Maximizing Return on Investment Using ERP Applications

INTRODUCTION

Although often not recognized as such, the quote above is clearly a tautology if you accept the premise that business results don’t just occur, but instead occur because of the way a business operates, which is defined by the business processes they employ. To say it another way, all organizations employ a set of business applications that allows them to conduct business in a manner they have chosen, either by detailed design or by default. How these applications are constructed and executed will ultimately determine how the business performs.

Without changing the functionality of IT applications that an enterprise operates on, it is impossible to change the business processes that enable the corporation or to alter results in any sustainable fashion. This set of applications is referred to as the enterprise applications platform, whether it is a modern ERP system such as SAP, Oracle, and others, or it is a combination of proprietary functional applications cobbled together to support the business. How these systems are designed and implemented is knowledge that is critical to the performance of any business. In order to have an organization perform effectively, this must be understood to appropriate degrees at all levels and across all functions of the organization.1

There is more to this than simply education of the workforce, from executive leadership to workers in the organization. This book focuses on ERP systems specifically due to their broad acceptance, and ...