Impact of “People Factor” in Sri Lankan ERP implementations

Abstract

An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a configurable information system that integrates information and information-based processes within and across functional areas in an organization (Kumar et al, 2000). Nowadays, many Sri Lankan Organizations tend to re-engineer their business processes by adopting ERP systems considering the plenty of benefits it offers. Unfortunately, there are many tragedies resulting from ERP failures too. Many researches are available on the technology aspects and success factors of ERP projects. But “people factor” has been neglected or missed and its ability of influencing The failure or the success of the ERP implementation has not been extensively discussed. This research is intended to discuss the dynamics of people factors in ERP implementations in Sri Lanka. Hasibua et al. (2012) reveals that end users’ interest and perception play a key role throughout the entire ERP project cycle. Many pitfalls can be seen in client commitment (Wong et al, 2005), (Somers et al, 2001) and (Rao, 2000). In general, they do not bother to submit project documents and give approvals, sign-offs on time, to release payments without delays, to attend project review meetings and training sessions. Huang et al. (2001) and Upadhyay et al. (2011) emphasized the importance of the commitment from the C-level Officers towards the project success. As ERP consultants and clients have to work together during the full cycle of the implementation with contradictory philosophies and complexities of the people-related relationships, there is a need for further study into cultural aspects and implications of ERP systems. Culture has various facets and culture is always a collective phenomenon which depends on attitudes, age, gender, past experiences and knowledge of people. Although culture has inborn weaknesses and limitations, it is important worth to have a good awareness on ERP implementations in different organizational settings and in different cultural contexts.