Several factors combined to initiate the move to
ERP. Y2K incompatibility was a key issue. Multiple
upgrades and recreation of site-specific
modifications would have been required to become
Y2K compliant. The cost in dollars and business
disruption would have been significant. Since the
base software had not been significantly improved
in recent years, the expense and effort would
at best achieve no functional improvement. In
addition, the business environment was rapidly
changing to encourage more intimate business-tobusiness
transactions with key customers, and the
old system was not compatible with the newer
systems that were being installed in the customer
base. Future enhancements to the existing system
were not expected, and Huck did not want to
maintain in-house information system resources to
develop the new capabilities and interfaces that
would be required