Investigation of the Influences of ERP Vendor and Consultant on ERP Performance

Abstract

A successful Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project is usually costly and takes a long time to implement. ERP project's failure will lead to damage of company; an unsuccessful ERP project may cause company's bankruptcy. Selecting the appropriate vendor and the ERP package software that best matches the organizational information needs and processes is crucial for successful ERP implementation and use. Besides, enterprises usually use outside consultants to ensure a successful ERP project but consultant selection is also a difficult task in ERP implementation. In view of this, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the satisfaction on vendors' and consultant's services and the service quality of vendors and consultants. We also investigate whether the satisfaction on vendors' and consultant's services and the service quality of vendors and consultants will affect ERP performance or not. We have the following research findings: (1) The service quality provided by foreign vendors is much better than domestic vendors. (2) Consultants from foreign vendors provide better 'service quality' than domestic vendors'. (3) The factors that will affect the satisfaction on vendor's service are market position, brand goodwill of vendor, and internationalization capability of vendors. (4) The factors that will affect the satisfaction on consultants' service are consultants' type (provided by vendors or not), consultants' implementation experience in similar industries, and consultants' post-implementation supports. (5) Furthermore, system quality, information quality, user satisfaction, and individual impact will be affected by consultants' service quality or the satisfaction on vendors' service.