A Methodology for Evaluating Data and Output Misfits in Commercial Off-The-Shelf ERP Systems

This paper presents a methodology based on the task-technology fit theory to identify data and output misfits in the ex-ante evaluation of an off-the shelf enterprise resources planning (ERP) package. The proposed methodology consists of two stages: output misfit analysis and data misfit analysis. The purpose of the first stage is to identify corresponding field (output misfits) and data glossary for data misfit analysis. The latter stage identifies data misfits for every corresponding activity in the business process sequence. The proposed methodology provides a systematic approach to alleviate the difficulty and complexity in identifying data and output misfits. The identification results identify where the misfits are and provide a degree of mismatch, thus providing a practical basis for ERP tool selection to reduce the risk of failure in its implementation

ERP customization failure: Institutionalized accounting practices, power relations and market forces

Purpose: This paper examines a detailed case study of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) customization failure in an Egyptian state-owned company (AML) by drawing on new institutional sociology and its extensions. It explains how ERP customization failure is shaped by the interplay between institutionalised accounting practices, conflicting institutions, power relations and market forces. Methodology/Approach: The research methodology is based on using an intensive case study informed by new institutional sociology, especially the interplay between conflicting institutions, power relations and market forces. Data were collected from multiple sources, including interviews, observations, discussions and documentary analysis. Findings: The findings revealed that the inability of the ERP system to meet the core accounting requirements of the control authorities (the Central Agency for Accountability) was the explicit reason cited for the ERP failure. The externally imposed requirements of the Uniform Accounting System and planning budgets were used to resist both other institutional pressures (from the Holding Company for Engineering Industries) and market and competitive pressures. Research limitations: There are some limitations associated with the use of the case study method, including the inability to generalize from the findings of a single case study, some selectivity in the individuals interviewed, and the subjective interpretation by the researchers of the empirical data. Practical implications: The paper identifies that the interplay between institutional pressures, institutionalised accounting practices, intra-organizational power relations, and market forces contributed to the failure to embed ERP in a major company. Understanding such relationships can help other organisations to become more aware of the factors affecting successful implementation of new ERP systems and provide a better basis for planning the introduction of new technologies. Originality/value of paper: This paper draws on recent research and thinking in sociology, especially the development and application of new institutional sociology. In addition, the paper is concerned with ERP implementation and use and management accounting in a transitional economy, Egypt, and hence contributes to debate about exporting Western accounting practices and other technologies to countries with different cultures and different stages of economic and political development. Classification: Research paper/ case stud

Interpreting an ERP implementation from a stakeholder perspective

ERP systems are software packages that enable the integration of transactions oriented data and business processes throughout an organization. ERP implementation can be viewed as an organizational change process: many problems related to ERP implementation are related to a misfit of the system with the characteristics of the organization. This article uses the evidence of a case study to uncover some important dimensions of the organizational change issues related to ERP implementation. The study shows how ERP implementation can impact the interests of stakeholders of the ERP-system and how these groups may react by influencing the course of events, for example by altering the design and implementation in ways that are more consistent with their interests. Understanding the possible impact of ERP on particular interests of stakeholders may help project managers and others to manage ERP implementations more effectively.

Experiences of misfit as cues for sensemaking of ERPs

The adoption of computer-based enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) has become an important feature of large organisations in both the public and private sectors. Successfully embedding ERP systems in organisational structures does, however, pose a significant array of technical and social (human) challenges. Chief among these is ensuring that ERP users successfully adapt to new/changed work processes and tasks post-adoption. In this study Karl Weick's theory of Sensemaking is adopted to investigate the process by which users develop the meaningful understandings of ERPs. It is proposed that experiences of misfit, that result from user ignorance or organisation-artefact misalignment, act as triggers for sensemaking. Based on an integrated interpretive framework a case study of a South African Metropolitan Municipality is used to analyse 34 experiences of misfit and their consequences. Findings suggest that experiences of misfit trigger various types of response strategies during which users’ understanding of and beliefs about ERP technology are updated

