Information & Management 45 (2008) 233241

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Information & Management

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ERP and SCM systems integration: The case of a valve manufacturer in China
Indranil Bose a,1, Raktim Pal b,*, Alex Ye c,2
a

Room 730, Meng Wah Complex, School of Business, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
College of Business, Showker Hall, MSC 0202, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA
c
376 Wukang Road, Unit 201, Xujiahui District, Shanghai 200031, China
b

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history:
Received 22 March 2006
Received in revised form 25 February 2008
Accepted 27 February 2008
Available online 15 April 2008

Many modern organizations integrate enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management
(SCM) systems, as they work in a complementary fashion. This often results in technical and
organizational challenges. Neway, a Chinese organization, recently went through this complex process.
This required efcient procurement and management of hardware, software, and human resources for
successful completion. The integrated system was found to improve operations, foster a paperless
environment, and provide efcient inventory tracking and picking. It also had several tangible benets,
including reduced lead time and improved inventory accuracy. ERP and SCM systems integration is still a
novel concept for a Chinese manufacturing organization. Our case study details the organizations
experience, identies challenges that were faced, and describes solutions adopted to overcome them.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Case study
Chinese manufacturing
Enterprise resource planning systems
Supply chain management systems
Systems integration

1. Introduction
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) systems have been implemented and used successfully in many organizations. But managing the operation of such
systems is not easy. It is important for operations managers to
understand how ERP and SCM systems complement each other.
Due to a paucity of case studies on ERPSCM systems, especially in
Chinese manufacturing organizations, we developed a case study
of the integration of these systems at Neway, a Chinese valve
manufacturer.
2. ERP and SCM systems and their integration
Efcient management of supply chains require continuous
adjustments of the decision-making process including dynamic
pricing and risk assessment, and evaluation of sourcing and
logistics alternatives. While SCM systems are suitable for these
functionalities, ERP systems are not designed for it. In ERP systems,
material, capacity and demand constraints are considered
separately. However, SCM systems consider all constraints simultaneously and develop a higher quality plan relatively quickly. The
study by Akkermans et al. [1] identied the limitations of ERP
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 540 568 7094; fax: +1 540 568 3273.
E-mail addresses: bose@business.hku.hk (I. Bose), palrx@jmu.edu (R. Pal),
yecongxuan@hotmail.com (A. Ye).
1
Tel.: +852 2241 5845; fax: +852 2858 5614.
2
Tel.: +86 21 6126 7601; fax: +86 21 6126 7603.
0378-7206/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.im.2008.02.006

systems in coping with the challenges of SCM, including difculties

in crossing organizational boundaries, lack of exibility in dealing
with ever-changing requirements, and dearth of functionalities
that focus on managing transactions.
While ERP captures and processes necessary data and assists
functions such as sales and services, procurement and logistics
execution, product development and manufacturing, etc. SCM
provides additional layers of decision support both within and
beyond organizational boundaries. ERP systems are primarily built
on transactions-based systems, while SCM provides visibility,
planning, collaboration, and control across and beyond the
enterprise. Hence, it is natural that ERP and SCM should be
integrated to provide higher business value [14]. Such integration
can also support strategic objectives of the organization [6,27]. It
has been argued that if companies implement enterprise systems,
they need to change their management processes, reconsider their
organizational structures, and reengineer business processes [18].
A number of success factors and potential issues in implementing
enterprise systems have been discussed and some of the key
considerations are summarized in Table 1.
There are additional considerations for enterprise system
implementations in China, where only one-third of the ERP
implementation projects have been found to be satisfactory [26].
Companies update purchasing plans more frequently to incorporate latest prices of raw materials and information ow between
costcontrol modules of ERP and SCM systems need special
attention. Additional challenges in China include justication of
systems automation and ROI, which is difcult to achieve due to

