Title: Proposing a AHP-based reference model to assist Indian SME's in their ERP implementation

Authors: Parijat Upadhyay, Pranab K. Dan, Gautam Bandopadhyay

Addresses: Globsyn Business School, XI-11 & 12, Block EP, Sector-V, Saltlake City, Kolkata-700091, India. ' West Bengal University of Technology, BF-142, Sector I, Salt Lake City, Kolkata – 700064, West Bengal, India. ' Natioanl Institute of Technology, Durgapur, West Bengal, India

Abstract: Over the last few years, software multinational corporations and local software houses have started to target the small/medium enterprises (SMEs) to sell their solutions. SMEs are confronted with problems which are peculiar to this segment and hence solution approach should differ as that from large scale organisations. The objective of the research presented here is to explore the issues which the SMEs can find decisive for ensuring success. The researchers proposes a framework which can help SMEs while choosing an appropriate package for implementation given that there are multiple decision criteria such as appropriateness, cost, vendor support and training. This study is based on feedback that has been obtained from 100+ small and medium scale manufacturers, whose responses have been analysed to highlight the issues namely reducing costs, improving their inventory scenario and developing agile customer responsive system. The results of the study would benefit the leading ERP vendors offering the products.

Keywords: ERP implementation; enterprise resource planning; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; vendor selection; multicriteria decision support; India; AHP; analytical hierarchy process; manufacturing industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVCM.2011.042072

International Journal of Value Chain Management, 2011 Vol.5 No.2, pp.106 - 118

Published online: 26 Mar 2015 *

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