Dawn Keig is a professor of strategic management in the business department at Whitworth University. She teaches various classes related to management, information systems, and organizational structure. She has been an advisor for my interdisciplinary major for two years and has ample experience in project management, as well as serving as a systems integration lead.
When I reached out to Dawn and told her about my project, she expressed interest and mentioned that she had experience integrating ERP systems across various industries before her time in higher education.
My main goal for this interview was to get her technical opinion by leveraging her expertise in the subject so she could tell me the pros, the cons, and the opportunities I may not have seen. I also hoped she could point me toward things I had not thought about and guide my project process.
During our conversation, Dawn explained that throughout the history of businesses there has been a pendulum swinging between centralized power and distributed power in computing systems. Early on, systems were centralized around a single mainframe. As computing resources became physically distributed, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction, allowing individual departments or teams to operate their own systems and make changes independently. However, security concerns and the practical difficulty of managing many disconnected systems have caused the pendulum to begin swinging back toward more centralized integration.
She explained that businesses often demand solutions tailored to specific functions, but over time organizations realize that these systems must be able to communicate with one another. The increasing importance of analyzing data across an organization has made integration more critical. Companies now recognize that they must use data strategically, and disconnected systems can lead to lost time, inefficiencies, and financial costs.
Dawn emphasized that businesses are, in reality, integrated entities if we allow them to be. Many of the silos that exist within organizations are created by human behavior rather than by technology itself. ERP systems help reduce some of the physical and structural barriers between departments by creating built-in integrations and shared data structures.
At the same time, she noted that integrating systems also exposes conflicts between the ways different business functions operate. Departments often have definitional disagreements about data, processes, and priorities. When ERP systems force these groups to align, tension naturally occurs because each function has its own established practices. As a result, implementation requires compromise, and not every department will get its ideal workflow.
When discussing silos more directly, Dawn argued that technology alone cannot completely eliminate them because they stem from human organizational behavior. However, integrated systems can reduce the structural barriers that reinforce them. ERP systems can create a common language across departments. While individuals still maintain expertise in their own domains, shared systems allow them to collaborate with more understanding of the enterprise as a whole.
She also emphasized that ERP implementation is not only about deploying application modules. It is also about creating a new organizational reality in which employees begin to understand the business at the enterprise level rather than only within their own functional silos.
We also discussed the role of intermediaries or “middlemen” within organizations. Dawn explained that these roles are often seen as translators between technical teams and business units. She believes these individuals will remain important even in integrated ERP environments. Rather than disappearing, they may evolve into what she described as a “glue crew,” responsible for managing change within ERP systems. These individuals often understand the business functions, the underlying data, and the technical systems well enough to coordinate between them.
However, she also identified potential risks. Some technical professionals who built expertise around manually connecting or “rigging together” different systems may find their roles changing as ERP platforms provide more built-in integration. At the same time, there will likely be increased demand for people who can analyze data and processes across multiple functions and systems.
Dawn noted that ERP systems do not necessarily impose absolute centralized control over every part of a business. Instead, they help establish structure so that core business functions remain coordinated and do not diverge too far from one another.
She encouraged me to research companies that implement multiple ERP systems within the same organization. "Not all ERP strategies rely on a single, fully centralized platform". Some companies deploy multiple ERP systems that each support specific business functions while still integrating key data across the enterprise. She suggested that examining these hybrid approaches could provide useful insight for my project.
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