Suppose you own a company that produces something. You need machines, transport, labor, a building, offices. You need a salesforce and some customer service. And now suppose, a supplier approaches you and tells you: “Forget about all your different suppliers. Buy everything from me, it will make your life so much easier. And you do not need to think about how everything will work together.” Will you believe this? And will you accept the offer? Of course not. You will by from the supplier that has the best offer regarding quality, speed, price. And integrating all of that, well, that is your competitive edge. When anyone could put together a company, it would be easy.
When this is so obvious, why do we often see this strategy in business information systems? You can also call them ERP systems. There are so many companies that dó believe the story of the supplier. It turns out to be untrue, of course. They code many customisations, the standard models do not fit, or squeezes out specific processes that previously made you special. There is no business case that would justify such an approach. Yet CIO’s love to copy each other. Perhaps because thinking is hard. Developing an IT strategy is difficult and complex. Just asking one supplier to do it all for you sounds so much simpler. Such CIO’s are rewarded with expensive systems, supporting badly designed processes. But hey, did anyone ever get fired for choosing XXX?