Factors Affecting Successful Implementation Of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System: A Case Of Selected Kenyan Organizations Using Oracle And Sap

Abstract

Many organizations nowadays are looking for ways to enhance their efficiency and improve on their service delivery. To achieve this objective, the organizations have identified information systems to be an ideal way to improve on their efficiency. To attain this goal, organizations are looking for systems which are integrated hence many have settled on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Many organizations are moving from functional oriented systems to business processes integrated systems. However, as these ERP systems continue to be implemented successful and unsuccessful project implementation continue to be experienced by organizations in equal measure. The purpose of this study was to investigate the organizational factors contributing to successful implementation of ERP system. Most of the surveys which have been done have been in the developed countries with few documented ones being done in developing countries especially the sub-Saharan Africa. With many organizations embracing technology and more integration of their business processes rather than having them as just functional operations, ERP is catching attention of most of these organizations. This study thus concentrated on those organizations which have successfully implemented ERP systems in Kenya. More specifically, the study concentrated on those organizations which have implemented Oracle and SAP ERP systems as they have been identified to be the two leading ERP systems across the globe. This study employed a descriptive survey design. Questionnaire method was applied to collect primary data from ICT managers and functional/unit heads who are now users of the ERP systems. The target population of this study was twenty-three organizations which have successfully implemented Oracle and nine organizations which have successfully implemented SAP ERP systems. Quantitative data was analyzed through descriptive statistics specifically frequency distributions and percentages. The analyzed data is presented in form of Tables, charts and graphs. Factor analysis was used to decompose the many variables into a few factors that could be well explained. The qualitative data was analyzed through thematic summary analysis. SPSS was used to generate descriptive statistics including cross tabulation and measures of central tendencies.