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Most organisations do not understand the costs associated with an ERP system when they

first commence the implementation. The benefits are usually well understood. The Vendor
will make sure of this. The costs do not surface until well into the implementation - and
why should the Vendor talk to an organisation about the costs and difficulties when they
are trying to make a sale?

On the surface, there are very attractive reasons for going ERP. Benefits include:

• A single system to support rather than several small and different systems
• A single applications architecture with limited interfaces
• Access to management information unavailable across a mix of applications
• Access to best practice systems and procedures
• More integration hence lower costs
• More "automation" of tasks Generic Costs and Impacts

The costs and impacts are understandably not played up by the Vendors. Some of those
are:

• Implementation effort will be bigger then ever talked about or even imagined. We
are yet to hear from an organisation who have implemented ahead of schedule and
under budget.
• Because of the richness of functionality, the "toy box effect" can take over. Users
see all the functionality available and suddenly they want it now. The scope can
grow out of control.
• The existing environmental mix between what is done manually and what is done
by the system will swing dramatically after implementation. Many more tasks will
be automated. Automation will significantly reduce the flexibility of how you
operate as a business.
• Users need to become more computer literate. Many see this as personally
challenging - even beyond their ability - and will not cope, or leave the company.
• The word "Enterprise" in ERP means that whatever happens in one area has a
ripple effect in other areas. Understanding the implications of actions of one area,
on other areas of the company, is not something that happens overnight. Training
tends to focus on how do I do my job. It should also focus on what are the impacts
of my job, in other areas.
• Near enough is no longer good enough. Data integrity becomes critical. The
computer cannot make human judgments. If stock is moved, it is no good
somebody remembering where they put it. The information needs to be put into
the system or there will be a domino effect. E.g. Stock is moved from location A
to location B and the information is not put into the system. The system will tell
someone to get the material from A and when it is not there, they have to go
looking. At the same time it is telling someone else to put new material in B, but
B is full. The first person finds the original material in B and logs it into the
system. We now have double the quantity in the system again and it doesn't
reorder. And so it goes on and everyone is blaming the system.
• ERP systems tend to replace old systems. As such it is a quantum leap for all
areas of the company. It is replacing the trusty Ford with a high performance
Ferrari. This happens at a Technical level as well as a Business Level. New ways
need to be learnt in a very short space of time.
• Things have to be done consistently. No longer are we able to do something one
way in one branch and another way in another branch. The system is going to
determine how we do things in all locations. Even within one location, special
treatment may not be possible any more without changing the configuration of the
system. If the system says you can either have 0, 15, 30 or 60 day credit terms,
you can no longer offer 45 day terms without changing configuration. If
consistency can be implemented, there is good potential for cost savings as well
as getting rid of special arrangements that reduce profit.

Corporate Culture
All the points above contain technical issues or business issues which can be managed if
they are identified soon enough. Training can show people the impact of their actions in
other areas. QA programs can focus on quality of data. What most managers who have
been through an ERP implementation, will tell you, is the biggest impact is on "Corporate
Culture". It is always underestimated and never overestimated.

Corporate Culture is a combination of two things.

• The type of people who are employed by a company. Their personal values, skills,
habits etc.
• The way the organisation works. The focus, decision making process, attitude to
staff, stability, etc.

Both feed off one another. Job applicants who feel aligned with the way the organisation
works and comfortable with the style of person who interviews them, will likely get the
job, and perpetuate the Culture.

To successfully take on an ERP system, an organisation needs to change it's "Corporate


Culture". · It may need to change from being highly flexible and not paying a lot of
attention to consistency or accuracy, to one of being almost obsessed with detail. · Of
being prepared to have Business Practices that are actually adhered to rather than just
being documented and forgotten. · People need to change from focusing on turnover to
focusing on profit. ERP makes profit far more measurable down to Department,
Customer and Material level. ·

Staff need to change their focus from their own job, to the whole organisation. What they
do in their area has impacts in places they may never have envisaged. None of this is
easy, and in many cases will be unachievable. Some people will not be prepared to make
the change and will either leave of their own volition or be asked to leave. This is the cost
of ERP.

