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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a set of applications that automate finance and human resource departments and help manufacturers handle jobs such as order processing and production scheduling. This paper attempts to provide an overview of an ERP system along with the real experiences of its implementation. Reports results of a survey of several ERP companies and considers factors such as future trends in ERP including developments such as Web‐based procurement applications and outsourcing of ERP applications. Suggests some challenges for ERP, such as the need to ensure global compatibility and flexibility.

To examine enterprise resource planning (ERP) adoption in Greek companies, and explore the effects of uncertainty on the performance of these systems and the methods used to cope with uncertainty.

This research was exploratory and six case studies were generated. This work was part of a larger project on the adoption, implementation and integration of ERP systems in Greek enterprises. A taxonomy of ERP adoption research was developed from the literature review and used to underpin the issues investigated in these cases. The results were compared with the literature on ERP adoption in the USA and UK.

There were major differences between ERP adoption in Greek companies and companies in other countries. The adoption, implementation and integration of ERP systems were fragmented in Greek companies. This fragmentation demonstrated that the internal enterprise's culture, resources available, skills of employees, and the way ERP systems are perceived, treated and integrated within the business and in the supply chain, play critical roles in determining the success/failure of ERP systems adoption. A warehouse management system was adopted by some Greek enterprises to cope with uncertainty.

A comparison of ERP adoption was made between the USA, UK and Greece, and may limit its usefulness elsewhere.

Practical advice is offered to managers contemplating adopting ERP.

A new taxonomy of ERP adoption research was developed, which refocused the ERP implementation and integration into related critical success/failure factors and total integration issues, thus providing a more holistic ERP adoption framework.

The purpose of this paper is to frame next‐generation enterprise systems (ES).

The model is based on a retrospective analysis of the evolution of enterprise systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) research and emerging business requirements.

The paper proposes a conceptual framework for extended enterprise resource planning (ERP II). The aim of this model is to compile present ES concepts into a comprehensive outline of ERP II, thus composing a generic map and taxonomy for corporate‐wide enterprise systems.

The paper concludes that the ERP research needs to broaden its perspective in order to accommodate itself to the new issues of next‐generation enterprise systems.

The model is seen as a first step towards a tool to analyse and design complex enterprise systems architecture.

This paper is the first attempt to formalize and capture the ERP II concept and the next‐generation enterprise systems.

The e‐business revolution which the world experienced over the past decade is forcing businesses to review, re‐engineer, and revolutionize traditional approaches to running a successful enterprise. Globalization and competition have also made it essential for companies to find innovative ways to manage daily administrative tasks as smoothly, seamlessly, and cost‐effectively as possible. Companies are achieving such capabilities and efficiencies by adopting enterprise resource planning systems. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the fundamentals of enterprise resource systems and their practical application in the lodging industry.

The paper reviews the fundamentals of enterprise resource systems and discusses their practical applications in managing the human resources (HR) function of lodging enterprises.

The integration of company‐wide day‐to‐day HR administrative tasks through the use of enterprise resource systems results in both tangible and intangible benefits for lodging organizations. These include: improved productivity, reduced cycle times, and availability of timely information.

The paper suggests that the use of enterprise resource systems to consolidate and integrate routine HR functions will continue to grow and prudent lodging executives should pay close attention to this trend so that they can adopt the technology into their operations and enjoy the benefits it offers.

Both practitioners and educators will benefit from the information presented as it communicates information and provides insights about a relatively new form of technology.

This paper's purpose is to examine the impact of ERP adoption in one of the most traditional sectors, namely the printing industry, within a case study of five typical large‐scale printing organisations set in the developing economy context of Pakistan.

The research methodology and the analysis motivated an interpretive approach. The inductive reasoning approach has been used, since the aim was to find something new for the printing industry and to try to discover the advantages that ERP could bring about for the industry. In this research study, semi‐structured interviews were conducted along with a number of visits to the targeted printing firms selected as being prototypical of the sector in this business environment. The research questions focused on identifying and exploring the benefits related to ERP for the printing industry, and why it was needed.

The research shows that all the functional categories identified in the literature for ERP can be introduced in the printing industry. However, within each category, not all its modules can be adopted for this industry. The research has also shown that the benefits of some areas of ERP are still to be understood by the stakeholders.

The enterprises under study now have an opportunity to look into ERP solutions as the basis also for first‐mover advantage within their sector.

There has been one previous attempt in Pakistan to restructure the largest printing press by introducing SAP, which failed due to lack of technical expertise and training support. This paper draws on the successful approaches deployed in ERP implementations in other sectors and examines the extent to which they can be adapted for the printing industry, for example which modules should be prioritised for integration and how to optimise their impact.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on enterprise resource planning (ERP) system adoption by investigating the relationship of enterprise size to the objectives and constraints of ERP adoption.

In the paper, survey data, based on the responses of 44 companies, are analyzed, by dividing the companies into small, medium‐sized, and large enterprises; and comparing these groups, using statistical methods.

