Preliminary Results in a Multi-site Empirical Study on Cross-organizational ERP Size and Effort Estimation

This paper reports on initial findings in an empirical study carried out with representatives of two ERP vendors, six ERP adopting organizations, four ERP implementation consulting companies, and two ERP research and advisory services firms. Our study’s goal was to gain understanding of the state-of-the practice in size and effort estimation of cross-organizational ERP projects. Based on key size and effort estimation challenges identified in a previously published literature survey, we explored some difficulties, fallacies and pitfalls these organizations face. We focused on collecting empirical evidence from the participating ERP market players to assess specific facts about the state-of-the-art ERP size and effort estimation practices. Our study adopted a qualitative research method based on an asynchronous online focus group

An Empirical Study of Operational Performance Parity Following Enterprise System Deployment

This paper presents an empirical investigation into whether the implementation of packaged Enterprise Systems (ES) leads to parity in operational performance. Performance change and parity in operational performance are investigated in three geographically defined operating regions of a single firm. Order lead time, the elapsed time between receipt of an order and shipment to a customer, is used as a measure of operational performance. A single ES installation was deployed across all regions of the subject firm\u27s operations.Findings illustrate parity as an immediate consequence of ES deployment. However, differences in rates of performance improvement following deployment eventually result in significant (albeit smaller than pre-deployment) performance differences. An additional consequence of deployment seems to be an increased synchronization of performance across the formerly independent regions

Clarifying leadership roles in ERP implementation projects

Existence of an adequate project champion role has been identified as a critical success factor in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation projects. However, the figure of the project champion is not yet quite well understood. Some authors relate it with the project sponsor figure while others relate it with the project manager figure. This paper tries to clarify these concepts. Our research framework is based upon an extensive ERP literature review and a web survey. The findings of this web survey suggest that the adequate project champion role is that of the project sponsor, emerging as a dual-role champion.ERP, Leadership , Roles

Show Me the Green: Three Essays on Information Systems Value and Environmental Performance in Global Organizations.

Businesses utilize information systems (IS) to increase revenues, reduce costs, and spur innovation. IS automate tasks, generate and deliver information, and can transform core value creation processes. As climate change and its associated challenges become increasingly relevant to business enterprises worldwide, IS are a key tool in enabling their response. Prior research shows that IS can either aid or inhibit organizational efforts, yet we do not fully understand their influence in this important context. This dissertation presents three essays examining how IS affects financial market value and greenhouse gas emissions performance in large businesses. The first essay (Chapter 2) introduces a method utilized in chapter 3. After finding a surprising dearth of international event studies in the IS discipline, a multiple-factor method is selected from related management literature to estimate international financial market reaction. Its performance relative to the commonly-used single-factor model is evaluated with a Monte Carlo analysis. Error correction improvement of the multiple factor model is calculated to be 44%-99% over the single-factor model for conditions observed in world markets 2000-2012. The second essay (Chapter 3) utilizes the multiple-factor model from chapter 2 to investigate international financial market reaction to Carbon Management Systems (CMS) adoption. CMS, a class of IS, enable the capture and management of carbon footprints. Three main results emerge. First, shareholders do not react positively to CMS announcements, as wealth effects are either not significant or negative, depending on the specification. Second, markets appear to penalize firms in more carbon regulated countries versus others, consistent with theory. Lastly, negative reactions to CMS appear to be dampening over time. The third essay (Chapter 4) examines the impact of IS on firm GHG emissions for large corporations with a presence in North America. This first-of-its-kind analysis finds interaction effects between GHG reduction plans and the physical deployment scope of ERP modules for Enterprise Support (e.g. HR, Finance, Accounting). Corporations with reduction plans in place and the highest 18% of ES physical scope are associated with reduced CO2 emissions. A one-standard-deviation increase in the ES physical scope deployment measure reduces GHG emissions by 46.63% for these companies.PhDBusiness AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113461/1/danrush_1.pd

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Recent Advances in the Empirics of Organizational Economics