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234

Table 1
Key considerations in enterprise systems implementations
Items

References

Top management support, project management team competence, interdepartmental cooperation and communication, clear goals and
objectives, vendor support, careful package selection, data analysis and conversion, dedicated resources, user training, education on new
business processes, business process re-engineering, minimal customization, architecture choices, change management
Internal and external integration through consolidation of system instances, use of integration technologies, standardization of data and
process denitions, process ow improvement to t with the system and business needs, addition of analytical capabilities transform
robust data access to useful business knowledge
Consideration of social, cultural, and organizational aspects
Strategies and sequences for realigning business processes, use of quality management programs
Emergence of right strategic plans overcoming power struggle and politics
Software suitability, appropriate system integration strategy and technology, information quality

[2,19,23,24]

lower cost of labor, cultural uniqueness that puts more emphasis

on personal familiarity than on scientic decisions [21], lack of
appropriate infrastructures at suppliers and customers organizations, and a fragmented market with many service providers [4].
Despite the presence of global vendors like SAP and Oracle, local
ERP providers have played a major role in China [9,10].
3. Research using case studies
The case method is popular in business research [17,29].
We used it because we could study the challenges and benets
of ERPSCM integration in the context of a fully functional
organization: Newaya major manufacturing organization in
China.
3.1. Research framework and research questions
The basis for the case study was the MECI framework, as
depicted in Fig. 1. The rst step in the framework is Motivation:
it aims at understanding a companys reason for systems

[7,23]

[15,20,30]
[22]
[13,16]
[25,28]

integration. The second step is Execution: it studies how integration

is carried out and includes knowledge about management of
project, use of existing resources, and procurement of new
resources. Challenges is the third step: it is concerned with the
obstacles faced in completing the project and innovative steps
taken to overcome hindrances, reecting on lessons learnt from the
project. The nal step is Impact: it includes the effect of the
integration project on existing business processes.
We wished to investigate the roles that these four components
played in systems integration at Neway. The research questions
studied in the case study were:
 Why was the organization prompted to integrate the ERP and the
SCM systems?
 How was the integration project managed and what resources
were required to manage it?
 What challenges and obstacles were faced by the organization
and how were they solved?
 What changes were required to the existing processes due to
integration?
3.2. The use of a single case
We chose to conduct a single case study because we wanted to
restrict our study to Chinese organizations. The phenomenon was a
complex one that had to be studied in detail over a long period of
time, and projects like this are not very common in China.
3.3. Nature of case studies
Case studies may be one of three types: exploratory,
explanatory, or descriptive. An exploratory case study is usually
a precursor to a detailed study intended to identify key research
questions and hypotheses. An explanatory case study attempts to
establish causeeffect relationships between items of interest.
A descriptive case study reports issues of interest [8]. The Neway
case study is descriptive in nature: we detailed the events
taking place in the organization due to the integration of two
complex software systems. The Neway case is an interpretivist case
study providing a cultural and historical interpretation of the
implementation.
3.4. Context and time of the case study

Fig. 1. MECI framework for Neway case study. (See Ref. [11]).

We collected information about the sequence of events that

took place at the organization and recorded when they occurred.
One of the authors participated as part of the implementation team
and collected material related to the project. Thus this author could
relate to all problems and analyze and record them during the
implementation process while the other authors were responsible
for case related data collection.

I. Bose et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 233241

3.5. Data collection and analysis

The data was collected by the authors through participation in
meetings, reading repositories of documentation and eld notes,
and through selective interviews of personnel. We emphasized the
creation of a logical chain of evidence from the collection of data to
drawing conclusions [3]. One of the authors acted as an external
reviewer and ensured that the collected evidence was properly
represented in the report.
4. Background
Neway is a Sino-USA joint venture with more than one
thousand employees; its revenue was about US $50 million in
2004. It is the leading industrial valve manufacturer in China and
manufactures over 3000 models of valves for various industries.
Neways products include gate, globe, check, buttery, and ball
valves. Neway attempts to produce valves with zero defects. It is an
ISO 9001:2000 certied rm. Neway has two manufacturing
facilities located in two different districts in Suzhou, China. Each
has two raw materials warehouses, one semi-nished products
warehouse, and one nished products warehouse. Neway fulls
most of the orders using a make-to-order policy. Each manufacturing facility produces one category of valves.
4.1. Neways original ERP system
Neways existing ERP system was implemented by Summiteam,
a local ERP systems provider. The system consisted of four major
subsystems that paralleled the set of functions in ERP systems
today.
4.1.1. Sales and distribution
This supported customer management, order management,
order fulllment, and distributor management. It gave users access
to aggregated operational data from all sources, and helped them
complete their sales cycle from price quotation to invoicing and
payment. It included online information tracking and handling at
every distributor level, automatic invoice generation and handling
of nancial transactions, customer credit control and analysis
using customer proling tools, and printing, editing, and managing
sales reports.

