Enterprise resource planning

Important Success Factors for the Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Projects in Pakistan

Define Enterprise

An Enterprise resource planning system (ERP)  is a comprehensive package of software solutions that seek to integrate business processes and functions for presenting a holistic view of the business from a single information and IT architecture ERP system is helpful within the enterprise in information flow and coordinate all activities and resources, it improves the efficiency of an organization (Jarrar et al., 2000). Enterprise resource planning is a backbone of today’s enterprise management, through ERP system broad set of activities supported by the multimodule application software that helps the part of the business such as planning of products, purchasing of parts of products, inventory maintenance, providing services to customers, and order tracking (Elmeziane et al., 2011).so that why It’s a business tool for streamlining the operation of companies. It’s defined as “Integrating the information and information-based processes within and across functional areas in an organization” (Chan & Sin, 2010). Enterprise resource planning is a long-term investment that gives the enterprise a competitive advantage that will lead to positive return which contributes to enterprise revenue and firm growth (Hailu & Rahman, 2012).

so This research consists of the following segments in a sequence Introduction, Literature reviews, Research problem statement or Gap identification, research objectives, Theoretical framework, Research Methodology or research Design, Results of study, Conclusion, and Solution of problems during enterprise resource planning system implementation.

Research Objectives

Critical success factors (CSFs) are most important for the successful implementation of an ERP system. These CSFs are a reason for the successful implementation of the ERP systems because most ERP systems fail due to unawareness and complex curriculum. so This current research has six objectives according to the implementation stages of the ERP system. These objectives are:

1. To explore pre-implementation stage critical success factors of ERP system.
2. To identify implementation stage critical success factors of ERP system.
3. To describe post-implementations critical success factors of ERP system.
4. To develop the significance of all critical success factors in the pre-implementation, implementation, and post-implementation stages of the ERP system.
5. To explain weaknesses or issues during the implementation of ERP systems in companies.
6. To provide general solution  issues that occurs at different stages of ERP system implementation.

The existing research emphasizes identifying critical success factors (CSFs) for each ERP implementation stage separately so these CSFs will be helpful for the successful implementation of the Enterprise resource planning system at each stage.

 

Literature Review:         

Ijaz et al. (2014) Determine the critical success factors of ERP system of Pre-implementation, implementation, and Post implementation phases at government-owned Electricity supply companies in Pakistan. for this research data was collected from Top level management, contractual consultants, and middle and low-level management through convenience sampling techniques for which in-depth open and close-ended interviews were conducted. After the analysis through NVivo 10 software, they found seven CSFs (clear scope and objectives, Organizational analysis, Organizational culture study, team composition, right product selection, and complete awareness) at the pre-implementation phase. At the Implementation phase of the ERP system, twelve CSFs (Leadership, Infrastructure, Rewards & Recognition, management involvement, management commitment at the top level, inter-team cooperation, Training, change management, team composition, Re-engineering of business processes, and communication) were founded. In this research six CSFs(Organizational productivity, Software Reliability, end-user motivation, Development services for professionals, support and maintenance, and satisfaction of end-user ) conclude at the Post-implementation phase of the ERP system. this research focuses on only one organization that’s why the results of this study not applicable in a general way in the context of Pakistan.

Results of this research

Results of this research suggested that the “change management” success factor is most important for both developing & developed countries. “Functional requirements related to the country” for developed countries are less important. Fit between business and ERP for developing countries minimum cited. National culture proved an impressive impact on successful ERP implementation in developing countries. that’s why Vendor support also play important role in ERP implementation in developing countries as compared to developed countries. The fit between business & ERP is underestimated in developing countries as compared to developed countries.

Fawaz et al. (2008) not conducted a comprehensive review to identify success factors for successful ERP system implementation and did not focus on large-scale   that empirical studies. Ijaz et al. (2014) research focus is also specific i.e. results are not being generalized in the context of Pakistan because data was collected and analyzed by only one public limited electricity supplying company.

