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There is a lack of research covering the training requirements of organisations implementing highly demanding information systems (HDISs). The aim of this paper is to help in the understanding of appropriate training requirements for such systems.

This research investigates the training delivery within a customer‐facing organisation that successfully implemented an HDIS. A case study was undertaken to identify resource allocation during the implementation lifecycle and training guidelines were prepared following in‐depth interviews with client and supplier consultant practitioners.

Organisations implementing HDISs should invest in training throughout the implementation lifecycle. Two areas of training were found to be of importance: end‐user training to avoid technical‐isomorphism and post‐implementation training to avoid system atrophy.

Literature shows that training attracts the smallest proportion of the implementation resources. This research shows, however, the critical role training plays in delivering a successful HDIS implementation.

The phasing of training requirements allows training resources to be allocated more effectively into end‐user and post‐implementation training, which is necessary for the full benefits of HDIS to be realised.

This study explores the critical success factors (CSFs) for Security Education, Training and Awareness (SETA) program effectiveness. The questionable effectiveness of SETA programs at changing employee behavior and an absence of empirical studies on the CSFs for SETA program effectiveness is the key motivation for this study.

This exploratory study follows a systematic inductive approach to concept development. The methodology adopts the “key informant” approach to give voice to practitioners with SETA program expertise. Data are gathered using semi-structured interviews with 20 key informants from various geographic locations including the Gulf nations, Middle East, USA, UK and Ireland.

In this study, the analysis of these key informant interviews, following an inductive open, axial and selective coding approach, produces 11 CSFs for SETA program effectiveness. These CSFs are mapped along the phases of a SETA program lifecycle (design, development, implementation and evaluation) and nine relationships identified between the CSFs (within and across the lifecycle phases) are highlighted. The CSFs and CSFs' relationships are visualized in a Lifecycle Model of CSFs for SETA program effectiveness.

This research advances the first comprehensive conceptualization of the CSFs for SETA program effectiveness. The Lifecycle Model of CSFs for SETA program effectiveness provides valuable insights into the process of introducing and sustaining an effective SETA program in practice. The Lifecycle Model contributes to both theory and practice and lays the foundation for future studies.

World-class total productive maintenance (TPM) status depends on critical success factors (CSF) to be properly implemented. The relevant literature has identified several CSF; however, researchers have not investigated the degree of importance of each phase of the process. The purpose of this paper is to prioritize the CSFs that influence TPM implementation during each phase of the process in order to aid decision making in companies.

The main CSF are identified from a literature review. This paper focusses on the judgments of managers who are experts in TPM implementation in companies which have received TPM awards for excellence. The judgments are processed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. Three aggregation methods (geometric mean, Copeland and fuzzy) are employed for comparative analysis.

Although the literature highlights some important CSF, the relevance of these factors is not the same in each phase of TPM implementation. Analysis shows that ranking using the Copeland method is most coherent.

This research was carried out in some Brazilian companies.

If managers are aware of the CSF to be prioritized in each phase, this facilitates decision making, resulting in a more effective implementation of TPM.

If TPM implementation is effective, this stimulates the personnel involved and avoids the possibility of the program being abandoned.

The originality of this paper consists in the proposed model to prioritize CSF during each phase of the implementation of TPM.

Cyber security has never been more important than it is today in an ever more connected and pervasive digital world. However, frequently reported shortages of suitably skilled and trained information system (IS)/cyber security professionals elevate the importance of delivering effective Security Education,Training and Awareness (SETA) programmes within organisations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is the questionable effectiveness of SETA programmes at changing employee behaviour and an absence of empirical studies on the critical success factors (CSFs) for SETA programme effectiveness.

This exploratory study follows a three-stage research design to give voice to practitioners with SETA programme expertise. Data is gathered in Stage 1 using semi-structured interviews with 20 key informants (the emergence of the CSFs), in Stage 2 from 65 respondents to a short online survey (the ranking of the CSFs) and in Stage 3 using semi-structured interviews with nine IS/cyber security practitioners (the emergence of the guiding principles). Using a multi-stage research design allows the authors to propose and evaluate the 11 CSFs for SETA programme effectiveness.

