Critical Factors and Multisite Implementation of ERP: A Case Study in the UAE

Despite extensive studies in the ERP literature, little empirical understanding has been reached in relation to ERP implementation experiences in developing markets, particularly in the UAE context. Derived from the notions of critical successful factors and multisite implementation, two of widely researched areas in ERP studies, this paper thus seeks to provide practical insights about organizations’ ERP implementation experiences in the UAE setting. More specifically, it describes and contrasts critical factors and multisite implementation experiences in two case organizations situated in the UAE. These case organizations, one being categorized as a global company and the other local, provide interesting comparison of ERP implementation because of their complementary organizational structure and business strategies. In contrast to traditional ERP frameworks’ suggestions, these case organizations’ experiences reveal that contemporary ERP implementations might be more complex than previously expected since none of these case organizations’ ERP experiences follows suggestions made by frameworks based. Further discussion about how to better understand and examine maturing ERP technology in an increasingly globalized business environment such as the UAE is provided

A comprehensive review of the enterprise systems research

(WP 12/04 Clave pdf) Enterprise systems (ES) can be considered as a novel phenomenon for the information system research and other academic fields (e.g. operations and supply chain), which has opened an immense potential and opportunities for research. Although the interest of the scholars on ES is recent, the number of publications is continuously growing since 2000. The aim of this paper is to review a sample of important contributions of the ES works published to date. To do this, the selected works have been classified in four key topics: business implications, technical issues, managerial issues, and implementation issues.Enterprise systems, Research

Firm and Employee Effects of an Enterprise Information System: Micro-econometric Evidence

We investigate the impact of adopting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system on performance changes and employee outcomes in a retail chain. We find that: (i) sales and inventory turnover initially drop by 7 % and recover in 6-12 months; (ii) inventory turnover recovers more quickly for establishments that adopt ERP later; (iii) employee outcomes, including increased workload, greater job difficulty and enhanced multitasking, vary significantly over time, though implications for employee welfare are ambiguous.enterprise resource planning; retailing; Finland; IT

A Comprehensive Study on The Differences Between MRP and ERP Implementation

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the fundamental differences between Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. In order to reduce the complexity in undertaking such a comprehensive study, the study is performed in a number of steps such as 1) Comparative analysis of the differences in Key Critical Success Factors (KCSFs) in MRP implementation with those in ERP implementation in the period prior to the millennium change, 2) Comparative analysis of the differences in KCSFs in MRP implementation with those of ERP implementation in the post millennium-change period, and 3) How the perceptions of the KCSFs and the processes in ERP Implementation change with time

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.

The Impacts of Organizational Learning and Innovation on Enterprise Systems Benefits of Australian Organizations

Enterprise Systems (ES) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems have been widely adopted by organizations around the world with the global market revenue estimated by AMR Research (2009) at 37.5 billion US dollars in 2008 and is expected to continue growing. Given the huge investments made by organizations for their ES implementations, many organizations have found it difficult to realize all the benefits expected from their ES implementations. Organizational learning and organizational innovation are crucial factors that help organizations to further achieve ES benefits after implementation. However, literature review suggests there is a lack of research done to provide insight on what ES benefits are influenced by organizational learning and innovation. This study is guided by the Competing Value Framework (CVF) to explore the impacts of organizational learning and innovation on the ES benefits. It includes a review on literature for organizational learning and organizational innovation, findings and analysis of research accomplished by multi-case study of eight large Australian organizations

The Challenges of Enterprise Integration: Cycles of Integration and Disintegration Over Time

In recent years enterprise integration has become an important theme in information systems research and practice. Enterprise integration pervades enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), and customer resource management (CRM) systems and applications. However, much IS research in this area seems to assume that enterprise integration is inevitable and that enterprise integration is strategically necessary. These assumptions appear to have held sway until now, probably because most IS researchers have studied the life cycle of just one single enterprise systems project. Our research throws into question these assumptions. Using critical ethnography, we studied a small-to- medium sized company within the context of a large conglomerate over a seven-year period in total, from mid 1996 to early 2004. This company was one of many subsidiaries within a large conglomerate in the Asia- Pacific region (one of the global 500 companies with annual revenues of more than US$4 billion). Looking at the broader context (the conglomerate as a whole), and seen over a sufficiently long time scale, our findings suggest that enterprise integration is not inevitable, nor is it always strategically necessary. Rather, enterprise integration is perhaps best described as a cycle: as one or more cycles of integration, disintegration, and (perhaps) reintegration. This paper can be seen as one response to the call for more empirical in-depth case studies concerning enterprise systems

