Staff perceptions of an enterprise resource planning system implementation: A case study of three Australian universities

"This study examines staff perceptions of the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERPs) in three Australian universities. It considers the growing body of literature on the issues impacting on effective and efficacious Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations in organisations including the most recent literature on ERPs in the higher education sector. This literature identifies a number of issues that it is argued, translates from the corporate sector to the higher education sector including a number that require additional focus in this sector. It is proposed in this dissertation that effective and efficacious implementations in Australian universities require particular consideration of organisational influences related to their context and the perceptions of the users of the systems. Case study methodology was used to examine the staff perceptions of the management of ERP implementations in universities. This involved undertaking case studies in three Australian universities in the process of implementing ERP systems. The first phase of the study obtained data through a series of focus groups at one university to explore staff perceptions of the efficacy of the ERP implementation at their university. This data and the relevant literature served as a framework for the development of the research process in the second phase of the study. This phase involved conducting a series of interviews with staff that enabled the researcher to undertake a more detailed exploration of the staff perceptions of influences affecting ERP system implementations at three Australian universities. The research study identifies the influences impacting on the outcomes of these implementations of ERPs in the three Australian universities and forms the basis for the development of guidelines for the effective and efficacious management of ERP implementations in Australian universities. This set of guidelines for the management of implementations of ERPs in Australian universities is an outcome that can have applicability for the higher education sector generally." --abstract.