Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Althonayan OverviewEnterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are complex and comprehensive software packages designed to integrate business processes and functions (Chen and Lin, 2008).Despite the difficulties and risk involved in their adoption, their use is expanding rapidly.Many organisations are adopting ERP systems for different reasons, including legacy systems replacement, cost reductions and faster information transactions (Ifinedo and Nahar, 2006).Unsurprisingly, universities and academic institutions are seeking to improve and develop their functions by adopting technically advanced measures such as ERP systems and have invested heavily in the development of infrastructure to enhance the application of information technology (IT) in their educational policies and procedures (Rabaa`i, Bandara, and Gable 2009a).Many academic institutions have spent considerable time and money in implementing sophisticated IT systems without following a systematic approach to measure their return on investment.In the case of higher education, ERP systems affect many aspects of both internal and external operations, and their successful deployment and use are critical to universities' performance (Swartez and Origall, 2000).However, higher education is facing serious challenges in implementing new technology such as ERP systems.Meeting stakeholders' expectations in higher education is one of those challenges, which relates to the unique organizational context of universities.According to Pollock and Cornford (2004), the uniqueness of universities is based on a combination of different characteristics, which, according to Lockwood (1985), include: complexity of purpose; limited measurability of outputs; both autonomy from and dependency on wider society; diffuse structure and authority; and internal fragmentation.These characteristics are fundamental to the implementation of ERP systems in the educational sector.ERP system designers consider priorities and expectations on one hand, and different stakeholders react differently to the new system on the other, by welcoming, rejecting or adopting the new system in their organization (Boonstra, 2006).This interaction between the systems and humans could act as an indicator to evaluate the post-implementation performance. Evaluating Stakeholders' Performance of ERP Systems in Saudi Arabia Higher Education Mona AlthonayanChapter 2 assesses relevant literature covering ERP systems in general and their implementation in various fields, illustrating the different approaches to the evaluation of ERP systems, theories and related models.Chapter 3 Research theoretical model chapter reviews literature concerning ERP systems, and presents the background to each model and illustrates its relation to ERP systems.This chapter is including the final factors chosen from the three models to evaluate stakeholders' performance on ERP systems in higher education.Chapter 4 discusses the research methodology, describing and discussing the research process, the problems associated with identifying the most appropriate method and the design of the research, data access and collection procedures.Chapter 5 presents the case studies of three Saudi Arabian universities, reporting phase two of the research, during which empirical data were gathered by means of a questionnaire.This chapter reports the analysis of data collected from the quantitative phase of the field work (questionnaire). Chapter 6This chapter reports the analysis of data collected from the qualitative phase of the field work (interviews).Chapter 7 reports the discussions based all key sources: literature, documents, questionnaire and interviews.This chapter presents the final evaluation of stakeholders' performance in using ERP systems, and then proposes a research model based on the theoretical framework and the data analysis.Chapter 8 summarises the research and its contribution to knowledge, theory and contribution practice draws conclusions and offers a set of recommendations for future research.Evaluating Stakeholders' Performance of ERP Systems in Saudi Arabia Higher Education Mona Althonayan Enterprise Resource Planning SystemsERP systems are software packages that have been increasingly adopted by organisations across various industries in both developed and developing counties.Al-Mashari (2002) consider some of the range of definitions offered by various authors; for instance, Rosemann and Wiese (1999) describes ERP systems as "customizable, standard application software which includes integrated business solutions for the core processes (e.g.production planning and control, warehouse management) and the main administrative functions (e.g.accounting, human resource management) of an enterprise".This definition differs slightly from that of Gable (1998), for whom an ERP system is a "comprehensive packaged software solution seeking to integrate the complete range of business processes and functions in order to present a holistic view of the business from single information and IT architecture".Alternatively, Zhu et al. (2010) define ERP systems as "configurable information systems packages that integrate information and information-based processes within and across functional areas in an organization".The essential ERP architecture is built upon one database, one application and a standard interface across the entire enterprise (Calisir and Calisir, 2004).According to Sane (2005), ERP systems are multi-module application software packages that serve and support multiple business functions.These software packages are of particular interest to management information systems (MIS) researchers because they can have broad organisational effects, rather than the localized individual and group task-level effects of many smaller packages.Furthermore, ERP systems have become ubiquitous, as indicated by a growth in ERP software licence revenue of 19 percent in 2007 (Strong and Volkoff, 2010).However, packaged software raises important theoretical issues associated with the fact that by definition it is designed to meet generic rather than specific requirements, making it unlikely to be a perfect fit in any particular instance (Strong and Volkoff, 2010).Recently, ERP systems have been in high demand with both manufacturing and service organisations, because they provide a tightly integrated solution to an organisation's information system needs.During the last decade, ERP systems have received significant attention from researchers and practitioners of IS disciplines.
Author: Mona Althonayan
Language: English
Subfield: Management Information Systems
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W105541083