ERP systems

Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory have become a real source of hope and are the technological answer to some of the biggest challenges of our time: sustainable production, global interconnections, intelligent exchange of knowledge. This special issue discusses research questions relating to process improvement, artificial intelligence and factory software.

Enterprises increasingly seek to differentiate from competitors by offering complete solutions in form of aligned goods and services. Effectively and efficiently offering such integrated solutions (also referred to as hybrid value bundles) requires an integration of production’s and service unit’s data and processes. Supporting the required data exchanges and providing novel functionality opens up new vistas for vendors of ERP systems.

This article analyzes how and to which extent ERP application modules are supported by the use of mobile technology. Features provided by ERP vendors and real-world solutions using mobile applications are presented. We discuss how the utility of ERP systems can be en-hanced through mobile components. Our investigation shows that most mobile business applications are found in the modules sales and customer service. On the other hand, ERP areas like finance, accounting and controlling do not yet exploit the potential of mobile technology significantly.