We have seen that the traditional information model fails in creating the integrated information environment that is necessary for success in today's marketplace. If your company's information system is not incorporated into 'the way the company does business and is not linked to the operational management activities, then you are working with the traditional information model. If your company's system does not help in decision making and is only recording the transactions and generating reports, it is time to change. If the data generated by the company's information system is not relevant and timely, and if the data needs to be manually verified for its accuracy, then you need a new system. If the decision makers are not getting the information they want, but have to spend hours over the reports that are generated by the current information system, you need to change the system, if the various' business processes of the company like finance, manufacturing, sales, etc. are not integrated, but are functioning in isol~tion, then it is time to change.The above are some of the issues that necessitate a change from the traditional information model. There are other issues like cost' of maintenance (of the different systems in the various departments), respbnse time (time taken to retrieve information), scalability (ability of the system 'to grow wtth the growing information needs of the company), technology (whetHer the company is utilizing the latest technology or is the technological infrastructure obsolete) and so on.
The company management must consider all these 'factors before it makes a decision about whether to continue with the existing system or to embrace the enterprise-wide resource planning (ERP) systems (packaged solutions). Thus, the most important factors for making the decision to invest in an ERP software are the quality of the information generated by the current system, the cost of maintaining the current system, the cost of implementing the new system, the advantages of the new system, the cost of maintenance of the new system and so on.
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