The impact of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in Higher Education Institutions : support in improvement of academic processes

Abstract

Abstract Recently the universities in Pakistan started replacing their old legacy systems with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to improve their academic and administrative processes. Previously, ERP systems were used in business organizations to gain a competitive edge over competitors. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has implemented ERP systems at eight different universities in Pakistan. The HEC has invested a significant amount of money to facilitate the integration, customization and implementation of these systems. Little research is reported to assess the impact of ERP systems in higher education institutions. Previous studies reported in the literature focus mainly on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and risk factors in success and failure of ERP systems. To explore the research problem, various Information System (IS) success models were studied as part of the literature review. This study also presents a conceptual research model based on re-specification of the DeLone and McLean IS success model to empirically measure the impact of ERP in higher education in the Pakistani universities’ context. This research study empirically evaluated the post implementation impact of the ERP systems in higher education institutions, focusing on improvement in the academic and administrative processes. This study used a sequential explanatory mixed method design approach to meet the objectives and address the research questions. Quantitative data were collected from a survey involving 230 respondents (120 students and 110 faculty members) from two selected universities that had implemented ERP systems. The qualitative data was collected through 12 interviews (five faculty members, five heads of department and two VCs). The results of both the quantitative and qualitative findings highlight that the ERP implementation has a positive and significant impact on the improvement of academic processes such as student satisfaction, teaching quality, better communication and feedback mechanism and the higher management decision-making process in Pakistani university contexts. The research findings will help future researchers to build on the research, perhaps with different samples and methodologies and will be useful for higher education to formulate strategies for the implementation of ERP system in their respective public-sector universities. Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems, Higher Education, mixed methods research, DeLone and McLean IS Success model