Successful ERP Implementation Research Articles

A comprehensive study of the relationship between enterprise resource planning selection criteria and enterprise resource planning system success

We developed a conceptual framework for investigating how ERP selection criteria are linked to system quality and the service provided by suppliers and consultants, and thus how these influenced ERP implementation success. Through a cross-sectional survey of the top 5000 largest companies in Taiwan, using a balanced scorecard concept and path analysis, we showed that four system selection criteria (consultant's suggestion, a certified high-stability system, compatibility between the system and the business process, and the provision of best practices) were positively related to system quality. Three supplier selection criteria (international market position, training support by the supplier and supplier technical support and experience) had a significant influence on supplier service quality, and two consultant selection criteria (consultant's ERP implementation experience in a similar industry and consultant's support after going live) were related to consultant service quality. However, we found that most organizations did not consider all these criteria when implementing ERP systems. Our study also suggested that enhanced system quality and service quality could increase user perspective and ERP success.

Relationship bonding for a better knowledge transfer climate: An ERP implementation research

While prior studies on ERP implementation have largely focused on the importance of best practices, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the knowledge transfer climate and relationship bonding. The model categorizes the factors that influence the result of knowledge transfer during ERP implementation into three types: those implemented by the firm, those implemented by the consultant, and those related to the impact of the knowledge transfer climate. The bonding factors from the two former aspects facilitate the building of a better knowledge transfer climate. A total of 174 respondents are surveyed with results subjected to multivariate analysis. The significance of bonding factors is verified, and the role that the knowledge transfer climate plays in the knowledge transfer process and the impact on the transfer process are developed. This paper provides a broader, richer model of knowledge transfer networks to promote insight into successful ERP implementation. In practice, the key to effective knowledge transfer is the establishment of a positive knowledge transfer climate. To achieve a successful ERP implementation, practitioners should focus on developing a positive relationship with ERP implementation partners.

Public Sector ERP Implementation: Successfully Engaging Middle-Management

ERP implementation problems often occur due to cultural problems that lie deep within the organizational structure. Highly departmentalized (referred to as 'stove-piped') organizations are averse to the open flow of information and to process oriented management solutions. Nowhere are these problems more evident than in our public sector institutions. To increase the success of future public ERP initiatives, this paper focuses on the important role of middle management to proactively support and advocate an ERP project in the pre-planning and requirements definition phase of a project. The research identifies high value middle management attributes that need to be identified by ERP project managers to co-opt these individuals into the role of 'trusted intermediaries' to act as managerial bridges between traditional, and often adversarial organizational 'stovepipes'. Existing project work by the author and interviews with former public sector, project managers and implementation consultants show that the role of middle management is much more critical to the success of a public sector ERP implementation than in a corresponding private sector effort.

The influence of organizational factors on successful ERP implementation

PurposeThis study aims to examine organizational factors (i.e. top management support, training and education, enterprise‐wide communication) that may influence the enterprise resource planning system implementation success in Iran.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data were collected via a survey questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed to selected managers of companies adopting ERP systems in Iran.FindingsThe results indicate that the companies' top management must provide full support and commitment to the project if the system is to be successful. In addition, management must also ensure the plans are communicated and understood by the entire company. Finally it is also illustrated that adequate training and education pertaining to the systems must be given to all users to ensure that they are able to use the system effectively and efficiently thus contributing to their satisfaction which will subsequently influence the implementation success.Research limitations/implicationsThe ERP implementation success dimensions were measured using subjective and perceptual measures. This was due to the difficulty in securing the related factual data from the participating organizations.Practical implicationsThe findings may help companies planning to implement an ERP system to strategise their efforts and process to ensure successful implementation.Originality/valueThis study examines how organizational factors, namely top management support, training and education as well as enterprise wide communication among ERP users, affect ERP implementation success in Iran.

Evaluation of the ERP Implementation at Esfahan Steel Company Based on Five Critical Success Factors: A Case Study

ERP implementation had always been a complicated process, but it seems it is difficult for business andcompanies to overlook of assets of these information systems. Iran is a developing country and tries to improveits economy and compete with other economies. Studying ERP implementation in such country which has nothad noticeable experiences in this area can be interesting for developers, vendors and other similar cases indeveloping countries.In this research we will investigate ERP implementation in first Iranian pioneer company that implemented andused this system. Our evaluation will be base on CSFs (Critical Success Factor) which cited as index for successof ERP implementation in others researches.

