Erp Business Report

Proc. of the Sixth Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2000), pp. 1022-1028, Long Beach, CA, 2000.

Differences in Characteristics of the ERP System Selection Process between Small or Medium and Large Organizations

Edward Bernroider and Stefan Koch, Department of Information Business, Vienna University of Economics and BA, {edward.bernroider|stefan.koch}@wu-wien.ac.at Abstract

In this paper we detail the results from an empirical study concerning differences in characteristics of the ERP system selection process between small or medium and large sized organizations. In particular we address the fields of software packages considered and chosen, the weights assigned to different selection criteria, the persons involved in this process, the methods employed and implementation characteristics such as costs and duration.

Methodology

To investigate these research problems an empirical study was designed. The process undertaken included the design of a questionnaire that was validated in several pretests and the mailing together with separate, prepaid envelopes. In all cases the senior management of the ITdepartment was contacted. 813 Austrian small/medium and large size organizations have been addressed and 138 valid returns have been received between December 1998 and March 1999. This corresponds to a 17 percent return quota. The data was analyzed using a statistical package. A project group of graduate students participated in parts of this study.

Introduction

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an organizational and management solution based on information technology towards challenges and problems in the business environment (Laudon and Laudon, 1998). The selection of the most appropriate solution is a semistructured decision problem because only part of the problem can be handled by a definite or accepted procedure such as standard investment calculations and on the other hand the decision maker needs to judge and evaluate all...