Enterprise Resource Planning Projects Research Articles

Identifying Critical Success Factors (CSF) in ERP Implementation Using AHP

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations often encounter multifaceted challenges, leading to failures. Success relies on technical competence, management support, and user engagement. Unique organizational processes significantly influence outcomes. Failures can disrupt operations, highlighting the need to identify critical success factors (CSFs) for effective ERP implementation. This study employed analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology to analyze CSFs. Data collection involved surveys administered to a social insurance company's ERP project team in Indonesia. This study revealed 15 success factors, categorized into organization, process, and technology dimensions. Organization emerged as the most crucial, followed by technology and process. Among these, five CSFs stood out: project team competence, vendor and consultant quality, ERP fit, top management support, and hardware and software selection.

The influence of ERP-vendor contract compliance and transaction-specific investment on vendee trust: A signaling theory perspective

The successful implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is significantly predicated on establishing customer trust, a challenge particularly accentuated in mainland China due to its distinct business and legal environment and a noted high failure rate of ERP projects. Whereas contracts and transaction-specific investments are common strategies to build this trust, their effectiveness remains contested in the existing literature. Specifically, the underlying mechanisms through which detailed contracts influence trust are still not clearly understood. To address these gaps, our study employs signaling theory to conceptualize a model that elucidates how contract completeness, vendor contract compliance, and transaction-specific investment act as trust-building signals in ERP vendor–vendee relationships within the Chinese context. Furthermore, we introduce ownership type as an additional variable, evaluating its influence in shaping customer trust. Our empirical analysis draws on data from 208 Chinese organizations engaged in ERP implementations, revealing nuanced findings. Notably, the vendor's ownership type, quantified by the degree of foreign ownership, negatively moderates both the results of contract completeness on contract compliance and the subsequent mediation effect on trust, thereby highlighting the critical influence of cultural factors. This study is among the pioneering empirical investigations into the synergistic roles of contract compliance and ownership type in mediating the relationship between contract completeness and trust. Our insights provide a robust foundation for understanding the complexities of contractual and relational governance in ERP vendor–vendee relationships, and we recommend targeted strategies for both vendors and customers to enhance trust in this critical business domain.

Organic transformation of ERP documentation practices: Moving from archival records to dialogue-based, agile throwaway documents

Implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems remains challenging and requires organizational changes. Given the scale and complexity of ERP projects, documentation plays a crucial role in coordinating operational details. However, the emergence of the agile approach raises the question of how adequate lightweight documentation is in agile ERP implementation. Unfortunately, both academia and industry often overlook the natural evolution of documentation practices. This study examines current documentation practices through interviews with 23 field experts to address this oversight. The findings indicate a shift in documentation practices from retrospective approaches to dialogue-based, agile throwaway documents, including audiovisual recordings and informal emails. Project managers who extensively engage with throwaway documents demonstrate higher situational awareness and greater effectiveness in managing ERP projects than those who do not. The findings show an organic transformation of ERP documentation practices. We redefine documentation to include unstructured, relevant information across different media, emphasizing searchability. Additionally, the study offers two vignettes for diverse organizational contexts to illustrate the best practices of agile ERP projects.

An analysis of enterprise resource planning systems and key determinants using the Delphi method and an analytic hierarchy process

<abstract> <p>Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are software module packages which can be customized up to a certain limit to suit the specific needs of each organization. Many ERP projects have not been effective at achieving all of the intended results due to high cost and high failure risks in ERP implementation. This study integrates the prior theories and knowledge gained from several textile industry practitioners for ERP projects. A two-stage method involving the Delphi and analytic hierarchy process decision support methodology was conducted. Based on the case of the textile industry in Taiwan, the findings illustrate the top 10 key factors: a clear project plan by defined ERP capacity requirement; a limited scope and focused flowchart; goal congruence between ERP project implementation and corporate strategy; top management support and commitment; the extent of standard operating procedures and institutional processes; a user-friendly interface; systems integrated with aggressive schedules and timelines; provision of technical assistance for rapid, effective transfer of best practice interventions; good interdepartmental communication and coordination on a focused issue solution; and enablement of business process reengineering and solid management for project team building. The findings of this research will be beneficial to those apparel companies that adopted the ERP.</p> </abstract>

Customizing ERP-systems: A framework to support the decision-making process

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are standardized software packages based on industry “best practice.” Despite this off-the-shelf property, most companies that implement an ERP system choose to customize the software rather than change their business processes. Customization, however, represents a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it can provide improved functionality, increased user quality and satisfied users; on the other hand, it can bring significant risks to the company due to increased implementation costs, increased complexity, and expenses for subsequent upgrades. Interviews were conducted with ERP experts, and empirical findings contain different drivers and consequences for enterprises that choose to customize ERP systems and highlights related challenges. The purpose of the study is to develop a framework with accompanying guidelines that can help companies, in cooperation with suppliers and consultants, to better handle customization decisions in ERP projects.