This study conducted a mean score analysis to evaluate the level of importance of each CSF within two independent groups of IS/cyber security professionals. This multi-stage analysis produces a ranked list of 11 CSFs for SETA programme effectiveness, while the difference in the rankings leads to the emergence of five CSF-specific guiding principles (to increase the likelihood of delivering an effective SETA programme within an organisational context). This analysis also reveals that most of the contradictions/differences in CSF rankings between IS/cyber security practitioners are linked to the design phase of the SETA programme life cycle. While two CSFs, “maintain quarterly evaluation of employee performance” (CSF-DS6) and “build security awareness campaigns” (CSF-EV1), represent the most significant contradiction in this study.

The 11 CSFs for SETA programme effectiveness, along with the five CSF-specific guiding principles, provide a greater depth of knowledge contributing to both theory and practice and lays the foundation for future studies. Therefore, the outputs of this study provide valuable insights on the areas that practice needs to get right to deliver effective SETA programmes.

Delivering benefits from ERP II is challenging and the purpose of this paper is to investigate the allocation of resources contributing towards benefits realisation.

A case‐study investigation was based on a five‐month placement within the project team of an organisation implementing ERP II. A critical success factors (CSF) phasing model was developed in order to categorise invested resources. Participant observations formed the first stage of the research and two years post implementation the observations were presented back to four key members of the project team to identify which invested resources contributed towards benefits realisation. Subsequently, the findings were presented to seven supplier organisations to validate the CSFs required to deliver benefits realisation from ERP II implementations.

This research has identified 19 CSFs for ERP II, contributing an additional six to those already outlined in literature. A critical pathway for ERP II implementations has been presented, allowing the identified CSFs to be tackled at the appropriate stages of the implementation.

This is the first time CSFs have been allocated to different phases of the implementation lifecycle using a structured model. As a result, resources contributing towards benefits realisation can be more effectively applied, saving the organisation valuable resources.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of local project teams on critical success factors and project success in the context of international development projects in Maldives. It identifies the critical success factors of international development projects, examines how the success of international development projects in Maldives is perceived by local project team members, and analyzes the relationship between critical success factors and project success from the project teams’ perspective.

A survey questionnaire was used and 41 project team members participated in the study. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed to understand the relationship with project success and critical success factors.

The study found out that the levels of success of projects were perceived high among the project teams. The results indicated that monitoring CSF, coordination CSF, design CSF, training CSF, and institutional environment CSF had a significant relationship with project success. However, results of the regression analysis indicated that only monitoring CSF was significant in influencing project success.

The limited sample size and optimism bias of respondents were a constraint. Furthermore, further analysis of data may be required to advance analysis.

The study looks through the lens of project implementation teams in order to provide insights from their vantage point. The study provides insights based on the Maldivian context which will benefit similar island nation communities implementing similar projects.

Implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a challenging task for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated decision support system (DSS) for ERP implementation (DSS_ERP) to facilitate resource allocations and risk analysis.

Analytical regression models are developed using data collected through a survey conducted on 400 SMEs that have implemented ERP systems, and are validated by a simulation model. The validated analytical regression models are used to construct a nonlinear programming model that generates solutions for resource allocations, such as time and budget.

ERP implementation cost increases along the time horizon, while performance level increases up to a point and remains unchanged. To maximise or achieve a certain level of performance within a budget limitation, CSFs are prioritised as: project management (highest), top management, information technology, users and vendor support (lowest). SMEs are recommended to concentrate effort and resources on CSFs that have a greater impact on achieving their desired goals while optimising utilisation of resources.

DSS_ERP proves to be beneficial to SMEs in identifying required resources and allocating resources, but could be further tested in case studies for its practical use and benefits.

