Enterprise systems: choosing the right IT strategy A comparison of ERP and EAI

Abstract

With a history of adaptation to market changes, systems environments in organisations have often been updated at separate occasions and for different purposes. As a result companies today may have a wide range of legacy information systems, badly conformed to achieve integration and to make processes more efficient. A way to improve the situation may be to develop a clearer IT strategy. This thesis concerned the IT strategies of implementing an enterprise system. Two strategies, ERP and EAI, were chosen and evaluated. A real world situation, where an organisation was on the verge of implementing an enterprise system, was described. The real world situation was then analysed on the basis of the evaluation of enterprise systems. A conclusion was reached as to which IT strategy was considered to be better suited in the situation. The thesis concluded that an EAI strategy would be better suited in the particular case even though historical circumstances may promote the implementation of ERP.