Learning from adopters' experiences with ERP: problems encountered and success achieved

Abstract

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages touch many aspects of a company's internal and external operations. Consequently, successful deployment and use of ERP systems are critical to organizational performance and survival. This paper presents the results of a study of the problems and outcomes in ERP projects which was conducted under the sponsorship of an ERP systems vendor. Two basic research questions were addressed. First, how successful are companies at different points in time in their ERP experiences and how are different measures of success related? (That is, can early success be followed by failure and vice versa?) Second, what problems do ERP adopters encounter as they implement and deploy ERP and how are these problems related to outcomes? The findings showed that the success of ERP systems depends on when it is measured and that success at one point in time may only be loosely related to success at another point in time. Companies experience problems at all phases of the ERP system life cycle and many of the problems experienced in later phases originated earlier but remained unnoticed or uncorrected. These findings suggest that researchers and companies will do well to adopt broad definitions and multiple measures of success and pay particular attention to the early identification and correction of problems.