Requirements Management for ERP Projects

ERP software standardizes an enterprise’s business processes and data. The software converts transactional data into useful information and collates the data so that they can be analyzed. Requirements engineering is an important component of ERP projects. In this paper, we propose: (1) An ERP maturity model (EMM) for assessing the ERP maturity within the organization and (2) A Requirements Engineering Method (REM) for ERP system requirements to capture the requirements from the different types of users of an ERP system, verifying and validating them. The EMM consists of three levels and each level has a focus and a key process area. Key indicators of ERP functionality identified by a major ERP vendor have been used to apply the EMM to an enterprise. This identifies the level of the EMM to which an enterprise belongs. Then the REM is used to enable the enterprise to assess its ERP system requirements and refine it using a knowledge database to reach a higher level in the EMM than the present one. The authors deem that this model can benefit users across all the ERP projects.

Semantic Web Services for Simulation Component Reuse and Interoperability

Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Simulation Packages (CSPs) are widely used in industry primarily due to economic factors associated with developing proprietary software platforms. Regardless of their widespread use, CSPs have yet to operate across organizational boundaries. The limited reuse and interoperability of CSPs are affected by the same semantic issues that restrict the inter-organizational use of software components and web services. The current representations of Web components are predominantly syntactic in nature lacking the fundamental semantic underpinning required to support discovery on the emerging Semantic Web. The authors present new research that partially alleviates the problem of limited semantic reuse and interoperability of simulation components in CSPs. Semantic models, in the form of ontologies, utilized by the authors’ Web service discovery and deployment architecture, provide one approach to support simulation model reuse. Semantic interoperation is achieved through a simulation component ontology that is used to identify required components at varying levels of granularity (i.e. including both abstract and specialized components). Selected simulation components are loaded into a CSP, modified according to the requirements of the new model and executed. The research presented here is based on the development of an ontology, connector software, and a Web service discovery architecture. The ontology is extracted from example simulation scenarios involving airport, restaurant and kitchen service suppliers. The ontology engineering framework and discovery architecture provide a novel approach to inter-organizational simulation, by adopting a less intrusive interface between participants Although specific to CSPs this work has wider implications for the simulation community. The reason being that the community as a whole stands to benefit through from an increased awareness of the state-of-the-art in Software Engineering (for example, ontology-supported component discovery and reuse, and service-oriented computing), and it is expected that this will eventually lead to the development of a unique Software Engineering-inspired methodology to build simulations in future.

An ASP-Based Product Customization Service System for SMEs

A product customization system with integrated application services is helpful for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The mode of application service provider (ASP) particularly targets SMEs by providing integrated applications. The current product customization system seldom considers integrating with ASPs and orienting product lifecycle. In this article, an ASP-based product customization service system operating in lifecycle-oriented customization mode is proposed. Resource share, product data transform, and product configuration are three important aspects for effectively supporting lifecycleoriented product customization service. A resource collection method for distributed resource share is put forward. An XML-based data mapping model for isomeric/isomorphic product data transform is presented. A new algorithm for rapid product configuration is designed, and an interactive virtual environment for collaborative configuration is suggested. Using this system, SMEs can develop their Internet-based sales and customization systems smoothly, in a short time, and at low cost. A construction machinery oriented product customization service platform is introduced as a case study.

Developing an Enterprise Wide Knowledge Warehouse

It has been common practice among organisations to develop standard operating procedures to gain advantages like standardisation, ensure continuity, and deal with contingency needs. Over time, processual perspectives of activity within organisations have enabled appreciation of such practices through what is commonly referred to as organisational knowledge. Whilst the process of knowledge development can be unique to the context, practical dimensions of development may be considerably different from those suggested by established theory. The present paper firstly reviews different frameworks that have come to be recognised as being effective in categorising organisational knowledge. Secondly, in the light of experiences of both authors in developing an interactive knowledge warehouse, the present paper discusses usefulness of these frameworks. Prevalence of non-disclosure conditions would mean that the mentioned organisation would need to remain anonymous. For the purposes of the present paper, the chosen organisation would be referred to as Kadrosi.

Enhancing Traditional ATP Functionality in Open Source ERP Systems

Available-to-promise (ATP) procedures in today’s enterprise information systems usually involve a simple search for available or planned inventory of a particular product in a particular depot at a particular time. In this article, ATP is viewed as a dynamic and more complex problem of deciding whether to accept a customer order request given the available inventory and planned production plus the remaining production capacity and business rules for covering demand from certain customer classes, for given products and time window. Whenever this is not possible, the production schedule is modified, by utilizing “reserved” capacity and resources, to cover extra demand. A prototype tool has been designed and implemented based on this approach, that can be easily integrated into existing ERP systems enhancing their functionality and increasing the level of customer service. The elaborated prototype is pilot tested in a case company in the food industry and is loosely integrated within the Open Source Compiere 2, ERP system extended to handle manufacturing. The prototype produces almost real time results on modern commodity-off-theshelf computers, thus enhancing sales personnel performance and efficiency and increasing the level of customer service and satisfaction.

