Critical decisions for ERP integration: Small business issues

Rajiv Malhotra and Cecilia Temponi

International Journal of Information Management, 2010, vol. 30, issue 1, 28-37

Abstract: Small enterprises are facing significant challenges to become suppliers of bigger customers due to the excessive costs associated with accessing a vast market of potential customers. It is essential for small businesses to adopt an ERP system to maintain control of their operations and to compete globally. An ERP implementation is expensive and risky for all businesses, but it is still more challenging for small businesses, which have particular characteristics. We identified from archived literature, key decisions necessary in selecting and implementing an ERP system. While these critical decisions are applicable to all types of businesses, the focus of this research was to recommend the best practices for each one of these key decisions for small businesses. We interviewed six small businesses to recommend best practices for the critical decisions: (1) project team structure, (2) implementation strategy, (3) database conversion strategy, (4) transition technique, (5) risk management strategy and (6) change management strategy. Our results indicate that these best practices greatly enhanced the success of an ERP implementation for small businesses. Further, we recommend studying the impact of ERP systems on the small business’ participation in supply chain management.

Keywords: ERP Implementation; ERP decision making; Information technology; Small business; Project management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401209000280
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ininma:v:30:y:2010:i:1:p:28-37

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.03.001

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Information Management is currently edited by Yogesh K. Dwivedi

More articles in International Journal of Information Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().