Another dimension to "Cultural Change" is the timeframe in which the change is to be


made. It basically needs to happen over a few days. One week you can bend all the rules
and get away with it; next week the system will not let you. No matter how much training
and preparation takes place, it cannot prepare many people for reality. That is not to say
the preparation should not take place. The preparation will ease the pain, not take it all
away. The more preparation the less the pain. On the positive side, some people will take
to the system like the proverbial duck to water. These people tend to be (but not all are)
younger, newer employees who have had experience in other organisations. They know
the benefits of a good system and are frustrated with the current one. They will jump at
the chance to make use of the new technology.

Change Management
Change Management is about setting expectations that lessen the pain of change. People
involved in a change expect to go from A to B. Perhaps where they are actually going is
to C. Change Management is about getting them used to the idea that C is the real
destination.

To give an example, any new system is bound to have teething problems. If users expect
that all is not going to run smoothly on day 1, and that they may be working back late for
the first week because of problems bedding in the new system, they are less likely to
reject the system when it does go wrong. On the other hand telling staff that this is going
to be a great new system with no problems can only lead to disappointment and rejection
when bugs appear. As such, change management is measurable.

Measuring attitudinal changes is not a complicated process. Properly managed, we can


see how people feel about the changes over a period of time, and how they shift in their
expectations. The results of money spent on change management can be seen. Not putting
in the effort before implementation, will cost an organisation after implementation. What
is the cost to an organisation of a system that is forced upon people, and with which they
feel little ownership? They will either sink it, or ensure it never reaches it's potential.
Either way, the organisation will never get the return on investment it imagined.

Other experiences.
A survey of organisations that have implemented ERP's was carried out recently. It
identified "10 Common Causes of Disaster".

Change Management and Training.


This was mentioned as the major problem with implementations. Changing work
practices to fit the system is a major difficulty. Also mentioned were training
across modules and starting training sooner.

To BPR or not to BPR


• It is difficult to draw the line between changing Business Processes to suit the
system or retaining Business Processes and paying the cost, in dollars and time, to
change the system. As time and cost squeeze the implementation, the usual path is
to not modify the system, but to change the way people work. This feeds back
into Change Management and Training.
Poor Planning

Planning covers several areas such as having a strong Business Case, to the
availability of Users to make decisions on configuration, to the investing in a plan
that captures all the issues associated with implementing it.

Underestimating IT skills

As most people are upgrading from old technology, the skills of the staff need to
be upgraded as well. The upgrade is also going to place significant demands on a
team who are geared to maintain an old but stable environment. Usually this effort
is underestimated.

Poor Project Management

Very few organisations have the experience in house to run such a complex
project as implementing a large-scale integrated solution. It usually requires
outside contractors to come in and manage such a major exercise. It can be a fine
line between abdicating responsibility and sharing responsibility. Many
consulting firms do a disservice to their clients by not sharing the responsibility.

Technology Trials

The effort to build interfaces, change reports, customize the software and convert
the data is normally underestimated. To collect new data, and clean the data being
converted, will also require an effort that is beyond what is normally expected.

Low Executive Buy-in

Implementation projects need Senior Executive involvement to ensure the right


participation mix of Business and IT, and to resolve conflicts.

Underestimating Resources
Most common budget blow outs are change management and
user training, integration testing , process rework, report customisation and
consulting fees.

Insufficient Software Evaluation

This involves the surprises that come out after the software is purchased. Organisations
usually do not do enough to understand what, and how the product works before they
sign on the bottom line. The Bleeding Edge ERP is so massive and integrated that
reporting and linking to other systems (either your own or your customers and suppliers)
can be much more difficult than you expect. Companies looking at ERP need to examine
how they accept online feeds from a customer, or a customers' customer, and examine the
technological enablers as well as the implications of these technologies inside of the
Business.

Summary.
All this leads to a list of likely problems with an ERP system.

• The cost is likely to be underestimated


• The time and effort to implement is likely to be underestimated
• The resourcing from both the Business and IT is likely to be higher than
anticipated
• The level of outside expertise required will be higher than anticipated
• The changes required to Business Processes will be higher than expected.
• Scope control will be more difficult than expected
• There will never be enough training - particularly across different modules

Most important of all, and the single biggest failure point for ERP implementations, is the
need for change management. The need for change management is not likely to be
recognized until it is too late. The changes required to corporate culture are likely to be
grossly underestimated. It is going to be hard enough to cope with the technical issues
without having to address major people issues as well.

