The role played by interdependences in ERP implementations: An empirical analysis of critical factors that minimize elapsed time

We analyzed the role played by different module types that influence the time spent on an ERP implementation. By using the concept of interdependences together with organizational integration theory, we distinguished between business-support and value-chain modules and affirmed that their respective implementation times would differ. We also highlighted the existence of time-savings and facilitator mechanisms that could reduce the total elapsed time for an ERP implementation with these module types. We found empirical support for our hypotheses by using data from 141 organizations and using econometric duration models. Through contextual, organizational, and project specific controls, our results lead us to the conclusion that value-chain modules take longer than business-support modules to implement. Furthermore, we found empirical evidence of time-savings and facilitator mechanisms in the ERP implementation process.     

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.     

ERP system usage and benefit: A model of antecedents and outcomes

ERP system usage has been identified as a critical factor in attaining the benefit from an ERP installation. However, the specific antecedents of ERP usage and its impact on ERP benefit remains largely unknown. Drawing on absorption capacity theory, this study develops a theoretical model that examines the mediating effect of ERP system usage on ERP benefits. Similarly, the study also identifies the antecedents of ERP system usage. A model is tested using the responses of 157 ERP system end-users across the United States and the results suggest that ERP system usage is directly related ERP benefit. However, the relationship is moderated by the degree of knowledge integration mechanisms within the firm. Consistent with the proposed model, the results also reveal that technical resources, organizational fit and the extent of ERP implementation are key drivers of ERP system usage. The research findings advance our knowledge on how managers can enhance ERP usage and realize optimal ERP benefits.     

Relationships among ERP post-implementation success constructs: An analysis at the organizational level

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems implementation success factors have been widely researched; however, few have investigated ERP post-implementation success in organizational contexts. The paucity of research into ERP system success evaluations partly motivates this research. To that end, the objective of this study is twofold. First, it primarily investigates the relationships among six constructs or dimensions in a respecified ERP system success measurement model, which was developed from prior relevant frameworks. Second, this research adds to the body of knowledge in the information system (IS) success evaluation domain, especially with its focus on ERP packages. The extended ERP system success model was tested using data collected in a cross-sectional field survey of 109 firms in two European countries. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test six relevant hypotheses. The SEM results showed that five out of the six hypotheses have significant, positive associations. Namely, the constructs of System Quality, Service Quality, Individual Impact, Workgroup Impact, and Organizational Impact have strong relevance in ERP success conceptualization, whereas Information Quality does not, at least, in the context of our data. The pertinence of the study’s findings for IS success evaluation as well as its implications for practice and research are discussed.     

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.     

氧化铝生产过程制造执行系统的研究

制造执行系统(MES)是连接上层企业资源计划(ERP)与底层过程控制系统(PCS)的桥梁,是基于ERP,MES,PCS三层结构的流程工业综合自动化系统的关键。针对氧化铝生产过程的特点,分析和探讨了氧化铝生产过程MES体系结构和功能,提出了氧化铝生产过程MES的功能模块设计。实践结果表明:氧化铝MES的实施实现了氧化铝生产过程,下层过程控制的实时信息和上层企业资源计划的信息融合与贯通,实现了氧化铝生产过程的优化控制、优化运行和优化管理,提高了企业的综合竞争力。     

ERP systems adoption: An exploratory study of the organizational factors and impacts of ERP success

We examined the relationships between the success of ERP system adoption, extent of business process improvement (BPI), and organizational performance and investigated the associations between the outcomes of these initiatives and such organizational factors as strategic intent, senior management support, and the status of the IT function within a company. A correlation analysis of 96 firms was made to test our hypothesis that the strategic intent to use ERP was closely related to the success of BPI, ERP, and organizational performance. The results also demonstrated that CEO-IT distance may have little direct bearing on the outcomes of ERP and BPI initiatives. A closer CEO-IT reporting relationship, however, was found to be associated with higher levels of senior management support for both types of enterprise projects. This empirical evidence reinforced the long-held assumption that organization-level benefits, BPI, and ERP success were closely related; and that these relationships were subject to the influence of the organizational variables.     

