Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are information systems in which companies around the world are investing heavily. ERP system implementations can bring great benefits to companies by automating and integrating all or a large number of their business processes, but the systems are also subject to high risks of failure. Many new IT systems encounter implementation problems, weaknesses and limitations, but mostly not due to potential technological shortcomings of software solutions offering resource planning capabilities, but rather due to a lack of awareness and consideration of a range of organisational factors. In addition, ERP implementation projects are often more expensive than planned or delayed, and the company's ERP strategy in many cases continuously revolves around fixing implementation-related problems, resulting in no progress towards the achievement of strategic ERP objectives.
Accordingly, the diverse issues related to ERP implementations in enterprises are an important topic of academic research. Although many of the critical success factors address organisational-level issues such as management support, change management and communication, the ultimate goal is for users to fully exploit the potential of ERP functionality, as the true business value of an ERP system is achieved through its appropriate use by the target user group. It is precisely this area that this thesis addresses, as a literature review identified a gap in among the models designed for evaluating the performance of ERP systems that at the same time meaningfully and comprehensively incorporate user acceptance of the ERP system.
During the case study, the theoretical model was practically tested and evaluated in a large Slovenian manufacturing company. Starting with the results of the statistical analysis of the questionnaire based on the proposed model, individual interviews were conducted with IT and business process experts as well as with key users of the ERP system. Based on the questionnaire and the individual interviews, tangible suggestions for improvement were generated and presented to the management of the company. By having the company's management endorse the improvement suggestions, agree that the results of the questionnaire were applicable and that they – together with the individual interviews – provided them with a deeper understanding of the issues, we obtained seven empirically validated areas that have a significant impact on the performance of the ERP system in the studied company.
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