Perspective Differences between System Managers and Consultants as to ERP Critical Success Factors

ERP 성공요인에 대한 시스템관리자와 컨설턴트 간의 시각 차이

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in the critical success factors for ERP adoption suggested by the system managers and the ERP consultants. The survey results indicated the following findings. First, there was no significant difference in the relative importance of the critical success factors between the system managers and the ERP consultants. Both groups agree that 'top manager's concern and support' is the most critical factor and that 'user involvement' is the second. However, the system managers tend to think 'training and education of end users' and 'cooperations among the project participants' more important than the consultants do. Second, both groups agree that the most important ERP contribution should be 'improvements in the business processes.' They also agree that the least important aspect is 'ERP's contribution to the individual's productivity.' In overall, the ordered lists of ERP evaluation criteria according to their importances were of no significant difference between the groups. Third the two groups showed differences when they were asked to evaluate the importance of the critical success factors for each of the ERP evaluation criterion. In general, the system managers tend to put more emphasis on 'training and education of end users' and 'adaptation of end users to the changed processes,' whereas the consultants tend to emphasize more on 'top managers' interest and supports' and 'project manager's capabilities and performance.' The differences in the critical success factors presented by the two groups indicated that more efforts need to be devoted to understanding other participant's interests and concerns in an ERP project team. Better coordinations based on the mutual understandings could improve the chance of achieving a success in adopting ERP packages.