A planned‐oriented approach for EPR implementation strategy selection

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodological approach aimed at identifying technical and organizational capabilities firms should have before the ERP implementation process starts, in order to select the more appropriate implementation strategy and the change management interventions to support the selected strategy. Design/methodology/approach – Capabilities to implement ERP system are selected on the basis of a literature review and through focus group session in collaboration with the company partner of the project. Then, a methodological approach is proposed on the basis of such capabilities. Scales of the capabilities are built, and an algorithm to analyze and evaluate firms' capabilities is proposed. Findings – The methodological approach has been tested through a validation experiment with the company partner of the research project. Results reveal the usefulness of the methodology in estimating the capabilities that firms should have in order to select the more appropriate implementation strategy. Research limitations/implications – Further research is under development in order to validate the methodological approach through a case study. Practical implications – Starting from the methodological approach a useful tool could be developed to analyze technical and organizational capabilities of the firm, and to select the more appropriate ERP implementation strategy. Originality/value – The methodological approach is the result of a research project based on tight collaboration between academic researchers and IT managers involved in ERP implementation processes. Thanks to such collaboration, tacit knowledge and expertise accumulated by IT managers during ERP implementation processes was explicated and evaluated in the proposed methodology. The result is a model that goes beyond descriptive analysis and offers prescriptive advice on how to address the potential challenges prior to and during the implementation processes.