ABSTRACT

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are a growing area of research in business information systems. The primary purpose of this research was to test the effect of ERP implementation on users. We used the implementation and performance stage model and studied issues related to adaptation, acceptance, and routinization stages. An exploratory case study was conducted to study these research issues. The case study consisted of a survey and interview of 25 employees at one organization. The results provide data analysis findings from the survey and qualitative findings from the interview. The findings of the case study point to a positive user climate during transition to SAP, increased user productivity, and improved job understanding through the use of SAP software.

Keywords: ERP implementation; SAP software; technology adoption

INTRODUCTION

One way organizations handle industry competition is to turn to information system technology in order to attain advantages in the market. This is done by improving internal performance through saving resources and becoming adept in responding to environmental challenges (Rajagopal & Frank, 2002). Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are the latest in information systems that have been developed to help coordinate the information flow that parallels the physical flow of goods from raw materials to finished goods.

ERP is a structured approach to optimize a company's internal value chain. When the software is fully installed across an entire company, it connects the components of the business process through a logical transmission and sharing of common data within an integrated framework. For example, when a sale occurs in the daily course of business, the sale courses its way through the software, and the software automatically calculates the effects of the transaction on other areas, such as manufacturing, inventory, procurement, and invoicing, and records the actual sale to the financial ledger (Hiquet & Kelly, 1998).

ERP software essentially organizes, codes, and standardizes an enterprise's business processes and data. The software converts transactional data into useful information and collates the data so that they can be analyzed. In this way, all of the collected transactional data become information that companies can use to support business decisions.

The first major step to collect the information flow of the manufacturing process occurred during the 1960s when materials requirement planning (MRP) software was developed. Efforts continued in the 1980s to make MRP applications more useful by being able to generate information based on a more realistic set of assumptions. As a result, manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) software was developed. Finally, in the 1990s, ERP applications evolved into applications capable of linking all internal transactions (Hiquet & Kelly, 1998).

ERP software is not intrinsically strategic; rather, it is an enabling technology, an application of integrated software modules that coordinates all internal transaction processing. Implementing ERP requires large-scale changes to organizational, cultural, and business processes. Many of the ERP products developed in the 1990s have enabled companies to redesign their business processes and eliminate non-value-adding work. As a result, employees could focus on value-adding activities that have dramatically increased...