Background
ERP stands for enterprise resource planning systems. They first appeared at the end of the 1990s. ERP systems have become popular among businesses all around the world because of the quickly changing environments. ERP systems are normally applied to the packages of information systems that are designed to optimize the process of sharing organizational data resources. The use of ERP systems facilitates the flow of data within the organizations. This way, the issue of information fragmentation is avoided. ERP software has obtained the revenue of over two and a half hundred billion dollars around the world in 2011, which is 7.5 per cent higher than the revenue acquired in 2010.
Method
In the article called “Evaluating the impact of ERP systems in higher education,” Ahed Abugabah Louis Sanzogni and Osama Alfarraj employ the survey method to collect the data from ERP users in higher educational institutions. The research was conducted in six large universities in Australia. The respondents were provided with a questionnaire. They were asked to evaluate the ERP systems and the way they fulfil their needs and requirements, rate system and information quality, usefulness and the ease of use. The number of respondents participating in this research was 387. The participants were the representatives of various professional fields of the universities such as human resources, administration, and finance; some of the respondents were the university students.
Scope of the Research
Ever since the middle 1990s the researches of the information systems (IS) have been focused on the evaluation of the functionality of IS in various organizations and different professional fields. To optimize the evaluation and investigation process and the number of models and tests have been developed. The complexity of the evaluation process and scheme was based on the fact that many different aspects needed to be taken into consideration for the successful testing. Among such aspects there are user characteristics, system success and use. The most commonly used evaluation models (for example, Task-Technology Fit and Technology Acceptance Models) have flawed – all of them tend to focus only one a certain quality of the systems.
Findings
The research showed that system quality, task technology fit and information quality are the factors that influence the quality of the user performing the most. As a result, these factors are the aspects that need to be addressed to maximize the efficiency of ERP systems implemented in the universities. This way, the designers and developers of ERP systems are to take into consideration the needs f their users primarily. Collecting more precise data considering the characteristics of the target users of certain ERP systems will lead to the creation of the most suitable software. Besides, the designers are to make the software easier to use for the individual with little computer skills.
Conclusion
Contemporary society lives in an era of customization. This means that the products developed and adjusted specifically for a certain kind of consumers tend to be the most popular and demanded. This tendency influences the developers and designers of ERP systems too. The evaluated article shows that modern companies selling and creating ERP software are to become customer-centred manufacturers to have success. For that, they are to collect data about the desires and goals of their potential buyers and adjust their products accordingly. This way, an ultimately popular product is to be easy to use, suitable for various categories of workers and flexible.