The adoption and design methodologies of component-based enterprise systems
- PDF / 197,685 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 598 x 796 pts Page_size
- 13 Downloads / 225 Views
2000 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved 0960-085X/00 $15.00 www.stockton-press.co.uk/ejis
The adoption and design methodologies of component-based enterprise systems M Fan, J Stallaert and AB Whinston Centre for Research in Electronic Commerce, Department of Management Science and Information Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA One of the major investments of information technologies in large companies in the past decade has been the enterprise system. Although the enterprise system has the advantages of managing and integrating almost all of the business processes in the whole company, there have been strong criticisms that the enterprise system often imposes its own logic or business process on a company and lacks flexibility and adaptability in today’s dynamic business environment. The goal of this paper is to outline a new approach in enterprise system development. We analyse the factors that affect the adoption of enterprise systems. Market and business changes, and advances in information technologies call for a more flexible, open, and scalable enterprise architecture. We describe the process that Dell Computer Corporation took in adopting its component-based enterprise system architecture. The Dell example has demonstrated the importance of fit between business information systems and fundamental organizational dimensions of the company including strategy, business environment, and organizational structure. We also discuss the design methodologies for component-based enterprise system design. We take a coordination perspective, both at the software level and the organizational level, in addressing the design methodologies for component-based enterprise system development.
Introduction As we end the twentieth century, the changes that are taking place in the business world are accelerating. With increasing competition and shortening product cycle, many large companies are seeking solutions by investing heavily in information technologies to gain competitive advantages. One of the major investments of information technologies in large companies in the past decade has been the enterprise system. These huge software packages can manage almost all of the business processes in the whole company, including financial and accounting, manufacturing, logistics, human resources, and customer service. Information generated in all of the business processes can be kept, integrated, and managed. Although current enterprise systems bring seamless data integration throughout the company, they do so at a heavy price. According to Davenport (1998), one major criticism toward enterprise systems is that they tend to impose their own logic or business process on companies. The system may push a company toward full integration even when a certain degree of business segregation may be in its best interest. With a market of around $10 billion per year, enterprise systems deserve a detailed analysis. The goal of an enterprise system is to help companies streamline their business proc
Data Loading...