Modeling and Implementation of Formal Power Structures in Enterprise Information Systems

The concepts of power and authority are inherent in human organizations of any type. In some organizations power relations on individuals are defined explicitly and formalized in organizational documentation. In other organizations power relations are implicit, less strict and may change depending on contextual conditions. As power relations have important consequences for organizational viability and productivity, they should be considered explicitly in enterprise information systems (EISs). Although organization theory provides a rich and very diverse theoretical basis on organizational power, still most of the definitions for power-related concepts are too abstract, often vague and ambiguous to be directly implemented in EISs. To create a bridge between informal organization theories and automated EISs, this chapter proposes a formal logic-based specification language for representing power- (in particular authority) relations and their dynamics. The use of the language is illustrated by considering authority structures of organizations of different types. Moreover, the chapter demonstrates how the formalized authority relations can be integrated into an EIS.

IS Success Factors and IS Organizational Impact

This research investigated the possible ownership type effect on the information systems (IS) success factors and IS impact on organizational performance in Kuwaiti organizations. Four IS success factors—IS strategy and resources, end user support, IS sophistication and IS organizational level & user involvement—and three IS organizational impact factors—improving work efficiency, improving decision making, and improving work effectiveness—were identified. Ownership type was found to affect the profiles of the IS success factors and IS organizational impact. Public organizations tend to commit less IS resources; their managers get less involved in IS strategy formulation, and their users get less involved in systems development. Yet, they tend to rate their IS organizational impact higher. This “IS expectation-performance gap” is further explained in the article, along with research implications, limitations, and future research.

ERP Selection

Previous studies have shown that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have significantly impacted positively on the productivity of the organization. However, there exists a cost-failure paradox. ERP systems are very expensive and constitute a huge budgetary component, yet the failure rate of ERPs is very high. The selection process of ERPs is a critical success factor. This study focuses on the product and organizational constructs that affect the selection of ERP systems. The authors utilized an extension of technology acceptance model (TAM) by elements of the information systems (IS) success model. The study evaluated the impact of system quality, information quality, service quality, and support quality as key determinants of cognitive response, which influences ERP system purchase/use. Industry, firm size, buying center, and product experience were introduced as organizational constructs. The results of the study indicate that system quality, information quality and software support are significant product qualities that affect an organization’s decision to adopt an ERP product. Among the organizational constructs, only firm size was found to be statistically significant. The results also indicate that multi department committees and the IT department are the major buying centers responsible for vendor selection. In terms of information source, vendor reference and adverts are major information sources, while government standards and popularity/experience of vendors are important considerations in vendor selection.

Time, Attitude, and User Participation

Assimilation of a standard ERP system to an organization is difficult. User involvement seems to be the crux of the matter. However, even the best intentions for user involvement may come to nothing. A case study of a five-year ERP implementation process reveals that a main reason may be that the perception of usefulness of the system in any given phase of the implementation is heavily dependent on preceding events—the process. A process model analysis identifies eight episodes and nine encounters in the case showing that the user’s attitude towards the ERP system changes between acceptance, equivocation, resistance and rejection depending on three things: (1) the dynamic between user and consultants, (2) the dynamic between different user groups, and (3) the understanding of technical, organizational and socio-technical options. When relating the empirical findings to existing theory on user participation, it is argued that the changes could be explained as a slide from influential user participation toward pseudo participation and back to influential participation, and that user participation in the context of ERP implementations raises new issues regarding user participation. Thus further research regarding new approaches and/or new techniques and tools for user participation in the context of ERP implementations is needed.

Requirements Elicitation for Personalized ERP Systems

For small and medium-sized companies the fit between their business processes and their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a critical success factor. The functions and features for essential tasks must be geared to the demands and skills of the individual users. This paper reports on the usefulness of several methods for eliciting user input which served as a basis for requirements for a personalized ERP system. It describes the yield of heuristic evaluations, both by experts and by developers, and a focus group with six users representing the main user types. The focus group consisted of an identification of the most important functions, task demonstrations, and a mini design workshop. As a demonstration of the results of the various user-focused methods, some noteworthy findings on the personalization of ERP systems are presented.