Enterprise Systems Benefits: How Should They Be Assessed?

This paper proposes key points for the timing and scope of enterprise systems benefit assessment. Enterprise systems (ES) such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems support a wide range of enterprise processes influencing organizational management in various areas. Due to the complexity of the system design the learning curve is long, and with constant changes in technology and business needs the functionality and use of these systems are changing continuously throughout their lifetime. Assessing the benefits of enterprise-wide information systems, therefore, requires a longitudinal view on multi-dimensional aspects. The available methods of IS assessment can assist a good understanding of enterprise-wide system benefits of certain parts or for certain periods of time, but cannot address them in holistic and longitudinal terms. This study distinguishes ES from traditional information systems and forms propositions about ES benefit assessment. Through longitudinal case studies of four medium-sized Australian utility companies, this study suggests that the benefits from ES are likely to be realized at different rates for different core processes in each of the five dimensions, i.e. operational, managerial, strategic, IT infrastructure and organizational. It is hoped that the benefit differences between dimensions, different time periods and core processes will clarify conflicting perceptions of ES success, with the finding that the time point of the assessment and the range of ES benefit assessments can strongly affect the evaluation results.