Enterprise Resource Planning Product Research Articles

Reassessing Critical Success Factors for ERP Implementation in the Digital Era

This paper examines the recent evolution of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and explores the critical success factors (CSFs) for project implementation in the digital age. Adopting a qualitative inductive approach, the article first reports on CSFs evident in relevant literature drawn from the past two decades. In the second research phase, interview feedback from nine industry project managers is analysed to identify the CSFs now considered of particular relevance in the digital era. The article concludes that many of the established CSFs remain relevant, but recent research suggests the deployment of digital technologies and the availability of the cloud for ERP operation will mean that CSFs will be re-formulated in new technology and business environments. CSFs related to cloud-based vs on-premise software operation, system configuration and functionality trade-offs, and the integration of digital technologies into ERP products, are likely to emerge in the digital era. Future studies could profitably focus on these largely unresearched aspects of ERP projects, to which this article makes a small contribution that may provide a useful point of reference for subsequent studies.

A Product-Line-Engineering Framework for Secure Enterprise-Resource-Planning Systems

Enterprise-resource-planning (ERP) systems are highly complex, incorporating critical data and configuration options that can easily cause security threats or risks. While product-line engineering (PLE) provides methods for dealing with configurability, security concerns are not of primary concern in established PLE frameworks. In this paper, we extend the perspectives of established PLE frameworks to incorporate security engineering for ERP systems. We build on a literature review of 15 years (2008-2022) of research on security engineering for ERP systems or product lines. Our framework incorporates three perspectives (i.e., application, security, and domain engineering) with 16 processes and 24 activities. We discuss our framework with respect to the ERP reference architecture and relevant security concerns. Our contributions are intended to help researchers and practitioners obtain a reference on how security engineering can be integrated into PLE for ERP systems.

The Impact of Digital Transformation in the Accounting System of Fuel and Energy Complex Enterprises (International Experience)

The global fuel and energy market occupies a significant position in international trade, which encourages companies in the industry to carry out a digital transformation in the supply chain and accounting of related transactions. Digital transformation occurs through the introduction of modern information technology, which leads to increased productivity at all stages of the supply chain in the fuel and energy sector and simplified accounting of transactions. Positive processes are characterized by the convergence of markets, and negative processes are characterized by the fragmentation of energy markets and their isolation at the national level. To solve these problems in the field of accounting, it is necessary to constantly improve ERP systems based on the creation of a unified ecosystem of the fuel and energy sector. The world practice of using Enterprise Resource Planning products in the fuel and energy sector is considered. Based on the trend and structural analysis world oil and gas imports have been investigated to determine the dynamics and geographical structure of the fuel and energy market. The forecast of the dynamics of oil imports is made. The article proposes a functional model of the supply chain in the energy sector based on blockchain technology. The article defines digital technology with a focus on blockchain and artificial intelligence. The process method is used in the formation of an invoice generation model. The advantages of ERP systems are identified and global experience in invoice generation in accounting is summarized. The OpenText Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) software product is characterized, allowing its integration with the SAP ERP invoice accounting and payment system. The main issues of digital transformation in the accounting system, stimulating the improvement of specialists' competencies when working with digital platforms, are identified.

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in Iran

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software packages have been widely implemented in the developed world since they first appeared on the market in the late 1970s. In the developing world, however, the lack of the human and financial resources needed for such projects, and the non-availability of sales and support offices for western-based ERP vendors, has limited the uptake of ERP software. However, in Iran, there has been significant recent growth in the development of homegrown ERP software solutions. These products are usually more customizable than western-based ERP products and can thus be adapted more readily to specific user requirements. Using a case study approach, this article examines the origins and development of one of these companies – the Behko software company, and assesses its main product, and how it has been implemented in a typical end-user company. The article concludes that the homegrown ERP sector in Iran is making a significant contribution to the provision of information systems in the country, and is competing successfully with western-based alternatives.

Quality Assessment of Standard and Customized COTS Products

Software quality is a very important aspect in evolving strategy for IT vendors involved in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) (also referred as packaged software) product development. Software metrics are widely accepted measures for monitoring and managing the quality in software projects. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are COTS products and attempt to integrate data and processes in organizations and often require extensive customization. Using software quality metrics already established in literature, software quality attributes defined by the quality model ISO/IEC 9126 were evaluated for a standard and a customized ERP product. This will help the ERP team to identify the specific quality attributes that were affected owing to customization. This research study infers that there exists a considerable impact of ERP system customization over the quality of ERP product. The implications of the findings for both practice and research are discussed, and possible areas of future research are identified.

Customer requirements based ERP customization using AHP technique

Purpose– Customization is a difficult task for many organizations implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new framework based on customers’ requirements to examine the ERP customization choices for the enterprise. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique has been applied complementarily with this framework to prioritize ERP customization choices.Design/methodology/approach– Based on empirical literature, the paper proposed an ERP customization framework anchored on the customer's requirements. A case study research method was used to evaluate the applicability of the framework in a real-life setting. In a case study with 15 practitioners working on the vendor's and the client's sides in an ERP implementation, the paper applied the framework jointly with the AHP technique to prioritize the feasible customization choices for ERP implementation.Findings– The paper demonstrates the applicability of the framework in identifying the various feasible choices for the client organization to consider when they decide to customize their selected ERP product.Research limitations/implications– Further case studies need to be carried out in various contexts to acquire knowledge about the generalizability of the observations. This will also contribute to refining the proposed ERP customization framework.Practical implications– Very few literature sources suggest methods for exploring and evaluating customization options in ERP projects from requirements engineering perspective. The proposed framework helps practitioners and consultants anchor the customization decisions on the customer's requirements and use a well-established prioritization technique, AHP, to identify the feasible customization choices for the implementing enterprise.Originality/value– No previously published research studies provide an approach to prioritize customization choices for ERP anchored on the customer's requirements.

