| Abstract [eng] |
The enterprise resource planning (ERP) movement has been gathering momentum for the best part of ten years and has now reached a global dimension, with companies across the world and, more importantly, across very different industries jumping on the ERP band wagon. ERP systems are integrated enterprise-wide software packages that uses a modular structure to support a broad spectrum of key operational areas of the organization. They are widely acknowledged as having the potential to radically change existing businesses by bringing imporements in efficiency and the implementation of optimized business processes. ERP systems link together an organization's strategy, structure, and business processes with IT system. Although the technical risk from developing software is considerably reduced, risk during implementation is associated with aligning the processes with those of the software package and the corresponding change management and software configuration issues. The analysis of the cases reveals that in addition to standard project management critical success factors, there are other factors that need to be taken into account in ERP implementation. ERP systems have become popular means for both large and medium-size organizations to overcome the limitations of alienated and incompatible legacy systems. ERP systems are designed as an integrated set of software modules, all linked to a common database, handling a host of corporate functions such as finance, human resources, materials management, sales and distribution. The object of the Master's Thesis is ERP implementation. The overall purpose is to determine critical success factors in different phases of the ERP cycle and to make suggestions for Lithuanian companies to make ERP implementation more successful. The tasks of Master's Thesis includes theoretical analysis of company's activities, determination of functional areas and business processes relationships; research of the common ERP elements, origin sources, evolution; emphasis of the main implementation phases and methodologies; review of Lithuanian ERP market; identification and analysis of the main critical success factors in the academic literature; qualitative research method for the critical success factors in the Lithuanian companies; proposals for the companies which are planning to implement an ERP systems to make ERP implementation more successful. ERP implementations are recognized as having a lot of problems with the time and the budget. These implementation are more difficult to manage than other IT projects. There are a lot of researches analyzing critical success factors in ERP implementations. Nonetheless most of them are limited only with identification of the factors. Most of them do not analyse the relationships and impact to certain phases. It must be noted that there are very small quantity of the literature in Lithuania about ERP systems, moreover there are none which analyse critical success factors in ERP implementations. The qualitative research (which was performed in 8 large and medium-size Lithuanian companies) results show that in the Chartering phase companies should consider top management support, ERP strategy and legacy systems integration. Critical factors in Project phase are minimal customization, ERP consultants support and retain of experienced employee. In the Shakedown phase training and testing factors should be considered, and finally in the last phase retain of experienced personnel is again critical. Master's Thesis might be useful for companies which are planning to implement, change or update ERP system, for lecturers, professors and students who are interested in this field. |