235

4.1.2. Manufacturing
This supported planning and scheduling, inventory management, and manufacturing control. It helped users in all phases of
the product lifecycle and enabled them to communicate product
information quickly and easily among production, maintenance,
and other units of the organization. It included quality management, asset/equipment maintenance management, inventory
management, and production planning management.
4.1.3. Human resource
This supported staff, payroll, time, and organizational management, performance evaluation of staff members, and career
planning management. It followed the Chinese legal welfare and
tax system and was exible enough to support international
practices and salary regulations.
4.1.4. Accounting and nancial analysis
This supported accounting, nancial control, and nancial
analysis. It integrated all business performance data and provided
comprehensive and systematic nancial reports.
As shown in Fig. 2, all four subsystems were integrated. The ERP
system beneted Neway in many ways, as have most ERP systems
that did not fail. It eliminated disorder in production planning,
improved production capacity, standardized and streamlined the
order fulllment process from purchasing to delivery and
established an open environment allowing corporation wide data
sharing. It dealt with resource planning within the whole
enterprise through fulllment of orders. But the ERP system did
not track or instruct the execution of planning that involved much
paper work between handoff points, and depended on human
collection and input of data. Also, coordination with vendors and
customers could not be accomplished well. Thus there was need
for a system to overcome the limitations of the ERP system and
provide a well-coordinated execution of activities at Neway.
4.2. Process ow at Neway
Fig. 3 shows the process ow after Neway implemented the
ERP system. The operational processes improved with use of the
ERP system. However, there were still problems: most handoff
processes used manual paper work and this caused delays in

Fig. 2. Four subsystems of the ERP system at Neway.

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I. Bose et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 233241

Fig. 3. Process ow at Neway.

operations as well as human errors. Warehouse operation was

poorly managed.

have standard procedures to evaluate vendors, and to add or drop

them as needed.

5. Problems with the original ERP system and existing

business practices

6. Neways e-SCM system

As has often been reported in many businesses since the earliest

days of electronic inventory systems it took employees 1 or 2 days
to collect and input inventory data. Therefore, data were outdated
and inaccurate. Also, materials in the warehouse would be
damaged and missing and this would not be recorded on time,
resulting in poor customer satisfaction when manufacturing
activity stopped due to lack of materials.
Each raw materials warehouse had two stories and stored
approximately 20,000 stock keeping units (SKU). Workers picked
materials based on their experience and new workers took several
weeks to learn this. Also, pickers could not ensure proper rotation
of the inventory and work-in-process inventory was not always
recorded. There were similar problems in the nished products
warehouse: products were put away with incorrect or missing
labels.
Neways operations involved paper work. Paper printing, paper
delivery, and paper accumulation consumed resources, increased
the cost of production, and caused delays. Lost or damaged
documents resulted in incorrect recording.
As there was no accurate measurement of labor productivity,
supervisors were not able to provide feedback or rewards to
workers as activities were completed. When bottlenecks appeared
due to unproductive employees, supervisors were not able to
identify them quickly.
In the day-to-day operations, Neway needed to interact well
with customers (making quotations, pricing, orders, product
specications, conrmations, shipping, etc.). Neway needed to
coordinate these activities with its vendors. Also, Neway did not

