Decision Making in the ERP Community

This paper, although bibliographical in nature, stresses the importance of researching ERP from the perspective of the ERP community, defined here as a triadic group composed of (1) an ERP vendor, (2) an ERP consultant and (3) an implementing organisation; and focuses on understanding the relationships and inter-dependencies that exist between these actors. In this novel perspective, the second contribution of this paper is to introduce the concept of category manipulation – that is to say non-decision making - to the area of IS in general and more specifically to ERP research. As far as the authors are aware, this paper is the first to examine the ERP decision making process under this light. The researchers\u27 objective is to structure their ideas in an effort to lay the foundations for a model of ERP decision making that can inform both the practice and investigation of ERP implementation

Benefit realisation through ERP: the re-emergence of data warehousing

The need for an integrated enterprise-wide set of management information pronounced Data Warehousing the ‘hot topic’ of the early-to-mid 1990’s, however, it became unfashionable through the mid-to-late 1990s, with the approach of Y2K and with it the widespread implementation of ERP systems. However, in recent times, the re-emergence of Data Warehousing, to address the limitations and unrealised benefits of ERP systems implementation, provides researchers with a new challenge in understanding the ‘double learning curve’ for an organisation, undertaking in quick succession both an ERP systems project and a Data Warehousing project, in an attempt to finally achieve the benefits expected but never realised

Knowledge Transfer Challenges in ERP Development Networks: The Quest for a Shared Development Model

Contemporary Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system development is conducted in a multi-stakeholder network. It requires the collaboration of different organizations and stakeholders. Knowledge transfer (KT) is difficult and often causes failure in projects, yet it has not been thoroughly investigated from the network’s perspective. Thus, this interpretive case study investigates what makes KT difficult in ERP development networks. As a result, seven categories of KT challenges were found: articulating domain knowledge, unwillingness to communicate, excessive trust, using informal communication channels and methods, different ways of working, missing or unidirectional connections between parties, and unsuitable or missing tools. The main contribution is gaining a deeper understanding of ERP development networks and especially about what makes KT difficult when developing ERP systems in a multistakeholder context. These findings imply that a shared development model for the EDN needs to be created in order to avoid KT challenges

Towards a Model for Evaluating Organizational Readiness for ERP and Data Warehousing Projects

The need for an integrated enterprise-wide set of management information pronounced Data Warehousing the ‘hot topic’ of the early-to-mid 1990’s, however, it became unfashionable through the mid-to-late 1990s, with the approach of Y2K and the widespread implementation of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. However, in recent times, the re-emergence of Data Warehousing, coupled with ERP implementations, to address the limitations and unrealised benefits of ERP systems in the area of reporting, provides researchers and managers with new challenges. This paper lays the foundation for a model of organisational prerequisites for enterprise-wide integration projects. The model is aimed at the ‘Intelligence’ phase of managerial decision making for such projects and should help managers assess their organisation’s readiness for ERP and data warehousing projects .The main objective of the paper is to present a literature-based model which lists the key prerequisites that organisations should assess prior to undertaking these expensive projects

Making sense of the Master Data Management (MDM) concept: Old wine in new bottles or new wine in old bottles?

This paper presents an insight into the emerging concept of Master Data Management (MDM) and highlights issues that both academics and business managers should consider to better understand the meaning of this ‘hot topic’. This critical reflection paper is forward looking and attempts to make sense of the MDM concept and highlight the issues associated with implementation. We argue that both the Data Warehousing and ERP concepts are the forerunners to the emergence of MDM. We argue that MDM is effectively Data Warehousing branded with ERP market rhetoric and contains an added repository of ‘master data’. We see MDM as another attempt at data integration due to the failure of previous Data Warehousing, ERP and ERPII/BI initiatives. Finally, we argue that more research should be conducted to fully appreciate the true meaning of the concept of MDM and MDM implementation