ERP failure: A systematic mapping of the literature

With the development of different technologies, the use and importance of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems continue to increase daily. In parallel with this increasing use, a lot of research is being done to successfully complete ERP implementation projects. However, despite these researches, reported case studies show that the success rates of ERP projects are meager.Based on the examples of experienced failure, researchers determine very different failure factors with varying perspectives for companies in different industry sectors, cultures, and sizes. It is becoming increasingly difficult for many practitioners and researchers to understand these failure factors correctly. Our objective is to investigate the state-of-the-art ERP Failure Factors that could benefit practitioners to utilize that information potentially.We review the body of knowledge related to ERP failure factors in the form of a systematic literature mapping (SLM). We pose four sets of research questions and systematically develop and refine a classification schema. The initial pool consisted of 353 articles. Systematic voting was conducted among the authors regarding the inclusion/exclusion criteria. As a result, there were 72 technical articles in our final pool.This SLM provides an overview of ERP critical failure factors (CFF) with different focused headings. These headings cover qualitative coding about CFF names, CFF rankings, the relation between CFF and ERP processes and failure modes, etc.The results of this study would benefit three groups of stakeholders: (i) Researchers who work on ERP Failure Factors, (ii) Solution implementers who provide consultancy services to companies that carry out ERP Implementation projects, and (iii) ERP project implementation managers. These stakeholders could utilize the results of this SLM to catch the trend of ERP implementation challenges.

Failure Case Studies and Challenges in ERP Integration

The 21st century recognizes the importance of information as a vital resource, so it is studied, researched, and improved to accomplish the performance objectives set by an organization. To sustain cohesive business reliability and growth, information sharing and communication are essential. enterprise resource planning (ERP) software integration is seen by many organizations as a way to manage their integrated information flow more effectively under increased competitive pressure. The implementation of such a project for a company is very beneficial because it revolves around performance and formality, both of which are highly important and complex for organizations. However, due to the ERP project implementation budget, time, and resources, this type of project is tricky. In this context, and based on the principle that people learn more from failures than from successes, the authors are interested in this article about the difficulties, the stakes, and the causes of ERPs integration failures reported in the literature to make recommendations and learn from these case studies.

Monitoring System Prototype Design at The Project Management Units

Project Management Unit of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) serves to limit, planning, forecasting, scheduling, organizing, directing, controlling, and closing projects. Technological development monitoring system and growing can be used to assist management in monitoring to ensure all activities conducted goes according to plan. The technology can be used as a media monitoring include web-based technology. The method used is by direct observation in ERP Project Management Unit, analyzing procedures and processes on the system is running, as well as describe the procedure using UML. To support the accuracy of the data, the research conducted by the method of literature, by searching for relevant information from various books and browsing the Internet. I also conduct experiments or in practice in the design and manufacture of prototype applications Project Management Monitoring System. The benefits of this research is to produce a new system in the form of application Project Management Web-based Monitoring System is capable of supporting high mobility of employees to report any activity that has been, is being, or will be done in realtime. The report was subsequently used as a basis for analyzing the shortcomings of the activities that have been done so that management can do forecasting activities that will be implemented in the future. From this research, the expected performance of the ERP Project Management Unit in monitoring projects can be more effective, efficient, and optimal

ERP system usage effect on organisational performance: The impact of performance tuning and post implementation changes

With an emphasis on performance tuning and post-implementation modifications, this study examines how ERP system usage affects organisational performance. Modern company operations cannot function without Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, which provide improved data management capabilities and expedite procedures. The amount of usage, optimisation through performance tuning, and flexibility to post-implementation changes are some of the elements that determine their influence on organisational performance. This study delves into the link between ERP system usage and organisational performance, specifically looking at how performance tuning and post-implementation adjustments impact efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness. It does this through a thorough literature review and empirical analysis. The results shed light on the dynamics of ERP systems and provide useful information for practitioners who want to get the most out of ERP projects.