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CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF ERP IMPLEMENTATION IN PAKISTAN.
(A Case of Telecom, Engineering, Oil and Government Sector Organizations)
Muhammad Jamil Anjum
MS Scholar (Finance)
Department of Management science
Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST)
Islamabad
Pakistan,
Email: Jamil_axiom@yahoo.com. Tel.: (+92)-(333)-(512-2435)
Ijaz-Ur-Rehman
MS Scholar (Finance), SZABIST) Islamabad-Pakistan
Abstract
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) plays a significant role in today’s enterprise
management and is foundation to
be the spine of corporation. Although enterprise resource planning (ERP) has been
renowned as a helpful tool, in
practice, there are several complexities in persuasive people to execute it efficiently.
The Purpose of this was to find
out critical Success Factors of ERP implementation in Pakistan. In this research study
six critical factors of ERP
implementation were selected on the bases of relevant literature that includes
Perceived usefulness of ERP,
Perceived ease of Use, Top management commitment Support, Data Accuracy,
training/Vendors Support and Trust
and that were considered as critical predictors of enterprise resources planning. The
Survey of Oil sector, telecom
sector, Engineering sector and government sector was conducted concern with ERP
implementation issues. Total
one hundred and ten (N= 110, 65%) questionnaire were distributed out of that 71
questionnaire were collected
back. The result of the analysis concludes that selected critical success factors
(CSF’s) are very important to ERP
implementation. The study concludes that rest of the critical success factors has a
positive and significant
association with ERP implementation except users training. The study further explore
that top management supports
is deficient in government and in Oil sectors. The study concludes that critical
success factors may keep the
accomplishment on time, within resources, acceptable to the user, and so on if
adequate training and Top
management support exist.
Key Words: Critical successful factors (CSF’s); Enterprise resource planning (ERP);
Pakistan.
Introduction
Enterprise Resource Planning System, more commonly known as ERP, integrates all
the departments and functions
across onto a single computerized system. Organizations achieve enterprise
resources planning (ERP) by integrating
various software applications that serve the needs of various departments like
human resource management, finance,
billing and materials management. ERP connect all the departments together into
single, integrated software
application from a single database. Users of this application see the akin
information’s and can revise it in a
meticulous order. When one department finishes with a task, it is automatically
retreated through the ERP system in
the next department in the order for operating their relevant tasks. The definition
and measurement of enterprise
resources planning success are difficult issues. Firstly, enterprise resources planning
success depends on the point of
view from which one measures it.
Even within a particular business people will have dissimilar thoughts. ERP
Implementation experts often describe
success in terms of completing the job on time and within budget while the users
lean to focus on the change from
old structure and stable process (jiang, 2005).
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is conceivably one of most sophisticated
softwares solution offer to clients
operating in different sector of the economy for complete automation of customer
business processes. A number of
leading IT organizations in Pakistan, are providing ERP solutions.
Pakistan's Small and Medium Enterprises (S.M.Es) sector and other sectors like Oil
and gas, engineering, telecom
and government sector are currently operating at weakness. This is primarily
because a preponderance of the
industrialized and planning processes are either not programmed and automated, or,
if automated, are not being
employed to their fullest budding and potentials.
In order to close this shortcoming and weakness which are currently exists in above-
mentioned sectors of the
economy, Pakistan software export board automation of domestic industry on open
source systems project is in
progress for mounting entire ERP solutions to mechanize and automate the route and
procedures for the SMEs.
These open sources system are designed to help in Production, Inventory, HR &
Payroll, finance, and sales in those
areas of the economy that have the maximum export prospective that can be a
gateway to other sector of the
economy to operate at full potential. This research study intends to investigate the
critical success factors of
enterprise resources planning implementation in Pakistani production and service
industry confining the major
sector of the economy like Oil and gas sector, engineering sector, telecom sector and
government sector on the bases
of major growth and issues these sectors are confronting in the enterprise resources
implementation. This study is
unique has a unique aspects, firstly other studies on early critical success factors of
ERP implementations have been
conducted in developed countries while this studies is particularly for developing
country like Pakistan.
Literature Review
In literature evaluation section the only confining point is on the critical success
