One obvious link is that both store and manage enterprise information. For example, all Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) must have a "Contacts" section. Independent of the nature of the Contact (Co-worker, Client, Vendor), they are all persons, so most of the data will be very similar. You could have corporate Clients and Vendors, also sharing attributes in its modelling. The synchronization of this data among several systems is a tedious and risk prone task, even when automated.
Other, more subtle, reason elicits from the collaborative nature of the Web Office. All enterprise work-flows would be better handled if defined on a single work-flow engine, instead of having different management for different systems. Much office work is subject for a work-flow process. Those are element that have been present in ERPs for a long time, that are now being incorporated into Web Offices.
Another common issue is to have two different systems (most times requiring duplicate input effort) for, say, project management and the accounting of absent and leave days.
As a commenter in the previous post pointed out, the Web-Interface (not a small matter in many cases, specially if you can extend or align the "Web-Interface" concept to a whole "Corporate Image"). He also mentioned report designer (Which I would extend to Business Intelligence engines) as something that could also be merged.
I will assume the Single Sign On issue does not need much discussion.
Common elements of ERP and Web Office
In short, we have identified the following as common framework elements:
- Single Sign On
- Contacts (Workers, Clients, Vendors)
- Image Design and Standards
- Work-flow engine
- Tasks and Projects management
- Business Intelligence and reporting engines
Examples
Even though I am not aware of similar essays, I do acknowledge several companies developing solutions that have obviously identified this trend. Zoho, 37signals, and ShareOffice would be among those.
