Philadelphia Business Daily

How adopting an ERP system relates to organizational structure of the implementing company?

Public Comments

1. An ERP system attempts to integrate all the duties of an organization into one centralized system. So each component of this system reflects a part of the company. For instance, if the accounting department is going to use the system, they will need tools to handle taxes, payroll, and accounts receivable. So the overall ERP system should have a component which will handle those functions for the organization. So when the system is done, the system works and is governed in much the same manner as the organization. Held to certain business principles, governed by business rules and meets the needs of organization. Really if you think about it, the system is almost a cyber version of the company. Allowing users to function as they would in the real world, but with processing power that can go at the speeds of computing. I have added a link to CIO magazine where you can read up more on how ERP relates to business and some of the processes involved in moving towards an ERP system. Hopefully this is what you are looking for. Enjoy!
2. The organisational structure of the implementing company will affect a number of aspects of the project. An organisations experience in managing large projects will have the biggest impact. In an experienced company there will already be a strong project management team, and personnel used to working within project teams. An operational biased organisation will have little or no project management skills to draw on and personnel will more than likely only be comfortable operating within their familiar line management structure. This may slow information exchange between project groups and slow down decision making processes. Another consequence will be on the number of external personnel required with the appropriate project experience. Unless the implementing company is an ERP consultancy it will still have to hire external personnel to fill the skill gaps.