Understanding Cloud Based ERP Implementation in Light of Conventional ERP Implementation at Indian SMEs: A Case Study

Abstract

The Cloud is not as new as it seems. All cloud computing literature is more than 50 years old, as indeed are the concepts that were recognized as early as the 1950s in the work done by AT&T in the area of telephony networking. Cloud computing is a set of services that provide infrastructure resources using internet media and data storage on a third party server. Most importantly on the basis of these research a list of critical success and failure factors were introduced to manage the cloud based ERP implementation successfully at Indian SMEs. The focus of ERP consultants should be to give more consideration to Critical Success Factors (CSFs) at the same time they should try to minimize the effects of Critical Failures Factors (CFFs) as much as possible during the conventional & cloud based ERP implementation at Indian SMEs. Findings are discussed in detail along with the implications of this research for the future work. It is hoped that this research will help to bridge the current literature gap and provide practical advice for both ERP academics and ERP practitioners. The implication of the research will help the ERP consultants for successful ERP implementation at Indian SMEs by promoting CSFs and by avoiding CFFs. Efficient and effective management of these thirty CSFs and twenty CFFs based on the recommendation and checklist supported by strategic ERP model can helps to ERP consultants in determining the priority of the factors according to their importance while implementing ERP system for Indian SMEs. Even if in some cases this model, recommendation and checklist may not help due to the limitation of this research as discussed in this paper, still there will be no harm to any involve party by managing these thirty CSFs and twenty CFFs efficiently and effectively.