The ERP Revolution: Surviving vs. Thriving

This paper presents preliminary findings from a research project that examined how firms are generating business value from their investments in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The research, which was done jointly with Benchmarking Partners, describes the stages of ERP implementation, the obstacles that firms encountered in generating benefits from the systems, and some critical success factors for getting business value from the implementation of an ERP system in business.     

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.     

Commodity or competitive advantage? Analysis of the ERP value paradox

A true e-business enabled firm needs the support from a well-tuned enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for providing real time data. However, many companies complain that after their huge investments in ERP systems, they found the ERP systems do not bring them new orders, new profits, or competitive advantage as ERP vendors claim. Academic studies also found mixed results regarding ERP’s payoff. In line with resource based view (RBV), the study proposes an integrated model to shed light on the ERP value paradox. We try to answer “With what organizational resources and by building what firm specific capabilities, the investment in ERP systems may bring firms competitive advantage”. Using a sample of 150 ERP and e-business adopters in the US, we found that (1) organizational resources such as managerial skills and organizational change management play a more important role than IT resources (ERP, e-Business technologies) in generating business integration capability. (2) However, neither IT resources nor organizational resources directly provide firms with competitive advantage. Instead, business integration capability built from the two resources plays a mediating role through which business achieves competitive advantage.     

Factors affecting the performance of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the post-implementation stage

Despite the widespread adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, many companies struggle to achieve the expected benefits from ERP. It has been especially observed that many companies fail to gain significant benefits from ERP in the post-implementation stage, regardless of their initial implementation success. This paper focuses on this post-implementation stage and empirically studies the factors that influence the performance of ERP in this stage. Through the review of related literature and a pilot study of Korean firms, the following six were identified as the influential factors: top management support, competency of an internal ERP team, user training, inter-department collaboration and communication, continuous process improvement and continuous systems integration/extension. The factors were used to build a comprehensive model that aims to explain how to successfully use ERP in the post-implementation stage. The model was tested with the data collected by questionnaires given to Korean companies using the partial least-square method. The results show that continuous improvement efforts and on-going organisational support have positive influence on the performance of ERP in the post-implementation stage.     

Critical Issues Affecting an ERP Implementation

Implementing an ERP causes massive change that needs to be carefully managed to reap the benefits of an ERP solution. Critical issues that must be carefully considered to ensure successful implementation include commitment from top management, reengineering of the existing processes, integration of the ERP with other business information systems, selection and management of consultants and employees, and training of employees on the new system.     

Using Fuzzy Analytic Network Process to assess the risks in enterprise resource planning system implementation

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the risk level for both intra-organizational cultures and for different industries in implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This study adopts the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) method to assess ERP implementation risks, which were categorized into four dimensions: management and execution, software system, users, and technology planning. An empirical survey was conducted that utilized the collected survey data of 20 ERP experts in Taiwan to assess, rank, and improve the critical risks of ERP implementation via the FANP method. Based on the results of the FANP method, a follow-up survey of ERP end-users in different departments of three industries was conducted to assess how intra-organizational cultures and cross-industries affect users’ perceived risks a real world scenario. Our research results demonstrated that “lack of management support and assistance” is vital risk for a successful ERP implementation. Top management support and involvement are crucial and essential factors to the success of a firm's ERP implementation. “Ineffective communication with users” was found to be the second highest risk factor. The benefits of using the FANP method for evaluating the risk factors come from the clear priority weights between alternatives. Finally, this study provides suggestions to help enterprises decrease ERP risks, and enhance the chances of success of ERP implementations among intra-organizational cultures and across-industries.     

A tale of two coalitions – marginalising the users while successfully implementing an enterprise resource planning system

Classic analyses of system implementations view user participation as a key element for successful implementation. However, under some conditions, avoiding user participation offers an alternative route to a successful implementation; this is advisable especially when the user network is weak and aligning user needs with the technological capabilities will take too much resource. To illustrate such situation, we analyse how a successful implementation outcome of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system emerged in a recently established conglomeration of two previously independent universities. The ERP was used to replace several legacy student administration systems for both political and functional reasons. It was deemed successful by both project consultants and the new university's management while the users were marginalised (‘black boxed’) and left to ‘pick up the pieces’ of an incomplete system using traditional methods such as shadow systems and work‐a‐rounds. Using a process approach and an actor–network theory ‘reading’ of related socio‐technical events, we demonstrate how three networks of actors – management, the project team and the administrative users – collided and influenced the implementation outcome and how the management and project network established the ERP as a reliable ally while at the same time the users – while being enrolled in the network – were betrayed through marginalisation. Our analysis also suggests a useful way to conduct a ‘follow the network’ analysis explaining and accounting for the observed implementation outcome. We illustrate the benefits of using a socio‐technical processual analysis and show how stable actor networks must be constructed during large‐scale information technology change and how different actor groups perceive and influence differently the implementation outcome.     

