Challenges to Successful ERP Use

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages have, in the last five years, transformed the way organisations go about the process of providing Information Systems. Instead of crafting each new Information System locally, organisations are able to install well-integrated, internationally sourced packages which seek to incorporate best practice from IT systems world-wide. These packages also provide very rich choice in features and functions so that the adopting organisation can tailor the package implementation to meet their very specific needs. However, the enormous growth rate in ERP adoption has slowed. It is apparent that some adopters are not yet realising the benefits that they had anticipated. Efforts to make ERP packages successful in small to medium enterprises, in particular, are facing challenges. This paper reports on case study research involving some adopters of the ERP package, SAP. The research uses an ERP Success Model based on a framework developed to explain success in the adoption of CASE packages. Results to date support the value of this model. In particular, it points to the usefulness of the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) construct as an indicator of ERP success. 1. PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH 1.1. The ERP Concept Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has its origins in the concepts associated with Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) packages and their antecedents from the 1970s, Materials Requirement Planning packages. Some argue (Davenport, 2000) that the evolution of ERP software has been such as to make the analogy with MRP inappropriate. In this spirit, there have been moves to replace the term ERP with EWS (Enterprise Wide Systems) or just ES (Enterprise Systems). Although there is some difficulty in agreeing upon a definition of ERP (Klaus et al, 2000), there are certain features that can be seen to characterise ERP packages. These key features (Bancroft et al., 1998) are present in the German package, SAP R/3, the package installed by the organisations investigated in this study. A fundamental feature of the package is a high level of integration, with all applications sharing a single corporate database. The system is designed for an on-line client/server environment. A high level of