What are the main factors organizations should understand when implementing an
enterprise application? Explain each factor.
Enterprise application is an integrated system used by businesses to combine, organize and
maintain the data necessary for operations. Enterprise software systems merge each of the
companys key departments into one software system. For many companies, the Enterprise
software is the heart of their operations and the backbone of the organization. In another word
An Enterprise Application Software (EAS) is a large-scale, integrated, cross-functional, and
data-centric software package that provides service to a whole organization rather than a
single department or group in it. Enterprise Application Systems (EAS) provides application
development, security and scheduling support for the organisation. In addition EAS also
provides programming and data integration support for key ancillary systems and
departments.
Following factors are to be considered while implementing enterprise application in an
organisation
1) Usability: Measures how easily customers can use your enterprise application. This is
helpful when your enterprise applications are web-based and you are prototyping an
application for deployment.
2) Business Plan and vision: There should be a clear business model of how the
organization should operate behind the implementation effort. There should be a
justification for the investment based on a problem and the change tied directly to the
direction of the company. Project mission should be related to business needs and
should be clearly stated. Goals and benefits should be identified and tracked. The
business plan would make work easier and impact on work. A business plan that
outlines proposed strategic and tangible benefits, resources, costs, risks and timeline is
critical. This will help keep focus on business benefits.
3) Effective communication: Effective communication is critical to Enterprise
implementation. Expectations at every level need to be communicated. Management of
communication, education and expectations are critical throughout the organization.
User input should be managed in acquiring their requirements, comments, reactions
and approval. Communication includes the formal promotion of project teams and the
advertisement of project progress to the rest of the organization. Middle managers
need to communicate its importance. Employees should be told in advance the scope,
objectives, activities and updates, and admit change will occur.
4) Project management: Good project management is essential. An individual or group
of people should be given responsibility to drive success in project management. The
scope must be clearly defined and be limited. This includes the amount of the systems
implemented, involvement of business units, and amount of business pro reengineering
needed. Any proposed changes should be evaluated against business benefits and, as
far as possible, implemented at a later phase. Additionally, scope expansion requests
need to be assessed in terms of the additional time and cost of proposed changes.
5) Appropriate business legacy system: Appropriate business and legacy systems are
important in the initial chartering phase of the project. Business and IT systems
involving existing business processes, organization structure, culture, and information
technology affect success. It determines the IT and organizational change required for
success.
6) Change management program and culture: Change management is important,
starting at the project phase and continuing throughout the entire life cycle. Enterprise
wide culture and structure change should be managed, which include people,
organization and culture change. A culture with shared values and common aims is
conducive to success. Organizations should have a strong corporate identity that is
open to change. An emphasis on quality, a strong computing ability, and a strong
willingness to accept new technology would aid in implementation efforts.
Management should also have a strong commitment to use the system for achieving
business aims. Users must be trained, and concerns must be addressed through regular
communication, working with change agents, leveraging corporate culture and
identifying job aids for different users. As part of the change management efforts,
users should be involved in design and implementation of business processes and the
Enterprise system, and formal education and training should be provided to help them
do so. Education should be a priority from the beginning of the project, and money and
time should be spent on various forms of education and training
7) Software development, testing and troubleshooting: Software development, testing
and troubleshooting is essential, beginning in the project phase. The overall Enterprise
architecture should be established before deployment, taking into account the most
important requirements of the implementation. This prevents reconfiguration at every
stage of implementation. There is a choice to be made on the level of functionality and
approach to link the system to legacy systems. Interfaces for commercial software
applications or legacy systems may need to be developed in-house if they are not
available in the market. Troubleshooting errors is critical. The organization
implementing Enterprise application should work well with vendors and consultants to
resolve software problems. Quick response, patience, perseverance, problem solving
and firefighting capabilities are important
8) Monitoring and evaluation of performance: Finally, monitoring and evaluation
come into play at the shakedown phase. Milestones and targets are important to keep
track of progress. Achievements should be measured against project goals. The
progress of the project should be monitored actively through set milestones and
targets. Two criteria may be used. Project management based criteria should be used to
measure against completion dates, costs and quality. Then operational criteria should
be used to measure against the production system. Monitoring and feedback include
the exchange of information between the project team members and analysis of user
feedback.
