Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Information Technology (IT) artefacts, such as Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs), promise much with regard to meeting the requirements of organisations. In the knowledge economy, organisations require real time data, information flow and integration of business processes to remain financially viable and competitive. However, organisations often fail to harness ERP systems effectively. This thesis attempts to unpack a section of the complex nature of ERPs with emphasis on the post-adoption phase of the systems’ development life cycle. This study explores the complex interface between rigid IT artefacts like ERPs and the, often unpredictable, reality of organisational work processes. Focus falls, in particular, on the workaround practices that end users of the system perform and the effects these have on the integrity of the business process. Based on an extensive literature review, an integrated framework for business process integrity is developed and formulated. This model is applied to the analysis of a qualitative data set compiled during an empirical investigation of a large Local Government Organisation utilising a proprietary ERP product. The data set includes semi-structured interviews with members of the ERP user community relating to their handling of impositions or deficiencies experienced when using the artefact. To define the relationship between business process integrity and workaround practices, each workaround identified is individually analysed to determine the reasons and outcomes that are associated with its enactment. Results indicate that workaround practices have diverse impacts on the various dimensions of business process integrity. While, in certain scenarios, they pose serious threats to organisational performance, they also play a particularly important role in enhancing the organisation’s ability to handle non-standard business cases. Despite their informal and often covert nature, workaround practices are at the heart of the balance between control and flexibility in organisations and their existence suggests that, contrary to common beliefs, ERPs only have limited agency in determining organisational workflow. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Inligtingstegnologie (IT) artefakte, soos ondernemingshulpbronbeplanningstelses (OHBs), beloof baie ten einde aan organisasies se vereistes te voldoen. In die kennis-ekonomie vereis organisasies regstreekse data, inligtingsvloei en integrasie van besigheidprosesse om finansieel lewensvatbaar en kompeterend te bly. Dikwels faal organisasies egter om OHB stelsels effektief te benut. Hierdie tesis poog om ʼn deel van die ingewikkelde aard van OHBs te ontleed, met klem op die postaanvaardingsfase in die stelsels se lewensiklus. Hierdie studie ondersoek die ingewikkelde koppelvlak tussen rigiede IT artefakte soos OHBs en die dikwels onvoorspelbare realiteit van organisatoriese werk prosesse. Die klem val in besonder op die alternatiewe praktyke wat eindgebruikers van die stelsel gebruik, en die uitwerking wat hierdie praktyke op die integriteit van die besigheidsproses het. Gegrond op ʼn uitgebreide literatuurstudie, is ʼn geïntegreerde raamwerk vir besigheidsprosesintegriteit ontwikkel en geformuleer. Hierdie model is toegepas op die ontleding van ʼn kwalitatiewe datastel wat saamgestel is tydens ʼn empiriese ondersoek van ʼn Plaaslike Regeringsorganisasie wat ʼn privaat patent OHB-produk gebruik. Die datastel sluit semigestruktureerde onderhoude in wat met lede van die OHB gebruikersgemeenskap gevoer is met betrekking tot hul hantering van opleggings of tekortkominge wat tydens die gebruik van die artefakte ondervind word. Om die verhouding tussen besigheidsprosesintegriteit en die toepassing van omweë te definieer, is elke geïdentifiseerde alternatief individueel ontleed om sodoende die redes en uitkomste wat met die uitvoer daarvan geassosieer word, te bepaal. Resultate dui aan dat alternatiewe gebruike diverse uitwerkings op die verskillende dimensies van besigheidsprosesintegriteit het. Terwyl, in sommige gevalle, dit ernstige bedreigings vir organisatoriese prestasie inhou, speel dit ook ʼn besonder belangrike rol in die verbetering van die organisasie se nie-standaard bedryfsake. Ten spyte van hul informele en dikwels verborge aard, is alternatiewe gebruike die hart van die balans tussen beheer en buigsaamheid in organisasies, en hul bestaan dui daarop dat, in teendeel met algemene oortuigings, OHBs net beperkte werking het met betrekking tot die bepaling van organisatoriese werksvloei.