factors in ERP implementation.
Most literature combines the critical success factors (CSF’s) with different ERP
characteristics. Larsen and Myers
(1997) found that ERP understanding and practicing could be an early achievement
and later failure. This finding is
supported by a case study in which they stated that business process re-engineering
project implicated redesigning
the main accounting progression within single organization in the financial services
business. Larsen and Myers
(1997) concluded that two factors leads to ERP failures that are; improperly cutting
project scope and end-user
training. Davenport, (1998) stated that , the complexities and high collapse rate in
mounting ERP systems have been
extensively cited in the literature but, investigation on critical success factors (CSFs)
in ERP execution competence
is still uneven.
Bancroft et al. (1998) interviewed twenty practitioners of enterprise resource
planning applications and from study
of three multinational ventures implementation projects and concluded that, critical
success factors for ERP
implementation include presence of a supporter, top management support, high-
quality communication with
shareholders, and successful project management. He further added that before
implementing enterprise resources
planning applications it is vital to develop key IT capabilities of the end users
trainings.
Willcocks and Sykes, (2000) projected several situations and utilization cases to
prove these situations, In contrast to
the development and enhancing of new effortless software function the main target
of Enterprise resources planning
is to execute business process re-engineering. Much business failed on this aspect of
ERP implementation. This
failure and collapse was determined by the requirement for major amendment in
culture, human, and organizational
relationships. The success model of enterprise resources planning includes six
dimensions of information systems
success: system eminence, information eminence, use, end user contentment,
person impact, and managerial impact.
While this approach has some drawbacks, when use of the systems is compulsory,
the evaluation of system
eminence, information eminence, and use become less functional. Conclusion about
personal impact and managerial
impact are also hard to establish (Delone & McLean, 1992).
Duchessi et al, (1989) concludes that top management commitment and adequate
end user training is critical success
factors for efficient implementation. Rao (2000) choose five criteria important for
selecting an enterprise resource
package including supplier’s domain knowledge, affordability, local support level,
latest technology usage and ease
of software upgrades. Elisabeth et al, (2003) classified critical success factors in ten
categories that included clear
perceptive of strategic goals, data accuracy, education and training, competent
implementation team, efficient
project management, capability of technical issues troubleshooting, top management
commitment, organizational
change commitment, performance focused measures and multisite issued resolving
abilities. Literature cited user
involvement and training as in important and significant critical success factors of
enterprise resources
implementation. Zhang et al, (2002) stated that user involvement refers to
contribution of the user in the process of
enterprise resources planning (ERP) implementation. The functions of the ERP system
depends on the user to use
the system after going live, but the user is also an important factor in the
implementation. ERP implementation
process fails in the end in spite of millions of dollars due to lack of suitable training. In
the majority cases, expert are
included during implementation course, and while all the features of the system
should be enlightened and
transferred the end-users, the main goal of ERP training is that the users comprehend
variety of business processes
following the ERP application (Mashari, et al 2002).
In the light of above context and literature review, researcher adopted the idea of
Jiang Yingjie (2005) “Critical
Success Factors in Implementation of ERP in Finland” by including data accuracy
during conversion phases and
after the project implementation variable considering importance based on literature.
After analyzing the mentioned
critical success factors, this research study will help organizations to design and
implement ERP project successfully
for their business promotions.
Conceptual framework of Study
Conceptual Model
The below visual model is based on the ideas of Yingjie (2005). The model shows six
critical factors of enterprise
resources planning implementation, these success factors includes perceived
usefulness, ease of use, trust on
software and hardware, end user trainings and vendors supporting during and after
implementation of enterprise
resources planning projects data accuracy and Top management Supports, while
user involvement/ Intension to use
is considered as outcome.
Theoretical model of critical Success factors of ERP implementation
The above first generation relationship model explain the relationship between user
intentions /user involvement
with perceived usefulness of ERP, Ease of use , Trust on software and hardware, end
users training, Data accuracy
and Top management commitment. These are the critical success factors indentified
in theoretical underpinning
