Evaluating enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems using an interpretive approach

  • Authors:

  • Walter Skok;Michael Legge

  • Affiliations:

  • Business School, Kingston University, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT 2 7LB;Investment Business Division, Financial Services Authority, 25 The North Colonade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS

  • Venue:
  • SIGCPR '01 Proceedings of the 2001 ACM SIGCPR conference on Computer personnel research
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems involve the purchase of pre-written software modules from third party suppliers, rather than bespoke (i.e. specially tailored) production of software requirements, and are often described as a buy rather than build approach to information systems development. Current research has shown that there has been a notable decrease in the satisfaction levels of ERP implementations over the period 1998-2000.The environment in which such software is selected, implemented and used may be viewed as a social activity system, which consists of a variety of stakeholders e.g. users, developers, managers, suppliers and consultants. In such a context, an interpretive research approach (Walsham, 1995) is appropriate in order to understand the influences at work.This paper reports on an interpretive study that attempts to understand the reasons for this apparent lack of success by analyzing issues raised by representatives of key stakeholder groups. Resulting critical success factors are then compared with those found in the literature, most notably those of Bancroft et al (1998).Conclusions are drawn on a wide range of organizational, management and political issues that relate to the multiplicity of stakeholder perceptions.