Abstract Background - Not all companies choose or are able to grow, especially not in an unstable economic climate. However, fast growing organizations (gazelles) have managed to grow with a significant pace. As researchers claim control to be one factor in developing an organization, this lead the authors to question whether these gazelle organizations perceive control systems to contribute to their rapid growth. Purpose - The authors wish to investigate whether strategic planning, enterprise resource planning and management system, as three different components of control, are present in gazelle organizations, and if they are perceived as contributors to growth. Method - The authors use a quantitative research approach and used a survey in order to capture the wider perspective of control. The chosen population is Swedish medium sized gazelle organizations. In order to analyze the findings, modified 6-point Likert-scale statements are included in the survey, where the authors interpret whether the respondents agree or disagree to the chosen statements, which are incorporated through the literature review. In addition to this, ANOVA tests are included to establish if there are significant differences among users and nonusers of the different control systems. Conclusion - The conclusions drawn from this study is that the usage of strategic planning and an enterprise resource planning system is common among the participating organizations. However, the majority do not use a management system. Despite the level of usage of the three different control systems, they are all perceived as beneficial for the organizations, and the respondents do believe that the systems contribute to their growth. In addition, there is no significant proof that there is a relationship between growth and using the control systems, when comparing the percentage increase in growth with using the different control systems.

The design team of System development projects is facing cognition of these users to requirement function in several departments of a large organization. The mix of both domains¡¦ knowledge involves these users of various groups and technology knowledge by the capabilities of existing technology and consequently creates the artifact to support organizational process and job. Because of the risks and uncertainties associated with Skill Mix in large, complex system development, the purpose of this research argues that a Skill Mix problem and solution acquired in the building and application of an artifact in a timely and cost-effective manner. On the one hand, the artifact can effectively support organizational process and job. On the other hand, the artifact is facing a difficulty that meets user needs. Nevertheless, the amount of organizational departments and users participated in the IS project are much too difficult to reach a participative, consensus cognition. Software development risks become too high. Therefore, organizational users participate design in the IS project is a crucial factor in affecting performance outcome. For such software development environment, this research suggested that both the design team and users of IS project apply a TQM organizational system perspective to Management Infrastructure as a base for communication. In addition, this study proposed an organizational process to improve software productivity and quality in system development. This research argues the process has two parts. One is the TQM Perspective as the base for management infrastructure and stakeholder participation. The other is a skill mix process concerning the management to coordinate and manage the interaction between stakeholders. This research stressed a systemic approach of developing infrastructure capabilities to enable implementation of Skill Mix to conduct the stable and meaningful requirement. The artifact is able to perform regular function in order to improve Skill Mix process of both Organizational domain knowledge and technology knowledge in system development. For example, this research argues this process to develop ERP system meets the business needs. ERP system is able to support that sales department sells service with producing condition of an order for goods.

Abstract Implementing an ERP system has become the primary consideration for many enterprises during processing E-commerce. It has also become the data platform of information foundation construction in many enterprises. Among these implementation cases, however, some are facing failures due to the following reasons: the organization business flow is unable to make changes coordinately, the consultant companies lack of experience, or the user sites are being resisted while implementing an ERP system. All the mentioned reasons have caused their ERP project delay by deadline. This, therefore, results in the huge increase of the cost and even an abnormal operation system during the implementation. Eventually the enterprises would have to make an announcement to fail. The management and control of implementing an ERP system decides the success of the system. The subject of this study is to probe into the process of implementing an ERP system. Beginning with the sort-out of Chinese and foreign documents to find out the key success factors during the process of implementing an ERP system and then collecting the realistic data from the software company¡¦s viewpoints to understand the concrete methods of key success factors. The software consultant company, therefore, plays an important role during the process of implementing an ERP system. We, hereto, generalize the viewpoints of high-level administrators, the project manager, the senior consultants and the technicians about the key success factors during the process of implementing an ERP system from the software consultant company¡¦s angle. After that, the practical perspectives of the software consultant company are being discussed and analyzed to verify if there is any difference with the results which were generalized from probing the documents. Results of this study have shown that the most important key success factors are ' the commitment and support of high-level administrators ', ' the integration degree of other systems' and ' the procedure innovation'. The secondary key factors are ' the production operation characteristic 'and ' the interdepartmental characteristic '. The key factor that is not important is ¡¥the methods of systems implement¡¦. In spite of the existing large number of researches about ERP, the ones discussed from the software consultant company¡¦s point of views are quite few. This study probes into from software consultant company¡¦s viewpoints and to collect related key success factors while hoping to be a reference for other consultant companies and relevant units in implementing ERP system. Keyword: Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP )¡AKey Success Factor¡ASystem Implementation¡A Flow Change

