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Although SAP R/3 has become widely utilised as a means to change IT systems and business processes, not all organizations embarking on its implementation have achieved their intended results. However, leading practices have demonstrated that success is essentially conditional on managing adequately the complex context of implementation, which necessitates organizational changes across various key areas related to strategy, business processes, IT, structure, culture, and management systems. This paper describes a proposed model presenting the implementation of SAP R/3 from an integrative and holistic perspective. The model is developed based on reported experiences of several best practice organizations. The central theme of the paper argues that at the heart of effective SAP R/3 implementation, a fully balanced perspective has to be taken. On the other hand, the exclusive focus on technical aspects, at the cost of change management elements, has proved to be far from successful.

This paper investigates and addresses issues, problems and challenges that a regional company of a multinational corporation is facing in the implementation of IT‐platforms (SAP R/3) and the business process re‐engineering (BPR). While many organizations have reported significant improvement in business results from implementing SAP R/3 and BPR, others have failed or experienced various difficulties in achieving intended business and management results. This empirical study describes and discusses Siemens' experience in the process of implementation. The author argues that a holistic approach to IT management is needed, which recognises and emphasises active integration and interaction of strategy, business processes, management system and structure, and organizational culture.

The majority of medium‐to‐large international organizations have adopted enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) of which SAP R/3 is the current market leader. This paper proposes a framework for the separation of duties in SAP R/3. Separation of duties is viewed as a critical component of an organization’s internal control structure aimed primarily at reducing opportunities for fraudulent activities. R/3 assigns profiles consisting of authorizations to users. Accordingly, R/3 facilitates the implementation of “role‐based access control”, where these profiles may be designed consistent with organizational roles and assigned to users performing these roles. This paper proposes a framework for adequate separation of duties using a role‐based approach in the financial accounting (FI) module of the R/3 system. Case studies were undertaken to refine the framework and to explore its application in a practical environment. This empirical research provided support for the adequacy of the proposed framework.

This paper discusses about the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market in India and the world. The current extension of ERP is e‐CRM. The ERP market has become saturated and is on the decline; and emerging from it is the market for small and medium scale enterprises. ERP, especially in India, is being offered by small‐localized players to small and medium sized firms customizing it to the needs and their pockets. Taking this cue, the big ERP players have also started offering complete solutions to the small firms. The paper illustrates this point by using the case example of Prathma, a modern blood bank in India. Prathma has been the first blood bank in India to use ERP to integrate its functions using a customized ERP. This has installed a quality check in its day‐to‐day operations and has significantly lowered costs. The findings of this study indicate that ERP systems promises benefit from increased efficiency to improved quality, productivity, and profitability.

As businesses world‐wide begin to adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in increasing numbers, academics are deciding how to utilise these types of systems in information systems (IS) curricula. Alliances with some of the ERP vendors have enabled some universities to develop innovative courses and subjects. Nevertheless, the limited research in this area has only outlined case studies or examples of ERP use in IS. In this paper we outline how ERP systems can be incorporated into a broad IS curriculum model such as IS’97, thus providing a guide to institutions that may be contemplating the use of ERP in their curriculum.

This paper aims to analyse how cost accounting knowledge is mediated in a large multinational organisation employing a company‐wide enterprise resource planning system and off‐the‐shelf activity based costing software to create a uniform profitability management system within the organisation.

The case analysis is informed by the theoretical notions of dis‐and re‐embedding of expert knowledge, expert systems and standards.

The results indicate that standardised cost accounting software packages may be useful not only because of their superior data processing properties and technical efficiency, but also because of their usability in overcoming resistance to change. It is suggested that software packages and some degrees of freedom in the implementation process may actually enhance actors' “blind” commitment to the system and reduce resistance to the new system.

It is of interest to researchers and practitioners alike how ready‐made software packages may be successfully used in implementing the changes needed in the management accounting systems of large organisations. It is also particularly interesting to find reasons why software packages seem to be so useful in driving these changes.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the question of what is an appropriate enterprise resource planning (ERP) reference model for specifying areas of change in the context of IT-driven ERP implementation and through the model matching. There are other implicit goals to increasing the awareness of the reference models, as this highlights the principles embedded in ERP systems and explains the classification of reference models, which is useful in terms of the reuse of knowledge.

In this paper, a comparison between ERP reference models is conducted using a suitable decision-making technique and the final results are discussed. The comparison depends on nine criteria related to conceptual ERP reference models: scope, abstraction, granularity, views, purpose, simplicity, availability, ease of use for model matching, and target audience.

This study concludes that the business process reference model is best for specifying areas of change in the context of IT-driven ERP implementations. The final ranking of the alternatives based on all criteria places the system organizational model second, followed by the function and data/object reference models, in that order.

This paper is one of very few studies on the selection of appropriate ERP reference models according to the ERP implementation approach and model matching factors. This research also provides an in-depth analysis of various ERP reference model types.

Past research has identified factors that are important to the successful implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, the identification of these factors has often been based on the perceptions of senior members within organizations that are implementing these systems. In this study, the perceptions of managers and end‐users on selected implementation factors are compared. Understanding if differences exist in the perceptions of different groups within an organization and the nature of these differences can help implementers develop appropriate intervention mechanisms such as training and communication that can lead to successful ERP implementation.

Spare parts have become ubiquitous in modern societies and managing their requirements is an important and challenging task with tremendous cost implications for the organisations that are holding relevant inventories. An important operational issue involved in the management of spare parts is that of categorising the relevant stock keeping units (SKUs) in order to facilitate decision‐making with respect to forecasting and stock control and to enable managers to focus their attention on the most “important” SKUs. This issue has been overlooked in the academic literature although it constitutes a significant opportunity for increasing spare parts availability and/or reducing inventory costs. Moreover, and despite the huge literature developed since the 1970s on issues related to stock control for spare parts, very few studies actually consider empirical solution implementation and with few exceptions, case studies are lacking. Such a case study is described in this paper, the purpose of which is to offer insight into relevant business practices.

The issue of demand categorisation (including forecasting and stock control) for spare parts management is addressed and details reported of a project undertaken by an international business machine manufacturer for the purpose of improving its European spare parts logistics operations. The paper describes the actual intervention within the organisation in question, as well as the empirical benefits and the lessons learned from such a project.

This paper demonstrates the considerable scope that exists for improving relevant real word practices. It shows that simple well‐informed solutions result in substantial organisational savings.

This paper provides insight into the empirical utilisation of demand categorisation theory for forecasting and stock control and provides some very much needed empirical evidence on pertinent issues. In that respect, it should be of interest to both academics and practitioners.

Information agility, or informational efficiency, represents the major prerequisite for agile management and means eliminating inefficiencies in accessing, exchanging and disseminating all kinds of information. Presents a framework for implementation of Web technology in enhancing information access for agile management. Web‐to‐host access tools as a specific subset of Web technology are used to improve and ease access to several types of information such as legacy data, messaging system, electronic documents, and business intelligence.