Towards an understanding of the integrative relationship between Business Process Management and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

Lack of clarity regarding the scope and integration of business process management and enterprise resource planning are recurring themes. This results in difficulties in understanding relationships between the two constructs. Business processes are constellations of activities fundamental to organizations and must be managed like all other organizational resources. Continual changes in organizations’ environments make it imperative that business processes constantly adapt at the strategic level in order to execute organizational strategies at the operational level. At both levels managed process-oriented activities are believed to reduce operating costs, increase customer satisfaction and enable faster response to changes in the organizations’ environment. When considering enterprise systems it is necessary to take into account business process management together with enterprise resource planning. They are not inseparable but to talk of just one is to see only half the picture. The objective for this paper is to explore the desired integration between business process management and enterprise resource planning systems under the lens of several relevant theories.