phase. Davis (1989) investigated the relative effects of extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation source on intention to use,
and usage of, the computer in the workplace and, they dined perceived usefulness as
an extrinsic source of
motivation and perceived enjoyment as an intrinsic source of motivation he defined
perceived usefulness as the
extent to which a person’s consider that using a meticulous system would augment
his or her work performance and
defined perceived ease of use as the extent to which an individual consider that
using a meticulous system would
be free of stabs.
David et al, (2004) stated that to a high degree, trust decides probable utility
resulting from business contact where
the trusting party is reliant upon others, but lack power over them. In many cases,
this epitomizes the association
between customers and an enterprise resource planning (ERP) customization vendor.
User training is defined as the
degree to which a company has instructed employees in using the ERP, both in terms
of quality and quantity. The
notion of data quality was first proposed by DeLone and McLean (1992) argued that
the data accuracy quality is a
significant construct to build successful information systems. Later, Lin and Lu (2000)
further developed the data
accuracy as part of a determinant of system quality and found that the data accuracy
variables is useful predictors of
the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness. Training users to effectively
apply information technology
for specific work problems is a major prerequisite for usage. ERP training programs
will reduce ambiguity and help
develop knowledge for future effective usage.
Wu et al, (2006) stated that the deprived accuracy of the implementation data is
often seen as a frequent indication
of ineffective enterprise resources planning (ERP) implementation. Zairi and Sinclair
(1995) ranked leadership
facilitator of large transformation efforts. ERP implementation can only be
accomplished when senior management
is totally committed to the initiative. Management commitment and support is the
ultimate strategy that will secure
the necessary conditions for successfully introducing the change brought by ERP into
the organization. The
commitment of top management should be emphasized throughout an organization.
This is the first step of ERP
implementation.
Significance of study
The Significance of the study extends to broad aspects of ERP implementations and
Critical success factors.
The Study investigates the influencing factors and critical factors of ERP
implementation. These critical factors
are critically examined in this study in order to draw a meaning full conclusion and
recommendations for the
practitioner of ERP applications in service and production industry in Pakistan.
Objectives of the Study
Following are the main objectives of the study.
1. To find out level of failure of ERP implementation – Partial Failure and Fully Failure.
2. To find out which Critical factors are hindrances in ERP Implementation.
3. To find out, what factors should be considered of great importance for successful
implementation
of ERP.
Hypotheses
Following hypotheses are formulated for the research study.
1. H1: Perceived usefulness is positively correlated with ERP usage/Intention to Use
ERP.
2. Top management commitment is positively correlated with ERP usage
3. End user training is positively correlated with ERP usage/user involvement.
Data Collection and Research methods.
This research study is based on survey instrument. The instrument is adopted from
the study of Jiang Yingjie
(2005) “Critical success factors of ERP implementations in Finland”, While the
necessary amendments in
independent variables and questions are made according to the culture of
organizations. Instrument consists of
three sections, Section incorporate demographic information of respondents, Section
two consists of predictors
of ERP usage /user involvement and Section three consists of outcome (User
involvement /ERP usage). The
questions asked in instrument centered on theoretical arguments discussed in
literature review and theoretical
model to maintain the contents and construct validity of instruments. The study
throughout employee
conventional likert’s Scale to indicate the degree of acceptance as one indicates
strongly disagree onto five for
strongly agree. The questionnaire does not include questions which could identify the
company. Extra care has
been taken to protect the anonymity while developing the Instruments.
Total 110 questionnaires in respective organization that use diversified ERP
applications in their organizations
were distributed. Out of total 150, 80 questionnaires were collected back; Out of 80
responses 71 valid
questionnaires were selected for data analysis concluding the response rate to 65%.
SPSS 17.0 is used for data
analysis.
Data Reliability and Normality
For better results and generalizations to wider population data normality is consider
important in academic research.
In this research study normality and distributions of data was crossed checked by
means of multiple methods like
kurtosis, Skewness, Q-Q Plots and Kolmogorove-Smirnov test and outliers detection
techniques were employed and
only one case was identified which was replaced by using “mean of nearby point”
technique. Over all the data was
found normal. Likewise consistency of response was checked by means of Cronbach
alpha. On the bases the
cronbach alpha results, internal consistencies of the response were found