An Investigation of the Factors Affecting Successful Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation in Nigeria

The ERP system has been identified as a tool for delivering information technology (IT) services through software and other critical infrastructures using internet technologies. Given its nature as an industry-driven concept and system, this is universally accepted in industry as a tool to solve practical problems with a view to achieving an integrated enterprise information system. However, a developing country like Nigeria still faces a lot of hurdles in managing its construction supply chain. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the successful implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the Nigerian construction industry. After a literature search, expert input via the Delphi technique, the study identified four main factors and 21 sub-factors. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to prioritise the factors and to identify the relationship that exists between the factors. The findings revealed that the key factors affecting the implementation of ERP systems are "A lot of security concerns" (T7), "The management of ERP projects is too complex" (P5) and "The inability to align the ERP solution with the business plans of the organisation" (P2). This study recommends that the findings of this work will help both local and international practitioners alike.

Cultural Challenges of ERP Implementation in Middle-Eastern Oil & Gas Sector: An Action Research Approach.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the cultural barriers that existed at various stages of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation process, using the Middle-Eastern oil and gas sector as a case study. Due to a variety of cultural implications, ERP implementation rates in the oil and gas sector in Middle-Eastern developing countries are extremely low. Although the literature highlighted numerous ERP implementation theories that attempted to overcome the cultural complexities of ERP systems, there are few studies that have framed these complexities using action research theory in order to provide potential solutions to these challenges, particularly in Middle-Eastern developing countries where cultural settings are distinct from those in Western developed countries. Action research AR, in conjunction with documentation, observations, and interviews, aided in the exploration of the culturally complex barriers encountered during the pre-implementation (plan and propose), implementation (do), and post-implementation (assess and improve) stages of ERP projects conducted within a Middle-Eastern oil and gas organisation. This article confirms numerous cultural implications at each stage of the ERP implementation process, including team conflict, managerial authority, and a lack of an IT culture, all of which contributed to the project's delay. Other impediments, such as a lack of commitment to training and technophobia, persisted throughout the post-implementation phase and the subsequent follow-up experience under the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This article contributes to theory and practise by highlighting the culturally complex barriers that underpin many ERP implementations in the Middle Eastern oil and gas sector. This information can assist practitioners and researchers in developing future research and ideas to mitigate future ERP implementation challenges in this region.

A comparative study of modeling and solution approaches for the multi-mode resource-constrained discrete time–cost trade-off problem: Case study of an ERP implementation project

Most knowledge-intensive industries, especially companies developing software engineering projects such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation projects, generally necessitate finding the optimal trade-off between the project duration and total usage cost of the renewable resource costs (e.g., human resource expertise costs). Therefore, the MRC-DTCTP, which integrates classical multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling (MRCPSP) and discrete time–cost trade-off problems (DTCTP), can be seen as a more applicable problem since it better reflects the objectives and requirements of today’s real-life software project applications. The MRC-DTCTP is a much more complex variant of the MRCPSP since it aims to minimize total direct/indirect costs of the resources simultaneously under a pre-specified project deadline. Based on this motivation, a new explicit integer-linear programming (ILP) model of the MRC-DTCTP was first developed based on the implicit non-linear programming model of Wuliang and Chengen (2009). Due to its NP-hard nature, we also proposed a constraint programming (CP) model that includes several search strategies to solve large-sized problem instances within reasonable computation time. In addition, a genetic algorithm (GA) approach in combination with a Modified Serial Schedule Generation scheme (SSGS) is implemented to make further comparisons on several benchmark instances, which are generated based on the existing MRCPSP data sets taken from the project scheduling problem library (PSPLIB) by considering additional problem characteristics. A comprehensive experimental study has shown that the proposed CP model and GA approach can provide superior results in shorter run times for large-sized benchmark instances. Finally, an international Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Company’s real-life application is presented. The ERP projects generally necessitate finding the optimal trade-off between project makespan and human resource costs, making the MRC-DTCTP much more difficult than classical MRCPSPs & DTCTPs. For further analysis, time–cost trade-off curves under different human resource availabilities and project deadlines are drawn to provide managerial insights to ERP project managers.

ERP adoption cost factors identification and classification: a study in SMEs

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems adoptions require substantial resources and investments. The majority of businesses around the globe can be considered to be small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Thus, SMEs are seen to be typical companies that are the cornerstone of most economies. Compared with large enterprises, an SME-context contains several characteristics, and scarcity of resources is among the top of them. For SMEs, unplanned costs escalation could pose a serious threat to their stability and survival in the market. Frequently, ERP projects have crossed their estimated budgets and schedules. Researchers and practitioners state that a prevailing number of ERP adoption projects fail due to inaccurate or to too optimistic budgets/schedules. In addition, many organizations face difficulties in identifying the potential cost factors that could occur during their ERP adoption lifecycle. While focusing on the SMEcontext, this research attempts to identify potential costs that could occur in ERP adoptions. The research method employed in this study targeted diverse stakeholders and experts involved in ERP projects in Egypt. This research provides a list of cost factors and their classifications that could aid adopting organizations to better estimate their needed ERP project budgets. In particular, this research explores the direct and indirect cost factors that occur in ERP adoptions in Egyptian SMEs. Also, this study investigates the influence of some SME-specific contextual factors on costs. Moreover, the paper provides a ranking of cost factors according to their impact on total adoption costs.

Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in Bangladesh -Opportunities and Challenges

An enterprise resource planning (ERP) project is a sizable enterprise application either in the business and engineering perspective. It creates huge alterations and frequently entails calling into question several traditional roles within the business, for which individuals are rarely well ready. It frequently involves the execution of numerous new approaches and their integration with existing programs and frequently reflects one of the bigger IT jobs -- one of the highly crucial ones in many businesses, cooperation between industry and IT extends into international cooperation between many small business units and many entities of their IT division. The achievement of this undertaking will count on the caliber of the cooperation. Before beginning such a difficult endeavor, certain conditions have to be ensured. The business has to see to adulthood in ERP and also the management and technical capacities of their IT division and the capability of the business and IT to work together. Without these requirements, companies wouldn't have the ability to lead and get different stages of an ERP project. This preparation could require a few educational and communication efforts which can be essential for success. This study has been undertaken to address the viability of installing ERP in any enterprise and its benefits and challenges in Bangladesh. ERPs are highly technical issues with numerous benefits. It requires a lot of preconditions to be installed. By reviewing the literature and going through several recent research, a concept is tried to be developed here in this study. Idea about current status of ERP practices in Bangladesh has been generated from various circulars and reports produced by the companies. The study found that productivity and profits are increased by implementing ERP in the local enterprises but a lot of challenges are to be addressed. The infrastructure of IT and power supply should be ensured to gain optimum advantages. The employees should be well trained to run the system successfully.

Expecting the unexpected during ERP implementations: a complexity view

Implementing an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is a complex, risky, time-consuming, and very expensive affair. Unfortunately, ERP implementations are often still over budget and time, and below expectations. Ticking off critical success factors (CSFs) and risks is supposed to take care of all intricacies during an implementation. However, complexity theory suggests no perfect foresighted knowledge can exist and one should always be prepared for new and unexpected events happening (“unknown unknowns”). Currently, ERP research does not explicitly address this unexpected behavioral aspect of complexity. Therefore, it seems relevant to explore whether this unexpected complexity aspect of ERP implementations can be observed in actual ERP implementations. We demonstrate through an in-depth and structured case analysis that a normal, well-planned, and managed ERP project shows indeed unexpected behavior. That is to say, totally unforeseen major problems appear. From our observations, it is evident that ERP implementations can show significant unexpected behavior despite the best of knowledge, proper preparation, and project management practice. It seems relevant to perform more research into the relevance of appropriate control mechanisms based on acceptance of the inherent complex, i.e. unpredictable nature of ERP implementations. This awareness should complement existing mechanisms as CSFs and risks.

Risk Assessment in ERP Project by COPRAS Method Under Fuzzy Environment

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects are prone to risk from the strategic, operational, technical and organizational perspective. The assessment of project risks is a challenging task for project managers and is considered in a class of a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. In this work, an MCDM approach has been presented for risk assessment in ERP project by COPRAS under fuzzy environment where the vagueness and subjectivity are handled with linguistic terms parameterized by triangular fuzzy number. Fuzzy COPRAS (COPRAS-F) has been used to determine the weight of risk criteria and then prioritize the risk factor based on the calculated weight of criteria. The prioritized risk factors have been classified in scale from almost certain to rare risks. The proposed approach is illustrated with a real case studying fertilizer plant and the associated results have been compared with fuzzy TOPSIS technique. The result of this study demonstrates that excessive customization, ineffective consulting services experiences, complex architecture and high number of modules, poor project team skills, inadequate change management, inadequate ERP selection, ineffective strategic thinking and planning, poor leadership, lack of business process re-engineering and low-key user involvement are top ten risks that need to be mitigated to avoid failure of ERP project.

