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Analysis of the Critical Success Factors for Enterprise Resource Planning

Implementation from Stakeholders' Perspective: A Systematic Review

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 International Business Research; Vol. 8, No. 4; 2015
ISSN 1913-9004 E-ISSN 1913-9012
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

Analysis of the Critical Success Factors for Enterprise Resource

Planning Implementation from Stakeholders’ Perspective: A
Systematic Review
Ali Tarhini1, Hussain Ammar1, Takwa Tarhini2 & Ra'ed Masa'deh3
1
Department of Information System, Brunel University, London, United Kingdom
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, Qatar
3
Department of Management Information Systems, The University of Jordan, Jordan
Correspondence: Ali Tarhini, Department of Information System, Brunel University, London, United Kingdom.
E-mail: ali.tarhini@hotmail.co.uk

Received: January 30, 2015 Accepted: February 10, 2015 Online Published: March 25, 2015
doi:10.5539/ibr.v8n4p25 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v8n4p25

Abstract
The successful implementation project of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has many benefits for the
implementing organisation. However, on other side, failing this project would have several negative implications
not only on the business but also on the ERP vendor. Therefore, considering all the factors that might affect the
success of this project is considered as a priority for all parties involved in this project. Many papers or journal
articles have studied the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) that influence the ERP implementation and post
implementation phases, however, very few has considered them from the stakeholders’ perspective. Hence, this
research will fill this gap by providing a systematic review for the literature related to CSFs in the ERP
implementation and also present them while considering the participants’ different perspectives. This paper
presents a systematic review of 35 research articles published on the CSFs implementation between 2000 and
2013. We collected and analysed 35 of the key articles discussing and analysing ERP implementation. The paper
identifies a total of 51 CSFs in ERP implementation. In these 51 CSFs, top management support and
commitment, training and education, project management, clear vision and objectives of the ERP system, careful
change management and Interdepartmental communication were the most frequently cited as the CSFs to the
successful implementation of ERP systems. A better understanding of the CFSs will help the practitioners and
managers to improve the chance of success in the implementation projects.
Keywords: Critical Success Factors (CSF), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), information technology,
literature analysis
1. Introduction
The development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has provided the companies with
significant opportunities to reduce the cost of provision and increase their revene (Tarhini et al., 2015a; 2015b;
Alenezi et al., 2015). Companies with all sizes, small, mid-size or large have a need to make their Business
Processes standardized, therefore, streamline their operations and improve the efficiency of these processes
(Tarhini et al., 2015c; Orozco et al., 2015). Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an information system
that helps the organization to coordinate and integrate information within departments. It is one example of the
other Enterprise Systems (ES), such as Supply Chain Management (SCM) system, which manages raw materials
and products supply. ERP system gives the company the ability to manage its internal business processes (Monk
& Wagner, 2009; Van-Hau & Kuzic, 2010). Also, it gives the organization an integrated software application
with integrated modules for each department in the company with a unified database for all departments, which
makes it easier to manage, execute, store data and monitor core business processes: Procurement, Production and
Fulfilment processes (Magal & Word, 2009) as well as other departments’ functionalities such as human
resources, sales, production and accounting units.
Despite the benefits that accompany the implementation and usage of the ERP system in an organisation, not all
ERP implementations are successful (Wong et al., 2005; Grossman & Walsh, 2004; Yang & Su, 2009). For
example a research conducted by (Xue, Liang, Boulton, & Snyder, 2004), analysed many failed ERP

