ITPEC IP October 2018 Question 92
An ERP package is a suite of fully integrated software applications that are used to perform administrative business processes, such as financial management, procurement, personnel, and payroll administration. Which of the following is the most appropriate description concerning such an ERP package?
Explanation
Install it after the business processes are verified and standardized — an ERP package brings its own standard processes, so the company's own must be sorted out first.
An ERP package integrates finance, procurement, personnel, payroll and other core processes around one shared database, and it assumes the standard processes built into the package. Before installing it, the company analyses and verifies its current work and standardizes it, deciding where to adopt the package's processes and where a difference justifies customization. Skipping this leads to heavy add-on development or a system that does not fit the work.
Answer (c)
Why not others:
- •(a) — the reverse is true: analysing the gap between the company's processes and the package's is the main effort of an ERP introduction
- •(b) — the package spans departments and shares one database; leaving each user department to maintain it separately breaks that integration, so it is maintained centrally, typically by the information systems department
- •(d) — ERP is application software, not system software, and packages are built around general, often international, practices rather than being designed for domestic processes only
Key rule: A package fits a business only after the business is analysed; with ERP, standardize the processes first, then deal with the remaining gaps.
Business Strategy Management · AI-written, may contain errors
This question comes from an official ITPEC past paper. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with ITPEC. See the official IP past-paper collection or Report an issue.