ISCM Home  »  Sponsors  »  Events  »   1998  » Globalizing Buisiness Process - The Role of ERP

A Co-Sponsored Workshop
MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)

Integrated Supply Chain Management (ISCM)

"Globalizing Business Processes -
The Role of ERP"

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Workshop Summary

April 30, 1998 Workshop Speakers and Facilitators  » Jack Rockart, Director of CISR, has researched IT management for over 25 years and is currently examining the use of information for performance support.  » Jeanne Ross, Research Scientist at CISR, has done survey and case study work examining the process of building global IT infrastructures, and the role of IT infrastructure in enabling organizational processes.  » Jim Rice, Director of the MIT ISCM Program, works with global firms to accelerate implementation of supply chain management and optimize business operations and has studied ways for firms to manage horizontal processes across functional organizations.  » Debra Hofman, Research Director at Benchmarking Partners and former Research Associate at CISR, has studied SAP adopters in depth and is currently studying the efforts of firms that have adopted alternative ERP systems  »

Topics/Issues  » Relationship between ERP and global business processes  » Expected short/long-term benefits of ERP systems versus initial observed outcomes  » Tradeoffs and synergies associated with attempting to both implement an ERP and reengineer global supply chain and business processes  » Managing the IT infrastructure supporting a global ERP  » The challenge of "bolt-ons"-when and how to integrate other software modules

Early lessons of the widespread globalization trend among businesses suggest that global firms require fundamentally different processes than international firms. In particular, global firms must respond to local needs, while simultaneously leveraging their global presence and economies of scale. Many firms have turned to their IT infrastructure, and in particular large enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as SAP as an enabler in the globalization process. In practice, ERP systems have proved costly and time-consuming to implement, raising the question of how firms will generate satisfactory returns on their ERP investments.

This workshop brought together representatives from firms implementing ERP to surface issues and develop a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities of profitably globalizing business processes with ERP systems At the workshop, researchers shared findings and case studies from research of nearly 100 SAP adopters, and facilitators will lead participant discussions on ERP experiences and concerns. . Additionally, participants benefited from a set of "current best practices" for profitably globalizing business practices. Please contact the Director of the Program, Jim Rice if you have any questions about this event, or if you would like copies of the presentations. These are made available to employees of sponsor companies only.Jim can be contacted via e-mail at jrice@mit.edu or by phone at(617) 258-8584.