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implementations in china, and explained why these failures affected not only the implementing company, but
also the ERP vendors, because the vendor had to pay compensation to the implementing firm. One example of
these cases when CosmeticCo Company chose MOVEX software as an ERP package, however, this system was
not fully translated to Chinese language and the financial tables were not compatible with the requirements of the
Chinese government, which causes a lot of delay in the manufacturing process, and as a result, the service
provider had to pay USD 250,000 to CosmeticCo Company. Another failure example, is when FurnitureCo
Company selected SAP R/3 as an enterprise system, however, this system was not about to adapt to the type of
Chinese market where the prices of raw materials are changing frequently and fast, which caused huge
discrepancies between the reported and real prices. Eventually, FurnitureCo Company decided to implement
local ERP system that met its needs. Moreover, from organizational point of view, implementing ERP solution
would impact the organizational structure of the implementing firm, which would need careful change
management, involving changing of roles, procedures and policies within the company. Lastly, from the business
perspective, the need for Business Process Reengineering (BPR) to fit system functionalities or already
embedded business processes, could be considered as the most important effect of implementing ERP solution
(Francoise, Bourgault, & Pellerin, 2009).
Another case study presented by (Barker & Frolick, 2003), gives an example of a failure ERP implementation, in
which the implementing company is considered as the largest independent bottlers in the soft drink industry. It
grew through many years and this growth was associated with the use of many information systems, in which
there was no integration among them. Therefore, the managers decided to implement an ERP system that
provides integration between departments and would benefit the business in many other ways. However, there
were some errors that eventually led this project to be failure. First example is that they did not go with the ERP
consultants’ recommendation for this implementation and chose to do their ideas for this plan. The second issue
was the inexperienced understaffed IT department that the organisation had at that time, which made many
problems for the deployment process. Moreover, the communications between project members was not
managed successfully, there was no proper training for project members and the employees were not selected
carefully to suite this mission. Finally, and on the top of all what mentioned before, the management support was
not up to the event. All the previous mentioned reasons forced some employees to resign, which added additional
problem to the company. From this case study, it can be seen the importance of the previously mentioned success
factors and how these would affect such an important project for any organisation. Also, the close
communication and collaboration between external consultants and the employees from the company has a great
impact on the success of such a project. Presenting the previous case studies has highlighted the significance of
studying and investigating the CSFs in ERP implementation.
There are many factors that have to be considered in order to perform successful ERP implementation. Based on
that, many authors highlighted the Critical Success Factors (CSF) of any ERP system implementation projects.
These factors were results of many implementation cases in different organisations. For example (Haft & Umble,
2003) mentioned some of these factors such as, clear definition of the strategic goals of the company and
whether the system would help to achieve these aims or not, top management support and commitment, and
users training. Also, Salimifard et al. (2010) gave other factors, such as the use of the consultants, technological
infrastructure and an effective communications between the implementation project members. Moreover, Dezdar
and Ainin (2011) added another two issues that are related to successful Implementation venture, such as user
satisfaction and organisational impact.
From the CSFs list mentioned above, it can be seen that there are different user groups that are interested in those
factors. First group is the implementation consultants who are responsible about understanding the company’s
current business processes and aligning them to the processes that are already configured and programmed in the
ERP system. The second group comprises the general managers and directors in the implementing company who
have to support the project and provide it with the required resources such as budget and dedicated employees.
The third group includes Information Technology (IT) managers, Management of Information System (MIS)
managers and Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the implementing company who will work closely with the
implementing consultants in order to achieve the goals of the project. The fourth group is the vendors who
produce these enterprise systems. The last and very important group contains the end users of this giant software.
Depending on the previous explanation, however, the previous mentioned success factors are not classified
according to their respective audiences. Also, according to the publications within this field, the job of
determining the importance of each factor by counting how many times each element is mentioned within the
related literatures is not done yet. Therefore, the need to categorise the previous mentioned factors according to
each concerned party involved in this implementation as well as the necessity to measure the authors agreement

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on them have emerged.

