A Framework for ERP System Implementation : Socio-Technical Change Management Perspective

The rationale of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is to integrate all facets of the business enterprise under one suite of software applications. ERP standardizes the processes and makes information management effortless by integrating the various functional departments in the organization and making the information available at a centralized place. In doing so, managers are capable of insightful decision making and stay ahead of the competition. Successfully implementing ERP brings organizational change and competitive advantage to the organization. However the high cost of ERP systems in terms of investment and implementation, coupled with stories of high failure rate leads to the research question of successful ERP systems implementation. Currently success of ERP implementation is analyzed by way of its performance which can be perceived only at the end of the system implementation. Literature review cites a large extent of studies in ERP implementation analysis but there have been relatively few articles that have analyzed the ERP system performance during the implementation phase. This article suggests a structured model based on organizational change to analyze the performance of ERP. Leavitt’s socio-technical system model for organizational change is considered on the premise that ERP system implementation brings about change in social and technical aspects of an organization. The constructs of the new framework model; organization, people, process and technology are adapted from the Leavitt’s model which consists of the components; structure, people, task and technology. The proposed ERP systems implementation framework is formulated based on the new constructs and its associated attributes