I found that Chapter 9 Enterprise Systems was not only interesting but one of the most important topics we have gone over in class so far. The article I have chosen is called Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System by Thomas H. Davenport of the Harvard Business review. This article, in great detail explains that although enterprise systems are attractive to businesses they do come with some hazards. It also expounds on the fact that companies need to be ready and they need to know what they are getting their selves into because enterprise systems push you toward full integration even if you are not ready. This article outlines the dangers, the allure, and how enterprise systems impact a firm.

The author states as his main point, that companies want enterprise systems because it takes data from one department or sector of a business and centralizes with other information which is definitely an attractive asset to companies with data redundancy issues. He also expounds on the risks associated with implementing a fully integrated enterprise system like the price tag, the expertise needed to set it up, configuration difficult, and how the system will affect the business.

The article is important because it gives you the advantages and disadvantages of implementing an enterprise system. Many of the other articles I had to choose from only gave the advantages of an enterprise system so, me wanting to play devil’s advocate wanted to find something that would give me the not so pretty side of enterprise systems. This article, which is also good; breaks down the allure of enterprise systems, how a business would use it, it has an enterprise system model or flow chart, and as I stated above the dangers associated, and the risks associated with configuring an enterprise system. This article is very informative. If an executive of a business was to read this he/she could make a decision about whether or not to implement a system based on these readings.

In class we learned the basic information that is associated with enterprise systems. I learned that enterprise software could help a company cut costs and help generate revenue. An example was the Morgan Stanley group assignment; this company turned their business around from having outdated information systems and an out casted branch of service to a fully integrated enterprise system that included the out casted brand of service. They could now, instead of focusing on maximizing profits they could start generating more revenue. Not to mention Morgan Stanley has one of the most profound systems in business today. Obviously, this article can be associated with many things we have learned throughout the class. This article combines everything we have learned about enterprise systems (and even a little more in my opinion) and gives you the major focus points of again what you the business want to be aware of when implementing a such complex system.

In conclusion, companies would have to spend millions maybe even billions of dollars on these infrastructures, platforms, and systems along with there up keep. As the article said there are several companies that unfortunately abandoned the enterprise theory such as Dell with its decentralized management model, Mobil Europe when it merged, and FoxMeyer Drug because they claimed it forced them into bankruptcy. All of the aforementioned companies spent millions of dollars on these systems just to ditch them, which I think is a bad business practice. I would recommend these systems to organizations but I would outline everything they can expect when they start the process, as this article did. I am a big believer in sticking with something until there is a break through, especially if I spent an enormous amount of money on it. Eventually, in the long run you company will run more efficiently and you will be able to click on a button and all the information you want is going to pop up from one source and that may lead to generating more revenue. Think about it?

Sources:

Putting the Enterprise into Enterprise Systems- Article

http://members.home.nl/c.schalkx/Papers%20ARP/Davenport%20(1998).pdf

Enterprise Information Systems- Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Information_System

Business Intelligence- ES

http://esj.com/articles/list/business-intelligence.aspx