Search results

Research has shown that companies focus their internal processes when they adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, the ERP systems need to expand their functionality to include customers and suppliers (with e-commerce functionality) to reach their full potential. The purpose of this paper is to consider business relationships as a resource but also a limitation when companies strive to get an extended ERP system.

The paper presents an illustrative case study of an industrial company's process of developing an extended ERP and how the company's portfolio of business relationships has affected the solution. The analysis is supported by the markets-as-networks theory.

The process of developing an extended ERP system needs to incorporate the company's business partners (customers and suppliers). It is a simultaneously bottom-up and top-down process given that the operative frontline staff hold the knowledge about the company's business relationships while the corporate management has the means of extending the ERP system functionality and align it with the focal company's strategy.

Companies need to consider the fact that the technological and financial status of their customers and suppliers differ. Thus, an effective and flexible extended ERP system needs to include both a high-end and low-end solution as well as understand that a full interorganizational integration might not be realistic.

The paper puts forth business relationship portfolios as an important factor to consider when extending the ERP system functionality in the supply chain and toward customers.

This article proposes examining how small to medium‐sized organisations (SMEs) are responding to the challenge of harnessing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and internet technologies to enhance performance and improve competitiveness and aims to identify the barriers preventing organisations from harnessing these technologies.

A case‐based research strategy was chosen. Four leading SMEs were interviewed to determine their approach to extended ERP and the barriers encountered. The primary data collection was based on structured in‐depth interviews with key respondents who were involved in the implementation of extended ERP and closely involved in day‐to‐day operations.

While each of the SMEs had already taken some steps to extended ERP, they adopted a cautious approach to the future. In short, SMEs considering extended ERP should determine the impact on all organisations before proceeding and should also apply the lessons learned from their initial ERP implementation.

Single company case studies could be used to uncover some of the causal mechanisms behind the processes observed. Within‐sector case studies could be used to highlight the issues faced by particular sectors. Cross‐sector case studies could be used to validate the article's conclusions as well as to elucidate differences among sectors.

Managers of SMEs embarking on extended ERP should consider the following challenges: business processes, whether internal or external, must be examined and redesigned as necessary to take advantage of the new technology; an effective change management and communications programme must be run; the lessons learned from the original ERP implementation should be revisited and mistakes made in the past avoided; and a strong business case needs to be developed, with clear objectives and critical success factors.

While the internet has facilitated a shift towards dynamic communication and improved integration, the complexity of integrating electronic supply chain management, e‐procurement and customer relationship management poses an enormous challenge for organisations. This research study indicates that there are multiple ways in which extended ERP can be achieved to add value to SMEs but it is not simply a matter of adding a new application.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been implemented in most organizations for a few years. ERP solutions go through three phases of lifecycle: selection, implementation and operation phase; the operation phase consists of the stabilization stage and the routine stage. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ERP system use in the operation phase, organizations need to research the factors that have impact on users' satisfaction. A literature shows that few published studies have examined users' adoption of ERP systems through a technological acceptance model (TAM) or examined external factors that have influence the intention to use an ERP system, or ERP use in the stabilization stage. The purpose of this paper is to expose and research external factors which have influence on ERP users in the operation phase of ERP lifecycle and to investigate the impact of those factors on ERP system use.

The TAM proposed by Davis has been the most widely‐used model for researching user acceptance and usage of information technology/information systems. Despite the existence of several additions to TAM connected with ERP use, the authors aim to make further contribution in the area of external factors. Within this context the present research is focused on the mature use of ERP system (more than one year of ERP use in an organization). A limited number of external factors mentioned in already published papers connected with TAM regarding ERP use has also been extended. The authors have researched the effect of external factors through the second‐order factors on the original TAM. The model has been empirically tested using the data collected from a survey of 161 ERP users from a national telecom company, which has been using an ERP system since 1999. The model has been analysed using PLS approach.

The study shows that extended external factors observed through the second‐order factors have important influence on ERP usefulness and ERP ease of use; they also have a strong influence on the attitude toward using ERP system by ERP users in the routine (maturity) stage.

The paper researches the factors which have an impact on ERP solution use in the routine (mature) stage of ERP lifecycle. The paper adds to the literature, in that few previous studies have examined the users' adoption of ERP systems through the TAM or examined external factors that have influence on the intention to use an ERP system or ERP use in the stabilization stage.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems development and emerging practices in the management of enterprises (i.e. parts of companies working with parts of other companies to deliver a complex product and/or service) and identify any apparent correlations. Suitable a priori contingency frameworks are then used and extended to explain apparent correlations. Discussion is given to provide guidance for researchers and practitioners to deliver better strategic, structural and operational competitive advantage through this approach; coined here as the “enterprization of operations”.

Theoretical induction uses a new empirical longitudinal case study from Zoomlion (a Chinese manufacturing company) built using an adapted form of template analysis to produce a new contingency framework.

Three main types of enterprises and the three main types of ERP systems are defined and correlations between them are explained. Two relevant a priori frameworks are used to induct a new contingency model to support the enterprization of operations; known as the dynamic enterprise reference grid for ERP (DERG-ERP).

The findings are based on one longitudinal case study. Further case studies are currently being conducted in the UK and China.

The new contingency model, the DERG-ERP, serves as a guide for ERP vendors, information systems management and operations managers hoping to grow and sustain their competitive advantage with respect to effective enterprise strategy, enterprise structure and ERP systems.

