The role of enterprise systems in innovation in the contemporary organization

The advent of enterprise systems established a pathway for organizations to consider innovations by providing a holistic view of the organization (Klaus et al. 2000). Prior research on enterprise systems has highlighted the technological, operational and knowledge capabilities provided by enterprise systems in enabling innovation in an organization (Srivardhana and Pawlowski 2007). However, the recent introduction of technologies such as cloud computing, mobile, wearables and social media to the corporate IT portfolio means that organizations are now provided with myriad opportunities to innovate. As such, organizations are seeking novel ways to innovate with these new technologies. Therefore, the role of enterprise systems in enabling innovation in the IT portfolio has changed. This chapter provides a discussion on the changing role of enterprise systems in the modern IT portfolio and directs the reader to several ways of how organizations can attain innovation using the IT portfolio.