ERP Systems' Life Cycle
The 1990’s witnessed an impressive growth of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the market of corporate IT solutions, and now they are an important component of IT architecture in many companies. The ERP systems are introduced in companies following well-defined stages, namely the stages of decision, selection, implementation, stabilization and utilization. This last stage (utilization) is also characterized by the development of an organized effort to continuously ensure that the ERP system meets business needs regarding functionality, performance, availability, and to control operation costs, at the ERP management stage. This chapter presents aspects involved in each stage of this life cycle, based on the referenced bibliography.