The paper finds significant differences exist between small, medium‐sized and large enterprises regarding the objectives and constraints of ERP system adoption. While small enterprises experience more knowledge constraints, large enterprises are challenged by the changes imposed by ERP adoption. Further, large and medium‐sized enterprises are more outward‐oriented in ERP adoption than small enterprises. Business development, as opposed to mere efficiency improvement, while being the most prevalent objective for ERP adoption in all the company groups, is considered especially important by medium‐sized enterprises. Finally, the findings suggest that, instead of considering small and medium‐sized enterprises as one homogeneous group of smaller enterprises, differences between these two groups of companies should be acknowledged in information system adoption.

The paper shows that the Finnish context and the sample size should be taken into consideration when generalizing the findings.

The paper points out the differences in objectives and constraints between companies of different sizes that should be acknowledged in ERP adoption.

Instead of resorting to the customary approach of considering small and medium‐sized enterprises as a homogeneous group of smaller enterprises, this study acknowledges the differences between these two groups of companies.

Digital records are either stored in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or an electronic content management (ECM) system or managed without the benefit of either. To achieve high productivity, integration of these systems is required. However, the utilisation of either an ERP or ECM system is absent in many organisations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of a framework that may support the integration of an ERP into an ECM system at Rand Water.

This qualitative study used a case design with 14 interviewees from different levels in the organisation and diverse business units using ERP and ECM to perform their operational deliverables. Purposive sampling was used to select the interviewees in line with their area of work, role and level of operation.

This study established that the water utility company has implemented an ERP system (SAP) since 2004 and ECM systems since 1991 (Papertrail and later IBM FileNet) with only the information flow module integrated. This study suggested that to integrate ERP into ECM, human and non-human actors need to collaborate to ensure large-scale integration.

This study presents a framework for integrating ERP into ECM. It is suggested that an integration module for ERPs called extended ECM, be considered. A further study of the transfer of digital records in ECM into archival custody is recommended.

This study aims to explore the role of successfully implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems by investigating changes in management accounting (MA) and the influence of the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the adoption and implementation process in an emerging market economy, namely, Saudi Arabia.

A case-study approach was used to review and compare the ERP adoption and implementation process in two Saudi SMEs from different industries for the descriptive analysis and assessment of changes in MA following the adoption of the system and influence of context. Secondary data were analyzed, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data.

The results indicate that successful ERP implementations support and unify the core business processes and functions and improve analysis, decision-making, reporting and the overall quality of data. Furthermore, the results show that a management accountant's role is widened and shifted from a mere information provider to a business advisor and analyst, enhancing management accounting techniques. The results confirm that ERP implementation is related to the SMEs' technological, organizational and environmental contexts, which must be fully understood to achieve the desired improvements in the management accounting system.

This study contributes to understanding how ERP systems impact MA and management accountants, particularly in SMEs from developing countries, namely, Saudi Arabia. Specifically, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is one of the first to use the technology–organization–environment framework and contingency theory to investigate post-ERP implementation changes in SMEs MA in an emerging market economy.

This research aims to determine to what extent uncertainties affected manufacturing enterprises' delivery performance, to analyse the performance of their contingency plans in dealing with uncertainties and to explore what technical and organisational factors affected managers' decisions to implement an uncertainty‐diagnosing model.

The methodology included a literature review, postal questionnaire survey and telephone interviews.

A total of 30 companies responded to the questionnaire, 56 per cent of which thought their systems worked well and 80 per cent reported that material shortages were responsible for tardy delivery performance. Tardy delivery was directly or indirectly caused by poor supplier delivery performance in the opinion of 92 per cent of respondents. Seven companies had developed an uncertainty‐diagnosing model. Not all companies needed to adopt the model.

Uncertainty and contingency plans were investigated in UK and Chinese organisations using MRP/MRPII/ERP systems. Therefore, the findings will be directly relevant to the organisations, but may be adapted to other similar organisations.

A detection method was proposed to determine the steps required for organisations to adopt the uncertainty‐diagnosing model.

The paper provides some empirical data on uncertainty and the contingency plans used in ERP‐controlled manufacturing environments in organisations in the UK and China. Data on uncertainty are scarce and this research gives further insights into the ways managers perceive and handle uncertainty.

The successful implementation of various enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has provoked considerable interest over the last few years. Management has recently been enticed to look toward these new information technologies and philosophies of manufacturing for the key to survival or competitive edges. Although there is no shortage of glowing reports on the success of ERP installations, many companies have tossed millions of dollars in this direction with little to show for it. Since many of the ERP failures today can be attributed to inadequate planning prior to installation, we choose to analyze several critical planning issues including needs assessment and choosing a right ERP system, matching business process with the ERP system, understanding the organizational requirements, and economic and strategic justification. In addition, this study also identifies new windows of opportunity as well as challenges facing companies today as enterprise systems continue to evolve and expand.