Causes influencing the
effectiveness of the
post-implementation ERP system
Chian-Son Yu
Department of Information Management and Center for ERP research,
Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – This article aims to find a chain of causal relations affecting the operating effectiveness of
the implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) system instead of focusing on either the
evaluation of software/vendors/consultants or critical successful factors (CSF) identification for ERP
implementation, a course followed by the dominant ERP literature.
Design/methodology/approach – This article is a process-oriented approach and aims to give a
moving picture of how one step affects another step from pre-implementation stage, to
during-implementation stage, and to post-implementation stage.
Findings – A significant insight learned from this study is that end-users across the organization
must be educated from the onset of ERP implementation. Although education is a corner-stone of ERP
implementation, the user training is usually only emphasized and the courses are centered on
computer/system operation rather than on understanding the ERP concept and spirit.
Originality/value – This article may be interesting to some academic researchers and practical
managers, and hopefully can provide a link/step for advanced researches in exploring
post-implementation ERP.
Keywords Manufacturing resource planning, Organizational effectiveness, Critical path analysis
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Enterprise resource planning (ERP), which evolved from material requirements
planning (MRP) and manufacturing resource planning (MRP II), attempts to meet the
practical needs of industry and was named by the Gartner Group of Stamford,
Connecticut, USA, in 1990. The Siemens company cooperated with SAP, a German
based software company, was first to implement an enterprises-wide ERP system in
1987. Later, Dow Chemical Company implemented its own ERP system designed to
enable the complete globalization of business operations in 1988 (Schaaf, 1999). Since
then, the ERP market has expanded worldwide and is expected to reach up to
approximately $70 billion by 2004 (AMR, 2003). With the emergency of global value
chains, ERP systems are considered as a basic/core element for enterprises seeking to
further link supply chain management systems to be extended ERP (EERP) systems
which integrating inter-company and international collaborative operations across the
entire industry processes rather than inter-department, inter-office, and inter-site
integration within a single company. Since the effectiveness of the
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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IEMIS Company and Calex Company are appreciated for their case resources support and
National Science Council of the Republic of China is appreciated for the financial support under
Contract No. NSC 90-2815-C-158-002-H.
Post-
implementation
ERP system
115
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 105 No. 1, 2005
pp. 115-132
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570510575225