A Comparative Study of Users` Role in ERP Software and BPM Software Implementation

Abstract

本研究整理企業資訊系統與企業資源規劃(ERP)系統及企業流程管理系統(BPMS)使用者所需知識與能力之研究，建構結構性量表，用以瞭解企業用戶在應用流程整合工具上能力的需求。透過對三十個企業資源規劃與企業流程管理系統應用專案深入探討，本研究對於這兩種流程整合系統所要求使用者扮演的角色與能力進行分析。研究結果顯示，企業資源規劃的使用者對於專案的成功與否需負較大的責任，而企業流程管理系統的使用者對重新設計的流程成效負較大的責任。企業資源規劃和企業流程管理系統的使用者在管理專案上都需要流程分析、設計與評估的技能。採用企業資源規劃系統的使用者較專注在內部流程改善，而應用企業流程管理系統的企業使用者需要學習更多互相聯結的流程特徵。此外，跨部門資料分析應用、跨組識協調與變革管理都是讓這兩項軟體發揮更大效益所需要的能力。

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software enables enterprise integration with processes embedded in the application. Business users adapt to the standard software processes in order to eliminate the high customization costs. Business Process Management (BPM) software supports inter-and-intra enterprise integration with process modeling and designing tools incorporating various B2B integration standards. Since the software intends to adapt to various process designs with standard process representation, business users assume the responsibility of the integration success. Managing these two types of integration software requires different user focus and capabilities. As business operations emerged to networked integration, ERP user organizations are approaching both ERP and BPM software for flexible cross-system integration. By consolidating researches on user skills and responsibilities of both general information systems and ERP/BPM systems this research builds structured tables for understanding the required capabilities of ERP and BPM systems. By means of in-depth interview with eight project managers who have managed more than thirty ERP and BPM software projects in total, this research concludes with suggestions on the users role and capabilities required for these two types of process integration systems. The results indicate that ERP system users are more responsible for the overall success of the project, and BPM system users are more responsible for the success of the redesigned processes. Users of both ERP and BPMS require new skills in managing the project as well as process analysis, design and measurement. As businesses are moving on to networked competition, business users are faced with increased responsibilities in managing internal integration and external alliances. The capability of process and data analysis, strategic alignment and process change management are highly required for business users to take advantage of the process integration software.