Ex-Ante PLM Misfit Analysis Methodology: A Cognitive Fit Approach

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems have been introduced by companies to facilitate their new product development process to shorten the product time to market, reduce the product development cost, and meet the dynamic demands of customers. However, PLM implementation is not an easy job and some of the attempted projects failed. A common problem encountered in adopting PLM packages has been the issue of misfits, i.e., the gaps between the specifications offered by a PLM package and those required by the adopting organization, which easily causes the project to fail. Current approaches for the ex-ante analysis of PLM misfits are extremely limited. This paper develops a methodology grounded in the extended cognitive fit theory for the misfit analysis. This approach can assist in identifying and representing consistent set of information for functions and workflow processes across business requirements and the PLM package. Particularly, Petri nets that are of graphical representations and easy to understand are employed to model the function-embedded workflow process. A case study is presented to examine the feasibility of this approach. We conclude that with our methodology, PLM analysts or adopting organizations can systematically identify potential misfits and the degree of misfit between the business requirements and PLM packages in an ex-ante analysis to mitigate the risks in PLM implementations

Surfacing ERP exploitation risks through a risk ontology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a risk identification checklist for facilitating user companies to surface, organise and manage potential risks associated with the post-adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Design/methodology/approach – A desktop study, based on the process of a critical literature review, was conducted by the researchers. The critical review focused on IS and business research papers, books, case studies and theoretical articles, etc. Findings – By systematically and critically analysing and synthesising the literature reviewed, the researchers identified and proposed a total of 40 ERP post-implementation risks related to diverse operational, analytical, organisation-wide and technical aspects. A risk ontology was subsequently established to highlight these ERP risks, as well as to present their potential causal relationships. Research limitations/implications – For researchers, the established ERP risk ontology represents a starting point for further research, and provides early insights into a research field that will become increasingly important as more and more companies progress from implementation to exploitation of ERPs. Practical implications – For practitioners, the risk ontology is an important tool and checklist to support risk identification, prevention, management and control, as well as to facilitate strategic planning and decision making. Originality/value – There is a scarcity of studies focusing on ERP post-implementation in contrast with an over abundance of studies focusing on system implementation and project management aspects. This paper aims to fill this significant research gap by presenting a risk ontology of ERP post-adoption. It represents a first attempt in producing a comprehensive model in its area. No other such models could be found from the literature reviewed

Case study : an evaluation of the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) at a South African municipal entity.

Master of Commerce in Information Systems and Technology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2018.Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a computer based software application that is widely implemented in many business organisations. These systems have evolved over the years into component based modules with the ability to easily integrate with other systems, provide real time information and improve information sharing and collaboration. Choosing an ERP system is a complex process and the literature clearly illustrates the failure of organisations to effectively specify, select and implement ERP systems resulting in the inability to effectively harness the associated benefits. This study focuses on a South African water utility and the processes followed in procuring and implementing an ERP system. It is interesting to note, that in this study, despite the utility having experienced a failed ERP implementation decided to replace the same? ERP system. A rigorous process was followed to find a replacement ERP system only to set aside all alternate commercial of-the-shelf systems and re-implement the original failed ERP system. To gain insight of the processes followed, the COTS theoretical framework is presented to bring the reader’s attention to associated theoretical studies. In this study, we will conduct a systematic literature review on ERP systems, its background, implementation processes and associated implementation outcomes. This research, presents a case study that will describe and explore the process of ERP implementation at the water utility. We will document the process the utility followed in acquiring and setting up functional and non-functional evaluation criteria for the ERP system. Further, we have considered the processes of preparation, evaluation, selection and implementation. The analysis of the implementation process has brought to light the importance of defining ERP scopes based on business requirements, specifications based on the business scopes and evaluation criterion. The findings and results from this case study will contribute to the conceptual and contextual understanding of the specification, selection and implementation of ERP systems

Understanding organisation-CRM system misfits and their evolution : b a path to improving post-adoption CRM system usage

