Open Source Enterprise-Wide Systems, Service-Oriented Architectures and Software as a Service - Essay Example

Enterprise Systems Name Institution Name Course Instructor Date Enterprise Systems Introduction Enterprise systems have become a common aspect in most businesses in the contemporary world. This phenomenon is brought by the fact that the global market has become competitive and every business is willing to go an extra mile to grasp every opportunity that makes its operations effective. They do so by establishing proper enterprise architecture in their organizations. Enterprise architecture is the description of structure of an enterprise together with business components (Thomas, 2007). The architecture describes the enterprise and the business plans, which act as a force between the aspects of business planning, aspects of business operations, aspects of automation and technological infrastructure of the business. Aspect of business planning includes goals of being in business, vision of the enterprise, strategies and the governance principles of the enterprise while the aspects of business operations include organization structures, processes, business terms and data that the enterprise have. There is also the aspect of automation, which includes information systems and databases. Technological infrastructure of the business such as computers, operating systems and computer networks is another aspect in the enterprise architecture which is also crucial for the realization of the enterprise overall goals and objectives. Enterprise architecture employs various business methods and analytical techniques to describe and document the structure of the enterprise. These artifacts describe the business functions, capabilities, processes, people, information, systems applications programs, the computing capabilities and how information is exchanged within the enterprise (Ripin and Sayles, 2008). Enterprise architecture frameworks break down the practice of enterprise architecture into two main areas: business modeling and current information systems. The subdivision of the practice into various sections enables the enterprise architecture to describe the enterprise from various perspectives. Open Source Enterprise Wide Systems Open source enterprise wide systems are suitable to small and medium enterprises (SME’s) due to the ease in accessibility of the source code and the privilege to modify it to cater for specific needs. It thus supports the unrestricted modification to improve the software product and users can modify it to perfectly suit their needs. With this system it is also possible to use the source code with new hardware by adapting it to diverse conditions (Thomas, 2007). This is the reason as to why many experts support the idea that to stretch an application’s lifetime, it should be available in source code. Availability of source code also provides a much easier way of separating bugs, and thus it easier for a programmer to deal with them. A large number of developers choose to work using open source enterprise wide systems due to the fact that they can redistribute the modified codes to other people thus it can be shared by a bigger population. The redistribution rights are universal and cannot be revoked. The establishment of such a large crowd of users helps to create a better market for customization and overall support of the system. This in turn helps to greatly improve the product quality and its functionality. In addition, the fact that no one can claim to hold exclusive rights on any given software code, means that no one has the power to restrict how the software is used. For instance, if the owner of software decides not to upgrade the product for one reason or another, customers are compelled to remain with the same old version of the software, or alternatively switch to a different product altogether (Thomas, 2007). However, when using open source enterprise wide systems, customers have an option of funding some development to get the desired platform, or to source for vendors who can upgrade the product. For instance, taking a case where a company uses a software product, that solely depends on the software manufacturer for upgrades and any other development, if the manufacturer closes down, or even decides to stop developing and upgrading the product, the product is no longer of benefit since no one else apart from the manufacturer can modify it. The product, therefore, becomes irrelevant in the market. This has occurred many times; the trend has been increasing due to mergers in the software market. These mergers mostly lead to some software products being ‘swallowed’ to allow just one or two to reach the market (Ripin and Sayles, 2008). Open Source Enterprise Wide System successfully protects against this trend, because if the company that the code originated from stops its development, another software group can be funded to continue with maintenance upgrading and improvement of the code, without any limitations whether legal or practical. The availability of a source code makes it possible to conduct a thorough inspection and validate the correctness of calculations, and verify the implementation scheme used. In general, this system provides a forum for people to exercise democracy. This is brought about by the fact that individuals and companies are the ones who decide what areas in the system to modify, therefore people with an idea on the best direction for the company can convince others to join in and in this way influence the overall direction and progress of the company (Head, 2010). One the other hand, the main disadvantage of the open source enterprise wide systems is that no per-copy fees can be charged for using modified versions this means that anyone can use the current modified code base to begin working on new projects. In most cases, open source enterprise wide system is delivered at a time when the development team is satisfied that the product is of good quality. A disadvantage will, therefore, arise if a product is delayed for an unspecified period of time. This mainly occurs due to the lack of any commercial entity that might push for specific delivery dates or demand for precise features to be supported. Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) and Software as a Service (SaaS) Enterprise systems such as Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) and Software as a Service (SaaS) are suitable to small and medium enterprises (SME’s) who traditionally have been excluded from entering the ERP market. This is due to the ease in accessibility of the source code and the privilege to modify it to cater for specific needs. It thus supports the unrestricted modification to improve the software product and users can modify it to perfectly suit their needs (Saunders, 2009). With this system, it is also possible to use the source code with new hardware by adapting it to diverse conditions. This is the reason as to why many experts support the idea that to stretch an application’s lifetime, it should be available in source code. Availability of source code also provides a much easier way of separating bugs, and thus it easier for a programmer to deal with them. In summary, the main benefit of SOA & SaaS technologies is that it enables the SMEs to attain stability within the environment that is dynamically changing and hence these enterprises must describe themselves fully using the enterprise architecture. It also provides policies, directions, and the standards for all the aspects that can affect the business either positively or negatively. Enterprise Resource Planning Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a software system that combines various management information spanning from all the different departments of an organization. ERP facilitates proper flow of information within the organization and manages connections to the outside world as well. ERP system combines a large amount of specific business functionalities that suit the industry that will undergo less customization or even none at