INNOVATION AND FLEXIBILITY IN SECOND GENERATION ERP SYSTEMS

It is well known that ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning) are a very complex type of software, which aim at automating business processes and codifying organisational procedures and routines. This paper examines the nature, consequences and some possibilities for solving ERP system “rigidity" and the relative “organisational freezing” caused by information process and flow coding. Such rigidity makes traditional ERP systems suitable for the more stable areas of organisations (technical core, back-office) than for areas that are now “emerging” i.e. those with a higher rate of change and innovation (buffers, front-office). In order to give ERP systems a greater capacity of adaptation and innovation, the characteristics of a new technology, Web Services, have been suggested which virtually allow the functions of any compatible application to be extended by using a standard component software accessible through the Web. The Authors of this contribution are carrying out research aimed at examining a series of concrete cases where this technology is currently being adopted