Tommi Kähkönen

Lack of integration governance in ERP development: a case study on causes and effects

ABSTRACT The development of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system starts actually after it has been implemented and taken into use. It is necessary to integrate ERP with other business information systems inside and outside the company. With the grounded theory, we aim to understand how integration challenges emerged in a large manufacturing enterprise when the long-term ERP system reached the beginning of its retirement. Structural changes, an information technology governance model, lack of organisational vision, having no architectural descriptions, lack of collaboration, cost cutting, and organisational culture made integration governance troublesome. As a consequence, the enterprise suffered from several undesired effects, such as complex integration scenarios between internal systems, and failing to provide its customers the needed information. The reduction of costs strengthened the organisational silos further and led to unrealised business process improvements. We provide practitioners with four recommendations. First, the organisational goals for integration should be exposed. Second, when evaluating the needs and impacts of integration, a documented architectural description about the system landscape needs to be utilised. Third, the role of IT should be emphasised in development decision-making, and fourth, collaboration is the core ingredient for successful integration governance.

Networks of Pain in ERP Development

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been providing business benefits through integrated business functions for two decades, but system implementation is still painful for organizations. Even though ERP projects are collaborative efforts conducted by many separate organizations, academic research has not fully investigated ERPs from this perspective. In order to find out the challenges of ERP development networks (EDN), a multiple case study was carried out. We identified three main categories of pain: evolving network, inter-organizational issues, and conflicting objectives. The dynamic nature of the EDN causes challenges when new organizations and individuals enter and leave the project. Relationships between organizations form the base for collaboration, yet conflicting objectives may hinder the development. The main implication of this study is that the network should be managed as a whole in order to avoid the identified pitfalls. Still more research is needed to understand how the EDN efficiently interacts to solve different problems in ERP development.

What Do We Know About ERP Integration

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been the major interest of companies to improve the business performance with integrated business systems during the last 15 years. As demands for collaborative business through supply chain increased, so did the integration requirements for ERPs that are today connected externally with customers, suppliers and business partners and internally with continuously changing system landscape of the enterprise. We conducted a systematic mapping study to investigate how ERP integration has been studied by the academia from 1998 to 2012. Studies about technological issues are mostly dealing with systems inside a company whereas studies on methodological issues focus on the integration of the supply chain management and e-business. However, these studies are often either carried out without a rigorous empirical research method or they are based on single cases only. Quantitative methods have been mainly used to investigate quality attributes of ERPs but issues related to ERP integration in terms of a network of stakeholders in an ERP project still need more research in the future.

Integration Obstacles During ERP Development

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems have increasingly been developed and integrated with other internal and external systems. This paper contributes to the field of enterprise systems integration by clarifying the concept of integration in the context of ERP systems. We investigated integration obstacles during ERP development in 5 large organizations through theme-based interviews. Besides considering integration as purely technical challenge, our findings reveal the other perspectives of integration. In total 31 environmental, technical, managerial, and organizational integration obstacles were identified from empirical data and further mapped with 13 ERP challenge categories derived from the literature. Our findings reveal that integration barriers are related to all 13 categories of ERP challenges. This indicates that integration should not be a separate project from ERP development. Identifying the integration obstacles is necessary for practitioners to develop counteractions to enterprise integration problems.

Outlining a Process to Manage the Complexity of Enterprise Systems Integration

New service combinations are constantly needed to be created from the array of information systems and technologies, developed in different times for different purposes, crossing the organizational boundaries. Integration is the key matter in organizations, yet it is also an ambiguous and often a misunderstood concept in the field of information systems. In this paper, we construct an integration process from an inductive study in a large manufacturing enterprise, by examining its long-term ERP development endeavour. The process consists of four sub-processes with dedicated actors and activities. Integration Governance is needed to align Integration Realization with the strategic goals of the organization. Integration Housekeeping is dedicated to standardization activities and keeping the architectural description of the enterprise systems’ landscape updated, and to aid Realization. By utilizing the assets produced by Governance and Housekeeping Integration Evaluation is done to decide whether it is feasible to set up an integration project or abandon the initiative. The process helps managers to manage the complexity of enterprise systems integration and avoid its pitfalls.

Explaining the challenges in ERP development networks with triggers, root causes, and consequences

Many organizations still find it painful to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Although ERP projects are collaborative efforts that many separate organizations conduct, academic research has not investigated ERPs fully from this perspective. To identify the challenges in ERP development networks (EDNs), we carried out an interpretive empirical study by using grounded theory to analyze data. After identifying 10 EDN challenges and analyzing the associations between the challenges further, we constructed a model that explains the challenges in ERP development networks. Relationship conflicts (root causes) create or reinforce one or more operational problems (consequences). Changes in the EDN structure initiate or reinforce the other two types. Whereas the existing literature has discussed ERP challenges mainly separately, we offer a more profound explanation of how they emerge and interrelate. Our findings aid practitioners in recognizing and focusing on the root causes of challenges rather than firefighting consequences. The findings can provide useful insights into collaborative and dynamic environments where multiple organizations interact.

ERP System Integration: An Inter-organizational Challenge in the Dynamic Business Environment

The number of ERP system integration challenges has recently increased as ERP systems need to be integrated not only with the other business information systems inside the organization but also with the systems of business partners. We examined the development and integration of a customized ERP system used by a global manufacturing enterprise by interviewing 21 industrial experts. By using Grounded Theory as the data analysis approach, four groups of factors influencing ERP system integration were revealed. Business environment sets the constraints for integration that is governed in a dynamic organizational landscape, hindered by political agendas. Besides the ERP system vendor, many other ERP development network partners contribute to ERP system integration. The complexity of system level can further distract the integration efforts. Our findings can help managers to guide their strategic decision making on integration issues.

What Are the Factors Affecting ERP System Integration

The first wave of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems integrated the core internal business and provided operational benefits for companies. The second wave of ERPs introduced additional challenges due to the need for ERPs to interact also with various other systems beyond organizational boundaries, highlighting integration as a critical activity during the ERP development. Because of the lack of research on different stakeholders involved in ERP development that focuses on integration issues, this paper takes a grounded theory approach to investigate the affecting factors of ERP integration. Challenged by the organizational landscape, ERP development network partners and system characteristics, ERP integration is a continuous and cooperative effort during the ERP development, conducted by the dynamic ERP development network. It struggles through forced-marriage relationships, political games and organizational changes and aims at an integrated business engine that makes the business more competitive.

External influences and integration as requirements in online community development

Existing requirements engineering methods and practices do not fully apply to online community (OC) development. This paper highlights the nature of requirements in OC development. This is done with a model that distinguishes between internal and external sources and between design time and refinement time. The paper also emphasizes how integration should be considered as a requirement when developing an OC. The paper ends with a description of an ongoing research project that aims to develop new methods and practices for OC development.