Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, Information Systems (IS) which have been growing in both popularity and use since the early 1990's  are generally considered quality systems by both their devel­opers and the world at large. This quality is in the form of product quality, one of many available definitions. Much research into IS quality is concerned with this concept of product quality (Eriksson and Higgins, 1994) and this can be applied against the quality of training. However, the product-based view, which is also considered in much ERP literature, does not consider the multitude of user issues associated with ERP implementation and acceptance. Use quality, strongly related to user perceptions of a system, remains largely unstudied in the context of ERP systems and it is the intention of this chapter to relate the product quality of ERP training back to user perceptions and therefore Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation quality rather than the more traditional views. It is intended to prove that high quality training leads to positive user perceptions and therefore high use quality of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Mahapatra and Lai (1998) acknowledge that for successful ERP implementation, training is of great importance therefore these results are applicable to any manager involved in such an Endeavour. It should also be noted that this paper investigates the perception of ERP system quality rather than the quantifiable actuality.

Enterprise Resource Planning systems can be described as "configurable in­formation systems packages" which integrate information and processes across organizational functional areas (Kumar and Hillegersberg, 2000). While the mo­tivations for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation are quite well studied, there is a significant lack of research in the area of outcomes when examining issues of user acceptance, user training, and more specifically, university environments and successes achieved (Sieberetal., 1999). It is essential to define training, a term widely understood as a means of transferring knowledge from one party to another. This study will refer to training as a formal effort to transfer IS knowledge, required by users to perform essential tasks (adapted from Nelson and Cheney, 1987a). Many variables such as end-user ability have been cited as impacting training effectiveness; however this study will investigate training quality. Currently, no best practice Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system training approach exists although researchers such as Markus and Tanis (2000) and Brown and Vessey (1999) have proposed general implementation frameworks. This lack of training focus is possibly due to the lack of training research in terms of IS theory development and relation to organizational concepts (Kozlowski and Salas, 1997; Nelson and Cheney, 1987a).

Questionnaire:

• What is ERP system? Explain.