System Optimization During ERP Implementation

In the Internet age, enterprise resource planning (ERP) has become the key component of the IT infrastructure of large businesses. ERP has become an indispensable tool for industry leaders and standard-bearers. However, many business executives are challenged when presented with different options whether to give the proposed ERP the go-ahead due to its high investment costs and associated risks. It has now become the consensus among the ERP professionals that the level of understanding of ERP on the part of the management and investors will decide the success and the quality of the project. It goes to show the key to ERP application lies with a good understanding of the ERP and its well thought-out advance planning and management methodology.There are naturally different opinions and views on how to understand and analyze the key elements in a complex ERP system. When ERP was first introduced in China, the focus was on ensuring the success of implementation, business flow analysis, management consulting and enterprise re-engineering. With the proliferation of the ERP application, it is now a core "mass application" informatics indictor which is closely integrated with the business flow. Risk assessment and response are now extended from the project implementation phase to on-line operations. This ushers in a comprehensive "post-ERP era" in terms of ERP research and understanding. One critical element that merits our attention is "online operations support". Yet at the moment, most of the ERP literature and theoretical research are mostly centered on the analysis of "post-online trial operations and pre-acceptance" phase, describing issues related to the time-bound "system adaptation" phase.In fact, one prominent feature of ERP business application is its dynamic change management and self-improvement. So the ERP operations require multi-faceted and cross-departmental efforts. The effective "adaptation" and "the post-adaptation" of regular ERP maintenance depends not only technical support and after-sale service but also, more importantly, efficient organizational structure and systematic assurance. Only so can the needs for managing continuous business flows and dynamic business changes be satisfied. Attention to these details is warranted as it impacts significantly on the return on the costly investment in ERP.This thesis is written from the angle of operational optimization as the ERP system is being built. Under the premise of ensuring business flow, it proposes a practical ERP working model that incorporates systematic technical support, problem resolution, maintenance, upgrading, etc. A case is presented to illustrate the main arguments. It is the hope of the author that this thesis will provide some perspectives and references that may find useful applications in improving the widely-used ERP systems in the business world.