A Fuzzy ANP-Based GRA Approach to Evaluate ERP Packages

Abstract

One of the major problems that most companies face with during the implementation of an ERP system is to determine the best satisfying ERP software based on their needs and expectations. Because an improperly selected ERP software might lead to time loss and increased costs, and in the long run, a loss of market share. Therefore, the ERP evaluation process for companies becomes to a vital point. On the other hand, evaluating ERP software alternatives under a set of criteria leads us to a multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem, and needs to use proper MCDM methods. In the current literature, a number of the MCDM methods have been proposed to solve these kinds of problems, both of which are the analytic network process (ANP) of Saaty, and grey relational analysis (GRA) which has been widely used in solving MCDM selection problems in various fields. Moreover, in this article, the authors used the fuzzy extension of the ANP method to reflect the uncertainty and ambiguity of decision maker(s) into problem in order to reach more reliable solution. As the fuzzy ANP method was used to calculate the priority weights of the evaluation criteria, the GRA method with fuzzy interval-values was employed to rank a set of the possible ERP software alternatives. The proposed approach was also validated in a case study to show its applicability to potential readers and practitioners.