ERP and Information Systems

Conclusion

The conclusion covers the main result that might shape the relationships between the evolution of enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages and information systems (ISs). It also provides two tables (Tables C.1 and C.2) of useful best practices in this field:

1. – Table C.1: the impact of the research factors on the relationships between the evolution of ERP systems and IS integration or disintegration;
2. – Table C.2: relationships between the combinations of the research factor values and IS integration or disintegration.

From the literature review, we conducted an analysis of the relationship between the evolution of ERP systems and current trends in the field of ISs. Although previous studies have shown the role of ERP systems in IS integration, we proposed a new track of research aimed to prove that in some cases, the evolution of these packages can lead to a kind of IS disintegration instead of the intended integration.

We found that links between ERP systems and ISs are triggered by certain variables or factors: economic crisis and competitiveness, total dependency on the ERP vendors, project management, interoperability and complexity of the ERP systems, evolution strategies of existing systems and of ERP vendors. Three case studies have confirmed the relevance of these variables as well as the validity of the two values (positive and negative) given to each of them.

This book has established cause/effect links between the evolution of ERP systems and IS integration ...