Factors affecting the decision of moving ERP to the clouds - from customer perspective

Abstract: Nowadays cloud computing is becoming very popular and it has started to evolve in the ERP arena as well. Known as cloud based ERP it is a paradigm which is in an infancy stage and growing steadily. There is a lot research about the cloud computing as a technology but, it is still foggy in organizations perceptions of what this technology really means for their ERP. In the scientific studies there are a limited number of research concerning the cloud computing and ERP as well. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors which are affecting the movement of ERP to the clouds and how these factors affect the decision to adopt this technology. In order to investigate these factors we made a descriptive study and developed a theoretical framework. The framework was used for guiding our research through our interviews, which were conducted within five organizations. The findings are followed by comprehensive analysis where a deep discussion is taking place over the different factors in each organization. There is no strong inference about the importance of the factors, though it's a set of factors combined together affecting the decision of moving ERP to the cloud.