Abstract
Modern organisations currently face a multitude of technologies that are seeking to climb on the budgetary agenda of management boards. Two of the main contenders are Enterprise Resource Planning and e-business related technologies. There appears to be a misunderstanding, not well publicised, regarding the relationship between both ERP and e-business particularly the viewpoint that ERP is a platform for e-business.This paper, based on research from an ongoing IS investigation project at a large multinational company, examines this relationship. The paper discusses different scenarios of ERP implementation status that organisations may find themselves part of. It examines the components of e-business success, namely: visibility of information, processes and technology that will be either enabled or restricted by ERP. What transpires from this research is that for many start-ups e-business becomes synonymous with business in general.We argue that e-business should form part of the corporate strategy and that IS or IT strategy should form the basis for determining ERP implementation structures thereby ensuring e-business requirements become the platform for ERP.