What Makes ERP Systems to Deliver? Impact of Post-Implementation Capabilities on ERP Value

More than two decades of research on information technology (IT) value still leaves the issue of IT value in an organization a less understood concept. The issue of IT value is particularly important in case of systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) because these systems involve significant financial investments. Evidence from the current literature indicates that a high number of ERP implementations fail to deliver the anticipated benefits. While successful implementation of ERP systems is essential before any benefit can be expected from them, success of the implementation itself cannot ensure that ERP systems will add value to the organization subsequently. Extant literature on ERP systems is overly focused on capabilities that help an organization to successfully implement an ERP system and lacks studies that focus on capabilities required to derive benefits from ERP systems in the post-implementation stage. To address this gap in the literature, in this research in progress study, we develop a theoretical model and related hypotheses to examine the effect of post-ERP implementation capabilities on value delivered by ERP systems. In this paper, we also outline the methodology to validate the theoretical model using the data that would be collected in the next step. Broadly, the research suggests that value of ERP systems after successful implementation is impacted by three sets of capabilities, end users’ capability to use ERP system functionalities, managerial capability to use information generated through ERP systems to achieve organizational objectives, and overall organizational IT capability.