satisfactory.
Results ,Analysis and Discussion
The mean and Standard deviation of each element/ critical success factor of ERP is
tabulated in table 1.
Table -1 Descriptive Statistics of Critical success factors of ERP
Implementation
The results of our sample exhibit almost all factors implementation tends towards the
degree of agreement except
the trust and end user training. End users training depict more variations in response
relative to trust. The above
table 1 indicate that perceived usefulness have mean value of (_71, 3.619) with
standard deviation of (0.961),
perceived ease of use have mean value of (_71,3.521) with standard deviation of
(0.842), trust have mean value of
(_71,3.070) with standard deviation of (0.798) indicated the degree of neutrality , top
management commitment have
mean of (_71 ,3.549) with standard deviation of (0.841), end user training have a
mean value of (_71 , 3.267) with the
standard deviation of (1.005) indicting the degree of neutrality with somehow high
variations in responses, likewise
data accuracy have mean value of (_71 ,3.619) with standard deviation of (0.961)
indicating degree of agreement and
intention to use ERP have mean value of (_71 ,4.028) with standard deviation of
(0.970) indicating the degree of
agreement towards the use of ERP applications in futures. Over the descriptive
statistics have encouraged results
except end user training and trust on hardware and software.
Table 2 indicate analysis of variance of critical success factors of ERP across different
sectors of the economy
namely oil sector, government sectors, engineering sector and telecom sector for the
purpose of exploring mean
variations and difference with the assumptions that that there is no significant mean
difference in critical success
factors in any group of the economy . The results of table 2 indicate that perceived
usefulness, perceived ease of use,
trust, top management commitment, training and data accuracy have significance
mean difference across different
sectors of the economy as (FPU; 70, 3 =12.877), (P<0.05) ;(FPEU; 70, 3 =3.121), (P<0.05);(F
trust; 70, 3 =6.756), (P<0.05); (F
TMC; 70, 3 =5.795), (P<0.05); (F Training; 70, 3 =3.042), (P<0.05); (F DA; 70, 3 =16.541),
(P<0.05) respectively. The table 2
further reveals that government sector accounted low mean value representing
degree of disagreement with
perceived usefulness and trust on hardware of software. However top management
in government sector is
commitment to successful implementation of “enterprise resources applications”
compared to other sector top
management commitment. The results of table 2 further illustrate that telecom
sector is more committed to end user
training compared to other sectors of the economy.
Table-2.Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of Critical Success factors of ERP
Implementation with respect to
different Sectors
Variable Mean SD
Perceived Usefulness 3.619 0.961
Perceived ease of use 3.521 0.842
Trust 3.070 0.798
Top Management Commitment 3.549 0.841
Training 3.267 1.055
Data Accuracy 3.619 0.961
Intention to use ERP 4.028 0.970
Analysis of variance Means and Standard Deviation
Variables
SS df MS F Sig. Sectors
Govt. Oil Telecom Engg.
PU Between Groups 23.674 3 7.891 12.877 .000 Mean 2.82 4.00 3.55 4.24
Within Groups 41.059 67 .613 SD 0.96 0.55 0.93 0.66
Total 64.732 70
PEU Between Groups 6.096 3 2.032 3.121 .032 Mean 3.091 3.714 3.818 3.647
Within Groups 43.623 67 .651 SD 0.811 0.644 1.079 0.786
Total 49.718 70
TMC Between Groups 10.215 3 3.405 5.795 .001 Mean 3.546 2.952 3.182 2.529
Within Groups 39.363 67 .588 SD 0.963 0.498 0.751 0.515
Total 49.577 70
Table 3 illustrates the correlation matrix among different critical success factor and
outcome variable that is
intentions to use ERP/ ERP usage with significance value at 0.05 and 0.01 level of
significance. This correlation
matrix is produces for the purpose of checking the correlation among different
variable which were discussed in
hypothesis formulation phases. The results of correlation analysis are described in
context of different formulated
hypotheses.
Hypothesis-1 :Perceived usefulness is positively correlated with intention
to use ERP.
Table 3 illustrates the correlation between perceived usefulness and user
involvement indicates that perceived
usefulness and intension to use ERP have moderate positive and significant
correlation (39.4%). The results or
closely matched with the results of Zviran et al, (2005) and Gyampah (2005) studied
the influence that perceived
usefulness, user involvement, argument for change, prior usage and ease of use
have on the behavioral intention to
use an ERP system. Their results indicate that users perception of the perceived
usefulness, ease of use of the
technology, and the users’ level of intrinsic involvement all affect their intention to
use the technology are
significant predictors of ERP implementations. Likewise in the study of Jiang Yingjie
(2005) same conclusion was
derived.
Table-3 Correlation analysis of Critical Success factors of ERP implement
ion with User intention to Use ERP
Variables PU PEU Trust TMC Training DA UI Alpha
PU 1 0.873
PEU .195 1 0.808
.103
Trust -.392** .051 1 0.856
.001 .674
TMC .209 .880** .069 1 0.878
.080 .000 .567
Training .243* .194 .113 .299* 1 0.77
.042 .104 .348 .011
Data Accuracy
(DA)
.892** .266* -.392** .350** .271* 1 0.9230
.000 .025 .001 .003 .022
Intention to use
ERP
.394** .226 .445** .191 -.063 .394** 1 0.967