The Use of an ERP System to Facilitate Regulatory Compliance

This article reports the findings of a case study conducted in a multinational organization that aims to investigate how an enterprise resource planning system (ERP) can facilitate control over reporting processes and thus ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. The findings demonstrate how the use of an ERP to comply with financial regulation can impact organizational roles. In particular, IT managers must ensure that the ERP addresses regulatory requirements for internal control over financial reporting.     

Risk management in ERP project introduction: Review of the literature

In recent years ERP systems have received much attention. However, ERP projects have often been found to be complex and risky to implement in business enterprises. The organizational relevance and risk of ERP projects make it important for organizations to focus on ways to make ERP implementation successful.     

A fuzzy model to evaluate the suitability of installing an enterprise resource planning system

The use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) as a foundation for the integration of the complete range of business processes and functions, is clearly useful and economically profitable in most very large organizations which manage a great deal of data in their information systems. However, the decision of installing an ERP system in all the companies is not always so clear, it will depend on the size, future profits and other features of the company. Therefore, different parameters (features, aspects) will be evaluated to make a decision about the suitability of the ERP system. These parameters might have different nature or the knowledge about them could be vague or imprecise. Thus, this implies that it would be suitable that the evaluation process can manage heterogeneous information. In this paper we shall present a fuzzy evaluation model to evaluate the suitability of an ERP system based on a multi-expert decision-making (ME-DM) process that is able to deal with heterogeneous information.     

ERP系统架构的设计与实现

ERP即企业资源计划，是可以处理一个企业中几乎所有的经营管理任务的一种管理信息系统。该文采用De1phi作为开发工具，在C／S的N层体系结构基础上提出并实现了一种全新的ERP系统架构，并用于南汽集团的ERP系统之中，实践应用表明该架构是可行并有效的。     

ERP管理思想及其发展趋势探析

通过分析企业资源计划（Enterprise Resource Planning,简称ERP）环境下的管理思想模式,结合中国企业管理现状,指出了ERP先进的管理理念,构建了适合企业自身特点的管理模式,并对ERP的未来发展做了分析和展望。ERP,它转变了管理理念,拓宽了管理范围,具有先进性和科学性。     

Active ERP implementation management: A Real Options perspective

Although enterprise resources planning (ERP) implementation has been one of the most significant challenges of the last decade, it comes with a surprisingly high failure rate due to its high risk nature. The risks of ERP implementation, which involve both technical and social uncertainties, must to be effectively managed. Traditional ERP practices address the implementation of ERP as a static process. Such practices focus on structure, not on ERP as something that will meet the needs of a changing organization. As a result, many relevant uncertainties that cannot be predefined are not accommodated, and cause the implementation fail in the form of project delay and cost overruns. The objective of this paper is to propose an active ERP implementation management perspective to manage ERP risks based on the Real Options (RO) theory, which addresses uncertainties over time, resolves uncertainties in changing environments that cannot be predefined. By actively managing ERP implementation, managers can improve their flexibility, take appropriate action to respond to the often-changing ERP environment, and achieve a more successful ERP implementation.     

Moderating effects of localization differences on ERP use: A socio-technical systems perspective

Despite the promised benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, more than two thirds of ERP system projects result in failure. In this study, we investigate some plausible reasons for their failure from the user’s perspective. Particularly, we propose the socio-technical factors that affect ERP system use. This study has two research objectives. First, it introduces and tests a theoretical model that views ERP systems as both an organizational change driver and a sophisticated information system to explain the phenomenon of ERP system use. For this purpose, the proposed model includes attitude toward change and computer self-efficacy; this may affect ERP system use behavior through perceived usefulness for the systems. Second, this paper attempts to shed some light on how the localization differences of ERP systems may affect users’ intention to use the ERP systems. The results based on survey data using subjects from two different ERP systems support the proposed research model. It identifies the moderating effect of the localization differences. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed along with its limitations.     

