Strategic and tactical factors for successful ERP projects: insights from an Asian country

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify strategic and tactical factors that are crucial for the successful implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Although there are many factors that influence the success, the paper focuses on strategic factors, namely, top management support, project management, business process reengineering, and tactical factors, namely, enterprise‐wide communication, user training and education, and ERP vendor support.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted using a survey questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed to ERP users in Iranian organizations and in total, 384 responses were collected and analyzed.FindingsA significant relationship was found between top management support, project management, enterprise‐wide communication, user training and education, and ERP vendor support with ERP implementation success. However, the relationship between business process reengineering and ERP implementation success was not supported.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the few that examine the success of ERP implementation from the perspective of key stakeholders (operational/unit/functional managers). It has contributed to academic research by producing empirical evidence to support the theories of critical success factors and ERP implementation success. The outcomes of this research are useful to ERP vendors and consultants to prepare some strategies to overcome the misfit between their ERP products and ERP adopting organizations in developing countries. Moreover, ERP adopting organizations and managers could gain an understanding of the complexities inherent in ERP installations to avoid barriers and increase the likelihood of achieving desired results.