Recently, one of the major problems in various countries is the management of complicated organisations to cope with the increasingly competitive marketplace. This problem can be solved using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems which can offer an integrated view of the whole business process within an organisation in real-time. However, those systems have complicated workflow, are costly to be analysed to manage the whole business process in those systems. Thus, Long Running Transaction (LRTs) models have been proposed as optimal solutions, which can be used to simplify the analysis of ERP systems workflow to manage the whole organiational process and ensure that completed transactions in a business process are not processed in any other process. Practically, LRTs models have various problems, such as the rollback and check-pointing activities. This led to the use of Communication Closed Layers (CCLs) for decomposing processes into layers to be analysed easily using sequential programs. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to develop an advanced approach to implement and analyse the workflow of an organisation in order to deal with failures in Long Running Transaction (LRTs) within Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems using Communication Closed Layers (CCLs). Furthermore, it aims to examine the possible enhancements for the available methodology for ERP systems based on studying the LRT suitability and applicability to model the ERP workflows and offer simple and elegant constructs for implementing those complex and expensive ERP workflow systems. The implemented model in this thesis offers a solution for two main challenges; incompatibilities that result from the application of transitional transaction processing concepts to the ERP context and the complexity of ERP workflow. The first challenge is addressed based on offering new semantics to allow modelling of concepts, such as rollbacks and check-points through various constraints, while the second is addressed through the use of the Communication Closed Layer (CCL) approach. The implemented computational reconfigurable model of an ERP workflow system in this work is able to simulate real ERP workflow systems and allows obtaining more understanding of the use of ERP system in enterprise environments. Moreover, a case study is introduced to evaluate the application of the implemented model using three scenarios. The conducted evaluation stage explores the effectiveness of executable ERP computational models and offers a simple methodology that can be used to build those systems using novel approaches. Based on comparing the current model with two previous models, it can be concluded that the new model outperforms previous models based on benefiting from their features and solving their limitations which make them inappropriate to be used in the context of ERP workflow models.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The increase in the use of Enterprise Resource Planning systems in organisations has created an industry which impacts organisations significantly, whether it may be positive or negative. Waltons Namibia has gone through the process twice in a four year period. The processes were handled in a different manner which resulted in different outcomes. The financial impact and general performance of the company were thus significantly different as a result of the different approaches. The study analyzes and assesses the process that was followed during the second implementation process by identifying and evaluating the critical success factors which were addressed successfully and not-successfully. These critical success factors are analyzed in a framework of phases of which the implementation process consists with specific focus on how stakeholder relationships impacted and can impact the critical success factors during an implementation process. The research question can thus be stated as follows: Does the management of relationships between stakeholders in the ERP implementation process play a significant role in the success of the outcome? A secondary result of the research is the creation of a document which can be utilized by organisations to assist in the planning and execution of an ERP implementation by utilizing the framework of phases and identification of critical success factors to manage the project. The study was qualitative in nature utilizing data collected through observation, discussions with participants and personal participation during the project. An encompassing literature review was done prior to the project and the study as well as an assessment of the organisations strategic architecture and the impact it has on the project. The result of the study shows that the management of relationships throughout the project plays a major role in determining the outcome of the project and has

Today's workforce demands the ability to multi-task. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) aids businesses by attempting to integrate all departments and functions across a company to create a single software program that runs off one database. An investigation of ERP and supporting technologies was conducted to determine if organizations utilized the full potential of the systems they installed. The researcher investigated companies that have installed ERP systems, and with the use of an online survey, determined the extent to which the companies utilized the full potential of the systems. The study was also conducted to learn the best practices that can be used in ERP system implementation, system maintenance, system expansion, and related activities to recommend to individuals and organizations that can benefit from the research. A link to an online questionnaire was sent to ERP end-users and implementers via email. This mode of distribution was the most efficient because survey participants were able to access the questionnaire in real time and the researcher was also able to retrieve the responses instantaneously. The responses were retrieved and recorded in an Excel database and pivot tables were used to analyze the data. The data collected from 18 different types of businesses revealed 8 major software packages, over 80% of the organizations sponsored end-user training, and the impetus for implementing ERP focused on three unanimous reasons: reduced cost, increased productivity, and increased efficiency. While the responses were fewer than anticipated, the results supported the researcher's hypothesis that ERP systems are typically not fully utilized to their full potential. The researcher noted that 60% to 70% of the ERP systems installed were underutilized. This was determined by calculating the percentage of ERP modules utilized in a single system versus the total available modules that can be fully utilized. Additionally, the research literature supported the hypothesis that the underutilization of an ERP system compromises its anticipated benefits and does not support the null hypothesis that there are no significant relationships among technologies (project management, business process re-engineering, and customer relationship management) used to develop and support the utilization of ERP systems.

