Open process and open-source enterprise systems

Abstract

Enterprise systems have become pervasive, especially at the high end of the market where SAP and Oracle service large organisations. There is a great deal of value in enterprise systems offered to all organisations, but many small and medium businesses (SMBs) cannot afford the excessive software costs of established ERP systems. There have been a number of alternative forms of enterprise systems developed, to include open-source software. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) allows vendors to efficiently adopt new processes within their products. Organisations (and open-source ERP systems) can use SOA in customising or improving their systems. Web 2.0 helps collaborative development of knowledge which can be invaluable in identifying better business processes. The Web 2.0 era makes innovative access to enterprise systems possible for many SMBs. This paper reviews the role of SOA and Web 2.0 in making ERP systems more open, and classifies open enterprise systems on the dimension of process. We propose that organisations should conduct knowledge development for business processes through Web 2.0 prior to implementing external to enterprise systems. Once better processes are developed, they can be implemented to improve enterprise systems.