Digital Humanities Blog

Background:  PREFACE: Raw interview transcript is posted on the blog.  Chitra Bose is a project manager for ERP implementation at Delaware Consulting. Delaware is the partner company that assists with implementation, workshops, validation, software integration, and organizational change management for Avista's ERP implementation project. Chitra has been in the business for 30 years and has extensive experience in ERP systems, their benefits, and their potential drawbacks. Summary of The Interview: This interview provides a practitioner’s perspective on ERP systems, especially in the utility industry. Most of our conversation revolved around integration, efficiency, implementation risks, change management, AI integration, and workforce adaptation. Chitra emphasizes that ERP systems serve as a “single source of truth” that improves organizational coordination but also require careful selection, training, and change management.  Chitra mainly argues that the vital benefit of...

Before analyzing the pros, cons, and potential of ERP systems, I think it is very important to provide a brief overview of the history of these systems. When starting this project, I assumed ERP systems were recent phenomena in large enterprises. I was led to believe that because the way I was exposed to them at my place of employment made it feel like not only something new to the company, but also something new for the wider industry. However, after doing some research, I found out that I was wrong.  The history of Enterprise Resource Planning systems goes back to the 1960s. At the time, many companies and industries in the United States focused on manufacturing, and there was a need to use computerized technology to keep track of raw materials and products in terms of procurement. The first form of these centralized systems was called MRP, or Materials Requirements Planning. J.I. Case , a manufacturer of tractors and construction machinery, worked with IBM to develop one of th...

Project Focus This project examines Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as socio-technical infrastructures that reorganize knowledge, labor, and authority within large organizations. Rather than treating ERP as merely business software, this study frames it as a digital infrastructure that reshapes how disciplines communicate, how workflows are structured, and how institutional knowledge is produced and controlled. Using the ongoing ERP implementation at Avista Corporation as a case study, this project analyzes whether ERP systems meaningfully integrate organizational functions or simply reorganize and redistribute existing silos under a centralized technological framework. What is an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning System):  Enterprise resource planning (ERP) refers to a type of software that organizations use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations.  ...

Project Focus: Pros and Cons of Enterprise Resource Planning as an Interdisciplinary Infrastructure What is an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning System):  Enterprise resource planning (ERP) refers to a type of software that organizations use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations.  ERP systems tie together a multitude of business processes and enable the flow of data between them. By collecting an organization’s shared transactional data from multiple sources, ERP systems eliminate data duplication and provide data integrity with a single source of truth. - Oracle: What is ERP? (https://www.oracle.com/erp/what-is-erp/) Project Objective and Motivation:  The objective of this project is to critically examine enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as interdisciplinary socio-technical infrastructures that shape how labor moves across an organization. I will ...

Good Data:  Data whose originator had good intentions:  The FEWS Net (Ethiopia): FEWS NET monitors and provides early warning analysis of ongoing, imminent, or emerging threats to food security and maintains the flexibility to analyze unanticipated crises around the world. Between 1983 and 1985 there was a heavy drought and famine in Ethiopia particularly in the northern region.  FEWS NET has significantly helped Ethiopia by providing early warnings and detailed food security analyses, enabling timely responses to famine threats. By monitoring factors like rainfall, crop yields, market prices, and nutrition data, it predicts food shortages and identifies at-risk populations. These forecasts have allowed the Ethiopian government and humanitarian organizations to prepare in advance, mobilize resources, and implement targeted interventions, such as food distribution and cash transfers. The FEWS NET is data being used for a good purpose that has a positive life saving impac...

Data whose originator had good intentions: Eugenics: Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the genetic quality of a human population, often through selective breeding or sterilization. The concept has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, drawing on advancements in genetics and evolutionary theory. Okay labeling this as "good intentions" is a stretch but for the sake of the argument given by the leaders of the eugenics movement, let us take their word for it and assume this was an attempt at a scientific breakthrough Reflection: Eugenics is an immoral and pseudoscientific theory that claims it is possible to perfect people and groups through genetics and the scientific laws of inheritance. Eugenicists used an incorrect and prejudiced understanding of the work of Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to support the idea of “racial improvement.” In their quest for a perfect society, eugenicists labelled many people as “unfit,” including eth...