In this study, the applicability of the Balanced Scorecard Framework, developed by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton in 1992 for measuring performance at the organizational level or the business unit level, to performance measurement during the implementation phase of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is investigated. A model based on the Balanced Scorecard Framework is presented with sample indicators for each of the four perspectives -Financial Perspective, Customer Perspective, Internal Business Perspective and Innovation and Learning Perspective- proposed in the original framework. The indicators for measuring ERP implementation success are derived from a comprehensive literature survey. Furthermore, a software tool is developed to operationalize the proposed balanced scorecard model. The model and the software tool demonstrate the applicability of the Balanced Scorecard Framework for monitoring and measuring performance during the implementation phase of ERP systems / that is, the relevance of the Balanced Scorecard Framework at the project level.

¡yEnterprise Resource Planning¡z(ERP) is an integrated information system consists of different business functions including Financial/Cost, Sales/Distribution, Material Management, Production Planning, etc. It facilitates the business flexibility to adjust for environmental changes such as industries, customer needs, and the status of competitor. The purposes are to reduce the cost, enhance work efficiency, and generate sufficient information for the business decisions. Two enterprises are studied for their ERP implementation in this thesis; they are the InfoChamp Systems Corporation (ICSC) and the Yageo Company (YC). ICSC which started in 2000 A.D. is a spinout company of the China Steel Company after it successfully constructed the ERP system. The strategy of the China Steel Company was to gradually extend the application function from the original management information system. On the other hand, the Yageo Company adopts the SAP package and discards the whole traditional information system. In order to discover how these two enterprises implement the ERP systems, the author interviewed their representatives several times. Besides, the company documents, publish papers and data from their web sites were collected and analyzed. The main conclusions are summarized as the following. 1. The enterprise needs to carefully consider the organization structure associated with possible constraints before the implementation of ERP system. Whether to extend the traditional management information system or to adopt a certain industrial package, the information integration among new systems and old systems is a very complicated issue. 2. The goal of the implementation project should be clarified and specified to all members in the enterprise. In addition, the project manager should be fully authorized to take charge of the whole implementation process. 3. As the enterprise expend their business functions, the information system also needs extra modules. It is not an enduring decision to simply adopt an available package. However, using interface development to integrate the informational system will result in high maintenance cost. 4. The two enterprises emphasis the importance by establishing the project control mechanism. The executive managers serve as the project leader in order to proclaim the ambition of the project success. 5. The contract negotiation with the consulting company requires careful communication. The cost, durations, customization, and the commitment of a successful project should be included. 6. The consistency of the business and information process may enhance business performance. 7. The bureaucratic organization and workflow need a reformation.

