Page 314 - Using MIS

Guide

erP And the StAndArd, StAndArd BlUePrInt

Designing business processes is difficult, (and software solution that matches that blueprint) to fit the
time consuming, and very expensive. Highly trained experts unique requirements.
conduct seemingly countless interviews with users and do- In practice, such variations from the standard blueprint
main experts to determine business requirements. Then are rare. They are difficult and expensive to implement, and
even more experts join those people, and together this team they require the using organization to maintain the varia-
invests thousands of labor hours to design, develop, and tions from the standard as new versions of the ERP software
implement effective business processes that meet those are developed. Consequently, most organizations choose to
requirements. All of this is a very high-risk activity, prone to modify their processes to meet the blueprint, rather than the
failure. And it all must be done before IS development can
even begin.
ERP vendors such as SAP have invested millions of
labor hours into the business blueprints that underlie
their ERP solutions. Those blueprints consist of hundreds
or thousands of different business processes. Examples
are processes for hiring employees, acquiring fixed as-
sets, acquiring consumable goods, and custom “one-off”
(a unique product with a unique design) manufacturing, to
name just a few.
Additionally, ERP vendors have implemented their
business processes in hundreds of organizations. In so
doing, they have been forced to customize their standard
blueprint for use in particular industries. For example, SAP
has distribution-business blueprints that are customized
for the auto parts industry, for the electronics industry, and
for the aircraft industry. Hundreds of other customized
solutions exist as well.
Even better, the ERP vendors have developed soft-
ware solutions that fit their business-process blueprints.
In theory, no software development is required at all if the
organization can adapt to the standard blueprint of the
ERP vendor.
As described in this chapter, when an organization
implements an ERP solution, it identifies any differences
that exist between its business processes and the standard
blueprint. Then the organization must remove that differ-
ence, which can be done in one of two ways: It changes
business processes to fit the standard blueprint; or the ERP
vendor or a consultant modifies the standard blueprint
Sources: Magdalena Kucova/Fotolia

282