Die gegenwärtig im öffentlichen Sektor zu verzeichnende breite Akzeptanz betriebswirt-schaftlicher Standardanwendungssoftware (SAS) ist nicht zuletzt in der Hoffnung begründet, durch die in ihr inkorporierten und sich bewährten privatwirtschaftlichen Methoden die Steue-rungsprobleme der Politik und Verwaltung lösen zu können. Aus der primär konzeptionellen Ausrichtung der betriebswirtschaftlichen SAS auf die Lösung von ökonomischen Aufgaben in kommerziellen Unternehmen ergeben sich jedoch Funktionslücken in Bezug auf die ganzheit-liche Steuerung von Verwaltungsprozessen. Die Standardsoftware als Organisator des betrieb-lichen Ablaufs in Unternehmen kann diese Funktion in der öffentlichen Verwaltung nicht in vollem Umfang erfüllen. Dem Einsatz der Informations- und Kommunikations- (IuK-)Technologie in der öffentlichen Verwaltung kommt aber eine außerordentliche Bedeutung zu, denn nichts kann wertneutraler und effizienter eindeutig geregelte bürokratische Verfahren vollziehen als eine Software. Die stärkere Automatisierung von Verwaltungsprozessen ist folglich ein beträchtlicher Beitrag zur Schaffung einer friedlichen Koexistenz zwischen der Bürokratie und privatwirtschaftlichen Managementtechniken. Die vorliegende Untersuchung zeigt daher die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Einsatzes be-triebswirtschaftlicher Anwendungssysteme in der öffentlichen Verwaltung. Die vorhandenen Funktionsdefizite werden primär unter dem Gesichtspunkt der operativen und strategischen Steuerung des administrativen Handelns systematisch identifiziert. Darauf aufbauend erfolgt eine Konzeption der integrierten und intelligenten Erfassung von Leistungs- und Wirkungsda-ten in der öffentlichen Verwaltung, um eine Informationsbasis für das Controlling zu schaffen und dieses auch zu institutionalisieren. / The broad acceptance of standard application software for commercial enterprises (SAS) in the public sector is justified by the fact, that methods of controlling the commercial activities, which are implemented in the SAS, can help to solve current problems of controlling the pol-icy and administration. The primary functional focus of business management SAS on support of different processes in commercial enterprises do however lead to function gaps concerning the control of administrative processes in public sector. The standard software as a supervisor of the operational sequence in enterprises cannot fulfill this function in the public administra-tion to full extent. But the employment of the information and communication (IuC)Technologie in the public administration is most significant, because nothing can carry out worth-neutral and more efficiently clearly regulated bureaucratic procedures than a soft-ware. Therefore the stronger automation of administrative processes is a considerable contri-bution for creating a peaceful coexistence between the bureaucracy and private-economical management techniques. The following scientific work examines therefore the possibilities and borders of the em-ployment of application systems, which are primarily designed for commercial enterprises, in public administration. The existing function deficits are systematically identified under the criterion of the operational and strategic controlling of administrative processes. This work results in a conception for the integrated and intelligent collection of achievement and effects data in public administration, in order to create an information basis for controlling public administrative processes and also institutionalize this.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science, Industrial Engineering, 31 March 2015 / The purpose of this research was to determine whether principles promoted by a programme management discipline be defined as critical success factors (CSFs) for the realisation of post-implementation benefits from an ERP investment in an organisation. The research method consists of a single case study with three embedded cases. The main source of data was the use of semi-structured interviews, and business documentation was used to corroborate findings. It was concluded that of the eleven CSFs proposed, three were highly likely CSFs, seven were likely but had certain conditions attached, and one is most likely not a CSF. It was also discovered that four additional CSFs proposed in interviews conducted may be relevant, and that four themes exist within the case data analysed. These may form part of future work.