Using a hybrid MCDM methodology to identify critical factors in new product development

With increased global competition, businesses now face a more complex and dynamic competitive environment and need to develop more innovative products with higher quality and shorter product life cycles. New product development (NPD) is the keys to the success of a business, where both critical success factors (CSF) and key performance indicators (KPI) will affect the outcome of a NPD project. This study utilizes both CSF and KPI to examine the critical factors of NPD with the methodology of multiple criteria decision making and investigates the correlations of critical factors with fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory and establishes the weights affecting NPD in the criteria with the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach. The results assist managers in selecting suitable competitive strategies, making the optimal allocation of limited resources, achieving the greatest increase in benefits, and promoting the overall success of NPD. The findings show that there are various correlations between the critical factors, where ‘products and customers’ have the most influence on other dimensions. Moreover, the top five critical factor criteria weights, constructed by FAHP, are ‘quality standard of new products’, ‘complete quality management system’, ‘consumer satisfaction’, ‘excellent planning and control’, and ‘support of top managers’.     

Dominant actors, political agendas, and strategic shifts over time: a critical ethnography of an enterprise systems implementation

Much of the literature on enterprise systems implementation suggests that ERP systems should support the strategic objectives of the organization. In fact some ERP vendors tend to assume that implementing their products is a straightforward translation from strategy to IT-enabled business processes. But the strategic management literature reveals that corporate strategy is often contested terrain. Conflict over strategy has the potential to delay or derail ERP implementation efforts, leading to cost overruns, failures, and lack of expected benefits.This paper seeks to understand and explain how conflicts over strategy can affect the success of ERP implementations. We studied one firm's attempt to pursue information technology-enabled enterprise integration using critical ethnography. The firm is a small-to-medium sized enterprise within a large conglomerate in the Asia-Pacific region. Our findings show that, as the dominant actors and political agendas changed, so too did the company's enterprise integration strategy. The ERP system was designed to support a future corporate world and work environment that never arrived.     

The mediating effect of organizational culture and knowledge sharing on transformational leadership and Enterprise Resource Planning systems success: An empirical study in China

Senior leadership has been identified as a critical factor in fostering Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems success, however, the specific impact mechanism of transformational leadership on ERP success is still largely unknown. Based on organizational culture theory and knowledge based view, this study developed a theoretical model to explore the mediating effect of organizational culture and knowledge sharing on transformational leadership and ERP success. Data was collected from 115 IS executives and 413 ERP end users in 115 organizations in China. Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis results suggest that transformational leadership is directly related with all the four types of organizational culture – development culture, group culture, hierarchical culture and rational culture, and is indirectly related with knowledge sharing and ERP success. Specifically, development culture has direct impact on ERP success, while hierarchical culture, group and rational culture are indirectly related with ERP success, mediated by explicit and tacit knowledge sharing. The research findings can provide guidelines for the top executives to facilitate appropriate organizational culture, so as to foster ERP knowledge sharing and achieve business benefits with the assimilation of ERP systems.     

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.     

No time to waste: the role of timing and complementarity of alignment practices in creating business value in IT projects

Despite significant research progress, alignment-related issues are among the top concerns of executives. Previous studies mostly focus on a company-wide strategic level of alignment; while this ‘top-down’ view has benefits, it largely ignores the operational practices that help achieve alignment in IT projects as well as the impact that timing and complementarity of practices have on achieving alignment. In our research we apply four alignment practices – communication, shared understanding, management commitment and IT investment evaluation – to individual IT projects rather than at a company level; specifically, we look at the role of timing and complementarity for these alignment practices throughout different project phases. A detailed analysis of six IT projects carried out at three companies in the telecommunications industry reveals that IT projects creating higher business value employ all four alignment practices immediately from the start. No project was able to recover from failing to establish these four alignment practices in the first phase. While supporting the importance of complementarity of alignment practices, our findings also add the importance of the earliness of this complementarity.     

Strategic alignment of ERP implementation stages: An empirical investigation

We applied the notion of strategic alignment to ERP system implementation and used a balanced scorecard approach to analyze business performance. The PLS analysis showed a positive association between realized strategic alignment, shorter and more cost efficient ERP projects, faster reaction times to business events, and the benefits of ERP systems. While each stage of ERP implementation has its inherent intricacies, we concluded that there was a substantial interdependency between the stages of ERP implementation and the success factors in one stage influencing the success of another.     

