ERP PROJECT REPORT

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Swaraj Division)

Emerging issues in ERP implementation

Submitted by

Sohilpreet

Chhavi Jhanwar

Saumya

Shruti Gupta

Bhavya Jain

Under the Guidance of

Mr. Ankit Mahindroo

Asst. Professor

LM Thapar School Of Management

THAPAR UNIVERSITY

November 2015

2

Contents Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 3

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 3

ERP adaptation in India- ......................................................................................................................... 4

Research Paper 1: ................................................................................................................................... 5

Methodology: ...................................................................................................................................... 5

Data Collection procedure: ................................................................................................................. 5

Data Analysis: ..................................................................................................................................... 5

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 8

LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................................... 9

Research Paper 2 ................................................................................................................................... 10

(*Rana Basu, 2013) ............................................................................................................................... 10

OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................................... 10

ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING ERP IN MSMEs ............................................................................. 10

RESULTS: ........................................................................................................................................ 12

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 12

Research Paper 3 ................................................................................................................................... 13

Enterprise information systems project implementation: A case study of ERP in Rolls-Royce .......... 13

(International journal of production economics)................................................................................... 13

Yahaya Yusu, A Gunasekaran and Mark S Abthorpe .......................................................................... 13

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Company background ....................................................................................................................... 13

The situation before ERP .................................................................................................................. 14

IT at Rolls Royce .............................................................................................................................. 14

The implementation .......................................................................................................................... 14

Cultural problems: ............................................................................................................................ 15

Business problems: ........................................................................................................................... 15

Technical problems: .......................................................................................................................... 16

The project risks:............................................................................................................................... 16

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 17

Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................... 18

Recommendations- ............................................................................................................................... 18

3

Summary

This report describes the various issues arising during ERP implementation through different

cases. The report starts with a brief introduction of ERP. Then, it continues with ERP

implementation situation in India. Afterwards, there is a review of a research paper which

finds the key implementation issues in small scale industries and large scale industries

through pareto analysis. The second research paper basically concentrates on the issues

arising in micro, small and medium scale enterprises. The third paper focuses on the

challenges faced by Rolls Royce which implementing ERP. The third paper was studied to

see and compare the issues in implementing ERP in a developing country and in developed

countries. Each paper ends with a conclusion. At the end, the main factors are elaborated

which are needed for successful implementation of ERP in an organisation.

INTRODUCTION

ERP is the process of integrating all the business functions and processes in an organization

to achieve numerous benefits. Organizations of any magnitude have implemented or in the

process of implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in order to reap the benefits of

integration and to remain competitive in the market. The dispersion of ERP systems in large

and small-medium scale enterprises (SME) has been, by large, the most pertinent

phenomenon since nineties in the sector of Information technology (IT). ERP is one of the

novel solutions for both large and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to improve

productivity, efficiency and overall business performance. To achieve all of this, large and

medium sized organizations have realized the necessity to implement ERP software to

achieve integration of business activities. ERP applications constitute well structured,

reliable information technology (IT) backbones of fortune 500 companies worldwide.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) built on the framework based on industry best practices,

is a packaged software applications that can be configured to meet functional requirements of

an organization, that integrate information from various disparate sources such as customers,

supply chain, human resources, and financial accounting to make up the value chain of the

enterprise allowing an organization to become significantly compliant and effective.

4

ERP adaptation in India-

The global financial crisis provided an opportunity to many small and medium scale Indian

enterprises to expand their business operations to other countries by acquiring businesses overseas*.

The crisis made many such companies change their way of conducting business by adopting

sophisticated business practices. By implementing enterprise wide information technology (IT)

solutions, Indian micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) are giving themselves a chance

to emerge as big players. This technology enhancement boosts their overall brand image amongst

their export partners and increases their chance to grow bigger in the domestic market as well.

*1. One of the example is the Mumbai-based irrigation equipment manufacturing company

Jain Irrigation, which has made four acquisitions overseas to gain access to new product lines

and introduce those products to the Indian market.

2. Another company, Havells India, an electrical and power distribution equipment

manufacturer, acquired a European company and felt the need to integrate their key functions

of sales and marketing, thereby resorting to the implementation of enterprise resource

planning (ERP) systems.

