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Business Process Documentation for ERP- Supported Organisations

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1512 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS Issue 5, Volume 3, November 2004 ISSN:1109-2750

Business Process Documentation for ERP- Supported Organisations

PANAYIOTOU NIKOLAOS, PONIS STAVROS, GAYIALIS SOTIRIS, PANAYIOTOU THEODOROS
National Technical University of Athens
Mechanical Engineering Department, Section of Industrial Management & Operational Research
15780 Zografos, Athens
GREECE
panayiot@central.ntua.gr

Abstract: - This paper presents a case study demonstrating the documentation of organisational business
processes in a large Petroleum company operating in Greece. The introduction of an advanced Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) system covering all the business processes reengineered the way the organisation
operated and called for analytical documentation of the new processes and activities. An integrated business
modeling approach was introduced, covering specific systemic views: organisational, functional, information
and control. The ARIS architecture was used, providing the means for linking the different views and
connecting them with information technology. Specific ARIS methods (Organisational Charts, Extended
Event Process Chains (eEPCs), Process chain Diagrams, Entity Relationship Diagrams (eERMs), Function
Trees and Role Allocation Diagrams) were selected and combined with analytical process descriptions and
ERP users’ manuals. The outcomes of the approach introduced were the provision of analytical documentation
and specific guidelines for each employee taking into account both their organisational and ERP system roles
and generating automatic job descriptions. The expected long-term outcome of the implemented approach is
the achievement of a continuous improvement scheme, which will support the operation of the company and
the maintenance of the ERP system.

Key-Words: - Enterprise Modelling, ERP System, Continuous Improvement, ARIS Architecture, Case Study

