TOWARDS THE UNIFICATION OF CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ERP IMPLEMENTATIONS

Despite the benefits that can be achieved from a successful ERP system implementation, there is already evidence of high failure risks in ERP implementation projects. Too often, project managers focus mainly on the technical and financial aspects of the implementation project, while neglecting or putting less effort on the nontechnical issues. Therefore, one of the major research issues in ERP systems today is the study of ERP implementation success. Some authors have shown that ERP implementation success definition and measurement depends on the points of view of the involved stakeholders. A typical approach used to define and measure ERP implementation success has been critical success factors approach. Along this line, in this research we seek to contribute to our understanding of the critical success factors of ERP implementations and how these factors can be put into practice to help the process of project management in ERP implementations. We attempt to build a consensus from previous research and to derive a unified model of critical success factors in ERP implementations. For this purpose we apply grounded theory as our main research method. We have collected all the relevant research material and we have coded it. To increase the validity and reliability of the study, the several information sources have been triangulated and inconsistencies have been clarified with additional documentation. This study provides the results of the open coding process from our application of the grounded theory method. After the coding step, we obtain an initial unified model of the critical success factors in ERP implementations. We then map these critical success factors in a matrix with four perspectives: organisational, technological, strategic and tactical.

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