The Indian small and medium businesses (SMBs) are now competing globally and they need

to gain a competitive edge to win amidst global competition. Indias SME sector is vibrant,

dynamic, flexible and productive entity containing about to some 12 million units that

employing almost around 30 million people. Lured by sheer magnitude of the SME sector in

any country and particularly in India, many ERP vendors have been moving their attention

toward SMEs by providing simpler and cheaper solutions from both the organizational and

technological point of view, Pre- configured systems based on best practices at a fraction of

cost originally required and promising implementation times of 60 days.

5

Research Paper 1:

(A Comparative Study of Issues Affecting ERP Implementation in

Large Scale and Small Medium Scale Enterprises in India: A Pareto

Approach, 2010)

International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 8887) Volume 8 No.3, October 2010

Methodology:

Based on the literature review certain issues and factors leading to successful ERP

implementation and on the basis of frequency of citations made by several authors in

context to both Large and small scale enterprises of similar developing countries like India 28

issues have been identified. However for identifying the key issues for both large and small

scale enterprises Pareto analysis has been applied i.e. how many times the issues are

mentioned by authors in the literature and arranged them in descending manner. And hence

the key issues are extracted applying Pareto analysis.

Data Collection procedure:

The data collection phase of the literature review has involved exhaustive search of many of

the prime Management Information System (MIS) journals including that the researchers

could access, but not limited to those that include: IEEE Journals, Information Systems

Management journal, Business Process Management journal, Communications of ACM,

International Journal of Computer Applications, Journal of Information Technology,

International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Management Innovation System,

International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Journal of Enterprise

Information Management. In addition to, the preceding journals, some conference papers,

articles, were also accessed as well as , the following databases were searched like Emerald,

Science Direct, Proquest, Ebscohost, Springer, J Stor etc.

Data Analysis:

For identifying the key issues for large scale enterprises in the developing countries like India Pareto

analysis has been applied. For this purpose, each issues mentioned by authors at least once in the

literature is listed down with the frequency of each issues. From the frequency calculated for each

6

issue the percentage contribution of each issue is computed, hence the cumulative percentage

contribution of issues is calculated.

LARGE SCALE ENTERPRISE:

Conclusion: Only 16 issues out of 28 are contributing 80% of the total percentage contribution. Hence,

those 16 issues are regarded as the key issues being extracted from the review section in context to large

scale enterprise in developing countries like India.

7

SMALL and MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISE:

Conclusion: 15 issues have been found which is contributing 80% of the total percentage contribution

of issues. Hence, those 15 issues are identified as key issues or critical for small and medium scale

enterprise for developing countries like India.

8

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The objective of this paper is to find out how SMEs and large organizations differ in having ERP

implementation issues. The issues that are only critical to the SMEs are listed below:

Clearly defined the goal and scope of implementation

Proper project planning

Proper implementation strategy

Minimal customization

Clearly defined the goal and scope of implementation:

SMEs emphasis on the scope of implementation rather than large organizations as budget constraint is

one of the limitation of those companies. Although ideally scope of implementation should be all

inclusive; but as ERP implementation is a costly affair to implement all modules and functionalities of

ERP is not a feasible decision for the SMEs. So, to implement the system successfully within the

organization scope of implementation should be clearly defined to the implementation team.

Proper project planning:

In SMEs proper project planning is an important issue than large ones as in SMEs budget and time

constraints are main the limitations found. If before starting the project the planning is not done

thoroughly then the implementation project could be failed. So, it is the responsibility of the team

members to do make proper plan of the project regarding the timeline, budget, each members to do

List, milestones and critical paths.

Proper implementation strategy:

There are different fundamental strategic approaches for implementing ERP system that organizations

must decide to adopt based on their budget and timeline. Although Phased rollout approach is

considered as the more ambitious but the researchers believed that Big Bang approach can be the

more suitable approach for SMEs as it need much less amount of cost and time for implementation.

Among the SMEs all over the world are recently trying to adopt Vanilla approach for successful

implementation because of their budget and timeline constraints.

Minimal customization:

Minimal customization means using of code as given by vendors and to use much as possible to fit the

organization needs even if to sacrifice functionality has been associated with successful

9

implementation of ERP. It is to be kept in mind that organization would go for customization only

when it is required on qualitative work.

