Systems Acquisition

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP ) is the computer application now in rage for different industries around the world . This system covers a myriad of business operations including processing , manufacturing planning , distribution , customer service , human resources , purchasing and finance . Its core purpose is to make data be easily shared between different departments . Various industries engaged in ERP range from healthcare , to manufacturing , and to the government (BBC , 2005

Traditionally , big multinational companies were the target market of ERP vendors . However , small industries like SAP , PeopleSoft , Oracle and others have been observed to be

approached by ERP vendors as well Some businesses have reported big successes from implementing ERP , while others have been badly damaged by the experience . That is to say that incorporated in this system are significant problems . How successful a company is in achieving their aims through ERP will depend on how well the companies overcome these problems

A strategic plan would be carefully formulated by any corporation straining to survive highs and lows in the industry and stay strong In other words , the corporation would think of ways on how to transform from nothing to something in the future . A corresponding process is to be traversed through by Information Technology . A business corporation would lay out a desired architecture for its future technology and from there they would come up with a project in to set the layout in to actuality . Different sets of projects would be constructed towards this goal . Of course , as any corporation would know (or should for the matter ) both business needs and technical needs should be taken into account when it came up with the layout . After all , upgrading , replacing and improving cannot just be done just for the sake of it , or just for the heck of it unless it had been identified that there is an actual need of it , and business goals would be achieved through it . Being a strong player cannot be achieved by possessing obsolete technologies on the other hand as well . A very efficient IT strategy based on a specific architecture is therefore an investment indeed , something a corporation should make in to become successful . Of course , like any other investment , there are risks in association

A business ' architecture relies too much on it being able to predict the business needs into the future , and the basics of the technical needs But no matter how sophisticated the tools are to predict future events contingencies can still occur if not adverse effects . In highly volatile environments , architecture would only be good for a certain period of time , and maybe even not at all , and all strategic plans that would come out of it , as well as any IT projects would be deemed unhelpful . The role of IT in organizations is changing . In the past IT was a cost center . Before , the best thing that that IT could do for a company was to reduce costs , but as the times keep changing and technology keeps upgrading , the...