Perspective of different stakeholders for a successful ERP implementation- A comparative study

Abstract: Purpose: The primary purpose of this research is to compare and analyze the key factors from literature and practice for ERP implementation process and identify the most important factors according to the different stakeholder groups in an organization namely top management, middle management and end-users. Design/Methodology/Approach: The methodological stance chosen for this research is Realistic. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research method has been used for data collection and data analysis of the research project. Both primary and secondary data collection methods were used; primary data was collected using questionnaires whereas secondary data was collected by doing an extensive critical literature review of journals, databases, websites and books. Content analysis method was used to analyze data. Findings: Top twelve critical factors for ERP implementations have been shortlisted based on the frequency of their occurrence in different literature. From the literature review findings, an organization is divided into three stakeholder groups’ namely Top management, Middle management and End-users. The result of this thesis showed that there are significant differences in the perspectives of top management and middle management when compared with end-users. Comparative study also revealed that most of the findings of empirical data analysis are in consonance with the researcher’s viewpoint except few exceptions. It was also seen that the perceptions of stakeholders about the key factors change when stages are taken into consideration. Useful Implications: This thesis identifies whether any difference exists in perception of stakeholder groups in an organization. The key factors according to perception of each stakeholder group would be highlighted. ERP practitioners (ERP vendors, ERP consultant, organizations seeking ERP systems) would be benefited from this thesis because the perceptions of different stakeholders could be taken into consideration while designing the implementation strategy for ERP. By knowing that there exist some differences, these can be specifically targeted by the implementation team to reduce the gaps and help in fine-tuning of the ERP implementation process. Since this thesis also involves the comparison of empirical findings with the existing literature, it would be of interest to academicians and researchers as well. The differences in literature and our finding would be an interesting topic for researchers to study why such gaps exist at the first place. Keywords: Keywords such as ERP business success factors, ERP project success factors, IT/business manager’s perception, Stake holder’s perceptions about ERP, End user/Top manager/Middle manager satisfaction, Stake holders view point, Key users perception, ERP implementation: a comparison and ERP implementation process were used.