LIMITATIONS

1. The findings of this paper are based on qualitative data.

2. Quantitative techniques and surveys are required to receive a more general result.

3. There is a scope to enhance to this study by taking different industries into consideration.

10

Research Paper 2

(*Rana Basu, 2013)

Issues in implementation of ERP in MSMEs

OVERVIEW

The MSME (Micro small and medium enterprises) sector today can be considered as vital

part of the Indian economy contributing over 45% of industrial production and around 40%

of the total exports. In India there are around thirteen million MSMEs and employing around

31 million employment opportunities .The time now has come for micro small and medium

scale enterprises (MSME) to build up on their inherent strength and to expand and compete

the global market. This research study specifically targeted the Indian MSMEs.

the purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a study which is based on the results of

a analysis of ERP implementation failure factors in context to Indian Micro, Small and

Medium scale Enterprises (MSMEs). This paper attempts to empirically assess which factors

are most critical in the ERP implementation process from the perspective of the Indian

MSMEs.

The case study stated that on the basis of interview with the senior management involved in

implementation process of ERP system identified some risk factors for ERP implementation

which are: inadequate training, shortage of expert, lack of information flow within

organization, failure of synergizing inside and outside expertise, business plan and vision not

aligning with the ERP function, and separation from certain ready systems

There are certain factors in context to implementation of ERP projects. This study attempts

the critical failure factors with the objective that if such factors are taken into careful

attention and subject to control then it would lead such information systems successful.

ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING ERP IN MSMEs

Based on the above findings this study provides a partial support for the explanation of

factors leading to unsuccessful implementation of Enterprise Business Application. In this

section some deliberations have been put forward as a guideline to the ERP consultants, ERP

vendors and entrepreneurs so that in future they can change their implementation approach to

11

avoid the future failure of enterprise application implementation in Indian SMEs as well as in

MSMEs.

1. Poor Quality of BPR: One of the most important factors for successful

implementation of Enterprise Application is proper business process reengineering

(BPR). Aligning the business processes to the Enterprise Application is critical.Thus

it is recommended to avoid insufficient and poor quality of business process

reengineering that leads to the failure of implementation process in Indian

organizations.

2. High Turnover Rate: Such high turnover rate of Enterprise Application team

members should be avoided as such lead to implementation failure one because of the

loss of trained resource. While going through the literature survey and case studies it

is found that project team members suffered from high work stress while coping up

with the implementation phase. This condition lead to insufficient knowledge transfer

among the project team members during the ERP life cycle.

3. Lack of proper communication: Effective communication is critical to Enterprise

Application implementation. Promotion of project team members and the

advertisement of the project progress to the rest of organizations depend on proper

and effective communication. Thus lack of proper communication leads to confusion

and misunderstanding for the successful implementation process and thus leads to

failure, hence should be avoided.

4. Poor consultant effectiveness: Proper and effective role of consultants can be

regarded as one of the most important issues towards successful implementation of

Enterprise Business Application. The responsibility of the consultants is to ensure

proper distribution and handling of data as well as to restructure organizational

hierarchies in order to align ERP systems and corporate requirements. Thus it is sure

that poor consultants effectiveness would lead to failure in implementation.

5. Overreliance for high customization: It is recommended to avoid over realization

on heavy customization. Overreliance on high customization results increase in

complexity and cost and thus leads to implementation failure.

6. Poor quality of testing: Poor quality of testing not only waste time and money but

also leads to implementation of Enterprise Business Application an unsuccessful one.

Thus organizations of any magnitude are recommended to avoid poor quality of

testing

12

RESULTS:

In this study and as per higher factor loading the most influencing risk factors

affecting the implementation of Enterprise Application in Indian MSMEs are

prioritized below:

FACTORS PRIORITY

Poor quality of testing 6

Poor consultant effectiveness 4

Overreliance for high customization 5

Lack of proper communication 3

Poor quality of BPR 1

High turnover rate 2

CONCLUSION

1. Although MSMEs form the backbone of Indias economy, the technological

advancement or development of this segment has been slow

2. With exposure to global economies, customers preferences are changing

drastically and accordingly, organizations need to enhance their products and

services

3. They need to take care of risks due to employee churn, data security against

competition, copyright protection, duplication of data, silos of applications and

data etc.