Critical Successful Factors of ERP Implementation: A Review

Recently e-business has become the focus of management interest both in academics and in business. Among the major components of e-business, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is the backbone of other applications. Therefore more and more enterprises attempt to adopt this new application in order to improve their business competitiveness. Owing to the specific characteristics of ERP, its implementation is more difficult than that of traditional information systems. For this reason, how to implement ERP successfully becomes an important issue for both academics and practitioners. In this paper, a review on critical successful factors of ERP in important MIS publications will be presented. Additionally traditional IS implementation and ERP implementation will be compared and the findings will be served as the basis for further researc

Critical success factors in a multiple ERP systems integration project : a case study in a multinational corporation

Mestrado em Gestão de Sistemas de InformaçãoOs sistemas Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) emergiram de forma significativa nas empresas multinacionais na década de 90. Nos dias de hoje os ERPs destas organizações encontram-se numa fase de maior maturidade e os tipos de implementações com que lidam são diferentes. Por isso é importante perceber como é que os Factores Críticos de Sucesso (FCS) destes tipos de projectos, diferem dos FCS dos Projectos de adopção de ERP. Esta pesquisa foca-se num exemplo deste novo tipo de projectos: uma integração de cinco ERPs diferentes em apenas um único ERP, numa empresa Multinacional portuguesa da área das Utilities. Para atingir os objectivos deste estudo, foi utilizado um caso de estudo que envolveu a recolha de dados qualitativos através de entrevistas realizadas a um conjunto de participantes com responsabilidades directas no Projecto referentes a todos os países envolvidos. Foi concluído que não obstante todos os factores terem sido considerados importantes também neste tipo de projecto, existem alguns factores que não são considerados tão importantes e outros que são considerados mais importantes do que acontece num projecto de adopção de ERP. Foi também concluído que em alguns dos factores mais críticos bem como respectivos motivos e a realidade por detrás dessa criticidade são diferentes.Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have emerged widely in global, multinational corporations in the 1990s. As of today, these corporations ERPs are in a considerable higher degree of maturity and the types of implementations that they face are different. As such, it is important to understand how the Critical Success Factors (CSF) of these types of projects are different from the CSF of ERP adoption Projects. This research is focused on an example of such projects: an integration of five different ERP systems into a single ERP system in a utilities multinational company in Portugal. To achieve the objectives of this study it was used a qualitative case study that involved the collection of qualitative data by a relevant number of interviews made to a set of participants with direct responsibilities in the Project within the several countries involved. It is concluded that despite that all the factors remain important, there are some factors that are considered not as critical and others are more critical than in a project of ERPs adoption. It was also concluded that in some of the most critical success factors, the reasons and the reality behind that criticality is different

The Dynamics of Critical Success Factors of Enterprise Resource Planning Programs

Research on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations has been carried out since the late 1990s, identifying various CSFs, empirically testing them and summarizing them in taxonomies. Little attention has been paid so far to ERP programs, which are employed frequently in practice. In this context, a program is an additional entity which supervises and monitors the single projects within an ERP implementation, and during all phases of the ERP life cycle. It is important to note that research barely considers the notion of programs explicitly and often abstracts from challenges stemming from interdependent, related projects and the dynamics over the implementation life cycle. This research approaches this gap from the perspective of phases by investigating the CSFs of two large ERP programs in-depth over the course of their life cycles. We employ a variant of the "Straussian" grounded theory approach for our interpretive case studies. The structures and the contexts of the two programs were significantly different. Consequently, as we deem the contextual information particularly important, we (1) perform two independent analyses of the programs. In this step we present two models which give us further insights into the dynamics of CSFs in ERP programs. The first model (a) attributes different perceptions of salient groups in relation to a CSF as determinants for IS-success. The second model (b) presents the program construct as a means of organizational learning to impact CSFs over the life cycle of an ERP program. In a second analysis step (2), we continue with a comparative cross-case analysis and discuss differences and commonalities. Furthermore, a common set of CSFs and the benefits of ERP programs are presented. The results show us that CSFs can change over the program life cycle and a more dynamic view is warranted. Furthermore, we illustrate programs as powerful tools that increase the likelihood of successful implementation efforts. We present two models highlighting the roles of perceptions (a) and organizational learning (b) and how they can shape their underlying CSFs. These parsimonious, easily applicable models provide the basis for empirical research in this area, and can be used by practitioners as a point of reference, increasing the likelihood of a successful implementation. Lastly, we demonstrate that an ERP program as an additional entity is most beneficial in contexts with a high degree of integration, dependencies and interrelations between the projects, where the resources need to be allocated and prioritized efficiently