Neway implemented the e-SCM system from the vendor

Wmsvision. Fig. 4 gives a schematic representation of it.
The e-SCM system obtains up-to-date planning information from
the ERP system and generates operational details that are returned
to the ERP system. It allocates tasks to unoccupied workers based on
required completion times. Then it instructs workers to nish
assigned tasks through radio frequency handheld devices that have
wireless connections via a local area network. These devices
measure the performance of each worker. As soon as a task is
nished, relevant feedback information is sent to the ERP system in
XML. The workers use handheld devices to collect accurate
inventory information in real time, eliminating paper work.
6.1. Receiving and storing materials, etc.
First, when materials are received the system lls outstanding
purchase orders and prints inspection labels for each receiving
activity. Next, the materials are inspected and the system autoprints inspection result labels. Then inspectors attach the labels to
packages of materials. After this, the system determines the best
locations for the materials and selects idle workers to store
the packages. Workers scan tracking barcode labels to end this
operation.
6.2. Warehouse management
This involves two key operationscycle count and inventory
adjustment. Inventory counting is done from time to time. The eSCM system generates tasks for each SKU and assigns them to

I. Bose et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 233241

237

Fig. 4. e-SCM system at Neway.

workers who are free. As a result, the warehouse is closed while

they are cycle counting. If the cycle count results in discrepancies,
then the e-SCM system sends notications to the ERP system and
the inventory is adjusted and relocated by the supervisors. The
system also handles frozen inventories that result from vendor
notications about poor quality of deliveries.
6.3. Picking and shipping
As soon as picking tickets are released, the system modies the
inventory data. The system reserves the right amount of stock for
outbound orders and ensures that all picking tasks have enough
material. It calculates the number and size of containers for
shipping operations and instructs pickers which containers to
select for picking and which order to send in each container.
6.4. Order management
There are two types of ordersinbound and outbound. The
e-SCM system generates inbound orders based on purchase orders
and outbound orders based on either production or customer
orders. Inbound and outbound orders are released automatically.
The ERP system then noties the e-SCM system and it takes
corrective actions as needed. The e-SCM system also prioritizes
orders.
7. Requirements for implementation and integration of
the e-SCM system at Neway
7.1. Infrastructure management
The implementation of the e-SCM system required changes in
the infrastructure of the company.
7.1.1. Hardware
The e-SCM system at Neway and the Oracle 8i database were
housed on a Dell server running Linux using dual processors with
clock frequency 2.8 GHz and storage capacity of 100 Gbytes. The ERP
system was loaded on a separate server using Windows 2000.
Software tools like fsdext2 allowed le transfers between the two
servers. They were networked with three PCs, three printers, a
wireless access point, and two switches. The PCs were 1.2 GHz Intel
Pentium III PCs from Dell, running Microsoft Windows XP, with hard
disk capacity of 40 Gbytes and 15 in. monitors. The PCs were placed
at the inspection zone, rst oor of the raw materials warehouse,
and rst oor of the nished products warehouse. Zebra Argox
barcode printers were placed in the receiving zone and the shipping
zone. An Epson dot matrix printer was placed in the shipping zone

and used for printing shipping lists. The Cisco D-link wireless access
box having a signal range of 100 m indoors and 300 m outdoors was
located in the rst oor of the raw materials warehouse and was
linked using 802.11b standard with handheld radio frequency
terminals.
7.1.2. Software
The three main software components were the ERP system from
Summiteam, the e-SCM system from Wmsvision, and the Oracle 8i
database management system. The PCs used by Neway had e-SCM
and Oracle clients. The main software requirement was to interface
between the three systems and this used XML, requiring
Summiteam to create a new interface for the ERP system. The
radio frequency handheld terminals had telnet emulation software
installed so that they could remotely update data to the Dell server.
There was an agreement between Neway and the software vendors
so that Neway could upgrade to newer versions of the software as
they became available.
7.1.3. Data communication
The local area network used an Ethernet connection. The PCs,
printers, and wireless access point connected to a second-tier
switch having a capacity of 100 Mbps and the connections from
these switches to the core switch as well as the connections
between the servers to the core switch had a capacity of
1000 Mbps. The network switches were procured from Cisco.
Internally Neway used copper wire-based Ethernet connections
but the connection between the two facilities of Neway was
through ber optic cables. Neway had leased a 2 Mbps connection
from China Netcom when they only used the ERP system. After
implementation of the e-SCM system, the need for bandwidth
increased and the leased line was upgraded to 100 Mbps.
7.2. Human and nancial resources management
Successful implementation of the e-SCM system required
efcient use of human resources and budget. The project needed
to be completed quickly with limited resources and this called for
active cooperation between the teams from the three different
companies.
7.2.1. Human resource management
Neway used a six member project team led by the project
manager who reported to the vice general manager. This manager
provided boundary coordination between the three teams and the
project, being responsible for coordination and providing estimates of resources for the project while communicating with
project managers from Summiteam and Wmsvision.

