Chicken first or Egg first - Brief thought about ERP

According to Wikipedia's definition, Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is an Integrated computer-based system used to manage internal and external resources including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. It is a software architecture whose purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. Built on a centralized database and normally utilizing a common computing platform, ERP systems consolidate all business operations into a uniform and enterprise wide system environment.

In my opinion, ERP should adapt to companies' need. The idea of ERP is to integrate different infomation of different department into one homogenous software infrastruture. As different firms may have different structure to suit their specific neends, it is difficult, if not impossible, for firms to adapt into one system that may only define "standardised" organisational structure. However, as customised ERP system is limited, firms may nevertheless need to adjust themselves to the pre-set ERP and, therefore, may lose a degree of competitive advantage due to the "standardisation".