Therefore, the aim of this project is to classify the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in ERP implementation
derived from the literatures according to the stakeholders’ point of view. This can be done through categorizing
the previous mentioned factors according to each party involved as well as measuring the literature consensus on
them. This categorisation will be accomplished using a systematic literature review of the related journal papers.
This classification would be beneficial for the concerned stakeholders, who are involved in the ERP
implementation project, for two reasons. The first one is that it would provide an understanding of the different
stakeholder’s views about the CSFs. The second reason is that they will be able to focus on the CSFs that are
related to them, which would be reflected in a better ERP implementation project.
2. Background
2.1 The Need for Integration and ERP as a Solution
The need for integration became more important with companies’ transformation from the functional style of
operation to business process structure, where all departments collaborate together to achieve the required
business objective. This change is reflected in the necessity to integrate diverse technologies from different
department, to merge business units into a unified software and database, and to improve business performance
by having better insight of the company’s information (Magal & Word, 2009), which can be accomplished by
using ERP systems as platforms for business integration.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system assists the organizations to automate their business processes by
coordinating and integrating the information between departments, which is one of the big benefits of this system
(Monk & Wagner, 2009). It provides the organization with cross-functional enterprise software with integrated
modules for each department in the organisation with a unified database for all of them, which makes it easier
for the company to manage, execute, store data and monitor core business processes: Procurement, Production
and Fulfilment processes (Magal & Word, 2009) as well as other departments’ functionalities such as marketing,
human resources, sales, production and accounting units. The integration it brings and provides is very important
for any business, since the ERP system solves the silo effect that legacy systems have, because they were
developed in isolation from each other.
The ERP implementation project is considered as a complicated project since it involves many steps and it is
related to every aspect in the business which requires a huge team-work and collaboration between all business’s
functions within the organisation such as IT, finance, manufacturing and Human resources (HR). It is the project
that would affect the future of the business on a strategic level. Successfully implementing this system would
have a great positive impact on the company. In contrast, failing this project would have a major negative impact
on the implementing company. Therefore, many considerations and success factors have to be well thought off
and many mistakes and risks have to be avoided in order to see this project a successful one.
2.2 The Implications of the ERP Implementation
Having the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implemented successfully would have an important
impacts and benefits on the organisation. These implications can be evaluated according to different viewpoints.
One perspective is about gains and losses, and this can be evaluated by analysing case studies where companies
implemented ERP systems. One example of these is the study conducted by (Yang & Su, 2011), which shows the
benefits of having ERP system on the organisation and effect of this enterprise system on other areas or IT
systems such as the Supply Chain Management (SCM) system that is integrated with it. These benefits are
presented in Figure 1.

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ERP Benefits SCM

Operational Benefits Internal business process perspective

Operational The internal business process starts with the receipt

The operational benefits are those arising of a customer order and finishes with delivery of the
from automating cross functional processes products or service to the customer which reflects
how effectively material and labour resources are
IT infrastructure
used to provide service, and includes improve
The IT infrastructure benefit consists of the efficiency of manufacturing process, improve
typical IT department benefits arising from inventory management, increase delivery efficiency,
reduction in cost of maintaining legacy increase flexibility, increase information system
systems. support, and improve new product development.
Tactical benefits External business process perspective
Managerial Improved firm The increased outsourcing of manufacturing
performance on companies results in more focus on the external
The managerial category includes benefits
business process and many SCM solutions are
that arise from the use of data to better plan
developed to support this, which reflects broader
and manage production, manpower,
business measures used to enhance customer
inventory and physical resources and from
loyalty, based on the logic that superior service
the monitoring and control of financial
attracts and keeps key customers.
performance of products, customers,
business lines and geographic area. Customer service perspective
Strategic benefits Customer service identifies the types of value
Strategic provided to the customer. While there are a number
of specific measures of customer service, the
The strategic benefits category focuses on research focuses on customer satisfaction, product
the benefits that arise from the system’s flexibility, product leadership, deliver speed and
ability to support business growth order tracking performance.
Organisational Cost management
The organisational benefits category
Cost management focuses on the functional and
captures the benefits derived from
logistics and supply chain cost components and
facilitation business learning, empowerment
indicates how well a firm uses fixed assets and
of staff and higher employee morale and
working capital.
satisfaction.

Figure 1. Linking ERP benefits and firm performance of SCM

3. Methodology
The process for this research is based on the five steps proposed by (Khan et al., 2003) for the research based on
systematic review, in which the authors provided an explanation of the tasks accompanying a systematic
literature review such as selecting, reviewing and quality assessment of the reviewed literatures. The five steps
are and the actions taken by the researchers are follows:
1- Framing the question for the review.
In this step, the research question and the related terms should be clearly specified before the start the of the
actual literature review. In the case of this research, there are two parts or two research questions:
1) To identify the Critical Success Factors CSFs in ERP implementation and post implementation phases;
2) To classify the identified CSFs according to the stakeholders’ point of views.
2- Identifying relevant work and literatures.
In this step of this research, the resources of the relevant literatures should be identified. For this study, the focus
is on the electronic resources and documents that contain the following keywords: ‘enterprise resource planning’,
‘ERP Implementation’ and ‘critical success factors CSFs’. More specifically, the resources were journals that are
concerned with ERP research in IT, computing and business management such as (European Journal of
Operational Research, Science Direct, IEEE Xplore, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Association

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for Information Systems).