1 Introduction though. The implementation of an ERP system does

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are
large commercial software packages that promise a
seamless integration of information flow through an
organization, by combining various sources of
information into a single software application and a
single database [1]. By integrating the various
aspects of the organization and streamlining the data
flows, they overcome the fragmentation problems of
legacy systems [2]. The evolution of ERP came
about originally in response to the increasingly
pressing demands of global market competition,
customer demands, and changes in business and IT
imperatives [3]. It was not long before ERP
applications dominated the market. According to
Sprott [4], ERP systems were one of the fastest
growing and most profitable areas of the software
industry during the late 1990s while in 1998,
approximately 40% of companies with annual
revenues over $1 billion had undergone ERP
implementations [5].
The adoption of ERP systems has been the focus
of substantial research in recent years. Although
early research has covered many aspects of ERP
implementation, it has focused mainly on the earlier
stages of the ERP lifecycle [1]. It is common, for
companies, after running a marathon that could take
up to four years from day one to go-live, to believe
that the ERP project is finished. That is not the case
not follow a life cycle of having a beginning and an
end; on the contrary it is a continual process. As
Davenport [6] argues, an enterprise system is not a
project, it’s a way of life. According to a recent
survey (2000) by Deloitte Consulting only 53% of
the company executives asked, realise that going
live isn’t the end of their ERP program, but rather
the end of the beginning.
The ERP go-live phase initiates an ongoing
process including numerous maintenance activities
and issues that need to be resolved after an ERP
system becomes operational. Examples of such
activities include enhancements, user support, and
system upgrades [1]. One of the most significant
tasks a company has to undertake after going live is
the management of the organizational change the
ERP system has incurred to the company. According
to Davenport, ERP implementation often results in a
large-scale organizational change [2]. Mashari [7]
argues that change management can be supported by
some software tools which ease the training of staff
and by helping them to take the appropriate steps
within a process, automating communication
activities within a project, ensuring that
responsibilities are assigned to the proper people and
groups, increasing flexibility and responsiveness,
and providing more accountability by generating
and maintaining audit trails [8]. A good example of
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS
change management, relative to the work done in
this research paper, is changing roles and
responsibilities [9], while another one can be seen in
Schaaf’s study on after going live innovative
training [10].
In this new emerging business process and
technological environment enterprise modelling
provides a semantic unification space at the
corporate level where shared concepts (e.g.
organizational and IT roles and their related
activities) can be properly defined, mapped to one
another and widely communicated in the forms of
enterprise models [11]. Enterprise Modelling
techniques and associated visual languages are very
important and useful to support new approaches to
enterprise business transformation and improvement
[12]. To support these efforts, a plethora of tools
have appeared in the software market e.g. ARIS
Toolset, FirstSTEP, METIS, Enterprise Modeller,
KBSI tools, CimTool, MOOGO, IMAGIM [13],
processing power has increased dramatically and
modelling architectures have evolved and in some
cases even matured [14]. According to Gartner and
its BPA Magic Quadrant the market leader company
in this field based on its vision and its ability to
execute is IDS Scheer S.A. the developer of ARIS
Collaborative Suite of business process modelling
tools. IDS is a strategic partner of SAP AG the
leading ERP software company [15] and ARIS
software and its underlying architecture and
semantics is used for all the process, organizational,
functional and data modelling activities throughout
SAP R/3 implementations.
This paper presents the work done within the
context of a project followed the “go live” phase of
the implementation, aiming in elaborating a business
process modelling tool to support the change
management process by providing accurate and
easily accessible documentation for specific aspects
of the enterprise these being the reengineered
processes, the new organizational roles and
activities, the system roles assigned to
organizational units and the job descriptions per
organizational and system roles. The application of
the elaborated business process modelling tool
resulted in elevating the new system acceptance by
the employees, increased employee involvement and
commitment, enhanced employees satisfaction and
eventually contributed –especially combined with a
thorough training programme- to the overall ERP
implementation project success.
Issue 5, Volume 3, November 2004 ISSN:1109-2750 1513
2 Problem Formulation
The introduction of an advanced and complicated
Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) in an
organization is frequently connected with Business
Process Reengineering (BPR) initiatives. No matter
what the approach of the reengineering will be,
ERP-Driven BPR or pure BPR, a number of
important changes will affect the future operation of
the organization. Business Process Reengineering
can result in one or more of the following
alternatives:
◼ Organisational restructuring affecting the
existing divisions and departments of the
company.
◼ Business process redesign of existing processes,
or even new business process creation for
operations that did not exist in the past.
◼ Introduction of new Information Technology
(IT) systems and changes in the interfaces
between the applications of the existing IT
infrastructure.
As a result, the organisation faces a new reality,
which affects both the everyday and strategic
operation of the company. This reality has to be
thoroughly documented and the employees have to
be well trained and supported in order for the
company to be able to fast and efficiently adapt to
the changes the ERP system imposed. After the ERP
system “goes live”, in other words, when the new
system comes into operation and the old one is
discontinued, the Top Management of the
organisation needs analytical documentation
consisting of the following elements:
◼ The new Organisational Charts.
◼ Analytical Process Descriptions of the new
business processes (core and support).
◼ The Job Descriptions for each organisational
role, under the light of the newly introduced
organisational chart and the altered business
processes.
◼ The IT authorization profiles for the users of the
new ERP system and the Systemic Roles they
have.
◼ Process Oriented ERP Manuals that can support
the users in their everyday activities.
It can be understood that the above elements are
interrelated and affect each other. The coverage of
these elements involves the elaboration of the
following terms:
◼ Processes: A process is a set of activities, which
are carried out towards a well-defined goal,
usually with the participation of many different
1514 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS Issue 5, Volume 3, November 2004 ISSN:1109-2750

departments of the organisation. The total Organisation

number of processes covers all the operations of

the company. Each process can be decomposed Organisational
Charts

into smaller activity bundles called sub-

processes.
◼ Activities: An activity is the smallest operation Requirements
Definition
that takes place in an organisation. A process
Design
and (sub-process) consists of a number of Role Allocation
Specification
Diagrams (RAD)
specific activities. E F D O Extended Event
Process Chains
Implementation