Design and evaluation of hospital-based business intelligence system (HBIS): A foundation for design science research methodology

This paper describes the development of a hospital-based business intelligent system (HBIS) based on a novel developmental methodology, called the design science research methodology (DSRM), and implemented in a regional general hospital in Taiwan. A design science research methodology is adopted to cover six activities: problem identification and motivation, definition of solution objectives, design and development, demonstration, evaluation, and communication. Based on the DSRM developmental method, HBIS was successfully developed and deployed in the hospital case, and a survey of users shows positive results. In addition, the support and involvement of top management in HBIS development is found to be a critical success factor, and system implementation allowed the hospital to significantly improve performance of managerial indicators for the three abovementioned dimensions. This study contributes a novel developmental methodology from the Information Systems (IS) field as a reference model for future HBIS development, along with the integration of indicators from three major managerial dimensions - NHI, hospital accreditation, and healthcare quality.     

Managing the full ERP life-cycle: Considerations of maintenance and support requirements and IT governance practice as integral elements of the formula for successful ERP adoption

Companies adopting enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have often focused primarily on implementation-related factors while neglecting those of post-implementation. As a result, the usefulness and operation of the ERP systems, once installed, are compromised. This research adopted a case study approach to demonstrate that ERP adoption efforts that fail to pay attention to post-implementation requirements (especially those relevant to maintenance and support (M&S)) from an early stage in the project lifecycle will face dire consequences. It points out that poor planning and management of M&S services can imperil the normal operations of an ERP system and the daily activities of a business. With the life span of ERP systems getting shorter, sound M&S practices can extend their life and create a stable system platform to support efficient and effective business operations. M&S issues deserve to be considered as integral elements among the critical success factors (CSF) of ERP adoption projects. In other words, ERP success requires a full lifecycle perspective to be taken by adopting companies. With lessons having been learned from the mistakes in the first project, the company in this case study revamped its ERP implementation second time out, with due consideration being given to M&S strategies and practices from project initiation onward in order to realize a stable, usable, and maintainable system. The case study explores and identifies the critical success factors (CSF) of ERP adoption, and shows that M&S must be included as a key element from the outset and throughout the system lifecycle. Our findings capture a great deal of experience for any ERP adopting companies to follow in order to avoid learning costly lessons both in implementation and subsequent M&S throughout the lifespan of the system. A set of propositions is also presented for academic researcher to consider in future ERP research endeavors.     

Solving misfits in ERP implementations by SMEs

The gap between the organizational needs and the extent to which an ‘off‐the‐shelf’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can meet these is called a misfit. A framework is developed to distinguish actual from perceived misfits. This is used to analyse the ERP implementation at four small‐sized and medium‐sized enterprises. The results show that they prefer to adjust the ERP system to their business processes when needed but often unnecessarily change the system to solve perceived misfits. The framework is a first step to prevent this unnecessary work in the future.     

Empirical evidence of an integrative knowledge competence framework for ERP systems implementation in UK industries

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can greatly improve business productivity and better serve customers by creating values through integrating business processes and sharing current information. Knowledge Management (KM) is crucial for ERP systems implementation, but is particularly demanding task. This paper discusses ERP systems implementation in UK manufacturing and service sector organisations, focusing on empirical evidence of an innovative KM approach for improving knowledge competence for ERP success. Qualitative research was conducted, using semi-structured interviews with ERP experts. Data analysis used a combination of thematic and comparative analysis. The findings suggest that the integrative knowledge competence framework can provide ERP practitioners with useful guidance on what the key knowledge determinants are and how the relationships between knowledge components should be best managed to achieve ERP systems implementation success in real life business situations.     

Business analytics maturity of firms: an examination of the relationships between managerial perception of IT,business analytics maturity and success

This study develops a measure for business analytics (BA) maturity and empirically examines the relationships between managerial perception of IT, BA maturity and BA success. The findings suggest that (1) BA maturity can be measured via BA integration & management support, process-level benefits of BA and technology & data analytics capabilities, (2) BA maturity positively affects organizations’ overall BA success, and (3) managerial perception of IT positively influence organizations’ achievement of BA maturity.     

An extension of the technology acceptance model in an ERP implementation environment

This paper presents an extension to the technology acceptance model (TAM) and empirically examines it in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation environment. The study evaluated the impact of one belief construct (shared beliefs in the benefits of a technology) and two widely recognized technology implementation success factors (training and communication) on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use during technology implementation. Shared beliefs refer to the beliefs that organizational participants share with their peers and superiors on the benefits of the ERP system.Using data gathered from the implementation of an ERP system, we showed that both training and project communication influence the shared beliefs that users form about the benefits of the technology and that the shared beliefs influence the perceived usefulness and ease of use of the technology. Thus, we provided empirical and theoretical support for the use of managerial interventions, such as training and communication, to influence the acceptance of technology, since perceived usefulness and ease of use contribute to behavioral intention to use the technology.