In recent years, the trend toward globalization has given rise to rigorous competition for market shares. Businesses have faced the stern demand to swiftly respond to changes in market conditions. They must keep up with environmental situations inside and outside industry, fully integrate various resources of the enterprise, and ponder how to effectively use business resources. Therefore, ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems that integrate the internal value chains of enterprise have received special attention. It is an undisputed fact that an ERP system can integrate internal resources of an enterprise to create for it an overall advantage, improve the flow and elevate the response effectiveness of the enterprise, upgrade information system, and respond to customers¡¦ satisfaction of supply chain management. However, the universal ERP system that is adopted by most enterprises is either costly or difficult to maintain. Moreover, the universal ERP system usually fails to consider special needs of different industries. Therefore, how to ensure a rapid, saving, and effective success through the implementation of ERP systems constitutes the largest challenge faced by enterprises that use such systems. In view of this, this study investigated, from the perspective of ERP supply chain effectiveness of the ¡§differentiation focus strategy¡¨ and the ¡§bowling pin model strategy,¡¨ the impact of the adoption of industry-specific ERP systems on ERP software manufacturers and enterprises that have introduced such a system. Besides, the study used case study approach to conduct a field survey of ERP software manufacturers that have implemented industry-specific ERP system strategy and of four textile and PCB manufacturers that have introduced industry-specific ERP systems with a view to understanding operating models in which industry-specific ERP systems have been successfully introduced and implemented. Through the analysis of this study, it was found that: (1)ERP information manufacturers that adopt industry-specific ERP strategy locating conform to Michael E. Porter¡¦s competitive strategy and differentiation focus strategy, and at the same time verify the bowling pin model theory of Geoffrey A. Moor that technology adopts life cycle. Information manufacturers can enjoy vertical profit-base market advantages of industry-specific ERP and thus avoid competition within industry. As they focus on their specialized field, they not only can strengthen ERP¡¦s professional system functions but also can elevate their effectiveness in follow-up service and maintenance, leading to the reduction of operating costs. From cases of ERP software manufacturers, it was also found that, in areas that special industries cluster, the value of industry-specific ERP in such markets is enlarged. (2)From the perspective of developing industry-specific ERP, after a preliminary development method is used to direct a user to put up concrete industrial characteristic demands and flow, more friendly and suitable operating systems are specified. After being examined and used by a second user, systems are re-examined, revised, and strengthened. After being introduced by a third user and verified and implemented, such systems can become mature, standard industry-specific ERP package systems. (3)From the perspective of enterprise users, adopting the proof of concept method is more practical, accurate, and promising in selecting and evaluating suitable, correct ERP systems. This method can help estimate the outcome after introduction and make it easier to evaluate benefits, for example, keeping project flow schedule and costs under control, implementation and simulation of new enterprise flow schedule. (4)Each industry has professional knowledge and characteristics specific to it. For example, in the case of PCB industry, use rate of base plate material and design and management of engineering data are core professional knowledge of lumber industry. In the case of textile industry, analysis of fabrics, management of characteristics of semi-finished fabrics, integration and automation of process are critical functions essential to competitiveness of this industry. A universal ERP system cannot take care of unique characteristics of various industries. Therefore, only an industry-specific ERP that is specialized in and designed to meet characteristics of a concerned industry can perfectly satisfy the core professional operation of the industry. (5)Because industry-specific ERP systems set the best model of business flow and are concise and suitable, they produce more rapid effectiveness, less impact on organization adjustment, and require smaller investments after being introduced into a business. In view of the preceding findings, the study concluded that the adoption of industry-specific ERP can solidly, effectively, and accurately achieve purposes of ERP systems and can ensure the achievement of potential benefits. At the same time, information manufacturers can obtain vertical profit-base market, enlarging the effect of overall supply value chains.

Summary In an era of knowledge economy, it is necessary to promote the efficiency of business. However, when a corporation decides to use an enterprise resource planning (abbreviated as ERP) system, it becomes a gigantic problem to choose either developing the system by themselves or buying a suit ERP software. At present, the maturity of ERP software on the market is able to fulfill the general demand of business. But enterprises in general need to face the situation that the procedure revises when having special demands. The suit ERP software on the market, will divide the system into several main module at present, usually can include financial management, stock control, sale management, procurement management, production management, human resource management. The suit ERP software on the current market, the major problem stems from three causes. They are process-oriented, structured method, and object-oriented. We call them non architecture oriented finance management ERP model (NAOFMERPM) This research develops an architecture oriented finance management ERP model (AOFMERPM) which solves the problems generated by NAOFMERPM. To validate this expression, we use the information system success model (abbreviated as IS Success Model) three factors, information quality, system quality, service quality to prove AOFMERPM is better than NAOFMERPM .

The aims to set up Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is to increase enterprises' running efficiency and obtain the capability to respond to the whole supply chain so as to possess business competence and increase profits. There is no doubt that ERP plays an important role in enterprises. Besides, the assistance of consultant service would be beneficial for the successful introduction of ERP into enterprises. Moreover, the consultant teams assigned by consultant companies not only have to obtain professional competence of product techniques but have to offer service quality which is the vital element affecting customers' satisfaction and the success of cases. The present study is based on the theory of IMP interaction model and it attempts to conduct empirical research on the perceptive service qualtity of the consultants who introuduce ERP into enterprise cases. The main purpose of this research aims to find out the effects of consultant service quality on customers' satiscation and their behavioral intention to utilize this system. Additionly, the findings could also be suggestive resources to enterprisers, consultants, and future researchers. The results of this study show that the service quality of the consultants making intoduction of ERP into enterprises has obvious influences on customers' satisfaction and their behavioral intention to adopt ERP. In general, the key issues influencing customers' satiscation and their choices are classified into following three dimensions: (1) the outcomes brought about by the collaboration between consultants and project committees; (2) the professional and service competence presented by consultants; (3) the equality between consultant service and the implementation fee. In addition, this present study also presents different satisfaction degrees examined by reserach variables and population statistic variables. It is hoped that these difference analyses would be beneficial for managers to imrprove ERP consultant service quality.