◼
Entity Relationship
Events: The events are the triggers or the result Diagrams
(ERM)
Process Chain
Value Added
Chain Diagram
(eEPC)
Function Tree
Diagrams(PCD)
state for an activity or a process. Data Control Function
◼ Organisational roles: A company consists of
Fig. 1 Proposed Business Modelling Tools
organisational units, such as divisions and
departments. Each employee is assigned to an
The methods used in the four views supported by
organisational position, is included in an
the ARIS architecture are the following:
organisational unit and has at least one specific
◼ Data View: Entity Relationship Models (ERM)
organisational role, which underlies his/ hers
are used for the representation of the exchanged
basic tasks (activities) in the organisation.
information in the new system.
◼ IT Roles: All the employees that have access to
◼ Function View: The function tree method is
the Information Systems of the organisation
used for the hierarchical representation of
must carry out systemic activities, which are
functions in order to minimise their complexity.
part of specific IT roles. The determination of
◼ Organisational View: The organisational charts
the users’ IT roles is very important for Internal
are used in order to designate the chain of
Audit purposes.
command within the organisation. The analysis
◼ Information: The information (as well as the
reaches the representation level of the
material) can be the input or the output of an
employee.
activity. It can have a formal (e.g. report or
◼ Control View: Extended Event Process Chain
application form) or informal (e.g. verbal
(eEPC) diagrams are used for the representation
information) form. Information is the most
of the control view, which combine the data,
important form of interface between the
function and organisational views. PCD
different departments or divisions.
diagrams are used for the representation of
◼ Employees: The employees are the intellectual
additional information such as the automated
asset of the organisation and are responsible for
functions in the new system. The definition of
its operations. They have one or more
each transaction operated by the different
organisational roles but they can also have one
system roles is presented in Role Allocation
or more IT roles.
Diagrams (RAD).
Business processes are dynamic in nature. Such a
A further method in the strategic level (the
dynamic behavior suggests that documentation
Value-Added Chain Diagram) was used in order to
cannot realize its full benefits in case it is managed
define the core and support business processes of
just like a snapshot. It has to be easily updateable
the organization.
and directly accessible to every employee of the
The selected methods in the four views of the
company. It can be concluded that the determination
ARIS Architecture enable the generation of the
of the appropriate software tool affects the success
following reports, which cover the specific
of the documentation system and the
organisational needs for analytical documentation
implementation of the continuous process
after the implementation of an ERP system:
improvement in the organisation.
◼ Analytical organisational charts reaching the
Based on the concepts described in the previous
representation level of employees (covering the
paragraphs and trying to cover the specific needs for
need for up-to-date organisational charts).
documentation of organisations after the
◼ List of organisational roles per employee
implementation of large ERP systems, a proposed
(covering the need for analytical and easy to use
business modelling approach was developed, based
organisational charts).
on the ARIS architecture and the ARIS IT software
◼ Activities carried out by each employee,
consisting of the methods (business modelling tools)
organisational role, department and division
presented in Figure 1.
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS
(covering the need for job descriptions for each
organisational role).
◼ Activities carried out by each IT role (covering
the need for efficient IT authorizations design).
◼ List of IT roles per employee (covering the need
for IT authorizations monitoring).
◼ List of necessary transactions for each system
role and each employee (covering the need for
IT authorizations monitoring).
◼ Process descriptions for each process based on
the verbal description of each activity (covering
the need for process documentation). List of
references (transactions) to ERP Users’
Manuals material for the operation of the
systemic activities (covering the need for
meaningful support of the system’s users).
3 A Case Study of a Large
Organisation Operating in the
Petroleum Industry
The company in which the proposed business
process modelling approach was applied is the
largest industrial and commercial enterprise in its
country, operating as a fully integrated oil enterprise
whose activities range from refining of crude oil and
trading/ marketing of petroleum products to
production, trading and marketing of all other forms
of energy. It employs about 4,500 people
worldwide, while revenues in year 2000 totaled €4,3
million. The efficiency of the group is further
enhanced by the integrated administrative scheme,
which encompasses most of the subsidiaries and
affiliates. Following the corporate restructuring and
the high cash flows of the 1998-2000 period, the
group now has the liquidity and borrowing capacity
to finance its business expansion.
In the context of this expansion, the company
decided to integrate its business process by the
acquisition and implementation of an ERP system,
provided by the market leading company on the
enterprise resource planning software market. The
size of the company under study and the wide scope
of the ERP system implementation were expected to
impose a large amount of organizational distortion
thus calling for the reception of certain measures to
support the change management process. The work
presented in this paper concerns the after-live phase
of the ERP project, this being the use and
maintenance phase.
The main goal of the project was the elaboration
of analytical business process models, for the
mapping of the whole enterprise under the prism of
the newly implemented ERP system in the four
Issue 5, Volume 3, November 2004 ISSN:1109-2750 1515
views provided by the ARIS architecture
(organisational, function, data, and process view).
The final business model included all the
reengineered processes, the new organisational roles
that execute the activities in which the processes are
decomposed, the system roles assigned to
organisational units and the job descriptions per
organisational and system role. To achieve this goal,
a set of modelling ARIS methods have been selected
from the numerous methods included in the ARIS
