Studying the impact of ERP on collaborative decision making - a case study

ERP applications have been proposed as solution to many current operational problems. For instance, ERP support decision makers by making key data visible in a timely fashion. The price of this visibility is extensive standardisation of business processes. Multinationals in particular need to impose a common way of working throughout their different sites in order to better control performance. ERP systems provide a common language, using a shared data store and integrated business processes. At the same time, organisations are subject to constant evolution, where shareholder expectations, customer demands or organic growth may result in standard processes no longer "fitting" with reality. This paper reports on a mature ERP implementation, focusing on an element of operational decision making that is becoming increasingly collaborative: sales order fulfilment. Growing complexity in the products on offer have resulted in a fragmented supply chain, including the use of "cross docks" to combine third party products with in-house elements on the same sales order. Commit date decisions for customer shipments, increasingly involve a high degree of collaboration between managers from the different plants. The study indicates that collaborative processes supported by highly integrated information systems do not always lead to more collaborative behaviour because the loss of flexibility imposed by the standardised processes constrains what organisational actors can or cannot do.