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Enterprise resource planning Information technology as a steamroller for management politics?

Enterprise resource planning Information technology as a steamroller for management politics?. 指導教授： 歐陽超 教授 學 生： 劉晃溢 M9101005 吳宇玄 M9101006 羅凱文 M9101110 日 期： 2003/05/27. Outline. Introduction Method

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Enterprise resource planning Information technology as a steamroller for management politics?

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  1. Enterprise resource planning Information technology as a steamroller for management politics? 指導教授：歐陽超 教授 學 生：劉晃溢M9101005 吳宇玄M9101006 羅凱文M9101110 日 期：2003/05/27

  2. Outline • Introduction • Method • The combined political process and sociology of technology approach to techno-organisational change • Political programmes • The content and characteristics of ERP • ERP: information technology as political programmes • Conclusion: the freezing of ERP

  3. Introduction • This article focuses on the role of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as political programmes for organisational change. • The context used is ERP software systems within manufacturing in Denmark and Germany. The particular emphasis is on the software side of the systems. • First, the combined political process and sociology of technology perspectives on change are described. • Second, a characterisation of ERP technology is offered, pointing out the flexibility ``in principle’’.

  4. Method • The material presented here draws on projects undertaken at the Technical University of Denmark from 1994 to 2000. • The article uses this material in two ways: (1) the large sample of cases is used to illustrate the role of the communities related to ERP systems. (2) the two in-depth cases are used to discuss enterprise politics.

  5. The combined political process and sociology of technology approach to techno-organisational change • Political processes can be understood as a combination of a political programme and a coalition-building process. • The structured inequalities between actors, the societal embeddedness and the limited scope for voluntary decision making and agency within a specific organisational context are important features of the concept of political processes.(Knights and Murray 1994)

  6. Political programmes • The term political programme is used to understand the content side of political processes. • A political programme is a piece of thinking concerning the content of change and how to achieve it.

  7. The hardness of political programmes • The hardness of the political programme is a central issue. • Technologies embodied in artefacts might have been perceived as obdurate political programmes because of the artefact. • The sociology of technology tells us that artefacts are in fact quite malleable under certain circumstances.(Bijker 1995, Orlikowsky 1992)

  8. The hardness of political programmes • Central elements concerning malleability or the obduracy are: (1)A leitbildfor the actors to follow. (2)Inclusion/exclusionof certain actors. (3)Social and geographical distance. (4)Resources.

  9. The content and characteristics of ERP • The conceptualisation of the technology studied here proceeds in two steps: (1)First, some general definitions of the features of crosscutting information technology. (2)Second, a more precise definition of the development and contemporary versions of ERP systems.

  10. The content and characteristics of ERP • Crosscutting information technology -general characterisation • Multiple control visions and systems • Configuration of ERP - what is malleable and what is not

  11. Crosscutting information technology • Aimed at the whole row of typical departments of a manufacturing enterprise. • IT develops through cyclical changes of representation and form and there is a co-existence of relatively stabilised,previously developed, elements with those under construction.(Salzman and Rosenthal 1994) • The strategy adopted by most developer and supplier enterprises is incremental, and IT systems are therefore under continual development. Some elements might be developed at high speed, whereas others are stable over a long period of time.

  12. Multiple control visions and systems • ERP systems are a merger of a number of visions of control and accompanying routines and practices embedded in systems of software.(erpsupersite.com) • One can point to three main visions of controlling a manufacturing enterprise.(Heiliger 1996) (1) Economic vision: the enterprise as a financial entity with economic flows. (2) Logistics vision: the enterprise as material flow. (3) Information vision: the enterprise as information system and flow.

  13. Configuration of ERP • Below it is discussed, in four levels, to what extent and in what dimension the system is open for negotiation and where not： Level1-The overall design of the enterprise / corporation. Level2-Design of certain business activities. Level3-User profiles, parameters and business processes. Level4-Supplementary programming.

  14. ERP: information technology as political programmes • The role of technology in a process is base on empirical and is discussed below mainly using the concepts “political programme” and “the building of coalitions”.

  15. The general results from the sample cases: ERP communities • The case studies of the three communities around the ERP systems SAP R/3, Baan and Concorde XAL show that even though each enterprise case in principle is unique, one can point to a number of similarities.

  16. Similar Characteristic • The implementations of R/3 are characterized by the most ambitious programmes of change. • R/3 community is characterised by the relative lack of decentralization. • The Baan and Concorde XAL implementations are mixtures of different organizational changes, decentralized,status quo or more centralized versions.

