Towards an Inter-Organizational Enterprise System: A Focus Group Study

In the past few years, many organizations have implemented ERP systems as a solution to integrate existing enterprise-wide information systems. With the emergence of Internet technology and extended enterprises, this paper argues that existing Enterprise Systems (ES) researchers should look beyond the intra-organizational level and consider some of the implementation issues from an inter-organizational point of view. Previous ERP process models have contributed greatly to our understanding of the overall ERP implementation. This study builds on Parr and Shanks (2000) to investigate the different phases of the ERP lifecycle, as well as the applicability of the lessons learned to an inter-organizational arrangement. Acknowledging the lack of empirical practice of inter-organizational ERP systems, a focus group method was adopted as an exploratory means to gain insights and perspectives of Inter-organizational ERP systems. Based on our findings, the study suggests researchers re-examine the following ERP issues at the inter-organizational level, namely: selection of ERP packages, integration of business processes, knowledge and applications, implementation approaches, training as well as organizational transformation and software migration.