An Explanatory Framework for Achieving Business Benefits from ERP Systems

ERP systems are large integrated packaged software systems used by thousands of major organizations around the world. Yet outcomes from ERP use can be very different, and there is still not an adequate understanding of how and why organizations have such varying outcomes. Using a case study approach, we retrospectively examined the post-implementation periods in four manufacturing companies as processes within context over time. Analysis of the cases identified nine themes that explain “how” and “why” and form the components of a framework for understanding the achievement of business benefits in the post-implementation period. The new framework extends knowledge in two ways. It identifies new themes and the underlying relationships between them that explain and increase our understanding of how and why organizations have or have not achieved business benefits from ERP systems