3- Assessing the quality of the found studies.
In this step, the discovered papers or publications would be filtered according to some quality measures to filter
the found publications. These standards are:
 The paper must clearly relate to the research question
 The publication must have clear methodology
 The research must come from trusted resources and journals. In this regard, papers that are based on a
single case study were excluded, since the findings cannot be generalised
 The publication year of the papers must be 2000 or above
4- Summarising the discovered evidences that answer the research question.
In this step, the discovered evidences related to the research questions will be gathered and summarised in order
to prepare them for fifth step which is data analysis or findings interpretations.
5- Understanding the findings.
In this final step of the study, the discovered results from the previous steps would be analysed in order to
conclude the stakeholders groups in the ERP implementation project as well as CSFs that concern each of these
groups.
Critical Success Factors can be defined as the aspects or elements that need to be considered carefully in order to
have a successful project. This definition can be applied to the ERP implementation projects. Based on this
explanation and on the importance of examining the Critical Success Factors in ERP Implementation, 34 articles
have been investigated thoroughly in order to determine their relevance to the topic under investigation and also
to answer the research questions for this study. Table 1 lists the 20 articles that have been examined and accepted
and Table 2 lists the 14 papers that were examined and rejected. These articles were rejected because one or
more of the following reasons:
- The year of publication is older than 2000
- Some articles were based on single case studies
- Some papers were not related directly to the CSFs in ERP implementation
- Some articles were about specific and not important industry sector.
- Some papers were based on previously published conference proceedings and then updated and
published in an international journal.
The keywords that were used to filter the papers in this part of the study are: (ERP Implementation) and (Critical
Success Factors) or (CSFs)

Table 1. The accepted CSFs related articles

# Title Author\s Year
1. Examining critical success factors affecting ERP implementations in Khattak, M.O., Yuanguan, S., Irfan, M., Khattak, 2012
enterprises of Pakistan R. A., Khattak, M. S. M.
2. The Critical Success Factors Across ERP Implementation Models: An Lai, I. K. W. 2006
Empirical Study in China
3. Critical success factors for ERP implementation in SMEs Munir, A. M., Pinedo-Cuenca, R. 2013
4. The consistency among facilitating factors and ERP implementation Wang, E. T. G., Shih, S. P., Jiang, J. J., Klein, G. 2008
success: A holistic view of fit
5. A Classification Framework of Critical Success Factors for ERP Nour, M. A., Mouakket, S. 2011
Systems Implementation: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective
6. Critical success factors for ERP implementations in Belgian SMEs Doom, C., Milis, K., Poelmans, S., Bloemen, E. 2009
7. Enterprise resource planning: A taxonomy of critical factors Al-Mashari, M., Al-Mudimigh, A., Zairi, M. 2003
8. ERP Implementation: A multi-stakeholder analysis of critical success Chetcuti, H. R. 2008
factors

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9. Enterprise resource planning: Implementation procedures and critical Umble, E. J., Haft, R. R., Umble, M. M. 2003
success factors
10. Vicious and virtuous cycles in ERP implementation: a case study of Akkermans, H., Helden, K. 2002
interrelations between critical success factors
11. Critical Success Factors In ERP Implementation: A Review Al-Fawaz, K., Al-Salti, Z., 2008
Eldabi, T.
12. Critical Success Factors in International ERP Implementations: A Pant, R., Willcocks, L. 2007
Case Research Approach
13. The influence of organizational factors on successful ERP Dezdar, S., Ainin, S. 2011
implementation
14. CSF of ERP in Australia Dagher, J., Kuzic, J. 2010
15. Evaluation of Key Success Factors Influencing ERP Implementation Hailu, A., Rahman, S. 2012
Success
16. Examining the critical success factors in the adoption of enterprise Ngai, E. W. T., Law, C. C. H., Wat, F. K. T. 2008
resource planning
17. ERP implementation through critical success factors’ management Francoise, O., Bourgault, M., Pellerin, R. 2009
18. Success and failure factors of adopting SAP in ERP system Gargeya, V. B., Brady, C. 2005
implementation
19. Investigating Critical Success Factors in ERP Implementation Salimifard, K., Ebrahimi, M., Abbaszadeh, M. A. 2010
Projects
20. The Impact of Critical Success Factors across the Stages of Somers, T. M., Nelson, K. 2001
Enterprise Resource Planning Implementations

