ERP Systems Impact on Organizations

Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are in most cases implemented to improve organizational effectiveness. Current research makes it difficult to conclude how organizations may be affected by implementing ERP systems. This chapter addresses this issue by presenting an artifact evaluation of ERP systems. The evaluation is based on the Competing Values Model (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981; Rohrbaugh, 1981). The evaluation shows that ERP systems support effectiveness criteria, related to internal and rational goals of organizations. The evaluation also points out weaknesses in ERP systems, especially in areas related to human resource management and organizational flexibility. The result of the evaluation is used to discuss the impact of ERP systems on organizations and is presented as a series of hypotheses.