A Practical Strategy for ERP to Cloud Integration

Sorin POPA^{1, 2*}, Mircea-Florin VAIDA¹

Abstract: The Enterprise Resource Planner is a half-centenary giant that gained popularity in the industry-software market segment throughout the years. Influenced by the latest technology trends, such as mobility and cloud, it keeps software integration as one of its greatest challenges. The present article introduces a cloud-based Field Service Management solution, meant to empower mobility, manage workflows and enhance process automation for ERP enabled companies. Motivated by ERP vendor dependence and a limited adoption rate, the solution’s objective is to design and implement optimized cloud generic integration capabilities. Using a commercial, world-wide-distributed environment as a continuous feedback and validation method, the results of our implementations show good application performance and feature offering, but rather low usability metrics and sub-optimal commercial adoption. Based on a post-implementation critical analysis of the existing integration applications and the legacy solution infrastructure, the paper proposes an improved integration strategy, zooming in from business requirements and API constraints, to application architecture and data flows that would overcome technical limitations, reduce prototyping and integration time and decrease maintenance efforts. The implementations and improvement model represent specific practical contributions to a productive, enterprise-oriented solution, proven both successful and highly competitive in respect to its market competitors.

Keywords: ERP, cloud, integration, framework, strategy, connectivity.

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CITE THIS PAPER AS:
Sorin POPA^*, Mircea-Florin VAIDA, A Practical Strategy for ERP to Cloud Integration, Studies in Informatics and Control, ISSN 1220-1766, vol. 25(3), pp. 375-384, 2016. https://doi.org/10.24846/v25i3y201611