Abstract
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are software platforms that centralize business processes by integrating data and workflow across various departments such as human resources, finance, manufacturing, plant maintenance, supply chain, sales, and customer service. Educational institutions, government institutions and property management are all starting to adopt ERP systems based on their needs. Most organisations have reported better and more accurate financial reporting after implementing ERP, while others have reported improved customer service. However, if not implemented correctly, it may lead to major cost losses, loss of brand reputation, negatively affected productivity, and inability to meet customer demand. This research study will be focusing on ERP implementation, its benefits, challenges, and success factors.
As ERP systems can be costly, time consuming and risky implementation for an organizations, this research is going to address the fundamental factors contributing to failed ERP implementation projects, and the mitigation strategies that are adopted by organizations to overcome these challenges. This is vital in order to prevent possible failures for organizations planning on implementing ERP solutions or upgrading existing ERP systems.
This research is going to address the problem by exploring existing literature around ERP implementation strategies, both factors contributing to failures and factors contributing to successes, with benefits of ERP as a starting point. The study will further explore real life experiences of professionals in the industry via semi structured interviews, using the literature as a baseline, a deductive approach. The research methodology used for this research is a qualitative approach, which will assist in exploring more of the experienced, ideas, and opinions of individuals.
This research study is vital as it will benefit organizations that have plans of implementing ERP, ERP deployment service providers, organizations’ decision makers, ERP consultants, and employees nominated to support the implementation and deployment. It will equip organizations with critical success factors for successful ERP implementation that they need to be aware of.