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I. Bose et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 233241

Fig. 5. Organizational structure of the project teams from the three companies.

Summiteam had a three member team responsible for developing the new XML interface for the ERP system and for making any
adjustments to the ERP system.
The leader of the seven member Wmsvision team was the
project manager who made sure the project progressed in the right
direction and within the right time and budget. He leaded the team
and allocated responsibilities. The SCM consultant played an
important role during the reengineering of the operational
processes. The software engineers worked off site, and depended
on the project manager for specications of software retooling. The
document maintainer was responsible for record keeping.
Fig. 5 shows the organizational structure of the three teams
from the three companies.
7.2.2. Financial resources management
Neway procured the e-SCM system software from Wmsvision
by paying a one-time license fee of US $15,000 and annual
maintenance fee of US $3000. The total cost of new hardware was
US $35,725. Neway had to pay US $6000 to Summiteam for
modication and customization of the ERP system and US $30,000
to Wmsvision for their implementation of the project. The annual
maintenance expenses of the e-SCM system involved additional
hours of work by in-house personnel (one extra hour per day)
resulting in US $1500. So the total initial budget for the e-SCM
implementation and integration project amounted to nearly
US $92,000.
7.3. Project management
The project management tasks were quite important for success
at Neway.

7.3.1. Initial planning

Details plans for the project involved initial requirements
analysis, agreements among project partners, including timelines
and stafng, IT infrastructure, human resources, budgeting and
nancing, and transition and maintenance planning. The management team dened the scope of the project, focusing on key issues
in inventory tracking, order management, and resource allocation.
The necessary changes in business processes were aligned with the
planned technical modications. Despite cheap labor rates in
China, some of the manually intensive activities were planned to
be replaced by automated processes to enhance quality and take
advantage of economy-of-scale arising from future business
growth. The project management team consisted of project
managers from all three organizations; they reported to the vice
general manager of Neway.
7.3.2. Progress monitoring and control
The project plan was developed in consultation with all parties.
The major tasks involved: (1) analysis and planning (business
process evaluation, hardware infrastructure analysis, system and
software environment analysis, new business process design,
system interface design, and implementation specications), (2)
hardware and software purchasing, installation, and testing, (3)
SCM software customization, interface development, and system
testing, (4) ERP system adjustment, system interface development,
and testing, (5) on-site testing (including independent ERP and
SCM system testing, integrated testing, and data loading), and (6)
training and transition. Some sub-tasks were carried out concurrently. Initially, 1 month was spent in dening the scope of the
project and nalizing contracts. After this, the project was
completed in 15 weeks.

