ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

CASE STUDY

 AirCargo Inc – Provide air cargo ground services

 17+ shareholder airlines
 53 associates

 AirCargo Inc includes services:

 Pickup and delivery
 Airport to City
 Time critical shipments

 ACI System crashed in 1990s and resulted in 5 million USD in loss (150 – 145 Million USD revenue)
SOME PROBLEMS IN ACI

 Numerous Business Applications for different business processes in different business functions
 Slightly outdated reports (due to paper input)
 Existing business applications were too much customized (due to which upgrades were not economical)
ACI’S REACTION

 Divide and conquer

 e-Enterprise Applications
 Financial series
 Distribution series
 Customization series
 Integration series

 All above applications were integrated with DBMS (Microsoft)

 Used Data Transformation Services (Microsoft)
 Implemented Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) approach
 Power of integration
SYSTEM INTEGRATION

 Pros and Cons

 Training
 Complexity
 Cost
 Time
 Effort
 Error and Redundancy
 SEAMLESS is Important
WHAT ARE SILOS?

 silos are an airtight pit or tower for preserving products.

 Isolated Compartments
HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL SILOS
PROBLEM WITH LARGE ENTERPRISES?

 Lack of Communication and Information Sharing

BUSINESS PROCESS AND SILOS

 Business Process Modeling

 Business Process Reengineering
 Business Process Provide a new way of grouping
EVOLUTION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN ORGANIZATION
INFORMATION SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
SYSTEM INTEGRATION

 The process of creating a complex information system that may include designing or building a customized
architecture or application, integrating it with new or existing hardware, packaged and custom software, and
communications.

 Logical vs Physical System Integration

ERP AND SYSTEM INTEGRATION

 Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are integrated, multimodule application software packages designed
to serve and support several business functions across an organization. An ERP system is a strategic tool that helps
the organization improve its operations and management by integrating business processes and helping to
optimize the allocation of available resources.
 At the logical level, ERP systems require organizations to focus on business process rather than on functions.
 n addition to the logical level, system integration is also necessary at the physical level. Before installing the ERP
system, an organization may have to upgrade or install middleware and plan for the removal of their legacy
system’s hardware and software.
IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT

 Silos don’t work

 Integration has hidden benefits
 Integration has many challenges
 Integration invite many ethical issues