service and also determine advices for new or selected providers of ERP as a Service. Creation of the method of the analysis was based on ideal of the provider of ERP as a Service and its product, which is described in first part of this work. In the analysis was also found some characteristics of Czech market of ERP as a Service and its providers. Benefits of this work are not only pointed at providers of ERP as a Service, but also at its potential customers. They can for example find out in this work on what they should focus on or what they should beware of when choosing ERP as a Service.

This paper presents the work in progress regarding an international research project based on an empirical survey. It focuses on the early stages of making the adoption decision, thereafter evaluating and selecting an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system prior to implementation in Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). The project seeks to close some of the identified gaps in ERP research. In addition, it attempts to link the results of the early stages of decision making to implementation, usage and evolution success in order to allow important conclusions to be made, for example, on the best practices in decision making or decision quality and success. This project will be restricted to the case of ERP software but will also give insights into the potential of integrating ERP and other important applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Supply Chain Management (SCM). The proposed research seeks to identify any differences and similarities contributing to the analysed research areas between British and Austrian companies. The choice of companies originating from two different regions in Europe is an important precondition in order to formulate results that will be applicable to the European Union in general. Due to the pervasive nature of ERP systems, our research results should be of interest to a wide range of professional and scholarly communities (from software engineering to accounting), in addition to the Information Systems (IS) field. The results presented should especially help practitioners in SMEs facing the important task of introducing an ERP system into their company. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers on Information Systems, Information Business and Operations