Enterprise Systems and Innovation (Research Paper Sample)

How the firm’s enterprise systems can be used to deliver value in Innovation area
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Executive Summary
This report provides an analysis of the enterprise systems and the organizational innovation. It investigates if the enterprise system has an effect on the organizational processes and innovation. The report presents the issue of innovation as a process that involves the implementation of novel thoughts, creating vibrant products as well as improving the existing services. It also shows how enterprise system fosters the innovation process of an organization. Because of the financial transactions that are automated, as well as the time required for the reconciliation of financial data, an enterprise system is an important component that reduces the required time and aids in the automation of transactions. Enterprise systems based on IT synchronize as well as incorporate information flow, and improve business planning as well as other operations of an organization. This enables the management to make critical decision on the business operations. Using case studies on the combination of data within and across the industries as well as the trading of data, the result indicates that enterprise system foster the possibility of organizations generating innovational process. It also demonstrates that through the application of the enterprise system, all the relevant agencies are connected with a common IT system which is an important element in the innovation process. Through the enterprise system the management can be able to inspection data at the instance or the cumulative level. The case studies also shows that the enterprise system standardizes the activities of the business resulting to the improvement of the firm’s operations
Introduction
Including a wide range of software products that support daily operations of the business and decision-making, an enterprise system is company-wide business software that is devoted to assimilating certain processes in the value chain (Cantwell & Molero zayas, 2010). However, several firms have leveraged the broader systems of the enterprise to the area of innovation. According to Piazolo & Felderer (2013), thus, the enterprise systems foster the innovational behavior. This is because enterprise system advances the introduction of the enhancements of the firm that facilitates the generation of innovation. Innovation of the business units is enhanced when they reach a network position which is more centralized since it enables them to get new knowledge assessment that are obtained from other units. The enterprise system fits into this context perfectly as it enables the firms’ capabilities of intern network through the provision of a centralized database with accessibility to the business units and workers as well as fastening the links between them.
This report provides an understanding of how enterprise systems have an impact on the firm’s innovation performance. This will be done in the understanding of innovation as well as ways through which enterprise systems fosters innovation by various organizations. To have a better understanding of how the enterprise systems of a firm can be applied to deliver value in the area of innovation, this report will look at two study cases one on the combination of data within and across the industries in the city of Bolzano, North Italy and the other on data trading on the partnership of Vodafone and TomTom. This report is prepared to the management of the organization and its main objective is to ensure that the organization leverages its enterprise systems in the area of innovation as how other firms are doing.
Enterprise System and Innovation
Innovation refers to the act of changing or coming up with processes, ideas as well as products that are more effective, enhancing the possibility of organizational success (Cantwell & Molero zayas, 2010). More creative firms come up with an efficient work processes amid enhanced performance as well as productivity. This involves the implementation of novel thoughts, creating vibrant products as well as improving the existing services. Usually, innovation is a mechanism for the success of the growth of an organization since it helps in the adaptation of the market. Cantwell & Molero zayas (2010) further argues that application of the enterprise system foster innovation in different ways: The broader database of the firm that is generated as well as updated by the enterprise system gives the workers the required data in real-time. This makes "data mining" obsolete as it enables the employees to be more innovative as well as flexible. According to Canducci & Missikoff (2015), in a great way, enterprise systems offer strategic benefits and create extra business innovations, for instance, through allowing fresh market strategies as well as creating new chain processes. Varajao et al. (2012) argues that through the application of enterprise system, all departments of an organization can obtain information regarding the required resources in time, thus bottleneck as well as idle time is greatly minimized. Also, the enterprise system creates an appropriate as well as the flexible environment of working where lifecycles of the products and the usage of the resources are indicated in real-time. Hence, room for innovation and improving the process is identified easily enhancing the organizational growth. According to Sheshinski et al., (2006), it is also important to note that updating the firm’s broad database in real time, it makes it possible for the innovational results to be compared, pictured as well as controlled, giving even more improvement room.
Combining data within and across the industries study case
In the city of Bolzano, North Italy where the population comprises majority of the retired people with strain on the social as well as health services, IBM, while working in the city, came up with a sensor network in the home that check not only conditions including water usage and the temperature but also the composition of the "normal" patterns of behavior such as regular time of cooking (Parmar et al., 2014). System abnormality triggers to the relatives to check the whereabouts of the seniors and alert the relevant authorities if necessary. Through the application of the enterprise system, all the relevant agencies are connected with a common IT system. This innovation by the IBM has lowered drastically the costs associated with assistance as well as care. Cross-sector initiatives are also being spearheaded in other cities of the country. Parmar et al. (2014) reiterates that this innovation on the combination of data within as well as across the industry has been set up by the authority of Greater London to inspire new ways of undertaking business. The agile urban logistics project has been launched to manage the congestion in roadways brought by a sizable increase regarding the small vans that deliver packages from the e-retailer to the residents of the city. Al-hakim & Jin, (2010) argues that this enterprise system project joins the deliveries of data from the retailers with traffic situation data as well as the optimization software. The main objective is the encouragement of the private sector to come up with fresh business models including services in shared delivery in particular areas. Some organizations including the Walmart and the Dell have effectively incorporated data across their supply chain through the majority of the supply system remain quite uncoordinated. Innovation in IT through the system enterprise can greatly address this problem (Parmar et al., 2014). For example, in the auto industry, there is a need for careful deliberation on the temperature of water regarding the manufacturing plants using water to cool their machines. According to Qingrui (2012), application of enterprise system to obtain reliable data on the water temperature of the upstream makes a meaningful contribution to the efficiency of the plant. In Germany, there is the integration of data across one industry i.e. healthcare by a new business to improve effectiveness. Usually, practices of medical and dental have applied various formats for payment request from the companies of insurance. According to Mcmaster (2010), the new service that combines data within and across the industries directly collects the necessary information from the scheme of the IT system of the practices hence leading to the privacy safeguarding and data cleaning, which is ultimately delivered in its obligatory format to each firm of insurance. According to Canducci et a., (2015), through the application of this innovation, the insurers are able to automate the process of payment as well as verify the billing for any form of fraud.
Data trading study case
Through the use of enterprise system, separate sets of desperate data can combined to enable firms to come up with a number of new innovations to the adjacent businesses. In the recent case, there was a partnership of Vodafone as well as the satellite navigation devices and services provider referred as TomTom (Parmar et al., 2014). Since Vodafone has a mobile network, it can be able to identify the subscribers that are driving, their location as well as the speed at which they are moving. According to Parmar et al. (2014), this kind of data can be applied to identify traffic jams that are extremely valuable information to TomTom obtained from Vodafone. This innovation on the usage of the cell phone data has triggered the improvement in transit as well as management of traffic in a commercial manner. Through the application of enterprise system, there is a usage of data trading by the methodological office of the UK, Grantham Institute of Climate change, IBM and the imperial college aiming at the creation of ...