Mobile Enterprise Resource Planning: New Technology Horizons

Abstract:

Given the business globalization, complete integration is a major goal of information resource management. The applications and data are combined in integrated entities providing not only access to information, but also internal and external economic process management. The first case refers to organizational internal processes and is achieved with ERP packages. External integration concerns customer and supply chain connection to the organizational environment for the performance of economic processes and it cannot be achieved if there is no internal information coherence (an ERP system). In the last decade, ERP has continued to expand, blurring the boundaries of the core system. The number of modules and the extended functionality offered in the ERP suites have progressively grown making integration a greater challenge for the enterprise. Simultaneously, the market trends – consolidation, verticalization and specialization – have a broader effect than just on ERP. Also, wireless applications provide new opportunities for organizations, enabling access to relevant information from anywhere and at anytime. In order to take advantage from the features of ubiquitous environment, ERP systems have to support the mobile behaviour of their users. The present paper is an exploratory analysis of the current stage regarding the mobile applications and services for companies, the achievements in the field and proposes an architecture model for the mobile services starting from the necessary unidentified functionalities for a portal of mobile services. Besides the general architecture of a portal of mobile applications for companies, a set of minimal functionalities for implementation is proposed in order to ensure the promotion and use of services.