A Literature Review of ERP Implementation in African Countries

Abstract

This paper is a literature review of articles published in various journals and conference proceedings, dealing with the topic of the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) within African countries. It intends to help researchers interested in the topic by showing the problems that have been addressed in the research. This work also highlights open issues that can be tackled in future research in the development of African countries driven by ERP. Conferences and journals that are interested in the implementation of ERP within African countries have been identified. The paper also discusses whether the implementation of ERP is an important topic or a market place in the African continent. Based on the salient information gathered throughout this paper review, this work draws some recommendations that will contribute to the successful implementation of ERP within African countries. These recommendations go from the awareness of existing problems and solutions, the life cycle used in the implementation of ERP, to the successful implementation of ERP by avoiding failures that are linked to the African context.

The Future of Enterprise Systems in Africa: Bleak or Bright?

“…The first strategy consisted of implementing a SAP ERP and the second strategy was an in-house development in two Libyan Oil companies. With this framework, it was possible to trace the deployment on each context and thus the implementation process at each step (Tobie, et al, 2016).…”

“…ERP implementation in Asia is very low (Rajapakse & Seddon, 2005) and it is worse in Africa. African countries are far behind (Tobie et al, 2016;Mukti & Rawani , 2016). To close the gap between developed countries and Africa, it is necessary that developing nations like Africa should implement ERP in their organizations with more vigor and zeal (aggressively).…”

“…To close the gap between developed countries and Africa, it is necessary that developing nations like Africa should implement ERP in their organizations with more vigor and zeal (aggressively). Some countries in Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria, Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Sudan and Zambia) have implemented and adopted ERP (Tobie et al, 2016). However, the number is insignificant compared to the size of Africa, only thirteen (13) countries out of fifty-three (53) (Tobie et al 2016).…”

“…Even though developing nations are at different levels of ERP implementation, a wide gap still exists between developed and developing countries on ERP systems and application (Huang 2001, Kam 2012, Serima, (2014.For instance, Suraj (2016) noted that India had achieved a significant level of growth in its economy and an admirable growth in its ERP systems implementation. Most countries in Africa are yet to attain this level of growth and development on ERP systems adoption and implementation (Tobie et al 2016). Part of the reason behind this drawback includes lack of adequate infrastructure, apathy to the use of ICT infrastructure, lack of standardized business processes and lack of skilled IT personnel.…”

ERP: uma investigação sobre a decisão entre comprar pacote comercial ou desenvolver internamente

“…Por essa razão, a solução ERP pode não ser atraente para todas as empresas (Turban et al, 2004). Tobie et al (2016) realizaram um estudo com 36 artigos sobre a implementação de sistemas ERP, no intuito de evidenciar as lições aprendidas por empresas que implementaram esses tipos de sistema e recomendar algumas melhores práticas que podem auxiliar as empresas a evitar os mesmos problemas em futuras implementações. Dentre as principais dificuldades e recomendações sugeridas pelo estudo, destacam-se: (a) desenvolver uma boa estratégia de implementação, como a sugerida por Akeel et Wynn (2015) que ressaltam a importância de níveis superiores da empresa mais próximos da gestão do projeto e de haver usuários chaves envolvidos; (b) ter um bom caso de negócio (business case) na fase de adoção; (c) escolher o ERP que melhor se adequa às necessidades da empresa; (d) educar e treinar usuários; (e) ter um bom gerenciamento de conhecimento (informações compartilhadas entre membros do projeto e consultores ERP) e; (f) prestar atenção à cultura, visto que as boas práticas dos ERP normalmente exigem maior adaptação da empresa ao sistema.…”