Lack of integration governance in ERP development: a case study on causes and effects

Tommi Kähkönen*, Kari Smolander, Andrey Maglyas

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The development of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system starts actually after it has been implemented and taken into use. It is necessary to integrate ERP with other business information systems inside and outside the company. With the grounded theory, we aim to understand how integration challenges emerged in a large manufacturing enterprise when the long-term ERP system reached the beginning of its retirement. Structural changes, an information technology governance model, lack of organisational vision, having no architectural descriptions, lack of collaboration, cost cutting, and organisational culture made integration governance troublesome. As a consequence, the enterprise suffered from several undesired effects, such as complex integration scenarios between internal systems, and failing to provide its customers the needed information. The reduction of costs strengthened the organisational silos further and led to unrealised business process improvements. We provide practitioners with four recommendations. First, the organisational goals for integration should be exposed. Second, when evaluating the needs and impacts of integration, a documented architectural description about the system landscape needs to be utilised. Third, the role of IT should be emphasised in development decision-making, and fourth, collaboration is the core ingredient for successful integration governance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1173-1206
JournalEnterprise Information Systems
Volume11
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • case study
  • ERP system
  • governance
  • grounded theory
  • integration
  • management
  • manufacturing enterprise

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