ERP-Enterprise Resource Planning: System Selection Process and Implementation Assessment

Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) systems offer pervasive business functionality the applications encompass virtually all aspects of the business. Understanding and managing this pervasiveness will result in a successful and productive business application platform. Because of this pervasiveness, implementations have ranged from great successes to complete failures. This article has two distinctive parts. The first proposes and discusses a systematic process based on consulting experiences of LG CNS (leading information system company in Korea) for ERP selection. Also, the second provides the key factors that are critical to the successful implementation of ERP. The second part reports the results of a study carried out to assess a number of different ERP implementations in different organizations. A case study method of investigation was used, and the experiences of five Korean manufacturing companies were documented. The critical factors in the adoption of ERP are identified as: learning from the experiences of others, appointment of a process innovator, establishment of committees and project teams, training and technical support for the users, and appropriate changes to the organizational structure and managerial responsibilities.