 

The Research Problem statement

Ijaz et al. (2014) state that critical success factors have a positive impact on different phases of ERP system implementation.  SO Enterprise resource planning system failure will be controlle through. Critical Success Factors (CSFs) that’s why it is expecte. That CSFs have a progressive impact on ERP system implementation. The interest of Pakistani organizations in the implementation of ERP.\

systems increased day by day because of the growth and prosperity of businesses. Most businesses failed to get benefits because they are unable.

To install the ERP systems , these enterprise resources so planning. System failures will be cu y identifying critical success factors. in the context of Pakistan.

h; Therefore, the current research will explore CSFs about “How to implement ERP system successfully” and provides a solution to problems during different phases of ERP system implementation in the context of Pakistan.

So current research problem statement is:

“To explore general CSFs and provide solution of issues in different stages of ERP system implementation in the context of large organizations in Pakistan”

In Pakistan, generalized research about identifying CSFs of enterprise resource planning system implementation is not being conducted before this study. So this paper will generalize the results by using more than one company for data collection and data analysis which is helpful for large organizations to implement the ERP system successfully.

 

Conceptual Framework

The successful implementations of the Enterprise Resource Planning system consist of three phases pre-implementation phase, implementation phase, and post-implementation phase.

This conceptual model shows that for each stage Critical Success Factors (CSFs) need to be identified for these three implementation stages of the ERP system. The figure also shows that there is a direct relationship between Critical success factors and Enterprise resource planning

system implementation if CSFs are identified successfully then the ERP systems also implement successfully.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

so that multiple-comparative case study approach is used in this research by using the guidelines of Yin (2009, p.18). Qualitative techniques are used for in-depth data collection such as in-depth interviews conducted with top, middle, and low-level management, etc. of an organization.

Background of the Research

Three large organizations are selected where ERP system is implemented successfully, all companies have Domestic customers in Pakistan, and these companies are:

1. Government-owned electricity Supply Company.
2. Haier Company (Ltd).
3. Century Paper board Mills Pvt (Ltd).

Data Collection

Data collection is through in-depth interviews (video recording) with top, medium, and low-level management, etc. by using the Convenience sampling technique.

For this research in-depth interviews consist of semi-structured and unstructured questions. so The following table shows the respondents of these three. Organizations from the data to becollected suc

Table no. 1

Sr no.	Title Of Respondents
1	Director of MIS
2	Director of supply and customer services.
3	CEO (Finance, marketing, R&D, etc.).
4	Presidents (Finance, marketing, Human resource management, etc.).
5	Vice President (information technology, Finance, marketing, etc.).
6	Business application managers.
7	System analyst.
8	Managers (procurement, sales, marketing, finance and project implementation, etc.).
9	Warehouse Supervisor.
10	Salesperson and end-users.
11	Consultants (internal and External).

 

After data collection themes are develope from the textual forms. of data, which are analyze for the findings of the study.

Data Analysis

So that whyThe analysis of the three companies’ data is do using NVivo 10 software. For qualitative analysis of these companies’ data, different techniques are being used of NVivo 10 software including Coding, thematic analysis, and clouds of word tag, word tree & tree map.

According to (Ozkan, 2004) NVivo 10 software is best for qualitative data analysis because this software is more helpful and strong for such qualitative studies. At each stage, different themes are develope and analyzed from textual data . For validity and reliability of different themes,

software applications are being used such as word tag cloud & word tree map. Each CSF’s significance will be realize in different stages of the ERP system through a tree map.

Limitations

The following limitation may occur during data collection from respondents of target organizations, such limitations are;

• The adoption of convenience sampling techniques rather than random sampling.
• Executive-level management may not willingly share their personal information of network services with researchers because of privacy issues.
• Missing data from non-cooperative management of target firms who don’t respond due to busy life or activities engagement in an organization.