Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have emerged as the core of successful information management and the enterprise backbone of organizations. The difficulties of ERP implementations have been widely cited in the literature but research on the critical factors for initial and ongoing ERP implementation success is rare and fragmented. Through a comprehensive review of the literature, 11 factors were found to be critical to ERP implementation success – ERP teamwork and composition; change management program and culture; top management support; business plan and vision; business process reengineering with minimum customization; project management; monitoring and evaluation of performance; effective communication; software development, testing and troubleshooting; project champion; appropriate business and IT legacy systems. The classification of these factors into the respective phases (chartering, project, shakedown, onward and upward) in Markus and Tanis’ ERP life cycle model is presented and the importance of each factor is discussed.

Critical factors for successful implementation of enterprise systems

The critical success factors for ERP implementation: an organizational fit perspective

This paper reports on a comparative case study of 13 industrial firms that implemented an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It compares firms based on their dialectic learning process. All firms had to overcome knowledge barriers of two types: those associated with the configuration of the ERP package, and those associated with the assimilation of new work processes. We found that both strong core teams and carefully managed consulting relationships addressed configuration knowledge barriers. User training that included both technical and business processes, along with a phased implementation approach, helped firms to overcome assimilation knowledge barriers. However, all firms in this study experienced ongoing concerns with assimilation knowledge barriers, and we observed two different approaches to address them. In a piecemeal approach, firms concentrated on the technology first and deferred consideration of process changes. In a concerted approach, both the technology and process changes were undertaken together. Although most respondents clearly stated a preference for either piecemeal or concerted change, all firms engaged in practices that reflected a combination of these approaches.

Learning to Implement Enterprise Systems: An Exploratory Study of the Dialectics of Change

Enterprise resource planning: A taxonomy of critical factors

The paper describes the impact of critical success factors (CSFs) across the stages of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations using the responses from 86 organizations that completed or are in the process of completing an ERP implementation. Our results provide advice to management on how best to utilize their limited resources to choose those CSFs that are most likely to have an impact upon the implementation of the ERP system.

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The impact of critical success factors across the stages of enterprise resource planning implementations

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.

Jayanth K. Godla

Papers

Critical issues affecting an erp implementation