Project

Scalable Cloud-Based Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (SCERP)

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is usually a suite of integrated applications that is used to store and manage data from every stage of business, including: Product planning, Cost and development, Manufacturing, Marketing and sales, Inventory management, Shipping and payment. Traditionally, ERP systems are installed locally on a company's hardware and servers and then managed by the IT staff. To cope with the obstacles of on-premise ERP systems an increasing number of companies tend to shift to cloud-based ERPs. A cloud based ERP system makes use of cloud computing platforms and services to provide a business with more flexible business process transformation. Cloud-based ERP solutions appear to provide a number of benefits related to sizable cost savings and competitive advantage enhancements. Unfortunately, migration to cloud ERP and its integration is both from a technical and business perspective not a trivial task and requires careful planning and the adoption of the appropriate transition strategies and tactics. A systematic approach is required that will take into account all the relevant stakeholder concerns and the technical constraints to support a smooth migration and integration that does not interrupt or harm the business goals.

The project will identify the obstacles of on-premise ERP systems and cloud ERP systems. To support the migration process architecture design of both on-premise and cloud ERP systems will be defined and analysed. Based on the output of the systematic review, the identified key concerns, and the architecture design a systematic approach for migration and integration of cloud-based ERP systems will be defined. For this we will consider the migration from different perspectives including but not limited to business, organizational and technical perspectives. The validation of the research will be based on case studies derived from a real industrial context.