Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Business & Management

ISSN

2252-3898

Volume

9

Issue

2

First Page

137

Last Page

150

Publication Date

Spring 4-1-2003

Abstract

In recent years, corporate applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, supply chain management (SCM) systems, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, sales force automation (SFA), and other corporate-level information systems have received a great deal of attention from large business enterprises. These applications have been around for about a decade now, and in that time their producers have refined them and perfected them to the point where they can be considered developmentally mature. At the same time, vendors have continued to introduce new products that have moved corporate applications toward a higher level of integration, both technically and organizationally. However, these higher levels of integration have brought with them complex technical, organizational, cultural, political, and legal issues that have made the integration process a very challenging task. This paper reviews relevant current literature, discusses several perspectives of corporate application integration, and points out potential opportunities and cludlenges inherent in the integration process. Risk reduction strategies and opportunities provided by some newly developed technologies (e.g., software agents) are also discussed.

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