Many organizations still find it painful to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Although ERP projects are collaborative efforts that many separate organizations conduct, academic research has not investigated ERPs fully from this perspective. To identify the challenges in ERP development networks (EDNs), we carried out an interpretive empirical study by using grounded theory to analyze data. After identifying 10 EDN challenges and analyzing the associations between the challenges further, we constructed a model that explains the challenges in ERP development networks. Relationship conflicts (root causes) create or reinforce one or more operational problems (consequences). Changes in the EDN structure initiate or reinforce the other two types. Whereas the existing literature has discussed ERP challenges mainly separately, we offer a more profound explanation of how they emerge and interrelate. Our findings aid practitioners in recognizing and focusing on the root causes of challenges rather than firefighting consequences. The findings can provide useful insights into collaborative and dynamic environments where multiple organizations interact.
Companies have been adopting Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for decades in order to integrate business functions to increase their competitiveness. The original goal of ERP was to provide an all-in-one integrated suite for the enterprise. However, in a modern business environment, ERPs are integrated externally with customers, suppliers and business partners and internally with continuously changing system landscape of the enterprise. In this paper we present a systematic mapping study that investigates how ERP integration-related issues have been studied by the academia between 1998 and 2012. Studies about technological issues are mostly dealing with systems inside a company whereas studies on methodological issues focus on the integration of the supply chain management and e-business. However, these studies are often either carried out without a rigorous research method or they are based on single cases only. Quantitative methods have been mainly used to investigate quality attributes of ERPs. It is still unclear, how integration issues are effectively solved by a network of stakeholders in an ERP project. This requires more research in the future.
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