ABSTRACT

Business needs have driven the design, development, and use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Intra-enterprise integration was a driving force in the design, development, and use of early ERP systems, but increased globalization, intense competition, and technological change have shifted to focus to inter-enterprise integration. Current and evolving ERP systems thus reflect the expanded scope of integration, with greater emphasis on things like supply chain management and customer relationship management. This manuscript explores the evolution of ERP, the current status of ERP, and the future of ERP, with the objective of promoting relevant future research in this important area. If researchers hope to play a significant role in the design, development, and use of suitable ERP systems to meet evolving business needs, then their research should focus, at least in part, on the changing business environment, its impact on business needs, and the requirements for enterprise systems that meet those needs.

Keywords: enterprise resource planning (ERP); ERPII; future of enterprise resouce planning; materials requirement planning (MRP); manufacturing resource planning (MRPII)

INTRODUCTION

Twenty years ago supplier relationship management was unique to the Japanese (those firms who embraced the JIT philosophy), China was still a slumbering economic giant, the Internet was largely for academics and scientists, and certainly not a consideration in business strategy; the very idea of a network of businesses working together as a virtual enterprise was almost like science fiction, and hardly anyone had a cell phone. The world has changed. The cold war is over and economic war is on. We have moved rapidly toward an intensely competitive, global economic environment. Countries like China and India are fast positioning themselves as key players and threatening the economic order that has existed for decades. Information technology (IT) is more sophisticated than ever, yet we still struggle with how to best use it in business, and on a personal level as well. E-commerce (B2B, B2C, C2C, G2C, and B2G) has become commonplace and M-commerce is not far behind, especially in Europe and Japan. This is the backdrop against which we will discuss the evolving enterprise information system. At this point we will call it ERP, but is should become evident in the course of reading this manuscript that ERP is a label that may no longer be appropriate.

In this article we define ERP and discuss the evolution of ERP, the current state of ERP, and the future of ERP. We will emphasize how the evolution of ERP was influenced by changing business needs and by evolving technology. We present a simple framework to explain that evolution. Some general directions for future research are indicated by our look at the past, present, and particularly the future of ERP.

ERP DEFINED

The ERP system is an information system that integrates business processes, with the aim of creating value and reducing costs by making the right information available to the right people at the right time to help them make good decisions in managing resources productively and proactively. An ERP...