CENTRALIZED AND DISTRIBUTED ERP DEVELOPMENT MODELS: OPERATIONS AND CHALLENGES

Different approaches to enterprise resource planning systems development are often mentioned in the IS literature. However, they are not usually explained thoroughly. The aims of this interpretive case study are thus to introduce two different approaches for developing tailored ERP systems and to explain how they function, i.e., how the information about different kinds of requests flows through the network of actors, from business needs to production. In addition, the challenges in development caused by these development approaches are considered. As a result, we have identified two different models for ERP development: centralized and distributed decision making. The most significant challenges are related to communication channels, transfer of domain knowledge, and the role of key individuals in the development activities. Both approaches are considered successful overall, yet distinctive strengths and defects can be identified from each

How Does Socio-Technical Approach Influence Sustainability? Considering the Roles of Decision Making Environment

Aim/purpose: the current study explains the mediation of ERP in the role of a socio-technical approach and decision-making with firms’ sustainable performance. Background: despite the existence of existing literature on success and failure factors of ERP, the current work highlights the impact of socio-technical factors and decision-making environment on ERP success. Additionally, the weak research work regarding the mediation of ERP is addressed here in this study and has tried to fill the mentioned gap. Contribution: the most important contribution of the study is assessing the mediating role of the ERP system in the linkage of decision-making environment and socio-technical factors. Moreover, the work contributes by examining the moderation of organizational culture while relating the socio-technical environment and ERP system. Findings: the study finds that there is a significant role of ERP as a mediator while relating socio-technical elements and the decision-making environment; however, we do not find any significant moderation of organizational culture in the linkage of ERP system and socio-technical elements. Impact on Society: the societal implication of the study is that it provides a reference for the firms having the same cultural characteristics while using ERP to overcome the issue of pollution in Iraq

Justifying an ERP Investment: Critical Success Factors for Transformation Investments

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects often lead to disappointing outcomes, even downright failures, which is not in keeping with the vast investments they require. It is argued in this paper that a lack of managerial focus on the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for ERP implementation at the outset of their project (however well captured they have been in the literature to date) is the root cause of organisations not achieving the expected outcomes from their Transformation investment. This paper examines the ERP project implementations of four organisations where data and observations were collected over a two year period. From this rich body of empirical evidence, we propose to contribute to our collective understanding of the CSFs for ERP implementation that play a key role in ensuring that investments in ERP packages (Transformation investments) have a greater likelihood of producing desired project outcomes. This research paper also contributes to increasing the perceived usefulness of CSFs to managers and practitioners and illustrates the fact that organisations should undertake self-assessment exercises to improve their preparations for ERP project implementations

Examining the impact of long-term consultant-client relationship in ERP projects

Many organizations took Enterprise resource planning system in use decade or even two decades ago. In many cases there is an external ERP supplier or consulting company helping in the implementation project. Since the initial implementation the client and consultant company might have been collaborating and conducting new projects together. Therefore, there exist many long-term ERP consultant-client relationships nowadays. This long history and past collaboration is likely to have an impact on the new projects that companies conduct together. However, in the past research this aspect has been mostly neglected and there is no previous research concerning how the long-term consultant-client relationship impacts on new ERP projects. The goal of this study will be examining this question and also to find out how consulting companies actually use this client specific history. The research was conducted by first developing a deep understanding on the ERP field through broad literature review and identifying the central areas in the ERP projects. After this a multiple-case study design was selected for a research strategy. Professionals in the field of ERP consulting with experience from long-term collaboration with a client were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. In order to capture their perceptions a qualitative approach was chosen. Finally the results of the interviews were combined and analysis and conclusions made. The results reveal that long-term relationship between the consultant company and client has a notable impact on the new projects. The impacts were analyzed through the areas defined by ERP project related critical success factors and the history seemed to have some kind on impact to all of these factors. The factors that were most impacted by the long history were project planning and goals setting, project management, communication and collaboration with the client and project team composition. In general, past knowledge and experience of the client was seen to facilitate new projects a lot. The identified reasons for this were improved communication, better understanding of client's business processes and people, and increased trust between the parties. Also some challenges were identified such as collaboration and communication between the parties becoming too informal, people getting too used to certain habits, inability to renew and come up with new ideas, excessive personification of personnel level relationships and keeping the profit margins high and consultants' knowledge level up to date. In addition, the results showed that the client specific history is used at some level but there would be still be more possibilities to exploit this information which in most cases tends to be in a tacit form