toolset and subsequently deployed in a holistic
manner, in order to develop a business model
capable to support the particular needs of the
management reporting system on jobs, system and
organisational roles. The expected result of the
business modelling tool development and
application is the decision support of management
and the job abetting for the employees during the
after live phase of the ERP system, thus improving
the system’s acceptance in the first stages of the use
and maintenance phase.
The first step taken in this study was the
elaboration of the business oriented organisation
view, which described the hierarchical structure of
the organisation, meaning the organizational units
with the communication and reporting relationships
among them. In this paper the organisational chart
method of ARIS architecture has been used in order
to streamline the description of the enterprise,
consolidating similar task groups into organisational
units. Organisational units are directly being
assigned with organisational positions. A position is
an ARIS object which is defined by the function
amount that an individual employee (person) can
handle. Positions and persons assigned to each
position were allocated to the aforementioned
organisational units according to the parameters of
business or reporting structures. Specific employees,
however, are rarely allocated to a particular function
because the business concept would have to be
updated if these persons were transferred or left the
company. Therefore the term “role” was introduced
describing a certain type of employee with clearly
defined qualifications and skills. The roles
represented in the organisational charts are
organisational roles. The system roles (the SAP R/3
roles) assigned to each employee having
authorization access to the system were separately
defined in different organizational charts.
Having elaborated the organisational diagrams of
the business structure, the study efforts turned into
the assessment and mapping of the process and sub-
process hierarchy of the enterprise. In the top level
of this structure (strategic view), a Value Added
Chain Diagram was deployed, consisting of both the
1516 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS
core and the support business processes and the
relationships between them. Business Process
strategy creates functions that the enterprise must
carry out efficiently. The identified business
processes were decomposed in sub-processes with
the use of function trees. These function trees are
hierarchy diagrams decomposing function bundles
(in our case, processes), into functions (sub-
processes that can be broken down further, directly
blending in with a function bundle), and elementary
functions (in our case, activities) that cannot be
broken down any further.
The data view includes the description of
information objects, manipulated by activities. In
this paper, the detailed data structure of a business
application area was modeled using the ARIS ERM
method, which is a standard for modeling business
processes in real world projects. These diagrams
consist of entity and relation types, linked with each
other by edges. Extended ERMs are enhanced by
specifying cardinalities, adding specification/
generalization operators and reinterpreting relation
types into entity types. For the specific reporting
needs of the company a number of ERM diagrams
were elaborated.
All the methods used in the context of the
strategic, data and function view of the ARIS
architecture are integrated into one view (control
view), which manages to combine all this
information into one consistent and meaningful
model. The ARIS method used in this view is the
extended Event Driven Process Chain Diagram
(eEPC) which displays the activities in different
detail and is the key component of SAP R/3
modeling concepts for business engineering and
customizing. The eEPCs utilize a sequence of events
and functions (in our models, activities) to transform
a number of inputs to a desired output. Actions are
illustrated by indicating the successive function with
arrows delivering messages regarding the
occurrence of an event to the next function, and thus
activating it. Before the next function the messages
are placed in the queue for processing. Messages can
contain additional attributes transmitting special
processing information to the next function. Logical
relationships between the objects in the diagram are
represented using the OR, AND and XOR symbols
of the ARIS methodology. The eEPC diagrams can
be easily transformed into PCD diagrams, which
emphasise on the organizational participation in the
sub-process.
Each activity can be assigned both roles and
transactions. However, because there is no direct
relationship between roles and transactions in an
EPC diagram, with roles that occur multiple times, it
Issue 5, Volume 3, November 2004 ISSN:1109-2750
cannot be decided for which transactions these roles
are responsible. The assignment of roles to
transactions is accomplished in the Role Assignment
Diagram (RAD). One role is shown per column. The
transactions are placed in the columns, creating
implicit relationships. In addition to the
representation of event control, in the context of the
process view, the data flows between functions were
represented using information objects directly
connected with the activities that make use or
generate them.
The interconnections between the ARIS views, is
shown in Figure 2.
Fig. 2 Interconnections Between the Business
Process Model Objects
Recapitulating, within the context of the project a
set of ARIS diagrams (organizational charts,
function trees, ERMs, eEPC’s, Function Allocation
Diagrams and Role Allocation Diagrams) were
elaborated creating an analytical business model,
covering the needs of the SD (Sales & Distribution),
FI (Finance), CO (Controlling), PP (Production
Planning), MM (Material Management), PM (Plant
Maintenance) and QM (Quality Management)
software modules. The business model included
database information for 4500 employees, 84
business processes, 908 activities, 206 system roles
and 592 system transactions. In the following
paragraphs of the paper a limited case study
regarding the purchasing process (the SKU Material
purchasing sub-process).
More specifically, the steps followed for the
implementation of the business process modelling
approach, were the following:
◼ Interviews with the key users of each module in
order to obtain a perfect understanding of the
new business process.
◼ Thorough study of the business blueprints
developed during the implementation phase, as
well as the ERP’s user manuals.
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS Issue 5, Volume 3, November 2004 ISSN:1109-2750 1517