4. In this research we found some critical problems of implementation of ERP

systems, which can induce the suggestions of improvement strategies for the

industries as well. It is believed that if organizations take suitable

improvement actions the effectiveness and quality of service of ERP systems

can be raised

13

Research Paper 3

Enterprise information systems project implementation: A case study of ERP in Rolls-Royce

(International journal of production economics)

Yahaya Yusu, A Gunasekaran and Mark S Abthorpe

Introduction

Economic globalisation and internationalisation of operations are essential factors in integration of

suppliers, partners and customers within and across national borders, the objective being to achieve

integrated supply chains. In this effort, implementation of information technologies and systems such

as enterprise resource planning (ERP) facilitate the desired level of integration. There are cases of

successful and unsuccessful implementations. The principal reason for failure is often associated with

poor management of the implementation process. This paper examines key dimensions of

implementation of ERP system within a large manufacturing organization, Rolls Royce and identifies

core issues to confront in successful implementation of enterprise information system. A brief

overview of the application of ERP system is also presented and in particular, ERP software package

known as SAP R/3, which was the ERP software package selected by Rolls-Royce plc. The paper

takes an in-depth look at the issues behind the process of ERP implementation via a case study

methodology. It focuses on business and technical as well as cultural issues at the heart of the Rolls-

Royce implementation. The case study also looks at the implementation time scales and assesses the

benefits from the project both tangible and intangible.

A case study conducted at Rolls-Royce investigating the implementation of ERP (SAP) is discussed.

The case study starts with introducing the company and its background, presenting the status of IT

before and after the implementation of SAP, and giving the detail chronological phase of the

implementation of SAP in Rolls-Royce. Also, the research methodology is discussed. The

implementation of SAP in the company and project risks is presented.

Company background

The Rolls-Royce Power Generation Market includes both electrical and nuclear power, which also

includes marine applications, such as providing power plants for nuclear and naval vessels. Rolls-

Royce is a truly global business offering a range of first class world leading products. It has facilities

14

over 14 different countries and also offers first rate after sales services, covering mechanical

overhauls and spare part distribution. In March 1998 a new organisational structure was adopted that

recognised the strategy and the need for change to reflect customer requirements.

The situation before ERP

Rolls-Royce used over 1500 systems before the ERP project was started, many of which were

developed internally by Rolls-Royce over the last two decades. These legacy systems were expensive

to operate and difficult to maintain and develop. They did not provide accurate, consistent and

accessible data that was required for good and timely decision-making and performance assessment

(e.g. delivery performance, quality metrics). These ageing systems often did not lend themselves fully

to a modern manufacturing environment. Some of the legacy systems were so old that they had year

2000 compliance problems. Work within Rolls-Royce was functionally orientated and various

departments worked in isolation.

Rolls-Royce had a range of individual systems for controlling and monitoring commercial, financial

and procurement functions, these systems had problems interfacing with each other, as they had

different databases and file formats. The legacy systems did not allow Rolls-Royce to establish direct,

on-line communication with customers, partners and suppliers. In fact, these systems did not support

significant growth of the business and were not sufficiently agile to keep pace with the changing

business environment.

IT at Rolls Royce

In 1996 Rolls-Royce formed a partnership with electronic data services (EDS). The Rolls-Royce IT

department was outsourced to EDS, which meant that EDS were responsible for the development of

the company's IT systems as well as taking over the existing structure and providing adequate IT

resources. This move was made in order to allow Rolls-Royce to concentrate its efforts on its main

area of expertisethe making and selling of aero engines. Rolls-Royce decided that a partnership

with a world leading IT outsourcer would benefit the company far more than designing and

maintaining their own IT systems. EDS were chosen because of their substantial experience within the

aerospace industry. EDS also had the responsibility for employing specialist consultants.

The implementation

The ERP project consists of a management team of specialists from the external outsourcing company

EDS. EDS also have the specialised talents of SAP consultants. Within the project team are specialist

15

internal managers and staff that have vital knowledge of cross-functional business relationships and

experience of the old internal systems. In conjunction with this team each OBU has its own ERP

planning team, which is responsible for implementing working changes and training. The project

implementation problems can be grouped into three areas of cultural, business and technical

difficulty.

