Deployment of open source ERPs: What knowledge does it require?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are rapidly becoming a de facto standard in business activity. While large and medium-sized companies have the luxury to afford proprietary ERP solutions, small companies are struggling with resource poverty which maybe makes them consider available open source ERP products which are free from licensing fee. However, there is little knowledge available on open source ERP adoption in small companies. In order to spread some light on the first phase of ERP adoption, an experiment on open source ERP deployment was conducted. The experiment aimed at investigating what knowledge is required to successfully deploy open source ERP systems. The experiment was based on a research framework, the Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM2), and considered usability testing and user training and education factors. The factors of Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) were used to determine the ease of deployment process, and the usefulness of the open source ERP deployed in relation to the made effort. The findings suggest that user with advanced computer skills perceive open source ERP deployment process as easy, and the deployed open source ERP was seen as being useful to organizations business activities