The EU strives for improving the use of resources in industry and society, a part of this is to turn the economy from a liner, consumption economy, to a circular, reusable economy. In order for this to be achieved industry needs adjust their production to facilitate remanufacturing of used products as well as producing new products. A part of the challenge industry is facing is the increase in complexity and volume in regard for information and material flows, one way of handling this in manufacturing companies is to use ERP- systems to keep track of information and material flows. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the possibility to implement ERP- systems in remanufacturing industries since the amount of uncertainties and sources of variations shadows those in new product manufacturing. In order to reach a conclusion in regards to the purpose of this thesis three research questions where formed: What production steps are need to complete the remanufacturing process? What are the pros and cons of using ERP- systems within remanufacturing? What are the critical implementation factors that remanufacturing industries need to consider when implementing ERP- systems? In order to answer the research questions a literature study was performed to gain insight in the academic knowledge on the subject. In addition to the literature study a case study was conducted as well at a refurbishing company within the train industry. From the literature and case study it was concluded that the remanufacturing process consist of five phases, receiving the product from the market, dismantling it, repair and restore the components, reassemble the product, return the product to the customer/market. Since ERP- systems are continually being developed and their ability to handle uncertainties and variations improve, they could be used at companies facing increased variations and uncertainties than those found in companies only conducting new product production. The pros of utilizing ERP- systems are: financial gains through reduction of administrative, production and inventory costs, the customer related gains come from improved communication, the positive effects on the internal processes are achieved from increased productivity and efficiency. The final area where positive effects can be found is the knowledge and growth are, where ERP- systems follow up on best practises and makes the information easier to access. The drawbacks of using ERP- systems are that it is costly to purchase and implement them, and the company might need to adjust its methods and processes in order to fit the functions included in the ERP- system. As well as there is a need to educate and train the staff to handle the system in a correct fashion.  In order to succeed in implementing a ERP- system, there is a great need for a vision of what the system is supposed to achieve as well as a clear support from the leadership. The implementation needs an assign leader that makes sure that the right functions and systems are being introduced and the amount of special adjustments are kept to a minimum to reduce the risk of making the implementation slower and costlier. In conclusion, remanufacturing companies could draw great advantage from implementing a ERP- system, if not only for the standardisation of methods and tasks, but also from the more user friendly information system. / Ibland annat EU driver man ett arbete med att bli bättre på att ta tillvara på de resurser och tillgångar som vi har, en del av detta arbete är att företag ska kunna ta emot använda produkter och återvinna materialen och komponenterna för att producera nya produkter, man vill ställa om från en linjär till en cirkulär ekonomi. Denna omställning är en utmaning för nytillverkande företag då dessa har optimerat sin verksamhet för att producera produkter och saknar därför system för att ta emot använda produkter och demonteras dessa. En del i utmaningen är den ökade komplexitet som uppstår vid introduktionen av fler flöden och behovet av ytterligare processer. För att hantera information och materialflöden använder sig företag av integrerade affärssystem, ERP-system, där information centraliseras i företaget och görs tillgängligt för alla funktioner. Följande arbete har fokuserat på att utröna huruvida företag som är aktiva inom reparations- och livstidsförlängande verksamhet