This research explains how ERP systems and the effective management of enterprises should develop in order to sustain competitive advantage with respect to enterprise strategy, enterprise structure and ERP systems use.

To examine and measure the effectiveness of enterprise systems at business network level. The paper presents the best practice case highlighting how business network systems (BNS) can be redesigned using enterprise systems to strengthen relationships with business partners and to enhance value to consumers.

The paper examines the business potential of BNS redesign at the relationship level through a case study of one of the largest fast‐moving consumer goods (FMCG) networks, HLLNet.

HLLNet has uniquely extended its ERP system to establish transactional and relationship‐oriented BNS and has achieved significant improvement in business performance for all partners in the network. It has achieved significant reductions in inventory, improvements in cash management and a negative working capital due to improved information flows across the network and the implementation of policies such as vendor‐managed inventory (VMI). Simultaneously it has improved its telecoms infrastructure and redesigned its inter‐organizational processes to support these information flows. This paper examines how the adoption of enterprise systems across the network, along with a redesign of BNS, can improve and contribute significantly to value to end consumers.

The findings are quite useful to enterprises in terms of deploying enterprise systems across their value chain. They need not only to re‐engineer business processes, but also to innovate new business policies while deploying enterprise systems in order to create value out of IT investment.

To review an existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) literature and provide the inter‐organizational practice of ERP system.

A focus group (FG) method was adopted as an exploratory means to gain insights and perspective of ERP systems.

The study suggests researchers re‐examine the following ERP issues at the inter‐organizational level, namely: selection of ERP packages, integration of business processes, knowledge and applications, implementation approaches, training as well as organizational transformation and software migration.

The study examined the different ERP lifecycle phases and provided the insight factors that were crucial to overall success in implementing ERP. In addition, the empirical findings would be useful to ERP practitioners by providing better understanding of ERP from both the user and organizational perspectives. Regarding the FG methodology, practitioners can use FG at the beginning of ERP projects to gather customer needs and organizational information, which can facilitate better business and IS planning.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply‐chain management (SCM) have been growing in popularity across various industries. New initiatives in resources planning, electronic commerce and extended supply chain drive the trend among corporations towards integrating strategic business applications. ERP systems assist enterprises in automating and integrating corporate cross‐functions such as inventory control, procurement, distribution, finance and project management. Through information sharing, SCM enables supply‐chain partners to work in close coordination to facilitate supplier‐customer interactions and minimize transaction cost. This research examines these two important concepts in terms of their evolution, functions and current development and further explores the rationales for their integration by analyzing the problems of ERP and presenting the solutions of SCM. This study is concluded with the imminent development of SCM and EPR systems and the industrial trend toward their integration.

Two distinct phases of ERP have been identified. The first phase refers to the changes that an organization undergoes in transforming from the old system and “going live” with the ERP system. The second phase, also called the second wave of ERP, refers to the actions subsequent to ERP implementation, that enable the organization to achieve the full capabilities and benefits of ERP. The paper examines the problems organizations frequently experience with ERP implementations, and suggests strategies for extending the value of ERP systems.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how decision rationality affects ERP adoption extensiveness and subsequently, organization performance. The mediating roles of system usage and user satisfaction on the relationship between adoption extensiveness and organizational performance are also examined.

This study was based on a questionnaire survey of 976 public-listed companies and 200 unlisted manufacturing companies. Responses of 93 ERP adopters were analyzed.

ERP adoption extensiveness is significantly affected by the overall measure of expected economic benefits, but not by any of the economic benefit type individually. On the other hand, mimetic pressure individually affects ERP adoption extensiveness, but not the overall measure of institutional pressures. ERP adoption extensiveness is significantly associated with organizational performance, and the mediating roles of system usage and user satisfaction are supported.

This study has the limitations associated with questionnaire-based research and its small sample size may also limit the generalizability of its findings.

The high emphasis on operational benefits of ERP adoption and the significant effect of mimetic pressure on ERP adoption extensiveness imply that organizations in Malaysia are largely “followers” of the technological innovation and generally have yet to exploit the full potentials of their ERP systems. Government agencies may need to play a more active role to facilitate fuller utilization and adoption of the higher end ERP applications. Vendors of ERP systems may need to review their strategies to increase their sales of ERP systems to the smaller business enterprises.

The paper addresses the relatively void in literature on the link between decision rationality and technology adoption extensiveness and the subsequent organizational performance in the context of an emerging economy.

The purpose of the study is to measure the impact of user adaptation of enterprise resources planning (ERP) post implementation through an appreciation of the benefits ERP provides to its users in Saudi Arabia (SA). The study will also measure the moderation effect of user experience with ERP on the relationship between user adaptation of ERP and user benefits from ERP.

The authors conducted a survey questionnaire study of 253 ERP users and tested the research model through the application of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The findings show that user adaptation of ERP has a strong positive impact on ERP user benefits. In addition, it is found that the level of user experience with ERP has no significant moderation effect on the relationship between user adaptation of ERP and ERP user benefits.

The study findings suggest that functional management should develop appropriate strategies to effectively manage user adaptation of ERP. An equally important implication is for the ERP vendors to consider making their ERP systems as flexible and maintainable as possible by offering effective tools to easily accommodate changes in user requirements with minimum effort and cost.

This study provides insights into the inter-relationships between the motivation for improving user adaptation of ERP and gaining more benefits from ERP systems. It will also extend our understanding of the moderation effect of user experience with ERP on the relationship between user adaptation of ERP and ERP user benefits in developing countries.