Title: ERP system implementation costs and selection factors of an implementation approach

Authors: Bjorn Johansson, Frantisek Sudzina, Mike Newman

Addresses: Department of Informatics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Ole Romers vag 6, SE-223 63 Lund, Sweden. ' Center for Applied ICT, Copenhagen Business School, Howitzvej 60, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark. ' Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway; Manchester Accounting and Finance Group, University of Manchester, M29, Crawford House, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

Abstract: Different approaches on implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERPs) systems exist. In this article, we investigate relationship between factors influencing selection of implementation approach and companies| ability to stay within budget when implementing ERPs. The question is: do factors, which influence the implementation approach in an ERP project, cause also an increase of the project cost in a European context? Our survey was conducted in Denmark, Slovakia and Slovenia and focused on this issue. Our main findings are that: 1) the number of implemented modules influences selection of an implementation approach; 2) companies with information strategies are more likely to stay within budget regarding ERP systems implementation. However, we also found that: 3) implementation approach does not significantly influence ability to stay within budget; 4) a clear relationship between factors influencing selection of implementation approach and ability to stay within budget for ERP implementation could not be found.

Keywords: system implementation; implementation costs; selection factors; budgets; project costs; Europe; Denmark; Slovakia; Slovenia; implemented modules; information strategies; investment; business information systems; ERP; enterprise resource planning; ICT infrastructures; information technology; communications technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2011.041088

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2011 Vol.8 No.1, pp.87 - 105

Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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