In the past, companies used to decide how they wanted to do business and then made a decision about a software package that best supported their business processes. This was changed with ERP systems that required the business processes to be modified to fit the system (Davenport, 1998). Recent ERP solutions are modular and flexible, and thus can be customized to a certain degree. There are, however, constraints in design possibilities, while major modifications are complex and extremely costly. The implementation delays and ERP product modifications could result in exponential growth in both direct and indirect costs. From the above analysis, it would always be better to complete the BPR project prior to information system modeling and ERP system development. Since the implementation of large information systems is not possible without first altering business processes, reengineering is essential to order to extract maximum benefit out of the ERP products. However, analysis of business practices shows a different approach. Initiating BPR projects prior to ERP means that the companies must provide resources for two successive projects. The reason why many companies chose to conduct ERP system development was to attempt to solve all their organizational problems without reengineering business processes first. ERP implementation significantly impacts company culture, organizational structure, business processes, in addition to procedures and rules. Furthermore, ERP applications integrate many best business practices and much knowledge that could be worthwhile if included as a part of BPR projects. By taking the best practices inherent in ERP applications, companies can change their processes simultaneously with technological change. As a result, many companies changed their business processes to fit the ERP system requirements, and the possibilities of ERP systems have been used to underpin BPR. As ERP systems have traditionally taken too long to implement, a dynamic and incremental implementation of ERP components is recommended as opposed to massive reengineering.
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