I. Bose et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 233241

239

Table 2
Challenges and solutions of the e-SCM system implementation
Challenges

Solutions

Design of appropriate interface

Use XML as the interface standard

Joint decision of ERP and e-SCM system analysts

Management of data

Load data at midnight of deadline dates

Transform data to acceptable standard before loading

Handling Chinese characters

Reinstall compatible Chinese character sets for terminal emulation software

Adjust size of display of data in host system according to display area of handhelds

Capacity of computer network

Provide second optical network connection between two manufacturing facilities of

Neway

Choice of handheld devices

Trade off between cost and risk

Make the choice in two stages

Coordination among team members

Involve senior management when there is a need to push ERP team

Initial project management problems

Frequent meetings in early stages of the project

Record problems immediately, categorize them according to priority, and provide
solutions next day

Training end users

Educate workers about the need for e-SCM software

Demo system for teaching new processes in operations

Issues encountered during implementation were discussed by

representatives from all groups every other day. Issues were logged
and prioritized. The resolution strategies were assigned to
appropriate personnel for further action and updated in the next
meeting.
The three project managers met every week to evaluate progress
and take corrective actions as needed. Most projects went as
planned. However, the resolution of network issues between two
facilities and the system interface development from the ERP team
were delayed due to SARS in China. This required some due dates to
be changed.
At the end of the weekly update meeting the project manager
from Neway reported the status to the vice general manager. If a
conict or issue could not be resolved internally, he would intercede
and provide necessary support. Also he sometimes came to the
update meetings and frequently met team members informally.
7.3.3. Transition and maintenance planning
Testing initiatives were divided into three major phases. First,
required functionalities of both SCM and the updated ERP systems
were independently tested by Neway personnel. Then the system
interface between the systems was tested thoroughly by engineers
from Wmsvision and Summiteam. Finally, actual eld data were
loaded to the newly integrated system. It was tested for errors and
run in parallel to the old system for validation.
Neway personnel were trained well in advance to take over
responsibilities of running the systems. The core system maintenance team consisted of a hardware engineer from Neway, and
one system engineer from Wmsvision who worked remotely. The
system was incrementally backed up every 5 min and a full backup
was performed every night.
8. Challenges encountered in implementation and
integration of the e-SCM system
Several issues were important for successful implementation:
(1) Design of an appropriate system interface for efcient information exchange.
(2) The initial data of the e-SCM system came from the Oracle 8i
database of the ERP system, however the table structures were
different. Moreover, the inventory data in the ERP system was
inaccurate and outdated. These problems were solved by

deciding that all in-process tasks had to be completed by a

specic day and then the data would be uploaded at midnight
on that date using the format required by the e-SCM system.
(3) Characters were not well implemented on the handheld
devices and barcode printers. Due to the limited size of the
display screens some information could not be displayed on
one screen. This required reinstalling compatible Chinese
character sets and increasing the display area.
Table 2 summarizes this and other design and management
challenges faced by Neway and the way (s) that the implementation team overcame them.
9. Conclusion
The integration of the ERP and the SCM system was a difcult
endeavor with many challenges. The ERP system at Neway had
many operational problems from inaccurate and inefcient
inventory control to poor order fulllment. The e-SCM changed
many basic processes at Neways manufacturing facilities and
was able to provide benets such as real time inventory
information update, better picking activities, and establishment
of effective collaboration with vendors and customers. Table 3
summarized the benets in operational measures about 6 weeks
after the integration of the systems. The implementation also
provided direct cost savings for Neway, enabling them to reduce
lost sales by about US $20,000 per year. Equally, reduction in raw
inventory by 15 days resulted in a cost reduction of approximately US $1 million per year and by reducing the monthly
Table 3
Benets of using the integrated ERP and e-SCM system at Neway
Operational measures

Preimplementation

Postimplementation

Outbound order fulllment

Commitment to fulllment
percentage (%)
Average lead time (min)
On-time delivery percentage (%)

80

98

45
80

30
95

Inventory
Average safety stock period (days)
Inventory accuracy (%)
Average monthly purchase frequency

