Factors Influencing Cloud ERP Adoption: A Comparison Between SMEs and Large Companies

Cloud computing has become one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. In the wake of this success, cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have emerged as an alternative to the traditional ERPs for companies to plan and manage their resources. These systems require low upfront investments and can rapidly be deployed, as they and their underlying infrastructure are provided by a third party over the cloud on a subscription-based or pay-per use basis. In existing research, cloud ERPs are praised as a way for SMEs to reap the benefits of an ERP without having to put out big and risky investments as well as having to possess heavy IT capabilities in the form of a large IT department. However, not much has been done to investigate how well a large company can utilize a cloud ERP. Cloud ERPs inherit many of the benefits and limitations of cloud computing. In this study we seek to unravel how well SMEs and large companies can utilize cloud ERPs by identifying and classifying the opportunities and concerns often associated with cloud ERPs with respect to company size. For this purpose, we have conducted interviews with experts in ERP vendors that have much experience in dealing with a great variety of companies, of all sizes and industries. Before that, we had gathered and analyzed the relevant literature regarding the opportunities and concerns related to cloud ERPs and cloud computing, which we later used as a basis for our analysis of the collected empirical data. Our results show that SMEs, and in particular small companies, can best exploit cloud ERPs as many of the benefits, such as lower upfront and operating costs, access to advanced technology and scalability, are more relevant for them. At the same time, many of the concerns associated with cloud ERPs are not seen as important for SMEs. On the other hand, large companies have severe concerns that are related to their size, complexity and demands. However, we have found that a hybrid solution, in which business critical and sensitive applications are kept on-premise, can allow large companies to settle many of their concerns while at the same time enable them to reap some of the benefits of cloud computing

Cloud ERP Adoption Opportunities and Concerns: The Role of Organizational Size

Cloud computing has become one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. In the wake of this, cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have emerged as an alternative to traditional ERPs. The marketing of cloud based ERPs states that adoption require low upfront investments and can rapidly be deployed, as they are provided over the cloud. In this study we seek to unravel cloud ERP adoption by identifying and classifying opportunities and concerns often associated with cloud ERPs with respect to organizational size. Our results show that SMEs, and in particular small companies, can best exploit cloud ERPs as many of the benefits are more relevant for them. At the same time, many of the concerns associated with cloud ERPs are not seen as important for SMEs. Large organizations on the other hand, have severe concerns related to size, in the form of complexity and specific demands. However, in the study we found that a hybrid solution, following a best-of-breed approach in which business critical and sensitive applications are kept on-premise, can allow large organizations to settle many of their concerns while at the same time enable them to gain some benefits of cloud computing

Low-techverktyg i high-techmiljöer

Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på varför low-techverktyg används inom tekniska och informationsintensiva företag, dvs. inom high-techmiljöer, trots att high-tech alternativ finns. För att ta reda på detta har vi utfört en kvalitativ studie som har en induktiv ansats och har genomförts genom att använda en semistrukturerad intervjumetod. Vi har intervjuat sex stycken personer på mellanchefsnivå, som jobbar på högteknologiska och informationsintensiva företag. Slutsatser Genom intervjuerna har vi fått intrycket att det generellt sett finns en hög acceptans och vilja att prova nya angreppssätt inom tekniska och informationsintensiva företag. Vi har kommit fram till att alla de avgörande aspekterna för att kunna genomdriva en förändring i form av att till exempel införa nya high-techlösningar tycks finnas i dessa verksamheter, men vi har också kommit fram till att det trots detta ofta används low-techverktyg inom vissa områden. Vi har funnit att low-techverktygen förekommer i de inledande faserna av ett projekt och gärna används för sin enkelhet och snabbhet. De erbjuder ett effektivt sätt att få ner och förmedla sina tankar på. Verktygen är mest lämpade i stabila arbetsmiljöer och för att lösa mindre komplexa uppgifter. High-techverktygen tenderar att öka uppgiftens komplexitet och på så sätt medför de fler problem än vad de löser och därför helst inte används. En annan anledning till att low-techverktyg används har vi funnit är för att många gärna vill ha något som man kan hålla i handen, för att det känns tryggare och mer konkret. Den här fysiska känslan är något high-techverktygen inte ger. Vi har dock funnit att high-techverktygen gärna används i kombination med low-techverktygen för att förebygga de brister low-techverktygen har, framförallt gällande dokumentation

Cloud ERP Adoption Opportunities and Concerns: A Comparison between SMES and Large Companies

Cloud computing has become one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. In the wake of this, cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have emerged as an alternative to traditional ERPs These systems require low upfront investments and can rapidly be deployed, as they are provided over the cloud. In this study we seek to unravel cloud ERP adoption by identifying and classifying opportunities and concerns often associated with cloud ERPs with respect to company size. Our results show that SMEs, and in particular small companies, can best exploit cloud ERPs as many of the benefits are more relevant for them. At the same time, many of the concerns associated with cloud ERPs are not seen as important for SMEs. On the other hand, large companies have severe concerns that are related to their size, complexity and demands. However, we have found that a hybrid solution, in which business critical and sensitive applications are kept on-premise, can allow large companies to settle many of their concerns while at the same time enable them to reap some of the benefits of cloud computing