An Architectural Framework for the implementation of ERP using Cloud Computing in SMEs: A Literature Survey

Cloud computing has become one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry in the present scenario. 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. ERP implementation and its critical issues, success factors and implementation problems have been investigated in the past but they are not filtered comprehensively in terms of the selection of the best CSPs. This paper presents a new feature based taxonomy which facilitates the process of cloud product selection by prioritization. It proposes a new mechanism for the selection of the cloud which sorts the cloud products according to the customer’s needs and requirements.