In the 1980s and 1990s, large firms hired many (thousands) systems analysts who generated uncounted numbers of useful computer applications to do things better. In conjunction with the appearance of affordable personal computers, this led to just about every department of a large organization developing its computer applications. Inevitably, this led to high levels of duplicated effort, as well as diverse sets of data giving different managers different opinions about what was going on in their organizations. Today, almost all large firms use ERP systems to manage operations. Why are ERP systems important to organizations? What are the typical components of an ERP system? What is meant by the term "a suite of suites"? What are the three approaches to ERP integration? What are some of the issues associated with an ERP implementation? What is the primary benefit of a successful ERP implementation?