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Enterprise Systems Landscape

Run the Enterprise Systems MicroSim Fullscreen

About This MicroSim

A typical mid-to-large enterprise runs an ERP as the system of record surrounded by satellite systems for the functions ERP doesn't do natively (CRM, SCM, HRIS, Payroll, Procurement, BI). Each integration has its own pattern — real-time API, nightly batch, or event stream.

The MicroSim renders this landscape as a hub-and-spoke graph. Two toggles reveal the structure that makes integration visibly hard:

  • Show Best-of-Breed Edges — adds the cross-satellite integrations you inherit when you pick best-in-class vendors for every function. Watch how many extra magenta arrows appear; this is why integration burden grows roughly O(n²).
  • Show Master Data Flow — highlights the customer/vendor/item/employee master records flowing outward from ERP. Master-data drift is a different problem from integration breakage.

How to Use

  1. Click any node for the system's category, vendors, and ERP integration pattern
  2. Toggle Best-of-Breed Edges to see the integration burden
  3. Toggle Master Data Flow to see what flows outward from ERP

Embedding This MicroSim

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/information-systems/sims/enterprise-systems-landscape/main.html"
        height="722px" width="100%" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Learning Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

  1. Name the major enterprise system categories (ERP, CRM, SCM, HRIS, Payroll, Procurement, BI)
  2. Identify ERP as the typical system-of-record hub
  3. Articulate why integration complexity grows non-linearly with the number of separate systems
  4. Distinguish real-time API integrations from batch and event-stream patterns

Suggested Activities

  1. Vendor Match (5 min) — Click each satellite; quiz students on which vendors fit each category
  2. Integration Burden (10 min) — Toggle Best-of-Breed Edges; count the new arrows; estimate the integration team size needed
  3. Master Data Drill (10 min) — In small groups, pick one master record (customer, vendor, item, employee); diagram what happens if two systems disagree on its value

Assessment

  • Match each satellite to its system category and at least one vendor
  • Explain the difference between real-time, batch, and event-stream integration patterns
  • Defend or challenge the "ERP at the center" architecture for a small startup

References

  • Davenport, T. (1998). Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise System, HBR.
  • Gartner (2023). Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP.