Article ID: | iaor20042627 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 146 |
Issue: | 2 |
Start Page Number: | 339 |
End Page Number: | 351 |
Publication Date: | Apr 2003 |
Journal: | European Journal of Operational Research |
Authors: | Sundarraj R.P., Talluri Srinivas |
Keywords: | programming: integer |
Today, timely sharing and coordination of information across the supply chain are key factors to improving the performance of an organization. Although single-vendor enterprise information technologies (EITs) are seen as enablers for accomplishing this goal, a number of organizations are concerned about the high cost and time involved in such a solution. An alternative new paradigm has emerged in the form of componentized EITs, which are stand-alone software components that can be easily integrated with one another, and which provide the advantages of easing cash-flow problems and of decreasing customization times. Research in the evaluation of componentized EITs lacks objective assessment tools that simultaneously consider both procurement and inter-component integration issues. This paper fills this gap by proposing a multi-period integer-programming model to assist decision-makers in the procurement of componentized EITs. We consider component costs as well as inter-component integration costs over a given planning horizon and provide managerial insights based on different experiments with the model.