Business process-oriented design of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for small and medium enterprises

Abstract

In the last few years, many organizations have used business process modelling as an effective tool for managing organizational changes. However, process modelling has rarely been exploited for supporting the entire business process management life cycle. This includes the design of business processes as well as their implementation and control. The adoption and implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is a crucial issue if referred to small and medium-sized enterprises. The main problem is that the cost of implementation of ERP, intended as the process of customization of the ERP system towards the actual enterprise business processes, overtakes the cost of ERP acquisition. Thus, there is a need to use the same workflow systems for both modelling the enterprise business processes and designing the ERP. The paper presents the results of a collaborative project between academia and industry aimed at developing a business process management integrated approach to the design, implementation and control of an ERP information system.

Keywords:

• Business process management
• Business process modelling
• Enterprise resource planning
• Simulation

Acknowledgements

The research presented in this paper was conducted within the contract ‘ERP-light’ in collaboration with Engisud Spa. The authors wish to thank Dr F. Ciaravella (CEO of Engisud), Dr C. Favata, Dr V. Marchese and the project team for their contribution, which made possible the realization of this research.