Technological Factors Relevant to Continuity on ERP for E-Business Platform: Integration, Modularity, and Flexibility

TLDR

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have evolved to embed flexibility, modularity, and integration, and with the rise of e‑business they are increasingly viewed as platforms that extend beyond organizational boundaries to support value‑chain partners. This study develops a framework to examine the relationship between ERP and other enterprise systems in terms of flexibility, integration, and modularity for e‑business. The framework is built by investigating ERP technological factors and other emerging enterprise solutions, assessing how these systems can be extended to support external constituents in an e‑business context.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most enterprise systems (ES) solutions have evolved with the technological factors of flexibility, modularity and integration embedded to fit both business and information technology (IT) requirements for many organizations. Recently, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and business-to-business electronic business (e-business) have received much attention within both the practitioner and academic communities, especially concerning the technological factors. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework that could be used to investigate a possible relationship between ERP and other ES systems with the factors of flexibility, integration and modularity for e-business. In the 1990's, ERP systems were introduced to fulfill some of the technological requirements across functional areas within a corporate boundary. Moreover, with the exponential growth of Internet technology and the emergence of e-business, the focus of ERP systems has changed from an integrated functional focus within an organization to one reaching outside the organization throughout the value chain system. It is expected that an ERP system can facilitate an e-business effort of an organization. In order to serve as a platform for e-business, an ERP system must also be able to be extended to support a range of external constituents for a firm. The process must involve an investigation of ERP technological factors along with any other emerging ES solution of the firm. This study investigates ERP and other ES systems for e-business with a focus on the technological factors of flexibility, integration, and modularity.