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Chapter 1 • Introduction to Enterprise Systems for Management 17

ERP IMPLEMENTATION
ERP systems are continuously changing and evolving to provide the organization with a new
way of looking at business processes and decision making. Organizations are also continuously
changing to match their environments. Both need the flexibility to adapt with each other in order
to be successful. System implementations are generally very complex, time consuming, and
resource intensive. Because of its size and impact on the organization, an ERP system only
increases this complexity; therefore, before implementing ERP, an organization has to plan and
understand the life cycle of these systems. This section will provide a quick overview of the ERP
implementation process, which begins with business process management (BPM). BPM lays the
foundation for the remaining chapters; the ERP implementation concepts introduced in this
section will be discussed in more detail later.

Business Process Management
Business process management is the understanding, visibility, and control of business processes.
A business process represents a discrete series of activities or tasks that can span people, applica-
tions, business activities, and organizations. BPM is similar to other process improvement disci-
plines, such as Lean Six Sigma, which are used by companies like General Electric to improve
organizations’ performance and employee productivity. BPM has a prescribed process or
methodology that should be followed to help an organization document their business processes
and understand where they are being used throughout their business. The initial stage of BPM is
to create an “as-is” process map that defines the current process. The as-is process is then used as
a baseline for determining where the process may be improved. However, simply documenting
the current process does not give the business managers control over the process.
The real value of BPM comes from gaining visibility and control of the business process.
BPM can activate the process, orchestrate the people, data, and systems that are involved in the
process, give the business managers a detailed view into how the process is operating and where
the bottlenecks are occurring, and highlight possible process optimization. Process operational
metrics are automatically collected by the BPM software. Armed with data on how the current
process is operating, business process managers can use various process improvement tech-
niques to optimize the process. The impact of an improved business process can be realized in
many ways, including improved customer satisfaction, reductions in cost, and increased produc-
tivity by allocating resources to more value-added activities. One way of achieving these
improvements is through implementing ERP system, which has embedded business process
designed to improve employee and organization’s performance. Taking a life cycle approach will
help organizations achieve their process improvement goals with ERP. BPM would be part of
this ERP life cycle.

ERP Life Cycle
Understanding an ERP system life cycle and its effects on today’s organizations is fundamental to
fulfilling the long-term investment in an ERP system. As shown in Figure 1-9, ERP implementa-
tion is not a onetime implementation. It requires a continuous cycle of product release and support.
The key to a successful implementation, therefore, is to use a proven methodology, to take
it one step at a time, and to begin with an understanding of the ERP life cycle. When a system
implementation does not have a well-defined methodology, deadlines will likely be missed,
budgets will be overspent, and functionality will not meet the client’s needs and requirements.