An investigation of problem factors in ERP selection in KwaZulu-Natal organizations.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the current ERP selection processes that are used by KwaZulu-Natal organizations, in order to determine what problem factors were evidenced during the selection process. In order to obtain a KwaZulu-Natal organizations' perspective of the ERP selection process, two stages were used to gather survey data. The first stage consisted of an electronic mail and fax survey; the second stage was a door to door survey done in business parks and industrial parks/zones in the Greater Durban region - this was for purposes of remedying the low response rate obtain during the first stage. Sixty-three respondents from a wide range of industrial sectors in KwaZulu- Natal responded to the research questionnaire. In terms of response information: more than 55% of respondents had recently acquired an ERP solution and their ERP systems were fully integrated 12.7% of respondents had bought ERP software, but it was not fully implemented 6.3% of respondents were at the ERP selection stage, they were without an ERP system but had already commenced the selection process 23.8% of respondents did not have ERP nor did they intend to obtain ERP in the future 1.6% of respondents did not have ERP but indicated that they may have such a system in the future. Respondents were randomly chosen from medium sized and large sized organizations in KwaZulu-Natal. They are determined as large in turnover, total asset and number of employees by South African standards and aremostly hierarchical and centralized organisations with a divisional/functional structure. The study revealed that although ERP selection was considered to be making a significant contribution to organizations7 IT/IS strategy, the ERP selection process was not paid enough attention in practice in KwaZulu- Natal organizations due to a number of obstacles deduced from this study. Therefore, this study can be of benefit to organizations in identifying these obstacles and in recommending strategies that could be employed to overcome them.