kan dra nyttan av att använda ERP-system då dessa typer av verksamheter har stora variationer i processtid, tillgång och kvalitet på returnerade produkter samt att efterfrågan varierar kraftigt. För att uppfylla syftet med arbetet har tre forskningsfrågor upprättats: Hur ser tillverkningsprocesser ut inom reparations- och livstidsförlängande verksamheter? Vilka är fördelar och nackdelar med användning av integrerade affärssystem till reparations- och livstidförlängande verksamheter? Vilka faktorer är viktigt att tänka vid implementeringen och användandet av integrerade affärssystem till reparations- och livstidförlängande verksamheter? För att besvara forskningsfrågorna har en litteraturstudie genomförts för att bestämma den akademiska kunskapen inom området, samt en fallstudie hos ett företag verksamt inom reparation och livstidsförlängande av tåg i syfte att samla in empirisk data. Från litteraturstudien och fallstudien har det konstaterats att tillverkningsprocessen hos reparations- och livstidsförlängande verksamheter består av fem moment; mottagande, demontering, upparbetning, återmontering och återlämning/försäljning. Då ERP-system blir allt mer avancerade har deras förmåga att hantera osäkerheter och förändringar ökat, detta har gjort att verksamheter med korta planeringshorisonter samt många osäkerhetskällor kan tillämpa ERP-system till sin verksamhet. Fördelar med att göra detta återfinns inom fyra kategorier: finansiella (så som reducerade kostnader för administration), produktion och lager, kundrelaterade fördelar (som förbättrad kommunikation och tidshållning), intern verksamhetsfördelar genom ökad produktivitet och effektivitet, kunskap och tillväxtfördelar så som användarvänligare system och ökad effektivitet samt att ERP- system följer upp ”best practis” mönster. Nackdelar med ERP-system är att dessa är kostsamma att införskaffa och implementera, samt att verksamheten kan behöva standardisera sina metoder för att vara kompatibla med systemets funktioner. Även kunskapen inom företaget behöver öka för att hantera systemen. För att lyckas med implementeringen av ERP-system krävs en tydlig vision om vad systemet ska uppnå och stötting i form av ledarskapsfördelning och implementeringsteam som driver på arbetet, samt att mängden specialanpassning hålls till ett minimum då detta riskerar att dra ut på processen vilket driver upp kostnaderna. Slutsatsen är att reparations- och livstidsförlängande verksamheter kan dra stora fördelar av att implementera ERP-system, bland annat genom standardisering av arbetssätt men också tack vare användarvänligare informationssystem. Dock behövs en tydlig vision för att användandet ska lyckas.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are information systems that integrate organizational activities across geographical and functional divisions. Being enterprise-wide systems, they are used within an organization in order to standardise its data and streamline its business processes. However, the envisaged benefits of installing an ERP system, such as better control over the company’s operations and seamless integration and data exchange, often fail to materialize. Although the literature has looked into the factors affecting a successful ERP implementation and adoption, it has largely overlooked the actual use of the system. However, as ERP systems have become widespread in many organizations, it is important to examine the use of such systems and their organizational consequences in-situ. This research is particularly concerned with the impact of the use of ERP systems on organizational control and drift. The main argument is that there are contextual factors, in the form of existing organizational control and drift, which influence the use of the ERP system by its users. The actual use of the ERP system can then also lead to organizational control or drift itself. This depends on the way the system is used by its users, as well as the affordances of the system. The former is characterized as human agency in this thesis, while the latter is characterized as machine agency. An interpretive case study approach is adopted to examine those issues. A main case study is examined in depth, aided by four auxiliary case studies. The main contribution of this research is the provision of rich insights regarding the use of ERP systems and their organizational consequences.