基于Web服务的开放式ERP系统设计与开发

针对企业中不同平台的异构资源集成问题，给出了一个基于Weh服务的ERP系统设计和开发实例，论述了系统设计和开发过程，说明了其SOAP协议的实现过程。系统主要采用Web服务技术解决移动计算在制造企业的应用时引起的异构平台间系统集成问题。系统对企业巾的Legacy系统实现很好的集成，使制造企业中的ERP系统具有适用于多平台的开放式结构。     

Enhancing Manufacturing Performance with Erp Systems

This article presents five case studies indicating that enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems do enhance the performance of manufacturing organizations. the ERP systems studied are from SAP, Baan, and Oracle. in all five cases, better cross-functional integration was a critical success factor.     

基于版本管理企业需求驱动的企业资源计划批量定制研究

ERP 实施成功率低已经成为制约 ERP 效益发挥的一大瓶颈因素。这篇文章认为必须从企业的需求出发,在 ERP 软件产品一侧下功夫,提出了基于版本管理企业需求驱动的企业资源计划软件批量定制开发模型,详细论述了 ERP 产品开发中的版本管理,基于企业需求分析的动态企业建模,批量定制的企业资源计划产品生产等问题,同时优化了 ERP 软件开发过程中的版本管理。解决了 ERP 产品柔性、适应性和 ERP 产品敏捷生产的问题,为提高我国企业 ERP 产品的实施成功率,探索出一条新途径。     

Identification and classification of ERP critical failure factors in Iranian industries

Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) is a complex and costly process, which usually results in serious failures. The majority of previous studies and research projects have been conducted in identifying ERP Critical Success Factors (CSFs) rather than Critical Failure Factors (CFFs). On the other hand, most studies have been devoted to developed countries, while in developing countries, many companies have moved towards using such systems. The majority of IT/IS management standards and guidelines have been developed by technologically-leading countries. But developing countries, which mostly confront with especial challenges, have a different condition from the implicit assumptions of leading countries. Iran is one of these countries that many of its ERP implementation projects led to failure. There is no comprehensive study that identifies ERP CFFs in Iranian industries. The main purpose of this study is to identify such factors and classify them to help other industries, consultants and implementers to prevent failures in the implementation of ERP projects. So, at first, with the semi structured interviews and literature reviews, 47 failure factors were identified. After that a questionnaire developed and sent to ERP project team members in Iranian industries that failed in their ERP projects. Robust Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) has been used for data analysis, which finally classified critical failure factors in seven groups named as vendor and consultant, human resources, managerial, project management, processes, organizational and technical. The results of this study have provided a very useful reference for scholars and managers to identify the relevant issues of ERP projects failure in developing countries.     

浅谈ERP系统在中小型物流企业中的应用

ERP系统近年来在各行各业得到越来越广泛的应用,主要针对物流行业的具体特点,论述了ERP模块化系统开发的实施过程,物流行业中的ERP目前的应用现状,以及物流企业中ERP系统开发的关键点等,其结果能充分的发挥ERP系统在物流企业中的整体管理效益,使得企业物流,资金流,工作流,信息流能够很好的整合为一体。最后简要谈谈ERP在铜铁物流中的应用。     

浅谈ERP系统在中小型物流企业中的应用

ERP系统近年来在各行各业得到越来越广泛的应用,主要针对物流行业的具体特点,论述了ERP模块化系统开发的实施过程,物流行业中的ERP目前的应用现状,以及物流企业中ERP系统开发的关键点等,其结果能充分的发挥ERP系统在物流企业中的整体管理效益,使得企业物流,资金流,工作流,信息流能够很好的整合为一体。最后简要谈谈ERP在钢铁物流中的应用。