Abstract : ERPs offer a two-fold answer to the need for integration. The first is technical in nature, since the architecture of these programs is designed to ensure the compatibility of their software components and the transparency of their data. They also offer a dynamic approach, because ERPs are mechanisms for incorporating a company's specific functional elements. However, the ERP solution cannot replace every existing management computing system. Accordingly, applying ERP to existing systems will have a significant cost, whether it occurs in the implementation of ERP itself or in the work of making over the firm's own information system. The field surveys that have been carried out show that good management practices already included in non-ERP computing systems can easily be transposed into ERP systems. Conversely, applications that do not follow a horizontal management structure create incompatibilities if we attempt to transfer them into an ERP. The influence of the firm's structure on the implementation of ERP will depend on how compatible it is with the underlying structure of the ERP (structure must follow strategy: A. Chandler.)