Fault-tolerant context development and requirement validation in ERP systems

This paper presents context development and requirement validation to overcome maintenance problems in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Using ERP data of a local petroleum firm, we employ knowledge integration to dynamically validate users' requirements, and to gather, analyze, and represent context through knowledge models. We also employ context-awareness to model the ERP context, along with a user requirement model. We employ context affinity to determine impact of these models on requirements' validation. We apply fault-tolerance on these models by using data mining to pre-identify delays in delivery of petroleum products, and to predict faulty contextual ERP product configuration.

A Review of Problems Faced by ERP Consultancy and Client Organizations in China

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a system designed to bring processes and resource together by sharing data and information across functional areas. The use of ERP consultancy is becoming essential to the enterprises in China. However, many issues have risen in the process of ERP implementation. This paper aims to investigate the major obstacles in the way of ERP implementation among ERP consultancy and client organisations. It has found that the quality of Chinese consultancy is far from that expected as leading ERP products were not widely mastered by consulting firms. Efficient information system is essential for companies to stay in the competition. However, transparent information flow across functional areas is hard to achieve in China. A good understanding of ERP system and business processes can help Chinese enterprises to ease unrealistic expectations from ERP implementation.

A Study on ERP Adoption in SMEs for Improving Operational Performance and ROI

This research paper addresses the adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and examine their effect on organizational performance and Return-on-Investment (ROI) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In this two-part paper, the first part identifies and measures tangible and intangible benefits of ERP. The second part identifies and explains certain financial indicators on ERP investments. The research involved a variety of methods including semi structured interviews, participative observation and review of documents & case studies related to ERP implementations in SME, ROI on ERP, ERP product brochures and few existing case studies related to this research. This paper provides empirical insights to the performance improvements in the process and financial perspectives. The paper explained the perception of SMEs on the tangible, intangible benefits of ERP implementation and its linkage to ROI and provides practical insights into the benefits and ROI from ERP investments to SMEs which are planning to or have implemented ERP.

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

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.

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

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.

Examining ERP implementation success from a project environment perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify factors that are crucial for the successful implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Although there are many factors that influence the success, this study focuses on factors related to the ERP project environment, namely, project management, team composition and competence, and business process reengineering.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted using a survey questionnaire distributed to ERP users in Iranian organizations. In total, 384 responses were collected and analyzed.FindingsA significant relationship was found between project management and team composition with ERP implementation success. The better the project management activities the more likely the implementation will be successful. Likewise, the possibility of successful implementation is higher when the ERP team is more coordinated and experienced.Practical implicationsERP 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. The outcomes of this study are also 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.Originality/valueThis study 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 findings may be useful to ERP vendors and other organizations in other countries, as they could be used as a guideline for future ERP adoption and implementation.

Tiers of Enterprise Resource Planning Softwares

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software's are classified in different ways in to categories such as Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3, Tier-4, Teir-5, ERP-II, component based ERP, Accounting ERP, Marketing ERP etc. These classifications are based on license fee, implementation fee they charge from their customers, size and types of customer's organization and also the functionalities of various ERP products. Various vendor websites have reported these classifications of ERP software's in the past but in pieces. In this article author reviewed these classification & presented five tiers of classification in a comprehensive manner. In addition, article also discusses the functionalities of ERP systems for different tiers and contradictions of their grouping to a specific tier.

The Importance of Social Structure in Implementing ERP Systems: A Case Study using Adaptive Structuration Theory

Many organizations report problems implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems. These projects often do not meet financial and functional expectations. While managers often criticize the ERP product and vendor support, the problem may lie elsewhere. In this paper, adaptive structuration theory is used to develop a research framework that is used to analyze the transition from the mainframe legacy system environment to the distributed ERP environment. An exploratory case study analysis of a mid-sized university that experienced a failed ERP implementation showed that the failure was not the result of a poor ERP product but rather related to the organization’s social structure. The social structure which enabled the mainframe legacy system to be successful needed to be modified for the new ERP system. Findings underscore the importance for managers to facilitate the change management process.

The impact of ERP on supply chain management: Exploratory findings from a European Delphi study

This article presents results from a Delphi study on the future impact of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems on supply chain management (SCM). The Delphi study was conducted with 23 Dutch supply chain executives of European multi-nationals. Findings from this exploratory study were threefold. First, our executives have identified the following key SCM issues for the coming years: (1) further integration of activities between suppliers and customers across the entire supply chain; (2) on-going changes in supply chain needs and required flexibility from IT; (3) more mass customization of products and services leading to increasing assortments while decreasing cycle times and inventories; (4) the locus of the driver’s seat of the entire supply chain and (5) supply chains consisting of several independent enterprises. The second main finding is that the panel experts saw only a modest role for ERP in improving future supply chain effectiveness and a clear risk of ERP actually limiting progress in SCM. ERP was seen as offering a positive contribution to only four of the top 12 future supply chain issues: (1) more customization of products and services; (2) more standardized processes and information; (3) the need for worldwide IT systems; and (4) greater transparency of the marketplace. Implications for subsequent research and management practice are discussed. The following key limitations of current ERP systems in providing effective SCM support emerge as the third finding from this exploratory study: (1) their insufficient extended enterprise functionality in crossing organizational boundaries; (2) their inflexibility to ever-changing supply chain needs, (3) their lack of functionality beyond managing transactions, and (4) their closed and non-modular system architecture. These limitations stem from the fact that the first generation of ERP products has been designed to integrate the various operations of an individual firm. In modern SCM, however, the unit of analysis has become a network of organizations, rendering these ERP products inadequate in the new economy.