◼ Construction of the new organizational chart ◼ Definition of transactions per system role using
after the ERP-driven BPR took place (ARIS the Role Allocation ARIS method. Figure 7,
organizational view). An example of an displays the transactions of three purchasing
organizational chart for the Purchasing system roles.
Department is presented in Figure 3.
MM - Buyer MM – Buyer MM – Buyer Head
Purchasing
Supervisor of Department
Department

Head of
Noidis G.
Department

ME21N: Create ME21N: Create ME21N: Create

Purchase Order Purchase Order Purchase Order
Buyers
Kotidis
Supervisor

ME28: P.O ME28: P.O

Buyers Plant Buyers Release Release

Bouklas Georgiou Tomatsidis Thanos Agiptatdis Kyriakou

MM02: Change MM02: Change
Material Material
Fig. 3 Purchasing Department Organisational Chart

◼ Determination of the organisation business ME9F: Message

Output
ME9F: Message
Output
processes and classification in core and support
processes. The determined business processes
are determined in the Value Added Chain
Fig.7 Transactions for Purchasing System Roles
Diagram of Figure 4.

Production
◼ Identification of important information
Production Sales
Purchasing
Purchasing &&Production
Production
Control
Control
Sales
Processing
Processing
Distribution
Distribution exchanged between the activities and
representation of their relationships with the use
of entity relationship diagrams (ERM). The
Plant
Maintenance
Production
Planning
Quality
Management
Inventory
Management
Financials Controlling ERM (partial view) of the purchasing process is
shown in Figure 8.
Fig. 4 Enterprise Value Added Chain Diagram

◼ Elaboration of a function tree for each process Purchase Purchase

included in the Value Added Chain Diagram. Employee 1 Creates N
Requisition
Header 1
Contains
N
Requisition
Line Item

The function tree of the purchasing process 1

consisted of ten different sub-processes is Corresponds

shown in Figure 5. 1

1 N Purchase Order 1 N Purchase Order

Buyer Creates Contains
Header Line Item
Purchasing
Purchasing
1 1

Is
Assigned Contains
Non
NonSKU
SKU
SKU Service
SKUMaterial
Material Material Service Request
Requestfor
for Urgent
UrgentMaterial
Material
Purchasing Material Purchasing Quotation Purchasing 1
Purchasing Purchasing Purchasing Quotation Purchasing 1
Purchasing

Vendor Material
Contractual
Contractual Purchasing
Purchasingbyby Crude
CrudeOil
Oil
Vendor
VendorMaster
Master Crude
CrudeOil
Oil
Agreement
Agreement Contractual
Contractual Purchasing
Purchasing
Maintenance
Maintenance Purchasing
Purchasing(CIF)
(CIF)
Creation
Creation Agreement
Agreement (FOB)
(FOB) 1
1