Table 2. The rejected CSFs related articles

# Title Author\s Year
1. Process mapping in successful ERP implementations Okrent, M. D.,Vokurka, R. J. 2004
2. A classification for better use of ERP systems Botta-Genoulaz, V., Millet, P. A. 2005
3. A Critical Success Factors Model For ERP Implementation Holland, C. P., Light, B. 1999
4. Critical Success Factors for ERP implementation in Chinese Construction Chan, C. T. W., Sin, H. C. 2010
Companies
5. Enterprise information systems project implementation: A case study of Yusuf, Y., Gunasekaran, A., Abthorpe, M. 2004
ERP in Rolls-Royce S.
6. ERP Implementation Critical Success Factors - The Role And Impact of Jarrar, Y. F., Al-Mudimigh, A., Zairi, M. 2000
Business Process Management
7. ERP Implementation Process Analysis Based on the Key Success Factors Yanhong, Z. 2009
8. Evaluation of the ERP Implementation at Esfahan Steel Company Based on Moohebat, M. R., Jazi, M. D., Asemi, A. 2010
Five Critical Success Factors: A Case Study
9. Identifying critical issues in enterprise resource planning (ERP) Ehie, I. C., Madsen, M. 2005
implementation
10. Identifying Critical Success Factors of ERP Systems at the Higher Rabaa’i, A. A. 2009
Education Sector
11. ERP Implementation in Australia Dagher, J., Kuzic, J. 2011
12. Strategic alignment of ERP implementation stages: An empirical Velcu, O. 2010
investigation
13. The Critical Success Factors for ERP implementation: an organisational fit Hong, K.K. & Kim, Y.G 2002
prospective
14. Critical factors for successful ERP implementation: Exploratory findings Motwani, J., Subramanian, R., 2005
from four case studies Gopalakrishna, P.

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4. Data Analysis
The data analysis phase in the systematic literature review will be composed of the following steps:
1) The next step after finding and summarising the related publications is to conclude the stakeholders groups
that are involved in the ERP implementation and utilisation.
2) Classifying the discovered CSF into the concluded categories from the previous step.
3) Measuring the agreement among the included publications on the previous summarised CSF.
4.1 Critical Success Factors CSFs Analysis
The 20 articles that have been accepted as sources for the CSFs in ERP implementation were analysed
thoroughly in order to determine the factors studied by the authors of those papers, in which, 51 different CSFs
were identified. They cover organisational, neutral and operational aspects in the business (Munir &
Pinedo-Cuenca, 2013) as well as pre, during and post implementation phases of the ERP system. The importance
of considering the discovered factors comes from their significance to have a successful implementation of the
ERP package. The discovered factors are listed in Table 3, in which they are presented without a specific order,
however, with considering not have the same CSF repeated while examining the journal articles.

Table 3. CSFs identified in the accepted literatures

CSF # CSF Description

1. Top management support and commitment

2. Training for different users groups
3. Clear vision, goals and objectives of the ERP system
4. Careful change management
5. The use of ERP implementation consultant
6. End user involvement
7. Suitable IT legacy systems
8. Organizational fit for ERP
9. Business process re-engineering (BPR) and process management
10. Project champion
11. On-going ERP vendor support
12. Communication among the implementation team members
13. IT infrastructure
14. Team Work
15. IT department capability
16. Technical issues
17. Motivational factors to implement ERP systems
18. Implementation strategies
19. Minimal customization of packages
20. Good project scope management
21. Project management
22. Experienced project manager-leadership
23. Adequate resources
24. Interdepartmental communication
25. Interdepartmental cooperation
26. Education on new business processes
27. Adequate ERP software selection

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28. Formalised project plan/schedule

29. Project team composition/team skills

30. Reduced trouble shooting-project risk

31. Steering committee
32. Trust between partners

33. Empowered decision makers

34. Managing consultants
35. Data analysis and conversion

36. Project team competence

37. Use of vendors’ development tools
38. Company-wide support

39. Monitoring and evaluation of performance

40. Business plan and long-term vision
41. Management of expectations
42. Vendor/customer partnerships
43. Defining the architecture
44. Dedicated resources
45. Integration of business planning with ERP planning
46. Ease of system’s use and users’ acceptance
47. Effectiveness of management in reducing the users’ resistance
48. Organizational culture \ Cultural Change/political issues
49. Data and information quality
50. Focus on user requirements
51. A formalised project approach and methodology

4.2 Stakeholders in the ERP Implementation Project

The stakeholders involved in the ERP implementation project can be divided into several groups. This
categorisation is important since it provides a way for each group to focus on the CSFs that are relevant to it.
Table 4 shows these groups. This categorisation is mainly based on the research done by (Nour & Mouakket,
2011) and from the CSFs papers.

