Synchronizing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and Business Processes: A Case of a New ERP Development Approach

A major question in organizations is how to synchronize business processes with ICT in order to get the support they need from the adopted technology. Adoption of standardized software packages such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems aims at being the solution, demanding that either the system is adjusted to existing business processes or that the business processes are adjusted to the system’s inherited processes. However, this is problematic, since organization’s business processes as well as the technology used are continuously evolving, demanding synchronization. The question is then how synchronization could be achieved and if a development method building on a role based/persona approach could result in an ERP that supports synchronization. The paper presents an investigation and analysis of such approach from the enterprise architecture (EA) perspective. The main conclusion is that the role based approach definitely could be a way of developing ERPs that support synchronization between ERP systems and business processes, but also that EA could add some new thoughts to the ERP development approach