SOA-BASED APPROACH TO THE ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION IN SMALL ENTERPRISES

SOA-BASED APPROACH TO THE ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION IN SMALL ENTERPRISES

Abstract. The sector of small enterprises is characterized by a specific approach to the
planning activities, determined by the circumstances of low margin and risk-driven
business. The primary focus of small enterprise are income generators, rather than
cost reduction activities. This reflects at ineffective and inefficient usage of diverse ICT
technologies, implemented in a non-systematic manner. The objective of this paper is to
present principles and guidelines for the customized approach to the implementation of
the integrated enterprise information system, by using the step-wise implementation of
the service-oriented architecture (SOA), managed and operated with a minimized
threat to the business continuity.
Key words: Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP, Small & Medium Enterprises,
Service-Oriented Architecture, SOA, Web Services
1. INTRODUCTION
The environment of small enterprises can be described from the aspect of ICT
investment, level of business organization and scope of strategic planning. These features
are extremely important for setting the background basis for strategy, methods and tools
for implementation of the enterprise information system. With regard to this, some im-
portant findings [1] are described below:
• Start-up investment is used for financing basic activities for market development and
short-term business continuity management with the lowest margin possible. Plan-
ning horizon is low because of a small-scale startup investment and applied produc-
tion strategy. Business is done on the basis of short-termed forecasts;
• Integrated enterprise information system is not implemented – a non-homogenous
environment of different business applications, supporting individual business seg-
ments might cause data redundancy and threaten its integrity. Both could induce a
risk of wrong or late information, needed for decision making;
Low margin strategy determines the way of doing daily business. Top priority is to re-
move short-term risks – all resources are involved in fulfillment of sales objectives,
rather than cost reduction, which is the primary goal of business IT applications;
• Less but more flexible workforce is capable of quickly adapting to business process
re-engineering deliverables;
• Web-based marketing and e-commerce practices are often applied, because they are
less demanding regarding investments and workforce, unlike in the conventional
marketing and sales activities. This approach enables the company to adapt quickly
to web-based business process management, and particularly, B2B activities;
• Lack of strategic risk management approach, caused by focused identification and
resolution of short-term risks lowers the level of coordination towards fulfillment of
business plan objectives;
General objective of research, presented in this paper, is to identify the technology
stack, followed by relevant guidelines and methods, for ICT support in business manage-
ment of small manufacturing enterprises. Specific objective is to define the technical
framework for transition from dispersed legacy ICT environment to effective and efficient
enabler for on-time delivery of accurate information in decision-making business activi-
ties. Focal point of the presented framework is maturation of business functions towards
concept of business services [2] and their orchestration into processes, executed and man-
aged on top of gradually integrated ICT environment.