3.6 MOVING BEYOND E-MAIL
Electronic communication opened up a whole new world of transferring messages. Email
was introduced to the business world, as the conventional postal service was
perceived to be slow and expensive. Messages could be relayed at an instant across
the globe, along with attachments that can accompany an e-mail message. These
restrictions had to be overcome by business in order to survive; hence ERP systems
were created as more companies were driven by the demand to stay competitive
(Porter and Miller, 1985). The pervasiveness of ERP will stimulate efforts to
incorporate suppliers and customers into integrated business practices.
One big advantage for corporate network managers in using ERP technology over
groupware technology is that it means that end users will only need one set of tools to
access all networked information, whether it be from outside the organization via the
internet or from internal systems via the local intranet. Consider, for example, the case
of a group of doctors who need to attend to patients in hospitals, at home and at
remote points of service such as clinics. The intranet, with internet capabilities and
possibly connected to cellular telephone technology, can access patient records from
any site and have the relevant and correct patient information at hand to treat those
patients (Cronin, 1997).