40
85
50

25
99
10

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I. Bose et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 233241

purchase frequency from 50 to 10, the e-SCM system produced a

savings of US $4800 per year. Thus the project resulted in a high
return on investment.
Neway realized that it did not possess enough in-house
expertise to implement this system themselves. It therefore
employed Wmsvision, which had a Chinese speaking implementation team to provide a customized e-SCM system. However, there
were still a number of challenges. Neway had to deal with
problems related to design of appropriate interface between the
two systems, management of data, handling of Chinese characters
in handheld devices and barcode printers, and capacity of
computer network. Among these, some are distinct for a Chinese
enterprise.
Both Summiteam and Wmsvision team members agreed to
adopt XML as the standard for data exchange between the ERP and
e-SCM systems. This was partially due to available expertise
among team members and the ability of the ERP system to handle
XML les. No special software solutions were attempted and
simplicity was the key in designing a solution strategy.
The e-SCM was implemented with a change in process ow.
Neway put emphasis on key manufacturing processes in order to
obtain a quick return from the implementation. The management
at Neway demonstrated evidence of long-term vision. The focus
on a paperless environment reduced individual order entry
errors, and the adoption of handheld devices and technology
introduced in a gentle manner among the factory workers
showed that management was aware of the advantage of new
technologies.
Since a number of teams worked together, senior management
had to be responsible for the control so that no one team could
dominate the situation. Summiteam had already implemented
their ERP system and there were few team members present onsite and willing to take on any responsibility. The involvement of
the top management of Neway made the integration task easy for
Wmsvision. They forced members of Summiteam to stay on
schedule and directly helped Wmsvision, who responded excellently. At the initial stages of the project the team members had to
determine their shortcomings and remedy them quickly. They
even had to identify associates with proven expertise in a
particular area (e.g., XML) to lead the implementation for that
particular topic.
Most of the members of the ERP team, the e-SCM team, and the
Neway team were Chinese and native speakers of Mandarin. This
made the exchange of ideas and views easy. The teams started with
a relatively simple workow that was easy to implement.
Eventually more complex functions were added. The success of
this approach has been reported earlier [12]. Past implementations
elsewhere have shown that structural planning for adoption of
changes was extremely important [5]. The senior management at
Neway was extremely co-operative with the implementation team
and provided advanced infrastructure such as high-speed network
connections and good quality handheld devices. Their active
involvement helped solve various organizational issues, and
enabled the project to remain on time. The use of XML solved
many problems that occurred due to mismatch of data and table
structures. Finally, the use of a simulation system for training users
allowed them to obtain practice with the new system before it was
deployed.
Acknowledgements
We want to thank the editor-in-chief and the anonymous
reviewers for their many useful comments which greatly improved
the quality of the paper.

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I. Bose et al. / Information & Management 45 (2008) 233241

Indranil Bose is Associate Professor of Information
Systems at School of Business, the University of Hong
Kong. His degrees include B.Tech. (Hons.) from the
Indian Institute of Technology, M.S. from University of
Iowa, M.S. and Ph.D. from Purdue University. He has
research interests in telecommunications, data mining,
information security, and supply chain management.
His publications have appeared in Communications of
the ACM, Communications of AIS, Computers and
Operations Research, Decision Support Systems, European Journal of Operational Research, Information &
Management, Operations Research Letters, among
others. He serves as Associate Editor or Editorial Board member for several
journals in the area of information systems.
Raktim Pal is an Assistant Professor in the College of
Business at James Madison University. He has a Ph.D.
and two M.S. degreesall from Purdue University. Also,
he has a B.Tech. (Hons.) degree from the Indian Institute
of Technology, Kharagpur. Prior to joining James
Madison University he worked in industry for several
years and was involved in a number of projects at wellknown organizations. His research interests are in the
areas of supply chain management and logistics,
transportation systems modeling, IS/OM interfaces,
management of technology projects, and applied
operations research. His publications have appeared

241

in Communications of the ACM, Computers and Operations Research, European

Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Transportation Engineering, and
Transportation Research Record.
Alex Ye is an associate in the Research and Transaction
team of Diverso Management, a UK private equity fund
focused on renewable energy investment in China. Alex
has a MBA degree with distinction from the University
of Hong Kong. He is on the Deans Honors list of the
Faculty of Business and Economics of HKU in commendation of his outstanding academic achievement.
He also holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical
Engineering from Zhejiang University. He has extensive
industry experience in the area of information system.
His interests are in the areas of supply chain management, information technology, and nance.