ERP and Information Systems

7Discussion: Relationships between Evolution of ERP Systems and IS Integration or Disintegration

In this chapter, we discuss the meaning of the relationships between the research factors, evolution of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and information system (IS) integration or disintegration. Our analysis, interpretation, deduction and results are based on the case studies and the literature review. Depending on the combinations of the research factors, the impact of the evolution of ERP systems on IS integration or disintegration could be as follows.

7.1. TDEV and ECCO

Although ERP systems (by virtue of process integration) should logically help to improve the competitiveness of firms, an expensive total cost of ownership (TCO) of these packages could considerably reduce this competitiveness. As a result, the positive correlation between total dependency on the ERP vendor– (TDEV–) and economic crisis and competitiveness+ (ECCO+) (the more independent the firm is from an ERP system vendor, the more the firm’s competitiveness would increase due to an ERP system: a positive arbitration of ROI) could not help to implement a total integration of IS (TIIS) (when a TCO of an ERP system is very expensive, the return on investment (ROI) could be positive in cases where the firm is not obliged to buy or keep the whole package and can choose only some modules due to the possibility of independence from one vendor. As a result, the IS would consist of more than one ERP system). ...