.001 .048 .000 .111 .000 .001
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Trust Between Groups 10.369 3 3.456 6.756 .000 Mean 2.818 3.191 3.727 3.647
Within Groups 34.279 67 .512 SD 1.296 1.123 0.467 0.606
Total 44.648 70
Training Between Groups 9.340 3 3.113 3.042 .035 Mean 3.191 3.727 3.647 2.727
Within Groups 68.575 67 1.024 SD 1.123 0.467 0.606 0.935
Total 77.915 70
DA Between Groups 27.543 3 9.181 16.541 .000 Mean 2.818 4.095 3.636 4.177
Within Groups 37.189 67 .555 SD 1.296 0.436 0.924 0.636
Total 64.732 70
Hypotheses 2: Top management commitment is positively correlated with
ERP usage
The above table 3 illustrate that Top management commitment and User intention
are insignificant positive
correlation with each other (19.1%). The results indicate that top management
commitment is lacking in either
sector of the economy. Comparing the previous studies, most studies have found the
significant positive correlation
like Zairi and Sinclair (1995) ranked leadership facilitator of large transformation
efforts. ERP implementation can
only be accomplished when senior management is totally committed to the initiative.
Management commitment and
support is the ultimate strategy that will secure the necessary conditions for
successfully introducing the change
brought by ERP into the organizations.
Hypotheses 3: End user training is positively correlated with intention to
Use ERP.
Table 3 further reveals the correlation with end user training and intention to use
ERP. The results reveal that there
is significant negative correlation between end user training and intentions to use
ERP indicating that end users
training lack in either sector of the economy. Comparing with previous studies, the
study like Larsen and Myers
(1997) in which they concluded that two factors lead to ERP failure that are;
improperly cutting project scope and
end-user training and Duchessi, et al. (1989) concludes that top management
commitment and adequate end user
training is critical success factors for efficient implementation.
Conclusions and Recommendations
A total of 6 critical success factors for ERP implementation have been identified
based on are review of the related
literature. Different analytical techniques were used to study critical success
extensively. The results of statistical
analysis concludes that though top management commitment is positively associated
with intention to use ERP and
end user training is negatively related with intention to use ERP, thus causing
hindrance in ERP applications
implementation. All other critical factors were found significant predictors of
Intentions to use and thus ERP
implementation. Based on the Findings and conclusions of this research study it is
recommended Top management
support and end user training are most serious factor which is obstacles in ERP
implementation in Pakistan. Hence,
it is recommended that all those organizations who are interested for High growth
through increasing reliable
business solution must pay attention on user/employee ERP training and top
management support.
Limitations of the study and Further Research
This study have several limitations, firstly this study was limited to four sectors of
economy that oil and gas sector,
government sector, Engineering sector and telecom sectors. These sectors were
selected particularly due
Implementations issues emerging in those sectors, although other sectors might
have the ERP applications
implementation issues but do to time and resources constraints these sectors were
selected. This study is conducted
in Pakistan and recommendations have been given for organizations while
implementing ERP applications in their
respective organization. Further research can be carried out by including the
contents of payback from
implementation of ERP, Pre-implementation business process performance and Post
business performance.
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ERP Solutions

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the arrangement of how the resources of a


business are obtained. It is a system that maintains all the data from various business
functions in one common database.

There is a number of ERP Software solutions running in today’s leading organizations.


Manufacturing Execution System MES can parse the data into information and passes it
through out the chain. The data is organized in such a way that a plan can be intelligently
forecasted. ERP solutions have really minimized the extra delay and unavoidable
mistakes in all operations of the organization. ERP services are not only a part of
bounded organization but also have a prime concern with web technologies to the
reaching suppliers, vendors and even customers. Due to certain domestic organizational
disabilities certain organizations are unable to implement ERP services in their operations
this made ERP Consultants to be hired in the organization. Their primary responsibilities
are to plan, train, test and implementation of customized products. All it depends on how
an organization is committed to raise benefits from its ERP software application.
Rivet Solutions ERP Solutions is leading Pakistan ERP Consultants . Rivet Solutions
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Rivet Solutions Information Systems provides its users with web based ERP solutions
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• EDI
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