  17. Different choices of modules • Implementations are grouped into three variants in each of the three system communities characterized by different choices of modules

  18. The longitudinal SAP case • Jensen is a manufacturing network. Before it changed it consisted of a.five factories b.40 distributions units c.a network of sales offices • Although the group did have a central corporate unit before the change, the management group was diverse and relatively autonomous at the single unit in the network.

  19. The longitudinal SAP case (cont.) • A management coalition in the group decided to do a business process reengineering (BPR) and an SAP R/3 project. The project subsequently developed in three phases: 1.The BPR analysis 2.The BPR implementation and the configuring of the SAP R/3 system 3.The implementation and use of SAP R/3

  20. The longitudinal SAP case (cont.) 1. The BPR analysis • Point of departure is BPR, a ``clean sheet’’ approach to previous ways of operation, focus on cross cutting processes and the like. • The analysis finished by pointing to three core business processes, seven support processes and a catalogue of proposals for reorganization of the group.

  21. The longitudinal SAP case (cont.) • The BPR implementation and the configuring of the SAP R/3 system • In the BPR implementation phase, considerable reorganization took place in the administrative and distribution units of the group, including finance, sales,ordering process, wage-administration and purchasing.

  22. The longitudinal SAP case (cont.) • A process leading to major changes in work, the distribution network was reduced the number of units to 28 from 40. • Concentration into one unit of a number of processes, and second, linking them up with the other units through IT. • Finally shop floor employees were consulted in an informal fashion when the configuration of SAP R/3 became more detailed.

  23. The longitudinal SAP case (cont.) 3. The implementation and use of SAP R/3 • SAP R/3 was configured and implemented in order to underpin and enhance the changes initiated by the BPR project. • The sales and order processing modules were used to integrate sales offices with logistics in the plants. • The finance modules were configured to consolidate the “one enterprise’’concept.

  24. The longitudinal SAP case (cont.) • The logistics modules are configured seeing all the production facilities as a resource for production, thus combining geographically spread units.

  25. The longitudinal Baan case • BTP is characterized by discrete high volume production combined with a large net of suppliers and distributors. • At BTP, sales have moved into a dominant position, and the current CEO stems from sales.

  26. The longitudinal Baan case (cont.) • The management coalition that adopted ERP as their political programme, was predominantly embedded in the production areas.The process fell into three phase: • Preparation and analysis. • Configuration • Implementation

  27. The longitudinal Baan case (cont.) • As part of the first phase, which is in focus here, a management coalition was formed, and over the first months (1995-96) an understanding of the required facilities, scope of the ERP system and the features of the supplier were developed. • The coalition invited three suppliers to present their systems. In order to cope with the complexity of the systems, the participants needed and carried out simplification.

  28. The longitudinal Baan case (cont.) • The systems role of social glue, boundary object, turned out to be contradictory. • Different enterprise actors interpreted the systems in a quite different ways. • When the production-based coalition tried to enrol more actors and enlarge the scope of the technology, these different interpretations were mobilized by non-enrolment,but some problems were occurred.

  29. The longitudinal Baan case (cont.) • The management coalition opted for a logistics and finance variant and started configuring the software package. This process was prolonged by serious performance problems. • During configuration the power of default was exercised in a surprising way in the finance department.

  30. Conclusion: the freezing of ERP • The ERP communities built up practices, which constrain enterprise choices. • Across the three communities the enterprise choices within the design of major business activities are a combination of common choices and unique single enterprise choices. • Two case: SAP and Baan

  31. Conclusion: the freezing of ERP (cont.) • The SAP case demonstrated how a ``headline’’ management political programme of BPR and ERP emerged into a more explicit change programme, relatively successfully merging the factories, distribution units and the sales organization into one manufacturing network.

  32. Conclusion: the freezing of ERP(cont.) • The Baan case demonstrates a multi front exercise for the production-based management coalition. At the one front the management coalition should target sales and finance, the programme therefore encompasses a redesign and integration of the overall business.

  33. Conclusion: the freezing of ERP(cont.) • Both cases thus demonstrate how technology, R/3 and Baan IV, and their supporting communities can act as a steamroller for management politics although in different ways.

  34. Conclusion: the freezing of ERP (cont.) • Importantly the steamroller metaphor cannot grasp the way the technology penetrates the organization. • In the analysis it has been demonstrated how the overall business structure, the business processes and the micro level elements can all be reshaped, thus leaving the question of hardness as an empirical matter.

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