Mission Critical: Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems

by Thomas H. Davenport

This is a no-nonsense guide to the benefits and pitfalls of enterprise-wide information systems. How many organizations would doubt the promise of an integrated enterprise system (ES)? Not many, judging by a $15 billion industry. The combination of an ES as a platform for organizational information and Internet technology for gaining access to it adds up to the ideal solution for company-wide data sharing in real time. Not surprisingly, small and large companies worldwide are either considering an ES, in the process of implementing one, or living with the results. Yet, says Tom Davenport, unless managers view ES adoption and implementation as a business decision rather than a technology decision, they may be risking disappointment Mission Critical presents an authoritative and no-nonsense view of the ES opportunities and challenges. Suggesting ESs are not the right choice for every company, the author provides a set of guidelines to help managers evaluate the benefits and risks for their organizations. To be successful, argues Davenport, an organization must make simultaneous changes in its information systems, its business processes, and its business strategy. Such changes are described in detail with extensive examples from real organizations. Bolstering his contention that ESs should be viewed as business vs. technology projects, Davenport spells out the specific business change objectives that should be formulated in advance of ES adoption and monitored throughout its implementation. The first strategic guide to the ES decision, Mission Critical will be indispensable to general managers and information technology specialists at all stages of the implementation process.

Genres: Business

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 2, 2000

About the author

Tom Davenport holds the President's Chair in Information Technology and Management at Babson College. His books and articles on business process reengineering, knowledge management, attention management, knowledge worker productivity, and analytical competition helped to establish each of those business ideas. Over many years he's authored or co-authored nine books for Harvard Business Press, most recently Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning (2007) and Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results (2010). His byline has also appeared for publications such as Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Financial Times, Information Week, CIO, and many others.

Davenport has an extensive background in research and has led research centers at Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Company, CSC Index, and the Accenture Institute of Strategic Change. Davenport holds a B.A. in sociology from Trinity University and M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University. For more from Tom Davenport, visit his website and follow his regular HBR blog.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mission Critical: Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems
Thomas H. Davenport
Harvard Business School Press

Davenport does a brilliant job of explaining what enterprise systems (ES) are and what they can accomplish in any organization. He suggests, however, that they are worthless "unless they lead to better information or better ways of doing business. I think that enterprise systems are without doubt an impressive technical feat, but I am primarily concerned that organizations get business value from them." Throughout his book, he addresses key issues such as what enterprise systems are and why they are important; the promise and the perils involved; how to decide whether or not to implement enterprise systems; how to integrate enterprise systems with strategy and organizational structure; how to integrate enterprise systems with business processes and information, how to achieve value while implementing enterprise systems; how to transform the practice of management with enterprise systems; how to use enterprise systems to manage the supply chain; and the future of ES-enabled organizations

As Davenport explains in Chapter 1, "Enterprise systems offer the first great opportunity to achieve true connectivity, a state in which everyone knows what everyone else is doing in the business all over the world at the same time. And because they represent the first great opportunity for connectivity, they pose one of the greatest threats to the status quo that companies have ever faced." Hence the importance of one of the the book's most valuable sections, the Appendix, in which Davenport provides "A Technical Overview of Enterprise Systems." Those who feel threatened by an enterprise system will seize any and all opportunities to point out its technical flaws. At best, enterprise systems are complex, difficult to install, and inflexible. However, Davenport points out, they "will remain the most capable, integrated systems in the history of the world. They may have their flaws, but they are also the answer to our information systems prayers." I agree.

[Adrian Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because I'm taking a subject called seminar in IS this semester. Overall, this book is somewhat boring and you can get really sleepy while flipping the pages, so it's not a page-turner. Anyway, it has provided me some examples which I can write on in my exam, hopefully!

[Frank Thun · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like literature on the backbone of companies, ERP systems, read it

[Steen Sørensen]

Nice book on best practices, "fun" to read in 2010 about all the pittfalls and fx. know that most consultans implementing ERP are still using blanksheet implementations