ERP and business intelligence : implementation and use of these combined systems and tools in SMEs

Abstract

In today's world where technology is moving at a fast pace, businesses have to keep up and take advantage of such advancements, regardless of their size. To be able to do this, businesses need information which is generally stored in their systems. This study looks at how businesses, especially SMEs, can extract and use such information from ERP systems and analyze it with the use of BI This study goes through the implementation phases of both technologies and outlines the Critical Success Factors businesses should take in consideration to achieve a successful implementation. Throughout the whole study, the advantages such fusion brings along are highlighted and shown in practice within the practical task accompanying this study, where typical ERP data was imported in Microsoft's PowerBI to develop a comparative sales report for a company. This shows that the tools and the technologies are available for SMEs to use and exploit them to their advantage. Moreover, this study presents a comparison of what the literature exposes and what happens in real life implementation, using information retrieved through surveys and interviews with Maltese SMEs. Divergence in opinions are highlighted to find gaps between the theory and the practice. Finally, the study identifies the best practices a business is to follow when implementing either or both such technologies, combining both the theory and the practice to develop a more realistic perspective of how SMEs should approach such implementations.