Cultural problems:

The implementation project team expected a high acceptance of the system in areas that provide just

as good or better functionality than the old system. However some functions and processes might not

get the full appreciation the legacy systems once had. The project team decided to resolve this by

illustrating the improvements made to the company as a whole, thus breaking the traditional

segregation of OBUs and departments. The original implementation plan was increased in an attempt

to address training and cultural changes. Training took the form of organised seminars, which were

split into two distinct groups of specialists and mass users. The specialist training was carried out and

conducted by SAP and was technically based. These specialist experts then in turn trained expert

users. The remaining training for end-users was conducted internally in collaboration with EDS

consultants. The training carried out within the seminars was supported by demonstrations within the

workplace, along with information meetings and presentations to relay information to all employees

about the changes of working practices. In all, more than 10,000 people would have been trained.

Business problems:

SAP R/3 requires a fairly rigid business structure for it in order to work successfully. The participants

of cross-functional workshops soon understood that their working practices must be adjusted in order

to fit SAP, ultimately changing the way Rolls-Royce does business. They achieved this by using an

internal business process re-engineering (BPR) programme. The programme consisted of four steps,

the first involved drawing and mapping the current processes. The second step involved identifying

any problems or issues raised from the mapped process. The third step involved applying some of

these issues to a demonstration of SAP, to identify potential problems within the new system. The

fourth step involved the re-mapping or modification of the processes in line with SAP. The

modifications to the Rolls-Royce business process meant that the SAP R/3 software need not be

modified. Modifications to the software would have been extremely expensive both in terms of

implementation resources and the fact that newer software versions would be difficult to install in a

modified system. SAP named this unmodified software implementation Vanilla SAP.

16

Technical problems:

The main technical problems that Rolls-Royce has encountered have been with the accuracy of data.

The new system requires the retrieval of old data from the legacy systems that has to be normalised,

screened and stored in a sensible data format within the new systems data repository. The duplication

of data was a major concern that Rolls-Royce had to address. In some special areas the old systems

was kept running until such time as they could be phased out by the new systems, and to do this EDS

built interfaces between the systems. The CAD system used by Rolls-Royce remained the same, as the

process to alter the file formats would be too expensive and require use of valuable resources that are

needed for the core implementation.

The project risks:

The ERP Project at Rolls-Royce covers many different departments and many different topic areas, all

of which have associated risks. In order to address and take positive action to avoid failure or

potential errors the ERP implementation team maintained and recorded in a great detail, a risk

register. Every issue within the company, which involves risk has been catalogued and continuously

reviewed. The risk register is very large, however the Rolls-Royce ERP Intranet page offers a brief

summary of some of the major risks:

The possible failure or inability to align goals through conflicting directions within the

organisation.

The non-delivery or non-availability of reliable IT hardware and infrastructure both before

and during implementation.

The possible failure of providing inadequate and ongoing support after implementation, from

both Rolls-Royce and EDS.

The resistance of change to new process methods by management and supervision.

Management and supervision may treat the project as merely an IT implementation, rather

than change in process methods.

Inadequately educating the workforce to operate the new system properly.

Possible failure to cut over to the new system through an inability to load data.

Possible failure to cut over to the new system through the inappropriate systems testing of

volume, stress and data conversion.

Possible failure to give ERP adequate priority due to the number of existing and ongoing

business improvements.

Maintenance difficulties may occur on bridged legacy systems.

The PDM project may not be sufficiently positioned in time with the ERP project.

17

Possible changes to kitting demand during go live may stretch the new system and those

operating it on a learning curve beyond capacity.

The decision to implement Wave 1 separately from Suite 3 may fail to integrate the new

systems.

Conclusion

Rolls-Royce has understood the business, cultural and technical difficulties of such a large project,

and has developed a solid core implementation team. The team has used the specialist skills of

consultancy specialists. The partnership with EDS has produced a sound architectural framework for

the project, thus allowing Rolls-Royce to concentrate its efforts on manufacturing turbine engines. A

project of this size would never run smoothly and difficulties have occurred throughout the

implementation and will no doubt occur in the future. The company have taken a different approach to

IT systems but have not let the project become just another IT system. The core implementation teams

have taken into account the needs of both the managerial and end-user. The following list contains

just some of the problems encountered:

Matching the process to the software configuration.

Training people to accept change, and getting them to do business in a totally new way.

Teaching employees to use modern IT equipment.

Equipment not delivered on time, or delays in technical equipment installation.

Data cleanup has been particularly time consuming as many legacy systems have been

involved.

Training the behavior of SAP users such as MRP Controllers and Capacity Owners.

