Day3 - Article Key Points by Basak Tektemur

A Framework for Evaluating ERP Implementation Choices by Wenhong Luo and Diane M. Strong

It is important to define a connection between ERP system and organization’s business processes for an organization. There must be a good supportive system for the ERP implementation decision-making process and this paper provides a framework for a relevant support system including customization choices and the capabilities required to accomplish these choices. ERP systems are packaged software solutions rather than customized systems with built-in assumptions and some best practices. However, mostly these assumptions and practices do not match with the company and therefore, appropriate customization up to some level is required and crucial. There are various customization possibilities in order to achieve a successful ERP implementation and various capabilities required for technical ERP customization options and process change capabilities needed for process customization.

Technical Customization:
Module selection
Table configuration
Code modification

Process Customization:

No change
Incremental change
Radical Change

ERP Customization Choices:

No Customization
Process Adaptation
Process Conversion
Fit System to Process
Mutual Adaptation
Fit Process to System
System Conversion
System Conversion and Process Adaptation
System and Process Reengineering

Technical Change Capability:

Understanding of default ERP system processes, configurations and built-in options
Ability to develop and modify large-scale software
Ability to manage large-scale systems development projects

Process Change Capability:

Ability to understand company’s own existing business processes and their business environment
Ability to design new or changed business processes
Ability to manage and coordinate large-scale business process changes

Overall Capability in implementing and customizing ERP systems:

Novice Organization => Low technical change capability, low process change capability
Technician Organization => High technical change capability, low process change capability
Organizer type of organization => Low technical change capability, high process change capability
Expert Organization => Low technical change capability, high process change capability

Configuring an ERP System: Introducing Best Practices or Hampering Flexibility? by Olga Volkoff

The case is an example of an ERP implementation which is similar with Welch Allyn’s ERP implementation project that we cover in day3. Therefore many issues are similar such as the project team, who are involved in team. The team of 8 worked on implementing the order management and set up a pricing module. In the end, Tom Brown, Director of Finance and Accounting, made the best point: it is not easy, if not impossible, to make work a system like JDE in an organizational environment where there is no control, no discipline, no desire for change or resistance to change. Here, it is possible to refer lecture learning where we discussed a lot about communication and importance of communication before, during and after ERP implementation in order to release stress and anxiety, and break the resistance against ERP systems.