Module 1-2: Systems Integration and the ERP

Silos

They are basically compartmentalized operating units isolated from their environment. They can improve productivity, but they often lead employees to achieve departmental goals rather than overall organizational goals.

Horizontal Silos

Classification of organizations into departments like Accounting and Human Resources reflects the breaking of complex tasks into smaller manageable tasks that could be assigned to a group of people who could then be held responsible.

Vertical Silos

Organizations have also divided roles into hierarchical layers from strategic planning to management control and operation control.

Information Systems

They are systems that are a critical component of a successful organization today. They play a major role in the primary and secondary activities of an organization’s value chain. They can be computers, people, procedures, and software that store, organize, and deliver information

Strategic support, staff support, managerial support, operational support, communication and collaboration support, infrastructure support

Enumerate the 6 (6) Information system (IS) Functional and Hierarchical Models.

Logical, physical

Enumerate the two (2) approaches in Systems Integration.

Logical

It is a systems integration approach that aims to develop information systems that would allow organizations to share data with all of their stakeholders based on need and authorization.

Physical

It is a systems integration approach that aims to provide seamless connectivity between heterogeneous systems.

Increased Revenue and Growth, Leveling the Competitive Environment, Enhanced Information Visibility, Increased Standardization

Enumerate the four (4) given benefits of systems integration.

High Initial Set-up Costs, Power and Interdepartmental Conflicts, Long-term and Intangible ROI, Creativity Limitations

Enumerate the four (4) given limitations of systems integration.

Enterprise Resource Planning System

They are the first generation of enterprise systems meant to integrate data and support all the major functions of organizations. The goal is to integrate departments and functions across an organization into a single infrastructure sharing a common database and serving the needs of each department. Additionally, They refer to a type of software that organizations use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations

Inventory Management & Control, Materials Requirements Planning (MRP), Materials Requirements Planning (MRP-II), Enterprise Resource Planning, Extended ERP or ERPII

Enumerate the 5 stages of the timeline evolution of ERP.

Hardware, Software Process, Information, Process, People

Enumerate the five (5) ERP Systems Components

ERP Architecture

It is a blueprint of the actual ERP system and helps the implementation team build the ERP system.

physical, logical

Enumerate the two (2) types of ERP Architecture.

ERP Implementation

Its implementation is very risky, and using a well-defined project plan with a proven methodology will assist in managing those risks.

Going live

It is one of the most critical points in a project’s success.

Project Management

It must provide strong leadership, which is a clear and understood implementation plan, and close monitoring of the budget, in order for an ERP system to be implemented successfully.

Consultants

They are implementation partners used by organizations without much ERP implementation experience.

Change Management

This helps prepare for changes to how business is done. In implementing new systems, communicating, preparing, and setting expectations is as important as providing training and support.

Business Process Re-engineering

Business processes will need to be changed, adjusted, or adapted to the new system to use the functionality of an ERP system fully.

Global, Ethical, and Security Management

Outsourcing overseas, ethical issues and problems with system security have also attracted a lot of attention in ERP implementation.

SAP, Oracle/Peoplesoft, Infor, Microsoft Dynamics, Lawson

Enumerate the five (5) given ERP Vendors.

Business Functions

They are activities specific to a functional area of operation.

Business Process

It is a collection of activities that takes some input and creates an output that is of value to the customer.

Accounting and Finance

It involves performing financial accounting to provide summaries of operational data in managerial reports, and it is also responsible for tasks such as controlling accounts, planning and budgeting, and cash-flow management.

Human Resources

They are formal systems devised for the management of people within an organization. The responsibilities of a human resource manager fall into three major areas: staffing, employee compensation and benefits, and defining/designing work. Essentially, the purpose of HR is to maximize the productivity of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees.

IS architecture

It is an architecture that has evolved from centralized mainframe architecture to personal computers with distributed or client–server architecture.

Project Management, Consultants, Change Management, Business Process Re-engineering, Global, Ethical and Security Management

Enumerate the five (5) involved people and organization in project management.

Systems Integration

It allows a heterogeneous (hodgepodge) IS to communicate or integrate and share information (or data) seamlessly with one another. It binds information systems at information and service levels.

Information-oriented, Business process integration-oriented, Service-oriented, Portal-oriented

Enumerate the four (4) Systems Integration Approaches.

Information-Oriented

It is a system integration approach that refers to the integration of two or more systems by allowing simple exchanges of data between applications.

Coupling, cohesion

Enumerate the two (2) Integration Concepts in Information-Oriented approach.

Coupling

It is an integration concept in information-oriented approaches that binds applications together in such a way that they are dependent on each other, sharing the same methods, interfaces, and perhaps data

Reusability

Allows common business processes to be reused.

Cohesion

It is an integration concept in information-oriented approaches that refers to the “Act or state of sticking together” or “the logical agreement”.

data replication, data federation, and interface processing

Enumerate the three (3) categories of information-oriented solutions.

Data Replication

It is a category of information-oriented solutions that refers to moving data between two or more databases

Data Federation

It is a category of information-oriented solutions that refers to integrating multiple databases into a single virtual database.

Interface Processing

It is a category of information-oriented solutions that refers to the use of well-defined application interfaces to focus on the integration of both packaged and custom applications.

Business Process Integration-Oriented

It is a system integration approach that allows integration not only by sharing information but also by managing the sharing of that information with easy to use tools.

Business Process Integration-Oriented Application Integration

It is the ability to define a common business process model that addresses the sequence, hierarchy, events, execution logic and information movement between systems.

Service-Oriented Application Integration

It provides mechanism to bind applications together at service level.

Service-oriented

It is a system integration approach that integrates applications by allowing them to share business logic and methods.

Portal-Oriented Application Integration

It allows viewing a multitude of systems (both internal and external enterprise systems) through a single user interface or application.

Portal-Oriented

It is a system integration approach that integrates applications through single user interface or application.

Single-System Portals, Multiple-Enterprise-System Portals, Enterprise Portals

Enumerate the three (3) portal categories.

Single-System Portals

It is a portal category where single enterprises have their user interfaces extended to the web.

Multiple-Enterprise-System Portals

It is a portal category that extends single-system portal architecture to multiple enterprise systems.

Enterprise Portals

It is a portal category that extends multiple-enterprise system portal to include systems that exist within many companies.

Web clients, Web servers, Database servers, Back-end applications, Application servers.

Enumerate the five (5) components of portal architecture.