Enterprise Resource Planning: Global Opportunities and Challenges

Book excerpt: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) refers to large commercial software packages that promise a seamless integration of information flow through an organization by combining various sources of information into a single software application and a single database. The outcome of ERP itself is still a mystery, but the trends and issues it has created will be the enigma that future generations will have to solve. Traditionally, separate units were created within an organization to carry out various tasks, and these functional areas would create their own information systems thereby giving rise to systems that were not integrated. ERP strives to provide a solution to these problems. Enterprise Resource Planning Solutions and Management examines the issues that need to be further studied and better understood to ensure successful implementation and deployment of ERP systems.