The Impacts of the Quality Dimensions of the ERP System on the Realization of the Fundamental Business Objectives and Perceived Usefulness

Introduction

The recent information systems’ literature and industry surveys (e.g., Panorama Consulting Solutions, 2017) characterize Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as a widely adopted class of information systems in a variety of public and private sectors. Consequently, this class of systems has gained a significant prominence in a wide variety of studies over the previous few years. ERP systems are identified by Klaus, Rosemann, and Gable (2000) as “…comprehensive, packaged software solutions seek to integrate the complete range of a business's processes and functions in order to present a holistic view of the business from a single information and IT architecture…”

The main reason of the wide adoption of these systems is to realize their distinguished benefits, such as integrating business data throughout the organization and supporting the major business functions, including production, stock control, sales, accounting, and human resource management (Davenport, 1998; Nazemi, Tarokh, & Djavanshir, 2012; Rajan & Baral, 2015). These benefits were categorized in the consolidated framework of Shang and Seddon (2000) into five types: organizational, strategic, managerial, operational, and IT infrastructure benefits. Hence, organizations in the different sectors have made significant investments in ERP systems seeking for such benefits (Hsu, Yen, & Chung, 2015).

Despite the significant investments that have been spent on the adoption of ERP systems, multiple studies indicated that the expected ERP’s benefits cannot be easily realized at the post-implementation stage of these systems (Yu, 2005; Nwankpa, 2015). In this regard, Peng and Nunes (2009) confirmed that a broad range of risks are encountered by organizations at the post-implementation phase of ERP systems. These risks were divided into several categories, including operational risks (e.g., employees enter incorrect data in the system), organization-wide risks (e.g., top management does not provide adequate support to ERP post-implementation), and technical risks (e.g., system failure risks). The occurrence of these risks at the ERP post-implementation phase can significantly impact both system and business performance. Thus, this occurrence may negatively influence ERP viability and business efficiency (Pan, Nunes, & Peng, 2011).

Consequently, ensuring the post-implementation success of ERP systems has become a focus of the ERP area (Yu, 2005; Zhua, Li, Wangc, & Chena, 2010). Moreover, the evaluation of such success in the ERP's adopting organizations is another issue that has not received a sufficient attention in the previous researches (P. Ifinedo, Rapp, Ifinedo, & Sundberg, 2010; Sedera & Gable, 2004). This issue is addressed in this study through evaluating the ERP post-implementation success in terms of the realization of the fundamental business objectives of information systems and perceived usefulness. The fundamental business objectives are supporting business processes and improving the decision-making process (Laudon & Laudon, 2012; O’Brien & Marakas, 2010; Turban & Volonino, 2011). The perceived usefulness of an information system is identified by Seddon (1997) as “…the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system has enhanced his or her job performance…” Hence, the realization of the fundamental business objectives represents an organizational impact of information systems, while perceived usefulness represents an individual impact of these systems.