18

Conclusions

From the above papers we understand that there is not a general agreement on the effectiveness of

such systems. As a result, the current ERP systems adoption rate especially in MSMEs is still low,

and numerous cases have been reported where even after implementation, organizations are still

depending on their legacy systems and even treating the cost incurred in implementation as a sunk

cost. IT infrastructure helps to improve productivity and optimise the business through effective

resource deployment. While MSMEs increasingly understand the needs of technology implementation

even at higher cost, global IT majors are largely focusing on grabbing a larger share of the growing

MSME market in India.

The issues regarding ERP implementation are different for a large company with respect to a small

company. Similar can be said about implementation issues in developed countries with respect to the

developing nations.

Recommendations-

The following points briefly describes the various factors which can lead to successful

implementation of ERP.

Top management support-

Top management support is needed throughout the implementation process. The project must align

with the strategic business goals. Top management should be the driving force and must be willing for

a mindset change by accepting that a lot of learning has to be done at all levels, including themselves.

Clear goals and objectives-

Clear goals and objectives are essential to guide ongoing organizational efforts for ERP

implementation. At the outset of ERP implementation projects, it is often very difficult to determine

these in a clear manner and lack of clarity results in complexities as the implementation progresses.

User involvement and participation-

User involvement and participation refers to the behaviours and activities that users perform in the

system implementation process. It refers to a psychological state of the individual and is defined as

the importance and personal relevance of a system to a user. Limited expertise in IT generally tends to

result in lesser user involvement and participation.

19

Project champion-

The role of project champion is critical to derive consensus and oversee the entire life cycle of

implementation. The project champion is one who has the power to set goals and legitimate change

and ensure that problems arising during the implementation are tackled effectively.

Project cost-

Some researchers asserts that many organisations either do not have sufficient resources or are not

willing to commit a substantial portion of their resources due to the long implementation time and

high fees associated with ERP implementation.

Effective change management-

Effective change management ensures that the acceptance and readiness of the new system, allowing

it to get the benefits and its use. A successful organizational change management approach relies in a

proper integration of people, process and technology. Change management is important and has

primary concern of IT project implementation.

Project composition and leadership-

The composition and leadership of the project team refers to the proper selection of the project team

members who would be driving the implementation. It has also been repeatedly mentioned throughout

the literature that there is a critical need to put in place a solid, core implementation team that is

comprised of the organisations best and brightest individuals. These individuals should have a proven

reputation. Some researchers have also cited the need for the team to possess the necessary skills to

probe for details when conducting the planning phase of the implementation. Once the team has been

established, it might then be necessary to train the individuals.

Project team competence-

The project team competence is another important success factor. The ERP project involves the entire

functional department and demands the efforts and involvement of technical and business experts as

well as the end users.

Project management-

Project management covers the project goal clarification and their congruence with organisational

mission and strategic goals. The scope should be established and controlled, clearly defined and

limited. A focus on result and constant tracking of schedules and budgets against targets are

important.

User training and education-

20

User training and education refers to process of providing management and employees with the logic

and overall concepts of ERP. The people can have a better understanding of how their jobs are related

to other functional areas within the company. The user is the person who should be held accountable

for making the system perform as per expectations.

External consultants-

ERP implementation being a complex process, it requires use of external consultants who are

knowledgeable about installing the software. It is also revealed that during the ERP implementation,

the consultant may be involved in different stages. The use of an external consultant depends on

internal on internal know-how that the organisation has at the outset of the project.

Organizational communication-

Organisational communication refers to information sharing amongst all stakeholders comprising

team members in the entire organisation, and has been emphasised by various researchers for a

successful project implementation.

Information flow management-

Another factor that may affect ERP adoption, either positively or negatively, is managing the

complexity of information flows. This is much more crucial for companies with branch offices which

need to be controlled remotely, leading to a lack of co-ordination.

Proper package selection-

Proper package selection is another crucial aspect affecting the success of the implementation.

Normally the organisation selects a package that is most user-friendly, has adequate scope for

scalability and covers an array of business process where the organisation experiences problems.

Selection of the specific ERP package requires careful attention. It is also necessary to keep in mind

that the system must match the business processes.

Vendors staff knowledge and support-

It is important for the vendors staff to be knowledgeable on both the business process and ERP

functions. Vendors should be carefully selected since vendor support play crucial role in shaping the

ultimate outcome of implementation.