Factors influencing ERP implementation in Indian manufacturing organisations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a study which is based on the results of a comprehensive compilation of literature and subsequent analysis of ERP implementation success factors in the context of Indian micro, small and medium‐scale enterprises (MSMEs). The paper attempts to assess empirically which factors are most critical in the ERP implementation process from the perspective of the Indian MSMEs. This research is potentially aimed at being useful to MSMEs as a guideline, so as to ensure a positive outcome of the implementation process.Design/methodology/approachThe paper tries to explore the factors affecting implementation across the stages of ERP implementations using the responses from 98 MSMEs engaged in manufacturing activities. The minimum number of factors explaining the maximum variance in data is determined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The factor analysis is performed on SPSS with the principal component method using the Varimax rotation technique.FindingsThe results of this study highlights four crucial factors that influence the ERP implementation process in the Indian MSME segment. Broadly, they may be summed up under the following heads: project execution competency; product and vendor perspective; organizational climate; and technical perspective.Originality/valueThe findings will be beneficial for MSMEs for proper utilization of their limited resources and to pay adequate attention to those factors that are most likely to have an impact on the implementation of the ERP system.

Public Sector ERP Implementation: Successfully Engaging Middle-Management !

ERP implementation problems often occur due to cultural problems that lie deep within the organizational structure. Highly departmentalized (referred to as “stove-piped”) organizations are averse to the open flow of information and to process oriented management solutions. Nowhere are these problems more evident than in our public sector institutions. To increase the success of future public ERP initiatives, this paper focuses on the important role of middle management to proactively support and advocate an ERP project in the pre-planning and requirements definition phase of a project. The research identifies high value middle management attributes that need to be identified by ERP project managers to co-opt these individuals into the role of “trusted intermediaries” to act as managerial bridges between traditional, and often adversarial organizational “stovepipes”. Existing project work by the author and interviews with former public sector, project managers and implementation consultants show that the role of middle management is much more critical to the success of a public sector ERP implementation than in a corresponding private sector effort.

The History and Prospect of ERP Application of Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises

Since the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, with the introduction of foreign MRPII/ERP software and the advanced business management thought Chinese manufacturing industry began the road to high-level information. After 30 years of development, Chinese manufacturing industry has experienced 20 years start-up and early stage, main features of this period were long-period implementation, expensive spending and poor flexibility, coupled with the low management level and out-dated IT technology. The probability of successful implementation of enterprise ERP is very low. Since then the stage was more than 5 years of growth, and the characteristics of this period were the domestic ERP software. With simple application, short cycle implementation and low cost, many small and medium-sized enterprises had carried on successful application. Since 2005, our country enterprise ERP application entered maturity, the main features of this period are wider range and improving success rate of ERP application. The article also pointed out the deficiencies of ERP applications in different periods, and its development prospects are ERPII

The Main Cause of Problematic ERP Implementations: Bad Management or Functional Mismatches?

This paper describes the results of a multiple case study of five ERP implementations. This investigation led to some remarkable conclusions. Using the project implementation success of Wixom and Watson (2001) as a yardstick, only two out of the five cases could be considered as successful. These two cases concerned stan-dard production processes and had relatively modest implementation objectives.The other three cases concern more complicated business processes and more ambitious pro-ject objectives. In these cases, mismatches between business processes and the functionality of the ERP system could be observed. The following conditions appeared to be favourable for a successful implementation: good preparation of the implementation project, good project management and a high degree of consultant expertise. However, the case studies show clearly that the fit between the business processes and the functionality of the applications is a decisive factor for the success of ERP implementations. In contrast to the findings of other authors, the involvement of line man-agement appears to be of less importance.

Measurements of Key Success Factors on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation

Competitive Advantage is important thing that have to be considered when implement the ERP system. Most of the organization only gain operational benefit rather than create the competitive advantage. A lot of factors that influenced the success of ERP implementation in order to gain competitive advantage. One of them is the organization maturity level. We classify the organization maturity level into three levels (high to low): strategic, managerial and operational levels. In Indonesia, it is almost 70.95% companies which were implement ERP system in the managerial and operational level. It shown that organization maturity level does not automatically drive the ERP implementation. The result of the study also shows that there is no-pattern of relationship between organization maturity level and ERP implementation success. This implies that the implementation of ERP in those companies have been done trivially. On this study, we applied Spearman rank test (non-parametric) to identify significant relationships among the organization maturity level, implementation approach and ERP implementation. Thirty five respondents from seven companies were chosen as the object of the study, covering four different industrial sectors, namely: telecommunication, manufacturing, automotive and oil & gas companies. Survey result showed that ERP Implementation Approach (X 2) has more significant influence than does the Organization Maturity Level (X 1) on ERP Implementation Success (Y). It is discovered that coefficient correlation between X 1 and Y is 0.252. On the other hand, the coefficient correlation between X 2 and Y is 0.862.

