Title: Quantitative assessment of enterprise resource planning software customisation

Authors: S. Parthasarathy

Addresses: Department of Computer Applications, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, 625 015 Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: One of the main problems faced by the consultants during enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation is how to align an ERP software package with the business processes of the enterprise implementing it. The objective of this research is to estimate the percentage of customisation required for the ERP software to meet the requirements of the customer completely. By means of tracing the requirements of the customer in the ERP software, we propose an algorithm |ERP customisation estimation (ERPCE)|. The ERPCE algorithm will estimate the percentage of the ERP software customisation during ERP software selection process. The proposed algorithm is applied to a module of ERP software. The algorithm provides the enterprise with a set of feasible combinations of requirements that can be satisfied by the ERP system as a basis for making implementation decisions. The results of the application of the algorithm to a module of ERP software are encouraging and demonstrate the ability of the approach to provide a satisfactory solution to the problem of aligning an ERP software package with an enterprise. Future research directions in customisation during ERP software selection process are also indicated.

Keywords: ERP implementation; enterprise resource planning; information systems; requirements; ERP customisation; software engineering; software selection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISCM.2008.023949

International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2008 Vol.3 No.3, pp.265 - 283

Published online: 21 Mar 2009 *

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