Study on the Factors that Determine the Success of ERP Implementation

The world boundaries are broken with the advancement of technology and the emergence of digitized industries where economies are connected via the cloud. As a result, effective management of information internally and externally is needed to cope with the quick changes in markets. For a long time, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been used to streamline company processes data, and hierarchy. ERP’s are capable of managing big data, integrating business processes and providing effective communication channels within the entire organization. ERP’s provide many benefits to businesses if implemented right. However, an alarming 70% of ERP implementations fail. The failure can very well bankrupt the organization and at the same time affect the vendors very negatively. The aim of this paper is to discuss the critical success factors in ERP implementations from the employees, management, consultants and vendors perspectives. Prior research has identified critical success factors for ERP implementations but none classified them according to the above perspectives (employees, management, consultants and vendors). Surveys were conducted with 60 ERP project participants including senior managers, employees and vendors. A regression analysis was made to investigate the relation between the success of ERP implementations (dependent variable) and the contributions of employees, management, consultants and vendors (independent variables). The study shows that there exists a positive relation between successful ERP implementation and the following: management support, employees’ motivation, training, management, vision, and professional consultants. Add to that, the study aids managers and ERP participants to identify the major success factors that must be implemented for the objective of having successful ERP deployment.