all, except for reports, thus the package is suitable for business operations (Teresa and Mario, 2004). The biggest and most important advantage of ERP software is assimilation of all the business solutions in a single program; this reduces to a great extent unnecessary paper work, repeated entry and cycle time. With the ERP software, business functions and operating processes are designed as standard software codes; therefore, lesser time is used to understand the process related issues of implementation and this provides the industry with specific practices. ERP software helps in automating the business processes; it also forces its own industry specific logic onto the business. While other standard solutions may contribute 55-65% to the business, ERP can offer as high as 90% by using industry specific solutions (Teresa and Mario, 2004). Just like any system, ERP has its own benefits and drawbacks. With its introduction, ERP was highly welcomed by various companies. This is due to its high efficiency in areas such as, purchase of raw materials, track inventory, and allocation of costs. ERP system became the planning manager of the entire business (Clemons, 2009). The system also brings various processes together using data collected across the entire company, for example, it manages order entry, purchasing, accounts sector, human resource, bills of materials, and inventory control (Lequeux, 2008). This system also allows sharing of data with other programs found within the computer system (Lequeux, 2008). ERP system has also offered solutions to small businesses. Vendors installing the ERP software have made the software easy to install, easy to manage, less implementation time, and cheap startup cost; this has encouraged small business to purchase the system. Small businesses also find this software modular, allowing them to install it easily and have less support from the IT team (Waldner, 2007). Vendors have also cut down the costs of running the business; for a given amount of money, vendors provide technology and the required support to run the system (Waldner, 2007). This idea proved to be cheap and easier compared to buying the whole system as a new system required implementation. Even though it has several benefits, ERP system has various limitations, which hinder its operations. To begin with, it is always possible to create a different code base whenever the current base is considered to be wrongly managed or faulty in some way. This situation is known as ``forking'' it is considered a disadvantage, since the company has to manage both code bases. The main disadvantage of forking is the introduction of several different levels of competition within the system. For instance, prior to ‘forking’, programmers seem to work harder by incorporating many well-engineered features as possible. After a fork is introduced, both branches compete for the user base with products, which are either related or very similar: the only thing that can maintain such competition in the market is high quality and constant improvement of products. A good example of a ‘fork’ is the Linux kernel; in this system, two different code bases are in use, one is ``stable'' and the other ``experimental'' (Lequeux, 2008). By doing so, it is easier to test new and even potentially dangerous technologies without interrupting the stable ones. This way, clients interested in trying out new innovative technologies can comfortably do so, and customers who already use the Linux kernel are assured of stable and tested features especially those in production environments. The other disadvantage associated with ERP is that it is tiresome. It is also time consuming and its implementation process is quite expensive. Though the cost of actual purchase of the software is ignored, the process of implementation can take months to complete and would normally consume huge sum of money if carried out properly. To add to these shortcomings, if the company makes just a single mistake out of the thousands of processes, it will put the whole project in jeopardy (Lequeux, 2008). Such a situation raises a serious debate on the relevance of choosing ERP, considering that the amount of money and time that are wasted in a failed ERP implementation plan can upset the finances of any company. Moreover, implementation of an ERP system needs a lot of time and commitment from the company’s IT department. A research carried out earlier indicated that in every 100 organizations; only 4-5% of IT managers are able to install an ERP system package right from the box (Waldner, 2007). Another limitation of ERP system is that it can create numerous changes in business processes since it controls various key departments in the company; installing ERP in place requires new procedures, intense employee training with support from both the management and technical department. Installation of an ERP system is extremely slow and requires skilled personnel, and after installation, various businesses find trouble in estimating the benefits they have gained from ERP system (Lequeux, 2008). Implementation Strategy for an Open Source Enterprise Wide System Every company similar that is implementing a new production process needs a computing system to support their operations. However, in some cases, implementing the system may force a company to abandon some of their newly developed production processes. Therefore implementing an open source enterprise wide system requires a proper strategy. With the SaaS for instance, the company can develop the modules necessary to run the new processes while leveraging the core advantages of the system. Here, the system provider will operate all of the data center and infrastructure components of the solution. This infrastructure would include network, servers, database, web server and non-application security. The enterprise would be responsible for the application layers of the solution. This would include designing the frontend, access control of the application and workflow. The organization would also need to do all the due diligence associated with any successful implementation. The concept of operations (CONOPS) for this approach is something that would really need to be assessed and factored into the decision. Even, when an organization has an in-house development team and in-house infrastructure management team, the collaboration between the two groups could be difficult (Teresa and Mario, 2004). Now when you add a third party to the equation it becomes that much more complicated to mange trouble tickets, security and performance. In addition, many of the challenges associated with going with this cloud based strategy still exist in this development environment. You still need to consider that your application is hosted on a shared infrastructure and if that shared infrastructure is certified for your industry or line of business (Teresa and Mario, 2004). However, if executed correctly this model can help an enterprise avoid a great deal of the challenges associated with rolling their own developed system and leverage the best of the common platform systems such as Oracle. References: Clemons, E. K. (2009). "IS for Sustainable Competitive Advantage". Information & Management 11 (3): 131–136. Head, S. (2010). The New Ruthless Economy. Work and Power in the Digital Age. Oxford University Press. Lequeux, J. (2008). Manager avec les ERP, Architecture Orientée Services (SOA). Paris: EDITIONS D'ORGANISATION. Ripin, M. and Sayles, R. (2008). Strategies for management of Information Systems. New York: Oxford University Press. Saunders, M. (2009). Methods of research for students in business field: Prentice Hall press. Thomas, I. (2007). Objectives and needs for IT incorporation in businesses; proceedings of the 2nd international seminar on computerized business activities: Irvine press. . Teresa, T. and Mario, A. (2009). Computer-aided management on human resource in business: Idea Group press. Waldner, J. (2007). Principles of Computer Integrated Manufacturing. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Read More