Evolution of ERP Systems in the Cloud: A Study on System Updates

Abstract

Cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems emerged around the new millennium, and since then there has been a lack of research regarding the evolution and update processes of these systems. From the users' perspective, updates in a traditional on-premise ERP system are carried at their own request; while cloud-based ERPs are compulsory updated. Through an established ERP lifecycle framework, this study investigates how the process of updates is conducted in a cloud ERP context, from both the users' and vendors' perspectives. A multiple case study was conducted in Norway at 10 client organizations, as well as a cloud ERP vendor. Our main findings suggest that the vendor and the users view the process of updates differently. The main challenges with the process of updates from the users' perspective are the size and date of the updates, lack of information and communication during the process, and extinction of certain functionalities. Yet, the main advantages are that all system users will always have the same version of the system, users do not need to spend time on updating the system and paying attention to the ERP market, which leads to more focus on their core competences instead.

Factors Affecting Intention to Adopt Cloud-Based ERP from a Comprehensive Approach

“…According to Gartner, the ERP market has been undergoing a generational technology shift, due to the advent of cloud computing technology [1]. Due to the benefits of moving away from on-premise ERPs, especially in managing upgrades and maintenance processes, cloud-based ERP emerged in the mid-2000s [2]. While most cloud-based ERPs are provided to customers as software as a service (SaaS), a number of ERP platforms as a service (PaaS) also exist [3,4].…”

Trends in the Enterprise Resource Planning Market Landscape

“…The ERP market has been undergoing a generational technology shift driven by the advent of cloud computing [3]. Cloud based ERPs emerged by the mid-2000s due to two perceived benefits: using closely coupled systems and moving away from managing on-premises ERPs [50].…”

Effective Application of Information System for Purchase Process Optimization

“…Also, the continued digital revolution and progressively cheap laptop process power has brought changes to nearly every space of business operations [32]. ERP systems have become a cloud-based hosted software technology [33].…”

“…SaaS eliminates the requirement to physically install and run the server-side applications on the customer own premises, and eliminates the requirement for back-end hardware and data-centers needed to run the system [27], that successively simplifies the application's maintenance and support operations. This makes it possible for small organizations to take advantage of ERP systems, as they require neither the substantial resources nor the skills needed for successful on-premises implementation [32,33].…”