In the past decade, many organizations have initiated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, using such packages as SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, etc. The ERP market is one of the fastest growing markets in the software industry. According to AMR research, the No.1 advisory firm focused on the intersection of business processes with enterprise technologies, the ERP market will grow to $64.88 billion by 2009. ERP systems are expensive. The total cost of the initial implementation ranges from $50,000 to hundreds of millions of dollars including software, hardware, consultants and internal costs. There are various purposes to adopt ERP systems: replacement of legacy systems, reduction in cycle times from order to delivery, reduction in operating costs, and so on.
As one of the most important enterprise systems, ERP has attracted attention from both researchers and practitioners. Information systems researchers have extensively studied various topics in ERP. However, to date, there appears to be no study that has focused on the issue of ERP upgrade. This study examines ERP upgrade by identifying critical success factors that influence ERP upgrade success.
A mixed-methods design was adopted to investigate the ERP upgrade. Qualitative data collected through 15 semi-structured interviews were coded and analyzed. From this analysis, eight themes emerged as critical success factors influencing ERP upgrade success: business vision, communication, customization, external support, project management, top management support, training and education, and user involvement. A survey research was conducted in the quantitative phase to determine the relationship between eight critical factors and ERP upgrade success.
The findings of this study indicated that (1) eight critical success factors are significantly correlated with ERP upgrade success; (2) there are several significant critical success factors in each life cycle phase during ERP upgrade. Additionally, this study identified differences between initial ERP implementations and ERP upgrade projects. This research constitutes a fundamental study of ERP upgrade and provides an in-depth understanding of ERP upgrade.
