A multi-stage approach to enterprise resource planning system selection

The increasing importance of integrated software systems for organizations has made the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system one of the main priorities of managers. One of the most important and albeit most challenging phases of enterprise resource planning system implementation is the one in which managers have to select a suitable software system that meets the needs and requirements of the organization in an accepted way. Thus, the present paper proposed a four-step approach to the issue. This approach included problem definition as well as identification and classification of decision criteria in order to use a hybrid multiple-criteria decision making method to select the most appropriate alternative for the organization. The most important advantage of this approach was its assortment of the criteria, exploration of the inner dependences among them and finally, the selection of the most appropriate alternative by using a method that combines decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and the analytic network process (ANP) methods. Besides this, a case study of ERP system selection process was carried out in a company active in the petrochemical industry, to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.