Critical success factors for ERP implementations in Belgian SMEs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the critical success factors of ERP implementations in Belgian SMEs and to identify those success factors that are specific to a SME environment.Design/methodology/approachThe authors survey the literature to discover and classify critical success factors that are potentially applicable to small and medium‐sized enterprises. Through a survey and a multiple case study within four Belgian companies, the authors investigate which of these critical success factors apply to SMEs.FindingsThe results show that most of the success factors found in the literature apply to SMEs. Nevertheless, distinct differences were found as well. Some factors, such as a clear scope definition and a standardised infrastructure, are not regarded as critical success factors for SMEs. Moreover, SMEs tend to rely relatively heavily on the input of consultants, who they use as a source of knowledge and experience. Moreover, SMEs need to be able to adjust their businesses quickly to be able to exploit their niche to the fullest extent.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to Belgian enterprises.Originality/valueFor SMEs, it is particularly important to recognise the elements for a successful ERP implementation. This paper examines the critical success factors of ERP implementations in small and medium‐sized enterprises, while the existing literature on critical success factors of ERP implementations focuses on large enterprises.

ERP implementations and their impact upon management accountants

This paper considers the impact of ERP implementations upon the role of management accountants, upon management accounting in general, and upon business processes. It does so in the context of the perceived success of the ERP implementation. A postal questionnaire was circulated to almost 700 management accountants working in large UK-based organisations. It finds that under successful ERP implementations, management accountants have time for other, less mundane activities and their role becomes more enriching. In contrast, when the implementation is unsuccessful, the role of the management accountant increases: the ERP system deficiencies require increased activity on their part without any noticeable reduction in the tasks they traditionally perform.

The influence of business process management and some other CSFs on successful ERP implementation

PurposeEnterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become imperative for companies in order to be competitive in a turbulent and highly competitive business environment. Unfortunately, the success rate of ERP implementations is very low, which was cited in many researches and a majority of authors have reported up to 90 percent failure rate. Therefore, new empirical studies are more than necessary to validate companies' contributions to the increase of the success rate of ERP implementation, which was the primary reason for this investigation. The main goal of this paper is to stress the impact of business process management (BPM) and some other critical success factors (CSFs) on successful ERP implementations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper details an empirical investigation combined with a confirmatory approach using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe hypotheses confirm the impact of top management support, change management, and BPM on successful ERP implementation. These factors have a positive impact on successful ERP implementation and should be treated as very important in ERP systems implementation projects. The results also support the importance of top management perception (MP): if they consider BPM as a basis of business change, this contributes to a strong and positive influence on successful ERP implementation.Research limitations/implicationsOther CSFs, also required for successful ERP implementations are not covered in this paper. The sample of companies used in this study is limited only to one country, and the aspect of chief information officers (CIOs) should not be omitted either, because other CIOs might have answered the questionnaire in a different way.Practical implicationsCompanies should treat BPM as a basis of business change and therefore increase its usage in order to increase a possibility for a successful ERP implementation. Although the ERP implementation is not the most efficient per se, its effectiveness on business performance can be greater.Originality/valueContributions of the paper are important for both practitioners and researchers. The paper will provide a very few specific factors and findings which are useful for companies when planning to implement ERP systems, and should not be omitted. From theoretical standpoints the most CSFs in ERP implementations can be combined, which are dispersed in the literature, and thus facilitate or somehow even stimulate other researchers in further investigations of those factors, which are still not defined enough or investigated.

Using ERP Systems to Transform Business Processes: A Case Study at a Precession Engineering Company

Enterprises nowadays strive to keep transforming their business processes in accordance with the fast-changing customer demands so as to survive the intense global competition. In an attempt to provide practitioners with an insight into ERP implementation and the resulting business performances, this paper investigate how a successful ERP implementation can help transform enterprises processes. Case based research which is based on an in-depth observation under managerial and practitioner situation. A case study at a precession engineering company is conducted to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed strategic enterprise information model. This paper focuses on the implementation of Sales & Marketing and Warehouse modules of an ERP system. The key performance indicators are used to evaluate how the ERP implementation can improve the business processes. It is found that ERP helps to improve data visibility and improve on-time delivery but less effective on improving employee productivity. This research proposes an enterprise information model to exploit what strategy should be formulate and how ERP tactic can be implemented in company to enhance enterprise competitive advantages. The strategic enterprise information model is formulated based on our in-depth case study and ERP consultant's experience.

