ERP Adoption: The Benefits & Challenges of Automating Businesses - Research Paper

Introduction

In the past few years, the concept of cloud computing has been widely adopted by most organizations. Most organizations are recently adopting enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to automate their operation. ERP system has various advantages compared to other primary systems which make it outstanding in the market. According to recent research, the adoption of an ERP system has helped in improving efficiency in transaction processes. However, there exist several challenges that revolve around how the system can be integrated into the system. Studies show that the field is continually evolving, with transactions becoming increasingly large. A better system is needed to accommodate all customer processes simultaneously without downtime. Therefore, cloud computing has emerged to solve the existing issue in customer transactions. The paper focuses on determining the impact of cloud computing in enterprises such as Microsoft and its relevant advantages in business operations.

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By investigating the earlier hosting methodologies of ERP systems, locally-based hosting servers were used, however, challenges related to data availability tend to rise. As the company grows in terms of transactions, better performance is needed. The study includes a detailed analysis of how feasible it is to adopt cloud computing in hosting an Enterprise resource planning system. It is evident that, by adopting the cloud-based hosting system, the company incur less cost in terms of maintenance and buying extensive resources as required by local hosting. Testing the cloud-based system takes less time compared to local hosting since all no one cares about the location of a given set of data. Therefore, through the adoption of cloud computing, the company can suffer no expenditure on purchasing servers and also the construction of server houses which in turn may need a higher capital for maintenance.

Other related studies towards cloud computing suggest that adopting the mechanism may result in several challenges. Migration to cloud computing may require large sums on on-demand payment capital for purchasing the system as well as IT personnel to carry out training on the proposed system. Due to high costs, medium and small enterprises tend to avoid migrating to cloud computing by adopting a phased changeover. Further studies in Cloud computing migration reveals that, despite the system being efficient enough in terms of service delivery, there are several limitations which create a challenge during implementation. There are inadequate useful structures and practices needed for a successful migration. Several tools are needed for carrying out prior testing on the compatibility of the system with the current operation.

Based on what the authors propose about cloud computing, the adoption decision tool included bears the questions that help to give information and give answers concerning facts on a business of a certain user. The value facts that the user is concerned with giving solutions by taking the form of software as a service (SaaS). They are vital to the user as they are used in formulating basic decision-making processes. They also offer the user to determine the best path to the cloud. a pilot study conducted on the same; cloud computing on enterprise systems indicated that the adoption tool had been used within the local-based enterprises with two objectives at hand. The objectives were determining the extent of knowledge about cloud computing and the determination of the best-suited areas of integration with the businesses ((Arinze and Anandarajan 210). The objective of determining the suitable tools to be used in the implementation of the technology was also looked at exclusively. The pilot study results showed that the knowledge of cloud computing is less and that there is a need to use tools to impart knowledge about the topic.

Following Maheshwari 2016, the matters concerning the less knowledge about cloud computing and how it is accepted by different organizations continue to increase. As a result, many companies fail to adopt cloud computing technology despite the enormous research conducted on the topic. To capture these organizations and motivate them to accept the technology, various business and technological methods along with theories have been established ((Maheshwari). To make them understand the cloud computing technology, the later has been broken down and fragmented to reduce its complexity, as viewed by these organizations.

To come up with these approaches, the author took a survey that was aimed at enabling users to give reviews about cloud computing. More clarity downed to the users when these approaches were used. The core theme of the survey was to assist the organizations to make decisions based on the adoption of the technology(Bildosola, et al. 7). The survey also provided knowledge on how technology would positively affect the business and the entire enterprise system.

A defined way of employing two frameworks to describe the advantages and disadvantages of technology can be described. The ways compose defining a standard for all upcoming organizations that use the enterprise systems. The standards can further contain the approaches to define the most economic and the cheap methods that incorporate the criteria of decision framework of various organizations supporting enterprise systems. An organization should, therefore, use and adopt cloud computing as it has the best approaches to support enterprise systems.

Works Cited

Arinze, B., and M. Anandarajan. "Factors that Determine the Adoption of Cloud Computing." Enterprise Information Systems and Advancing Business Solutions, pp. 210-223, doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-1761-2.ch012.

Bildosola, I., et al. "Design and Implementation of a Cloud Computing Adoption Decision Tool: Generating a Cloud Road." PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 7, 2015, p. e0134563, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134563.

Maheshwari, B. "A study of ERP adoption and implementation experience of Canadian organizations." doi:10.22215/etd/2001-04949.