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2 - Innovating with Packaged Business Software: Towards an Assessment

from Part I - Implementation and Effectiveness: Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2012

E. Burton Swanson
Affiliation:
Professor of Information Systems, Anderson School at UCLA
Graeme Shanks
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Peter B. Seddon
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Leslie P. Willcocks
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
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Summary

Introduction

In the 1990s many firms turned to software packages when they replaced the older, often home-built systems in their application portfolios. They chose to buy, rather than build, their new systems. Broadly, they followed the prevailing wisdom to downsize themselves so as to focus on their ‘core competencies’ and to outsource other tasks to the market. Many found no compelling logic for continued in-house development of their application software. Some, with their staffs already reorganized and reduced through reengineering, were simply no longer in a position to undertake major development tasks.

Replacement of systems had in the 1990s become a priority for many firms. These organizations felt increasingly burdened by their ‘legacy systems’. Their support staff were often committed to a maintenance task for which the costs were all too apparent and the benefits appeared to be marginal and remedial. Their home-built software also often resided on expensive mainframes widely viewed as heading rapidly toward obsolescence. Further, users found this software increasingly cumbersome to work with in comparison to their newer PC-based tools with their graphical user interfaces.

It was in this context that the 1990s gave rise to ERP (enterprise resource planning), a significant innovation in the packaged software market. The vision for ERP was first articulated by the Gartner Group (Wylie, 1990). It took an ‘enterprise-wide view’ of traditional application software, allowing for internal integration of the technical and business core, as well as external integration with business customers.

Type
Chapter
Information
Second-Wave Enterprise Resource Planning Systems
Implementing for Effectiveness
, pp. 56 - 73
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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References

Buchanan, T. (1995) Here Comes SAP. Fortune, 2 October, 122 ff
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (1999) Enterprise Resource Planning: Survey 1999. Accessed 28 August. http://www.capgemini.de/news/erp.html
Davenport, T. H. (2000) Mission Critical: Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press
Hirt, S. G. and Swanson, E. B. (2000) Innovating with ERP: Siemens Power Corporation. Information Systems Research Program, Anderson School at UCLA, 22 March
Keller, E. L. (1999) Lessons Learned. Manufacturing Systems, November, 44 ff
Kumar, K., and Hillegersberg, J. (2000) ERP: Experiences and Evolution. Communications of the ACM, 43(4), 23–26Google Scholar
Lientz, B. P. and Swanson, E. B. (1981) Problems in Application Software Maintenance. Communications of the ACM, 24(11), 763–769CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swanson, E. B. and Ramiller, N. C. (1997) The Organizing Vision in Information Systems Innovation. Organization Science, 8(5), 458–474CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wylie, L. (1990) ERP: A Vision of the Next-Generation MRP II. Scenario S-300–339, Gartner Group, 12 April

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