Proposition d'un cadre pour la gestion des facteurs clés de succès dans les projets d'innovation organisationnelle chez les PME:

ERP systems can help businesses manage their resources efficiently. Like many new technologies, these solutions have been accompanied by publisher hype and implementation failures. A comprehensive understanding of implementing an innovative solution, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is still lacking. In particular, a compilation of key success factors (FCS) and obstacles requires an analysis of the different configurations of management processes. Work on key success factors should encourage more appropriate implementation and operating practices. However, many studies of ERP projects have revealed criteria for success, but provide little guidance on evaluating implementation steps. The framework explored in this article is an attempt to systematically generate a comprehensive list of factors affecting the completion of an ERP project. As such, it can support the theoretical development of functional capabilities related to ERP, as a tool covering the organizational dimension of the company. It builds on existing work in IS innovation, and simulation ideas to better understand the relationships between FCSs and to encourage exploration of more appropriate implementation strategies.

The influencing factors of enterprise resource planning (ERP) readiness stage on enterprise resource planning project success: a project manager’s perspective

PurposeThis study explores the influencing factors of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) readiness stage on project success immediately after go-live from the project manager’s perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe influencing factors of the ERP readiness stage are explored through the literature and expert review sessions and are embedded in Kotter’s change management model. A survey-based empirical study is conducted among ERP project managers in Turkey in 2019 utilizing principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis to reveal the direct relation of influencing factors and project success.FindingsResults show that the proposed model explains 65.179% of the variation with four components. The association of components through regression analysis reveals that project planning and management, employee commitment and change management directly relate to the ERP project success. Yet, surprisingly top management support is not directly correlated. Therefore, the results suggest that influencing factors of such long projects are to be evaluated by the stages of the project life cycle.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is limited to the project managers’ perspective in Turkey and the readiness stage of the project life cycle.Practical implicationsThe objectives of this research serve as a guideline for ERP project managers to consider the success factors in terms of ERP project phases. This ensures that the project manager allocates optimum resources to the right factors at the right time.Originality/valueDespite numerous studies in the ERP readiness stage, this study opens new ways of future research while filling several gaps. First, the ERP readiness phase is discussed with a theoretical approach through Kotter’s change management model. Second, the influencing factors of the ERP readiness stage on ERP project success from the project manager’s perspective are explored, and factor structures are revealed. Then, the association of the factors with ERP project success of “immediately after go-live” is empirically tested.

Framework for implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): A Case Study

Today Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face global challenges and continuous change in consumer demands, most recently COVID-19 and the prospect of a future Serious Acute Respiratory (SARS) pandemic generating further challenges, thus SMEs require to be more flexible to respond quickly to these changes. This can be achieved by transformation into the digital economy, use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, integrating business processes and to have real-time information which will enable senior management to make better, quicker informed decisions. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is one of the solutions for the SMEs to overcome these challenges and to obtain a competitive advantage. Subanidja, and Broto, 2019 stated that ERP systems are still not widely implemented by SMEs compared to their introduction in large businesses. However, the SME have a justifiable reputation for being proactive, open, willing and receptive to the adoption of new technologies, concepts and improvements. Also, SMEs differ in several inherent characteristics which are likely to impact on the ERP system implementations, hence it does not make sense to use the same frameworks that have been developed for large companies to implement ERP system within SMEs. One of the main risks of adopting ERP in SMEs is that SMEs have limited resources, so they cannot afford to fail to implement ERP system. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore ERP implementation process in SME context. The developed framework has been used to implement an ERP system in a SME. It highlighted the issues that need to be addressed while implementing ERP system in SMEs such as clearly defined scope of implementation procedure, suitable project planning and minimal customisation of the system selected for implementation. This study contributed to both research and practice and the research findings could aid practitioners and SMEs when embarking on ERP projects, as well as, to suggest future research avenues.

Development of Sustainable Business Model: A Conceptual Framework for the Financial Sector to Obtain Successful ERP

The present study identifies the key antecedent factors for accomplishing the adoption stage of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in their business operations. Four potential antecedent factors of adoption were derived from the literature, and data were obtained from a sample of 200 executives of the banking organizations of the financial sector across India. A structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to examine the complex relationships between antecedents and the adoption decision. The authors survey the literature to discover and classify critical success factors that are potentially applicable to financial sector. Four broad parameters namely, strategic, organizational, technological, and environmental (SOTE) has been identified for the efficacious development of ERP system in the financial sector of India. 11 dimensions has emerged as significant one for the financial sector. The results show that most of the success factors found in the literature apply to the industry. Nevertheless, distinct differences were found as well. Some factors, such as innovativeness of the implementation strategy, formulation of sound business plan, integration within the departments, adaptation capability of the system etc. would become the key instruments for successful implementation of ERP in the financial sector. The findings can help the executives of the financial sector to focus their attention, priorities, resources and leadership on managing the success factors that have been established to be critical for achieving ERP project implementation and ultimately, leading to the development of the sustainable business model.