This has been one of the criticisms of ERP systems: that they commoditize
business processes, driving all businesses to use the same processes and thereby
lose their uniqueness. The good news is that ERP systems also have the capability
to be configured with custom processes. For organizations that want to continue
using their own processes or even design new ones, ERP systems offer ways to
support this through the use of customizations.
But there is a drawback to customizing an ERP system: organizations have to
maintain the changes themselves. Whenever an update to the ERP system comes
out, any organization that has created a custom process will be required to add that
change to their ERP. This will require someone to maintain a listing of these
changes and will also require retesting the system every time an upgrade is made. Organizations will have to
wrestle with this decision: When should they go ahead and accept the best-practice processes built into the
ERP system and when should they spend the resources to develop their own processes? It makes the most
sense to only customize those processes that are critical to the competitive advantage of the company.
Some of the best-known ERP vendors are SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle.