A framework for the ex-ante evaluation of ERP software

Abstract

Δημοσιεύσεις μελών--ΣΔΟ--Τμήμα Λογιστικής, 2001It has been widely reported that a large number of ERP implementations fail to meet expectations. This is indicative, firstly, of the magnitude of the problems involved in ERP systems implementation and, secondly, of the importance of the ex-ante evaluation and selection process of ERP software. This paper argues that ERP evaluation should extend its scope beyond operational improvements arising from the ERP software/product per se to the strategic impact of ERP on the competitive position of the organisation. Due to the complexity of ERP software, the intangible nature of both costs and benefits, which evolve over time, and the organisational, technological and behavioural impact of ERP, a broad perspective of the ERP systems evaluation process is needed. The evaluation has to be both quantitative and qualitative and requires an estimation of the perceived costs and benefits throughout the life-cycle of ERP systems. The paper concludes by providing a framework of the key issues involved in the selection process of ERP software and the associated costs and benefits

Requirements engineering for cross-organizational ERP implementation undocumented assumptions and potential mismatches

“…Requirements engineers and business representatives still have to rely on their intuition and experience, and the problem of coordination is still being confronted in a largely ad-hoc fashion. Moreover, the few ERP publications that include coordination aspects in the assessments of ERP systems [17,41], describe these aspects only in general terms, without characterizing in detail differences between (i) how agreements on joint actions are achieved, and (ii) how the default coordination mechanisms in ERP address those needs. This vagueness makes it difficult to determine what alternative coordination mechanisms might be useful in a given organizational context or to directly translate these alternative coordination process designs into specifications of individual activities or uses of ERP to support a process (e.g., as part of a business process redesign effort [13,14,20]).…”

“…12 The more rigid the solution, the more standardized the business processes [5,9,12,13,14,17,20,24,25,26,27,36,39,40,42]. 13 The more rigid the solution, the tighter the integration of operational and informational procedures that the organization can achieve [1,5,9,10,11,12,13,14,17,18,19,20,21,22,24,25,26,27,31,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42]. 14 The more rigid the solution, the better the level of interoperability that can be achieved [1,24,25].…”

“…A review of the literature on ERP implementation [5,7,12,13,14,23,25,31,36,38,41] and of our own experience in implementing ERP solutions based on the SAP package [9,10,11] reveals that there is a small number of coordination technologies in use at the enterprise systems level:…”

“…15 The more rigid the solution, the more predictable the global business processes [12,13,14,20,25]. 16 The tighter the integration of operational and informational procedures, the greater the changes in processes and data management imposed on the organization [1,5,9,10,11,12,13,14,17,18,19,20,21,22,24,25,26,27,31,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42]. 17 The tighter the integration in terms operational and informational procedures, the more complex the changeover management processes [5,13].…”

Opções reais como instrumento para gerir riscos em projetos complexos de infraestrutura de tecnologia da informação

“…- Stefanou (2001), por sua vez, destaca que a complexidade dos projetos de implantação de ERP tem sido reconhecida tanto por pesquisadores quanto por profissionais de TI; nesta mesma linha de raciocínio, Hakkinen e Hilmola (2008) compartilham da opinião que a implantação de um ERP normalmente se mostra um projeto complexo e arriscado, que envolve vários distintos componentes e, para ser bem sucedida, deve superar inúmeros desafios que surgem antes e depois do sistema entrar em operação;…”