Fig. 5 Purchasing Process Function Tree Participates

1 Purchasing 1
Participates
Info Record

◼ Identification of the systemic roles for each user Fig. 8. Purchasing ERM Diagram (Partial View)
of the ERP system and their representation with
the use of role diagrams. A role diagram for a ◼ Development of analytical process chain
buyer supervisor is shown in Figure 6. diagrams (decomposition of the processes
included in the process diagrams, representing
Kotidis all the activities taking place, automated or not).
MM - MM - Fuel MM -
These diagrams integrate all the discrete ARIS
MM - Power MM - Purchase MM - Power MM -
MM - Buyer
Supervisor
User -
Vendors
Order
Approver
Purchasing
Process
User -
Materials
Inventory
Monitoring
Contracts
Agreement
Agreement
Management views using elements from the organizational
Overview Display Clerk

Fig.6 Buyers’ Supervisor Role Diagram charts, the data models and the role diagrams.
An example of an eEPC diagram for the SKU
1518 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS Issue 5, Volume 3, November 2004 ISSN:1109-2750

Material Purchasing Process is presented in and capability for improvement in their future
Figure 9. design.
◼ Generation of helpful material for the employees
Material
and the activities in which they participate.
Vendor
Buyer
◼ Connection of the users’ manuals with the
Purchase
Requisition
Purchase
Requisition
Approved
Print of
Purchase
activities that each employee has to undertake,
Buyer
Line Item
Purchase
Order Header
Order
MM - Buyer making the study of the support material easier
Purchase
Order Header
Purchase
Order Creation
MM - Buyer
Purchase
and more focused (as each employee could
Purchase

Purchase
Order Line
Item
Order
Printed identify the parts of the manuals that were of
Order Line
Item Purchase
Order Buyers
Purchasing
Department interest to him/ her).
Created Supervisor
Send Purchase
Order to
Vendor

Purchase
Purchase
Head of
Department
MM - Buyer
The ARIS software capability and the database
Order
Order Header
Approval
MM – Buyer Vendor
support it offers, enabled the easy update and
Supervisor

Purchase
Order
Approved
MM – Buyer
Head of
Department
Order Sent
Fig. 9 SKU Material Purchasing eEPC (Partial
View)
◼ Generation of all the reports presented in
Chapter 2, based on the underlying ARIS model
repository.
◼ Validation of the results and presentation to the
Top Management.
4 Conclusions and Further Research
The proposed business modelling approach was
applied in one of the largest companies in Greece.
All business processes and activities of the company
were modeled in the ARIS software using the
suggested methods described in the paper. All three
thousands and five hundred employees were
included in the analytical organisational charts and
their organisational and IT roles were identified in
the models. This analytical representation enabled
the appropriate reporting generation requested by
the Top Management. This reporting helped the
organisation to manage change realized due to the
ERP implementation by providing the following
benefits:
◼ Representation of the new organisational
structure in the “after live” era.
◼ Identification of the new process models, as
transactional activities traditionally operated by
specific departments were transferred to the
departments where they occurred.
◼ Analytical process and activity mapping and
clear explanation of the participating
organisational and IT roles.
◼ Identification of employees that could undertake
specific activities (either manual or systemic) or
could replace absent employees.
◼ Control of the authorization profiles and roles of
the employees having access to the IT systems
Purchase
alteration of the business models, making the
available documentation up-to-date for every
company employee. The real-time, standardized and
exact representation of the organisational business
models encouraged the initiatives for continuous
process improvement and the participation of all the
employees who could easier make suggestions for
improved process operations.
One of the identified areas that could further
improve was the easier reporting generation and the
need for employees’ computer literacy (outside the
IT department) in order to be able to easily use the
available documentation on-line. Moreover, the
effort needed for the generation of the models raised
questions concerning the successful applicability of
the approach in smaller organisations. The proposed
approach is now implemented in an enterprise of
one thousand employees and further research
conclusions are expected by the end of the year.
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