PhD ThesisSince the late 1990s, organisations have been increasingly investing in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to support their sales, marketing and customer service operations. Despite the significant growth in the acquisition of CRM systems and the widely accepted concepts of a CRM strategy, academics and practitioners repeatedly point to the high failure rates of CRM initiatives. Improving CRM systems’ use can provide organisations with considerable benefits. However, limited research has been directed towards understanding post-adoption CRM systems usage behaviour. This is an important and topical subject at a time when CRM has edged past Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as the top application software investment priority and is expected to drive Enterprise System (ES) spending in 2013 and 2014. Using a multiple case study design methodology and Grounded Theory (GT) as the data collection and analysis technique, this process study strives to accomplish four primary research objectives. Firstly, it proposes a post-adoption CRM system usage process consisting of three phases (adaptation, exploitation, and benefits realization) and seven sub-phases (training assimilation, basic functionality discovery, basic functionality appropriation, advanced functionality discovery and appropriation, individual productivity enhancement, individual job objectives achievement, and company business objectives achievement) along which individual CRM system users can be placed. Secondly, it identifies ten misfit types (communication, supervision, user support, skill sets, commitment, functionality, data, strategy, organisation, and IT/business alignment) explaining for usage discrepancy among the user population. Thirdly, it looks at the evolution of those ten misfit types, and finds that their influence varies across the three post-adoption usage phases. For example, tool related misfits (e.g. functionality) appear early but tend to disappear by the end of the adaptation phase or the beginning of the exploitation phase, while company related misfits (e.g. communication of benefits, silo organisation) appear later in the exploitation phase, but seem to widen over time and significantly impact usage when not appropriately addressed. Finally, it identifies the organisation’s leadership style as a potential root cause explaining for CRM system usage behaviour

UNDERSTANDING THE UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS OF USING INTERORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS AND INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEMS: CASE STUDIES AMONG SUPPLY CHAIN PARTNERS

Researchers and practitioners present entreprise integration to a Supply Chain as a lever for organizational performance. Yet if integration is generating performance, this cannot be done without the acceptance of new constraints due to integrated information systems implementation. We discuss the evaluation of the information systems that support the integration in order to uncover some negative consequences associated with their use. We mobilize the concept of undesirable effects and thus pose our research question: How can we identify and assess undesirable effects for users of integrated information systems or interorganizational systems? We analyze the perceptions of users on the effects of regular use of technology for their logistics activity. We adopt a qualitative methodology and select two case studies of just-in-time supply chain in the food and automotive industry. Data collection is carried out through interviews and analyzed by thematic coding. The results lead to identify twelve undesirable effects, four of which are specific to the use of interorganizational information systems. These results may extend the typology of misfits of Strong and Volkoff (2010) by entering the notion of undesirable effects to assess the negative consequences for users of the use of integrated information system

A discussion of barriers to successful exploitation of ERP systems in China

The research presented in this paper aims at identifying, assessing and discussing potential social, cultural, organisational and system barriers to successful exploitation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in Chinese State Owned Enterprises (SOE). In spite of the urgent need for research in this area, there is a scarcity of studies focusing on ERP post-implementation, in contrast with an over abundance of studies focusing on implementation and project management aspects. The need for the research thus emerged from the growing awareness in the field that there is a lack of studies addressing the organisational exploitation of ERPs after the implementation stage. The study adopted a deductive research design based on a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. This survey was preceded by a Political, Economic, Social and Technological (PEST) analysis and a set of Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analyses that enabled the researchers to narrow the scope of the study and identify an appropriate industry sector and region, namely the Electronic and Telecommunication Manufacturing Sector in the Guangdong province. The questionnaire design was based on a theoretical ontology of barriers drawn from a systematic literature review process. The questionnaire was sent to the operational managers and the information technology (IT) managers of 118 SOEs in China, from which 42 valid and usable responses were received and analysed. The findings identified that ICT system-related barriers are currently perceived by respondents as more crucial to ERP post-implementation. In contrast, due to China’s rapid economic development, continuous reforms and fluid nature of organisational environments, cultural and organisational ERP barriers were assigned a lower priority by the SOEs studied. As a result of this analysis, this paper presents and discusses 25 ERP exploitation barriers, from which 9 barriers were considered critical. The study also explored and identified 15 correlations between the barriers identified