Table 4. Stakeholders groups in ERP implementation project

Group # Stakeholder Group Name

1. End user
2. Top management
3. IT Department
4. Project Team
5. Organisation
6. Vendor
7. ERP Consultant
8. Employees from different department
9. Business processes experts

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4.3 Measurement of the CSFs Frequency

This part will analyse and measure the agreement among authors on the CSFs in the ERP implementation that
were discovers and listed previously. This measurement will help in deciding the most important success factors.
First examination will concentrate on the CSFs frequency in the approved journal articles. Table 5 records the
occurrences of the first 25 CSFs from Table 4, and Table 6 does the same for the other 26 CSFs from the same
table. The numbers in the first column in Tables 5 and 6 represent the approved articles in Table 1 and the
numbers at the first row symbolize the CSFs. The difficulty that faced the researcher during the CSFs’ frequency
investigation was the use of different expressions by the authors for the same CSF.

Table 5. CSFs frequency in the literatures (CSFs 1-25)

CSFs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
1            
2              
3                
4           
5           
6           
7       
8         
9       
10            
11        
12            
13    
14      
15          
16               
17          
18          
19          
20            
Frq 20 17 15 14 12 7 6 2 12 13 9 10 4 6 2 1 1 6 8 2 16 2 2 14 6

Table 6. CSFs frequency in the literatures (CSFs 26-51)

CSF 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
1       
2             
3              
4 
5     
6       
7  
8         
9  
10          

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11  
12          
13  
14 
15    
16                   
17    
18   
19
20          
Fre 7 10 3 9 7 7 1 4 2 6 10 6 2 2 4 7 6 4 7 2 4 1 7 5 1 1
q

5. Findings
Having analysed and presented the results in the previous section. This section will present the main findings
from the data analysis section, which is based on the approved articles related to CSFs in the ERP
implementation project. It will show the most important success factors as well as the categorisation of these
influencers according to the stakeholders groups.
5.1 Appearance Order of Critical Success Factors CSFs
Based on the work done in the data analysis chapter, Table 7 lists the CSFs according to their appearance in the
literatures that is based on analysis presented in Tables 5 and 6. This order gives an indication about the most
important CSFs in the ERP implementation projects. Based on that, participants concerned with this project can
prioritise their attention for the important factors in order to achieve best results, to get the required
functionalities, and to meet the expectations from the ERP system.

Table 7. CSFs ordered according to their appearance frequency in the literatures

CSF Order CSF Description Frequency
1. Top management support and commitment 20
2. Training for different users groups 17
3. Project management 16
4. Clear vision, goals and objectives of the ERP system 15
5. Careful change management 14
6. Interdepartmental communication 14
7. Project champion 13
8. The use of ERP implementation consultant 12
9. Business process re-engineering (BPR) 12
10. Communication among the implementation team members 10
11. Adequate ERP software selection 10
12. Project team competence 10
13. On-going ERP vendor support 9
14. Project team composition/team skills 9
15. Minimal customization of packages 8
16. End user involvement 7
17. Education on new business processes 7
18. Reduced trouble shooting-project risk 7

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19. Steering committee 7

20. Management of expectations 7
21. Dedicated resources 7
22. Organizational culture \ Cultural Change/political issues 7
23. Suitable IT legacy systems 6
24. Team Work 6
25. Implementation strategies 6
26. Interdepartmental cooperation 6
27. Data analysis and conversion 6
28. Use of vendors’ development tools 6
29. Vendor/Customer partnership 6
30. Data and information quality 5
31. IT infrastructure 4
32. Empowered decision makers 4
33. Business plan and long-term vision 4
34. Defining the architecture 4
35. Ease of system’s use and users’ acceptance 4
36. Formalised project plan/schedule 3
37. Organizational fit for ERP 2
38. IT department capability 2
39. Good project scope management 2
40. Experienced project manager-leadership 2
41. Adequate resources 2
42. Managing consultants 2
43. Company-wide support 2
44. Monitoring and evaluation of performance 2
45. Integration of business planning with ERP planning 2
46. Technical issues 1
47. Motivational factors to implement ERP systems 1
48. Trust between partners 1
49. Effectiveness of management in reducing the users’ resistance 1
50. Focus on user requirements 1
51. A formalised project approach and methodology 1

5.2 CSFs Classification according to Stakeholders Groups

This section will cover one important objective of this study, which is classifying the discovered CSFs in the
literatures according to the stakeholders group identified during previous phase. This categorisation is very
important for the people involved in the ERP implementation since they will be able to focus on the factors that
concern them, which can possibly reflected in a better performance, and as a result to achieve a successful ERP
implementation. Table 8 presents the previous mentioned classification in a tabular format, in which, the order of
the CSFs is following the same order as in Table 7. In this table the participants from each category can pay more
attention to the highlighted and checked factors in the column that they belong to.

