Enterprise resource planning implementation is a costly project that tends to face serious challenges. Thus, it is essential to perform the success assessment at the post-implementation stage of an ERP project to evaluate how much the system has succeeded in achieving its predetermined objectives. This chapter proposes an extended framework for assessing a firm's ERP post-implementation success. The factors contributing to the success assessment have been adapted from the original model of Ifinedo et al., which encompasses service quality, system quality, information quality, individual, workgroup, and organizational impact surrogates. Also, a new surrogate of inter-organizational impact proposed in this research. Using this model, the firm's ERP system success can be determined and the required improvement projects can be proposed to promote the success level. The proposed model is then applied to a real international company in the field of manufacturing and supplying turbines to measure the firm's ERP post-implementation success. Finally, the results of the assessment are discussed.
TopIntroduction
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are defined as software system allowing the complete integration of information flow from all functional areas in companies by means of single database; such a system is accessible through a unified interface of communication (Davenport, 1998). In recent times, implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has become a trend across the globe and organizations are investing vast resources on it. ERP implementations are associated with a promise of benefits from automation and integration but they also carry the risk of failure. Some of the biggest failures were seen at Foxmeyer, Hershey Foods, and more recently, Avon Products. It has been suggested that new information systems (IS) often fail due to implementation weaknesses rather than technology shortcomings (Kemp & Low, 2008). Accordingly, over recent years, some researchers have provided valuable insights into the process of ERP implementation (e.g., Abdel-Kader & Nguyen, 2011; Soja, 2008; Soltani, Elkhani, & Bardsiri, 2014; Subramanianh & Hoffers, 2005; Wang, Shih, Jiang, & Klein, 2008) and others reported a set of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) or Critical Failure Factors (CFFs) in ERP projects (e.g., Amid, Moalagh, & Zare Ravasan, 2012; Hanafizadeh, Gholami, Dadbin, & Standage, 2010; Khattak et al., 2013; Kini & Basaviah, 2013; Nour & Mouakket, 2011; Rouhani, Ashrafi, & Afshari, 2013; Zhang, Lee, Huang, Zhang, & Huang, 2005).
Organizations implement ERP systems to meet predetermined corporate goals and improve functional and organizational goals (Al-Mashari, Al-Mudimigh, & Zairi, 2003; Davenport, 1998, 2000; Yusuf, Gunasekaran, & Abthorpe, 2004) and post-implementation ERP success means that these systems could help organizations to meet their goals and achieve potential benefits (Wang et al., 2008). ERP implementation is not the final goal but is an important milestone to start continuous improvements in organizations (Yu, 2005). So, organizations need to define post-implementation review (PIR) to measure ERP system success (Nicolaou & Bhattacharya, 2006). Such evaluations could determine failure factors and offer improvement projects to strengthen poor areas in the organization (Mandal & Gunasekaran, 2003); But assessing or evaluating the success of complex IT systems such as ERP in adopting organizations is difficult due to the complex nature of such technologies (Davenport, 1998, 2000; Gable, Sedera, & Chan, 2003; Ifinedo & Nahar, 2007; Markus & Tanis, 2000). Despite its importance, prior research works have overlooked these areas (Gorla, Somers, & Wong, 2010), while, it is a research interest as noted by Law, Chen and Wu (2010).