While they are hundred of SAP or BAAN or J.D. Edwards or Oracle books in the market, only few books were really written in "ERP context". Fortunately, this book is one of few.The teaching experience told Brady and Monk that "teaching SAP application" to business students was not sufficient to make students understand the "concept of ERP". This is the impression for them to write this book. The foundation of ERP are addressed in business process perspectives; and then, mapped to the ERP process. One "BIG" case-study is used to describe the ERP component, with respect to SAP R/3 system. However, the fundamental is not limited to SAP package since extensions are also provided.
The uniqueness of this book is the combination of "O'Leary's book (ISBN 0521791529)" and "Jacobs & Whybark (ISBN 0072400897)". Like "Why ERP? by Jacobs and Whybark", Brady and Monk use a single case study to describe the ERP in "formal format" (not in novel as Why ERP). Like "O'Leary's book", this book gives the fundamental to understand ERP rather than "implementation of specific package".
Unlike "Why ERP", this book is the formal textbook, very easy to read textbook, not a novel. Unlike "O'Leary's book", this book is the explanation of ERP and interaction of business process, instead of implemenation and outline.
Another major advantage of this book is the easy-well-written is in 200 pages. Graduate students or passion-readers may finish it in one night. This book is also good for ERP introduction (1-3 meetings) for any Production/Operation Management classes or Supply Chain Management.
One thing that I'd like to see more is the "reference". While this book is quite comprehensive, the reference are limited to the CIO (www.cio.com), instead of many existed publications. I wish the authors would do more research in this area and put additional reference in the context in the next edition.
