Reasons behind ERP package adoption: a diffusion of innovations perspective

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages have been widely adopted and it is becoming clear that this is driven by multiple rationales that may be simultaneously at odds and complimentary. In this paper, we aim to develop a greater understanding of these rationales by taking ERP packages to be innovations and analysing their adoption with reference to the theory of diffusion of innovations. In particular, we consider the attributes of ERP packages that may affect their adoption such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexiblity, trialability and observability. We argue that users’ perceptions of these attributes are not always accurate and these ’misconceptions’ can further explain reasons for ERP adoption or rejection. Although our analysis aims to provide rich insights into the adoption of ERP packages, the results of the study are arguably of further interest to the more general study of packaged software and the more established literature on custom development

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Factors impacting knowledge transfer success in information systems outsourcing

Despite increased research interest on knowledge transfer in information systems (IS) outsourcing, the field still lacks sound and holistic understanding of the key factors influencing knowledge transfer success. The present paper attempts to provide a synthesis of existing theoretical perspectives and empirical findings related to the factors that facilitate or hamper knowledge transfer success in IS outsourcing. The data collection method is discussed and the key findings are presented. Conclusion is drawn and further research is suggested

An evolutionary complex systems decision-support tool for the management of operations

Purpose - The purpose of this is to add both to the development of complex systems thinking in the subject area of operations and production management and to the limited number of applications of computational models and simulations from the science of complex systems. The latter potentially offer helpful decision-support tools for operations and production managers. Design/methodology/approach - A mechanical engineering firm was used as a case study where a combined qualitative and quantitative methodological approach was employed to extract the required data from four senior managers. Company performance measures as well as firm technologies, practices and policies, and their relation and interaction with one another, were elicited. The data were subjected to an evolutionary complex systems (ECS) model resulting in a series of simulations. Findings - The findings highlighted the effects of the diversity in management decision making on the firm's evolutionary trajectory. The CEO appeared to have the most balanced view of the firm, closely followed by the marketing and research and development managers. The manufacturing manager's responses led to the most extreme evolutionary trajectory where the integrity of the entire firm came into question particularly when considering how employees were utilised. Research limitations/implications - By drawing directly from the opinions and views of managers, rather than from logical "if-then" rules and averaged mathematical representations of agents that characterise agent-based and other self-organisational models, this work builds on previous applications by capturing a micro-level description of diversity that has been problematical both in theory and application. Practical implications - This approach can be used as a decision-support tool for operations and other managers providing a forum with which to explore: the strengths, weaknesses and consequences of different decision-making capacities within the firm; the introduction of new manufacturing technologies, practices and policies; and the different evolutionary trajectories that a firm can take. Originality/value - With the inclusion of "micro-diversity", ECS modelling moves beyond the self-organisational models that populate the literature but has not as yet produced a great many practical simulation results. This work is a step in that direction

Operationalizing Process Mapping for Small-to-Medium Enterprise Erp Implementation

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a critical success factor for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation projects that typically involve mapping business processes in cross-functional flowcharts. Despite being the most common type of process map used by small-to-medium enterprises (SME) for BPR, traditional cross-functional flowcharts do not contain the data necessary to optimize and operationalize a process and are a contributing factor to the 70% failure rate experienced by SMEs when implementing a new ERP system. This thesis provides an alternate method of process mapping, known as Operational Process Mapping, that addresses the weaknesses of cross-functional flowcharts for the BPR stage of ERP implementation. Using familiar notation and steps, the operational process mapping method is accessible to SMEs with limited resources to perform BPR during their ERP implementation project. The resulting process maps contain the data necessary to evaluate and optimize the current state and operationalize the reengineered future state process maps at ERP go-live. A business process used by an SME was mapped using this method and the ability to operationalize the process was demonstrated with the creation of a discrete-event-simulation from the resulting process map

An agency theory model of ERP implementation

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are becoming rapidly indispensable in order for large and medium sized organizations to run their operations. Therefore, management needs to know the factors that drive successful ERP implementation, a product of the continuous interaction between the implementation consultants and client firms. Agency theory has been successfully used by different researchers to explain relationships between two parties seeking a common outcome. This paper develops a model of testable propositions for applying agency theory to study the relationship between implementation consultants and client organizations deploying the ERP systems, and to consequently evaluate how the relationship affects the implementation success

The Descent of Preferences

[A slightly revised version of this paper has been accepted by the BJPS] More attention has been devoted to providing evolutionary scenarios accounting for the development of beliefs, or belief-like states, than for desires or preferences. Here I articulate and defend an evolutionary rationale for the development of psychologically real preference states. Preferences token or represent the expected values of discriminated states, available actions, or action-state pairings. The argument is an application the ‘environmental complexity thesis’ found in Godfrey-Smith and Sterelny, although my conclusions differ from Sterelny’s. I argue that tokening expected utilities can, under specified general conditions, be a powerful design solution to the problem of allocating the capacities of an agent in an efficient way. Preferences are for efficient action selection, and are a ‘fuel for success’ in the sense urged by Godfrey-Smith for true beliefs. They will tend to be favoured by selection when environments are complex in ways that matter to an organism, and when organisms have rich behavioural repertoires with heterogenous returns and costs.   The rationale suggested here is conditional, especially on contingencies in what design options are available to selection and on trade-offs associated with the costs of generating and processing representations of value. The unqualified efficiency rationale for preferences suggests that organisms should represent expected utilities in a comprehensive and consistent way, but none of them do. In the final stages of the paper I consider some of the ways in which design trade-offs compromise the implementation of preferences in organisms that have them

The Evolving Role of Information Specialists as Change Agents in Performance Management: A Cross Disciplinary Study

This paper aims to explore the changing role of the Information Specialist (ISp) in the implementation of business performance improvement through business process re-engineering (BPR) initiatives. The paper will begin by examining the evolution of BPR and then discuss the changing role of the ISp. Technology enabled Performance Management (PM) and its strategic implications are found to be key to measuring the effectiveness of BPR and the role of the ISp is a vital part of this. Through a literature review and case based empirical evidence a conceptual framework is developed to appraise the role of the ISp

Assessing the Value Provided by ERP Applications Through Organizational Activities

When managers and stockholders consider making an investment in information technology (IT), as with any other investment, a major concern is whether this investment will add to the performance of their organization. However, it is difficult to identify the nature of the linkage between an investment in IT in general, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), in particular, to an organization\u27s performance. In this study we extend the work of Barua et al. , Lerch and Mangal, and Tallon et al. We develop a model to identify the value ERP applications add to Porter\u27s organizational primary activities and the information systems (IS) applications related to ERP that help deliver added value through organizational characteristics. This new model should help in assessing the potential value of an ERP investment. We examine the relationship of ERP applications and organizational characteristics to an organization\u27s primary activities by a path analysis of more than 200 medium and large sized manufacturing firms. The results of this investigation indicate that organizational characteristics mediate the relationship between IS applications and the value ERP can add to the organizational primary activities. Consequently, organizations with different characteristics may add different value to their primary activities by using ERP applications. We found that each primary activity was supported by some, though not necessarily all, IS applications included in most ERP packages. We conclude that, an organization\u27s characteristics are related to the return that may be gained from the use of ERP systems. We offer recommendations on how organizations can use ERP to add value to their primary activities, based on their organizational characteristics