To survive and stay ahead in today’s competitive world companies are pushed to their limits in search for organizational skills and technologies. Of those Supply chain Management and Enterprise Resource Planning are the two most primarily used terms. In order to stay and survive in the competition companies are forced to speed up their production, reduce their cost and improve performance. All these three factors go hand in hand and in order to achieve these factors, information exchange from both inside and outside plays the key role. Supply chain management is the term used managing this accurate information’s in and out and ERP is the technology used for achieving the same.The purpose of this research is to continue in this field of study and solve real problems with ERP implementation, and eventually create analytical tools for these systems. With the advent of globalization ERP software has emerged as a major area of interest for many business organizations.There are two main research orientations in these studies which include: first, how to implement ERP system in a corporation and, second, what are the advantages of this system in resolving a variety of problems an organization might encounter.The first area, on which most of the studies have already focused, comprises studies on the fund, timing, economy and success of the implementation of ERP. On the contrary, our study addresses the functions of ERP in strategic and operational levels and also aims at bringing in the major difficulties and disadvantage on implementation of ERP systems into an organization.Our results suggest that ERP systems in its current state have a modest role to play in obtaining supply chain integration and management. With the major development in the field of communication and IT solutions we can expect a time shift where many solutions could be available for better interfacing of ERP systems and in turn which can help in achieving much better supply chain management.Many studies claim that the major advantage of an ERP system is that it is integrated and centralized. An ERP system offers the decision makers the means of enhancing the knowledge about the process which in turn helps to make reliable decisions more rapidly and as well collecting sources to support their decisions. However according to our findings from various studies it is evident that ERP helps to improve the reliability of decision by mutual participation of the participants, improves co-ordination of tasks which makes inter-related decision making easier. As a result it improves the satisfaction of decision process across the participants. / Program: Master’s Program in Industrial Engineering with Specialization in Logistics Management

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019. / The main objective of research is to determine how business processes influenced by corporate strategy can be entrenched in an organisation. Organisations rely on business processes to deliver product and services to customers and meet organisational goals. Several process weaknesses prevail in organisations and impede process performance. Organisations merely focus on technical aspects of the transformation to address efficiency and effectiveness in business processes and tend to ignore the social elements attached to the transformation which bring considerable changes in the employees working environment. Human attitude and behaviour can thus impede process change and entrenchment. As a result, the change endeavour fails, and processes are not entrenched. The study thus gave due consideration to the socio-technical elements because process relies on human intervention to progress at some points. The study aimed to understand and interpret how business processes can be entrenched in an organisation and used a selected organisation in the Western Cape, Cape Town as a case study. To address the main research objective three subordinated objectives were developed and a main research question and three sub-research questions were investigated. Given the human element involved in the process transformation, the phenomenon is a socially constructed reality that can be understood and interpreted using a social theory. Actor Network Theory (ANT) was used as a lens through which to understand and interpret the factors influencing the entrenchment of business processes. It is argued that enterprise resource planning (ERP) influences both technical and non-technical factors involved in process entrenchment and that entrenchment emanates from the alignment of interests of social, process and technology actors. An interpretative paradigm applies to the study where qualitative philosophy was followed together with the underpinning theory. The theory and review of literature were used to develop semi-structured interview schedules to collect opinions from participants. The research participants included twenty-one managers at senior, middle and lower level positions from the Finance, HR and IST departments of the studied organisation. Ethical considerations applied to this research relate to the data collection process and the disclosure of the research findings. Data collection was approved by the institution under study to ensure confidentiality and non-violation of organisation policies. In addition, interview questions were reviewed by senior managers to ensure that the information obtained would not hurt the reputation of the organisation. The research findings revealed that actors need to be transformed and supported to accommodate the change and that the principles of ERP can be implemented as a strategy to lead the process transformation and entrenchment. The research generated a general framework to guide the use of technical and non-technical factors to influence process entrenchment. As such, recommendations are made to actors of process transformation to ensure entrenchment.