Priority of Key Success Factors (KSFS) on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System Implementation Life Cycle

Abstract

This study presents the priority of key success factors (KSFs) on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation life cycle. There are twenty KSFs considered in this study. They were chosen from literature review. The KSFs are classified into five stages of ERP implementation life cycle; namely: project preparation, technology selection, project formulation, implementation/development and deployment. To address the study objectives, a survey questionnaire was considered the most appropriate research method. It was sent to 74 companies that have been implementing ERP system for at least one year. The respondents are staff at management level, IT staff and users involved in the development and use of the ERP system. The survey received 248 responses from 740 quesitionnaires that were sent to the companies. To find the priority of KSFs on ERP implementation life cycle, a quantitative analysis is applied to identify the weighting of KSFs toward ERP implementation success. The success of ERP implementation can be measured through five indicators; namely: system quality, information quality, service quality, tactical impact and strategical impact. Based on the weighting of KSFs on each stage of ERP implementation life cycle, it is found that the communication is most critical KSF on project preparation stage (ρ = 0.664). While the strong ERP product (package selection) is most critical KSF on technology selection stage (ρ = 0.554). The change management is most critical KSF on project formulation stage (ρ = 0.406), and on implementation/development stage, user training is the most critical KSF (ρ = 0.422). This study is expected to improve knowledge in ERP implementation, especially the role of KSF on each stage of ERP implementation life cycle.