<p>Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is established among a majority of small and medium sized companies in Kista Science City and seems to have a positive effect on organizational effectiveness. Kista Science City is Sweden’s largest corporate centre, with more companies and employees in a limited area than anywhere else in Europe. This study looks at the level of adoption of ERP functions, perceived organizational effectiveness and critical success factors. The most common use of ERP is for financial control and reporting, followed by order entry and purchasing. A significant relationship between the level of adoption and organizational effectiveness was found.</p><p>Although Enterprise Resource Planning has become an established phenomenon the investments in ERP software are far from fully utilized. Most companies have started to use ERP to integrate functional areas but few companies have moved to extended ERP (ERPII). The adoption of functionality for customer relationship management seems to have started, but the use of e-commerce, business intelligence and supply chain management is very low. Different reasons for the low level of adoption are discussed and it is suggested that the interrelationship between SMEs and ERP-consultants be investigated further. ERP-consultants are important change agents and knowledge transfers for ERP and one way to interpret the data is that ERP-consultants are caught in a negative spiral where they focus on installations and technical maintenance of core ERP, which prevents them from developing new, extended ERP competence.</p><p>An analysis of critical success factors showed that although technical competence was important socially oriented factors such as project teamwork and composition as well as communication had a greater effect on organizational effectiveness. Surprisingly enough, project management did not have any effect on organizational effectiveness. Common implementation methods for ERP focus on project management. It is suggested to further analyse if these methods could be improved by an increased adaptability to differences in company settings and requirements as well as through a better use of critical success factors. Organizational effectiveness can be measured in many ways and it was found that the success factors varied in terms of how they correlated with different measures.</p><p>In the next step, the doctorial thesis, it is suggested that a prototype environment is developed to stimulate an increased use of extended ERP among small and medium sized companies. Several actors, such as SMEs, consultants, vendors and students would be involved. The prototype environment could facilitate enhancements of implementation methods and reduction of implementation costs through the development of reusable objects such as add-on solutions, process maps and system configurations. It could also help small and medium sized companies to investigate the business benefits of ERP by increasing involvement and familiarity while on the same time decrease costs and risks.</p> / QC 20100713

Die Gestaltung von ERP-Systemen bewegt sich im Spannungsfeld zwischen Standardisierung und Flexibilisierung. Standardisierung eröffnet die Möglichkeit zur Realisierung von Rationalisierungspotenzialen im Implementierungsprozess von ERP-Systemen. Flexible ERP-Systeme ermöglichen eine größtmögliche Anpassung an Geschäftsprozesse eines Anwenderunternehmens, bedeuten jedoch gleichzeitig einen erhöhten Implementierungsaufwand. Bisher vorliegende Konzepte der Flexibilisierung sind nur mangelhaft standardisierbar und daher in vielen Anwendungsfällen nicht praktikabel. Insbesondere das Tätigkeitsfeld Einzelhandel zeichnet sich durch sich rasch ändernde Umgebungsbedingungen und die damit verbundenen hohen Anforderungen an die Flexibilität von ERP-Systemen aus. Die Web-Service-Technologie stellt einen vielversprechenden Ansatz der flexiblen Anpassung von ERP-Systemen unter Einsatz offener Standards dar. Diese Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkungen des Einsatzes dieser Technologie in der Implementierungsphase von ERP-Systemen. Der Einsatz dieser Technologien verändert die notwendigen Phasen dieses Implementierungsprozesses und die dafür im Anwenderunternehmen notwendigen Kompetenzen. Auf Basis einer Literaturanalyse wird ein Referenzmodell zur Implementierung servicebasierter ERP-Systeme entwickelt und die zur Durchführung dieses Implementierungsprozesses notwendigen Kompetenzen dargestellt. Im Rahmen der Entscheidungsfindungsprozesse des Referenzmodells wird der Begriff der einzigartige Prozesseigenschaft (Abkz.: UPP) als Entscheidungskriterium pro / contra einer serviceorientierten Implementierung eines Teilprozesses eingeführt. Das um die Kompetenzen erweiterte Referenzmodell wird anschließend anhand von Experteninterviews evaluiert und auf seine Praxistauglichkeit überprüft. (Autorenref.)