Enterprise systems for innovation in products and processes : beyond operational efficiency

It has been widely accepted now in industry and academia that Enterprise Systems (ES) can create value for adopting organizations by enabling operational efficiency. However, given the enormous investments they warrant, the potential of such systems to deliver more than improving operations is emerging as a popular area of investigation. This paper reports a research-in-progress that proposes innovation as a means of creating business value with Enterprise Systems. The primary contribution of this paper is a process model that proposes that Enterprise Systems can enable innovation - in products and processes, and supports it with empirical evidence using three case studies. The intention is to test this model further with more case studies and a survey.