DSS_ERP serves as a useful tool for SMEs to predict required resources and allocate them prior to ERP implementation, which maximises the probability of achieving predetermined targets. It also enables SMEs to analyse risk caused by changes to resources during ERP implementation, and helps them to be better prepared for the risks.

The research contributes to the scarce research on ERP implementation using scientific methods. A novel nonlinear programming model is constructed for ERP implementation under time and budget limitations, facilitating resource allocations in an ERP implementation, which has not been reported in any previous research. The research offers a theoretical basis for empirical studies of resource allocations in ERP implementation.

The aim of this paper is to propose a benchmarking model of supplier development (SD) for an Indian gear manufacturing company for its successful adoption and improvement in a continuous basis.

Thirteen SD critical success factors (CSFs) are identified and classified into four categories through extensive literature review and discussion held with managers/senior engineers in different Indian manufacturing companies. The four categories are primary CSFs related to supplier, secondary CSFs related to supplier, CSFs related to manufacturer and CSFs related to both manufacturer and supplier. The interpretative structural modeling (ISM) approach is applied to the Indian gear manufacturing company for developing and analyzing structural framework of CSFs to propose a benchmarking model for SD.

It is concluded that SD adoption should be carried out in four phases sequentially for the Indian gear manufacturing company. The first, second, third and fourth phase should sequentially focus on primary CSFs related to supplier; secondary CSFs related to supplier; CSFs related to manufacturer; and CSFs related to both manufacturer and supplier, respectively. The proposed benchmarking model has four phases (i.e. plan, analyze, implement and measure) and bifurcated into 12 steps to enhance the performance of CSFs.

This paper provides a useful benchmarking model for successful adoption of SD in manufacturing organizations.

This is one of the few studies to develop the relationship of CSFs for SD in general and its application to an Indian gear manufacturing company in particular. A benchmarking model for SD is also proposed having five phases and 12 steps. The findings of the proposed structural framework and benchmarking model for the Indian gear manufacturing company are discussed in detail and will serve as a guideline for successful adoption of SD in manufacturing environment.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the critical success factors (CSF) for lean and six sigma and an analysis of these CSF as compared to previously popular change methods.

The paper uses a literature search and comparative analysis complemented with examples from previous case studies.

With only slight variations, the critical success factors are similar for all the change methods. Furthermore, the critical success factors seem to be relatively constant over time. Another important finding is that the CSF tend to relate more to how an organization approaches the change effort versus change method specific factors. The issues of management support and organizational culture are often emphasized as especially critical. The paper highlights and discusses three additional important CSF: strategic alignment, project management and training.

The awareness of CSF, in combination with an awareness of similarities between the methods, can potentially guide organizations in implementations of existing change efforts, and also prepare them for the next widely popular change method – when it arrives.

The paper presents the comparison of such aspects as goals, approaches, structure and tools and a detailed analysis of critical success factors.

The goal of this paper is to discuss critical success factors (CSF) for implementing enterprise portals by comparing them with CSF for ERP implementations.

In order to identify and rank CSF for portal implementations, the paper followed a multi‐method design, following a two‐stage approach with the first stage analyzing the state‐of‐the‐art of portal implementation by interviewing portal integrators in Germany and a follow‐up stage with a focus on CSF, thereby identifying and analyzing the CSF for portal (implementation) projects in general and across project stages. Then the findings are compared with the results of a similar study on CSF in ERP (implementation) projects.

When comparing CSF for portal projects with CSF of ERP projects, some similarities were found but also some differences with respect to top management support, project management, communication, selection of the software package and business process re‐engineering.

There are limitations with regard to the comparability of both studies as both studies used different samples.

Based on these findings, measures to improve the engineering and management of portals can be proposed and developed.

Up to now, there are neither detailed studies focusing on the identification and evaluation of CSF for portal projects nor studies that try to compare portal and ERP projects. The paper tries to fill this gap.