We present a survey of recent contributions in the empirical organizational economics, focusing on management practices and decentralization. Productivity dispersion between firms and countries has motivated the improved measurement of firm organization across industries and countries. There appears to be substantial variation in management practices and decentralization between countries, but especially within countries. Much of the poorer average management quality in countries like Brazil and India seems due to a "long tail" of poorly managed firms, which barely exist in the US. Many basic economic theories are supported by this new data. Some stylized facts include: (1) competition seems to foster improved management and decentralization; (2) larger firms, skillintensive plants and foreign multinationals appear better managed and are more decentralized; (3) family owned and managed firms appear to have worse management; (4) firms facing an environment of lighter labor market regulations, and more human capital intensive organizations specialize relatively more in "people management". There is evidence for complementarities between ICT, decentralization and management, but the relationship is complex and identification of the productivity effects of organizational practices remain a challenge for future research.productivity, organization, management, decentralization

An Updated ERP Systems Annotated Bibliography: 2001-2005

The goal of this study is to provide an updated annotated bibliography of ERP publications published in the main IS conferences and journals during the period 2001-2005, categorizing them through an ERP lifecycle based framework that is structured in phases. The first version of this bibliography was published in 2001 (Esteves and Pastor, 2001c). However, so far, we have extended the bibliography with a significant number of new publications in all the categories used in this paper. We also reviewed the categories and some incongruities were eliminated. Furthermore, we present topics for further research in each phase

Risk Management for Enterprise Resource Planning System Implementations in Project-Based Firms

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been regarded as one of the most important information technology developments in the past decades. While ERP systems provide the potential to bring substantial benefits, their implementations are characterized with large capital outlay, long duration, and high risks of failure including implementation process failure and system usage failure. As a result, the adoption of ERP systems in project-based firms has been lagged behind lots of companies in many other industries. In order to ensure the success of ERP system implementations in project-based firms, sound risk management is the key. The overall objective of this research is to identify the risks in ERP system implementations within project-based firms and develop a new approach to analyze these risks and quantitatively assess their impacts on ERP system implementation failure. At first, the research describes ERP systems in conjunction with the nature and working practices of project-based firms and current status and issues related to ERP adoption in such firms, and thus analyzes the causes for their relatively low ERP adoption and states the research problems and objectives. Accordingly, a conceptual research framework is presented, and the procedures and research methods are outlined. Secondly, based on the risk factors regarding generic ERP projects in extant literature, the research comprehensively identifies the risk factors of ERP system implementation within project-based firms. These risk factors are classified into different categories, qualitatively described and analyzed, and used to establish a risk taxonomy. Thirdly, an approach is developed based on fault tree analysis to decompose ERP systems failure and assess the relationships between ERP component failures and system usage failure, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The principles and processes of this approach and related fault tree analysis methods and techniques are presented in the context of ERP projects. Fourthly, certain practical strategies are proposed to manage the risks of ERP system implementations. The proposed risk assessment approach and management strategies together with the comprehensive list of identified risk factors not only contribute to the body of knowledge of information system risk management, but also can be used as an effective tool by practitioners to actively analyze, assess, and manage the risks of ERP system implementations within project-based firms

Empirical Assessment of the Role of Technology-Related Factors and Organization-Related Factors in Electronic Medical Records Implementation Success

The objective of this research was to investigate if certain technology-related and organization-related factors that have most often been associated with successful IT/MIS implementations in other information technology and information science domains are also associated with successful Electronic Medical Records (EMR) implementations. This research uncovered a unique set of technology-related factors and organization-related factors associated with successful EMR implementations from the perspective of healthcare enablers and healthcare providers. Specific technology-related factors considered in this research were the innovativeness of EMR (measured with respect to the relative advantage, compatibility and complexity of EMR), privacy and security attributes of EMR, and usefulness of EMR. Specific organization-related factors considered were the readiness of the organization for change and the !eve! of product/process innovation in the organization where the EMR was implemented