El impacto de los factores críticos de éxito en la implementación de sistemas integrados de ERP

Although is a recent topic, the analysis of the success of the integrated systems implementation of the enterprise resource planning (erp) is a topic that has a lot of relevance for the information technology (it) community. However, as a result of this novelty, most of the existent investigation is limited to qualitative methodologies or descriptive studies oriented to big companies or corporations mainly. This investigation presents a model that seeks to reveal the determining factors of the success of erp implementation in a small and medium Latin American company. The validation of this empiric model allowed to verify significant relationships between training and it abilities in the company and the success of the implementation, measured by the time required for this one. It was also verified the impact of this time over the perception of the companies global satisfaction with the erp implementation. The investigation concludes with recommendations for its application and also suggests additional potential areas of investigation inspired by an amazing collateral result obtained.

The role of organizational knowledge management in successful ERP implementation projects

Special attention to critical success factors in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems is evident from the bulk of literature on this issue. In order to implement these systems that are aimed at improving the sharing of enterprise-wide information and knowledge, organizations must have the capability of effective knowledge sharing to start with. Based on a review of the literature on the knowledge management in enterprise system implementation projects, this paper identifies two major areas of concern regarding the management of knowledge in this specific type of projects: managing tacit knowledge, and issues regarding the process-based nature of organizational knowledge viewed through the lens of organizational memory. The more capable an organization is in handling these issues, the more likely it is that the implementation will result in competitive advantage for the organization. The competitive advantage arises from the organization’s capabilities in internalizing and integrating the adopted processes with the existing knowledge paradigms and harmonizing the new system and the organizational culture towards getting the most out of the implementation effort.

Organisational factors for successful implementation of ERP systems

Given the substantial investments of time, money and other resources, as well as the technical and organisational risks involved, it is important to understand what is needed to ensure a successful ERP implementation. In this study, we identified the critical success factors for ERP implementations from the relevant literature, categorised them into a sound theoretical framework and linked them to ERP success outcomes. We also provided empirical evidence from two companies that have recently implemented ERP systems. We utilised the theories of business process change, process change management and the literature on information systems success.

ERP implementation by US, Indian and Greek companies: a comparative analysis

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in ERP adoption and diffusion in countries all over the world. However, not all firms have been successful in their ERP implementations. Using a case study methodology grounded in business process change theory, we examine the generic and unique factors (both cultural and non-cultural) that affect ERP implementation success in United States, India and Greece. Understanding such effects will enable managers to be more proactive and better prepared for ERP implementation. Managerial implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

The consistency among facilitating factors and ERP implementation success: A holistic view of fit

Traditionally, various ERP implementation factors have been deemed critical to success within diverse business environments. The interaction relationships among these ERP implementation success factors, however, have been overlooked. The objective of this study is to explore the interaction patterns among the ERP implementation success factors from a covariation (co-alignment) perspective. We conceptualize the “consistency” among the factors that facilitate ERP implementation and evaluate them in terms of their positive impact on successful ERP implementation. The results from a field survey of 90 Taiwanese manufacturing firms show that the “consistency” among these facilitating factors of ERP implementation had a significant positive impact on ERP implementation success. The factors examined in this study include vendor support, consultant competence, ERP project team member competence, ERP project manager leadership, top management support, and user support. Implications for managers and researchers conclude this study.

A Goals/Questions/Metrics Plan for Monitoring User Involvement and Participation in ERP Implementation Projects

ERP implementation success is influenced by a large number of factors, which most of the times are difficult to measure objectively. User involvement and participation is one of the most cited critical success factors in ERP implementation projects, and one of the most critical ones for their satisfactory outcome. This study attempts to define a set of metrics for monitoring user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects by using the Goals/Questions/Metrics method. The results of this work are threefold. First, a literature review is presented on the user involvement and participation topic as related with ERP implementation projects. Second, a framework for monitoring user involvement and participation in ERP implementation projects is proposed. And third, a Goals/Questions/Metrics preliminary plan is proposed to monitor and control user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects.