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The key trends in emerging ICT integration choices for cost‐effective, flexible knowledge integration, work‐flow‐embedded evaluation and eCRM‐driven value innovation are examined. Enterprise knowledge integration initiatives can create socio‐technical and cultural tensions as well as possible straitjacketing of business process architectures thus suppressing responsive business re‐engineering and causing loss of competitive advantage for some companies. A framework, C‐assure, is presented for optimising knowledge integration, impact analysis and evaluation to support innovation throughout the various interacting enterprise lifecycles.

Earlier research has shown that human judgements, particularly retrospective as distinct from real‐time evaluations of painful experiences, are fundamentally flawed when superseded by other experiences. Describes a methodology for the evaluation of user experiences, assisted by a user‐centered co‐design tool for planning, creating and conducting wide‐ranging usability data acquisition throughout the system life cycle from inception to replacement. The results from the tests in this study were found to support the findings from recent cognitive psychology research on J/DM‐PPR theoretic biasing effects. The importance of the findings for software systems, and for interactive Web site development, is that if the interactive features which tax the user's patience and cognitive capability are not severely restraining, then users will be left with a better impression of the usability of the system than would be the case otherwise.

Enterprise application integration (EAI) technologies provide the means to integrate strategic business solutions within and across the component parts of organisational information system infrastructures. The continuing development of both digitally integrated business models, through various eCommerce and eBusiness initiatives, has meant that the importance of EAI within enterprise IS, has increased significantly. Noting that EAI incurs not only technological but stakeholder‐level commitments, this paper outlines the product of a sustained investigation into key challenges within enterprise IS and EAI, and provides a framework for future research and investigation into this emerging and evolving area.

This paper's purpose is to examine the impact of ERP adoption in one of the most traditional sectors, namely the printing industry, within a case study of five typical large‐scale printing organisations set in the developing economy context of Pakistan.

The research methodology and the analysis motivated an interpretive approach. The inductive reasoning approach has been used, since the aim was to find something new for the printing industry and to try to discover the advantages that ERP could bring about for the industry. In this research study, semi‐structured interviews were conducted along with a number of visits to the targeted printing firms selected as being prototypical of the sector in this business environment. The research questions focused on identifying and exploring the benefits related to ERP for the printing industry, and why it was needed.

The research shows that all the functional categories identified in the literature for ERP can be introduced in the printing industry. However, within each category, not all its modules can be adopted for this industry. The research has also shown that the benefits of some areas of ERP are still to be understood by the stakeholders.

The enterprises under study now have an opportunity to look into ERP solutions as the basis also for first‐mover advantage within their sector.

There has been one previous attempt in Pakistan to restructure the largest printing press by introducing SAP, which failed due to lack of technical expertise and training support. This paper draws on the successful approaches deployed in ERP implementations in other sectors and examines the extent to which they can be adapted for the printing industry, for example which modules should be prioritised for integration and how to optimise their impact.