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Table 8. CSFs classification according to stakeholders group

End Top IT Project Organisation Vendor ERP Employees Business
CSF \ Stakeholders Group User Management Department Team Consultant from Different Processes
Departments Experts

Top management support & 

commitment

Training different usersgroups       

Project management  

Clear vision, goals and

  
objectives

Careful change management 

Interdepartmental
  
communication

Project champion  

The use of ERP consultant    

Business process re-engineering      

Communication among team

     
members

Adequate ERP software

  
selection

Project team competence  

On-going ERP vendor support 

Project team composition 

Minimal customization of
 
packages

End user involvement  

Education on new business

     
processes

Reduced trouble

shooting-project risk

Steering committee      

Management of expectations    

Dedicated resources   

Organizational cultural Change     

Suitable IT legacy systems 

Team Work        

Implementation strategies     

Interdepartmental cooperation 

Data analysis and conversion   

Use of vendors’ development


tools

Vendor/Customer partnership  

Data and information quality    

IT infrastructure 

Empowered decision makers    

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Business plan and long-term

  
vision

Defining the architecture    

Ease of system’s use and users’

  
acceptance

Formalised project
    
plan/schedule

Organizational fit for ERP 

IT department capability 

Good project scope management   

Experienced project

manager-leadership

Adequate resources   

Managing consultants   

Company-wide support    

Monitoring,evaluation of

performance

Integration of business planning


with ERP planning

Technical issues 

Motivational factors to
 
implement ERP systems

Trust between partners 

Effectiveness of management in
 
reducing the users’ resistance

Focus on user requirements    

A formalised project approach

  
and methodology

6. Conclusion
6.1 Summary of the Research
Successfully implementing ERP system has many benefits for organisations. However, on other hand, failing this
project would have several negative implications not only on the business but also on the ERP vendor. Therefore,
considering all the factors that might affect the success of this project is considered as a priority for all parties
involved in it. Therefore, many authors of the scientific journal papers have highlighted the importance of
considering the positive and negative factors in the implementation project of the Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) system. This paper has analysed the articles related to influencing factors that need to be well-thought-out
throughout all stages of the ERP system implementation life cycle. This systematic review has focused on two
important aspects that are related to the topic of ERP implementation. It measured authors’ agreement on the
CSFs that accompany the ERP project by recording the frequency of appearance of those factors and then it
provided a categorisation for the discovered factors according to stakeholders involved in the ERP
implementation and utilisation.
6.2 Research Contributions
Many papers or journal articles have studied the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) that influence the ERP
implementation and post implementation phases, however, very few or none has considered them from the
stakeholders’ point of view. Thus, this research has provided a detailed and deep systematic review for the
literatures related to CSFs in the ERP implementation. Also, it presented these factors ordered according to their
importance while considering the participants’ (stakeholders’) different point of views, which can be considered

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as a new way to look at the CSFs (see Table 8). This table has provided a tabular categorisation for the positive
and negative factors affecting ERP implementation from the stakeholders’ perspectives. This classification can
make it easier for the members of any the stakeholders groups to find the factors that concern them more easily.
Thus, they can achieve more focus and better performance, which can be reflected in a more successful ERP
implementation.
6.3 Research Limitations and Future Work
As with any other research, this study has some limitations. Firstly, although this study provide a comprehensive
literature related to ERP CSFs, however the limited number of papers that consider the CSFs from the
perceptives of project managers made data gathering a tremendous effort for authors. Therefore, care should be
taken when generalizing the findings of the study. This work can be enhanced and continued by tackling the
limitation mentioned before. Also, it can be further improved by conducting a field research in a real life context
case study to evaluate the findings and the results concluded in this dissertation. Moreover, research findings
could be validated with the stakeholders’ groups involved in the ERP implementation project.
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