Davenport does a brilliant job of explaining what enterprise systems (ES) are and what they can accomplish in any organization. He suggests, however, that they are worthless “unless they lead to better information or better ways of doing business. I think that enterprise systems are without doubt an impressive technical feat, but I am primarily concerned that organizations get business value from them.” Throughout his book, he addresses key issues such as what enterprise systems are and why they are important; the promise and the perils involved; how to decide whether or not to implement enterprise systems; how to integrate enterprise systems with strategy and organizational structure; how to integrate enterprise systems with business processes and information; how to achieve value while implementing enterprise systems; how to transform the practice of management with enterprise systems; how to use enterprise systems to manage the supply chain; and the future of ES-enabled organizations.
As Davenport explains in Chapter 1, “Enterprise systems offer the first great opportunity to achieve true connectivity, a state in which everyone knows what everyone else is doing in the business all over the world at the same time. And because they represent the first great opportunity for connectivity, they pose one of the greatest threats to the status quo that companies have ever faced.” Hence the importance of one of the book’s most valuable sections, the Appendix, in which Davenport provides “A Technical Overview of Enterprise Systems.” Those who feel threatened by an enterprise system will seize all opportunities to point out its technical flaws. At best, enterprise systems are complex, difficult to install, and inflexible. However, Davenport points out, they “will remain the most capable, integrated systems in the history of the world. They may have their flaws, but they are also the answer to our information systems prayers.”
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