A Combined Method for Evaluating Criteria When Selecting ERP Systems

There are many benefits offered by integrated enterprise computer systems. There are a growing number of options available to obtain such management information system support. A major problem when selecting Enterprise Information Systems, in special ERP systems, is how to deal with the great diversity of options as well as the number of criteria used to evaluate each alternative. There is an implicit tradeoff between cost and system functionality. Total cost of ownership (TCO) is in itself very difficult to calculate accurately, and needs to be considered in light of other criteria. Published criteria for ERP selection decisions in a variety of contexts are reviewed. We also present a method which integrates a multicriteria rating strategy based on the Simple MultiAttribute Rating Theory (SMART) with the meta-method PrepareIdentify-Rate-Compare-Select (PIRCS) framework for driving the selection process. The method is demonstrated with a general ERP selection decision, but is meant as a framework that can be applied with whatever criteria decision makers deem important in the context of their specific decision.