Title:
Best Practice Business Processes embedded in ERP systems and Small
and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
Abstract: The ability of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
systems to integrate processes and information and to deliver automation
and consistent execution of processes across the enterprise is important
not only to larger corporations, but also for small and medium sized enterprises
(SMEs). Considering the problems and limitations of SMEs in the adoption
of IT-enabled innovations, ERP software vendors argue that the pre-configured
best practice processes embedded in their software solutions specially designed
for SMEs will deliver cost effective and performance enhancing software solutions.
This paper argues that there is no such thing as ‘best practice’ business
processes particularly in the context of SMEs. The flexibility offered by
the ERP systems software providers is before the implementation and the system
is in fact rigid after the implementation. It contends that the adoption
of ERP systems by the SMEs, is dependent upon other factors such as complexity
of business operations, need for integration of information and systems,
and organizational factors.