Statement Of The Problem Research Proposal Example

Investigation of the critical success factors for the implementation of enterprise resource planning in universities

Chapter 1: Introduction
Background of the study
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is one of the widely adopted technologies in the world. With the changes that are seen to be taking place in the current world, organizations have put into place competitive technologies that will ensure that current and up-to date technologies have been put in place. It is a strategy that ensures that the organization is in the right direction to fight the competition that is seen in the world (Jiang, 2005).
As organizations put in place ERP systems in place, the factors that are required in order to have successful implementation of ERP have not been done correctly. It still a challenge to have successful implementation of ERP in large organizations. There is a need to have ways in which the factors that are needed for successful implementation is done.

There are many challenges that are met while implementing enterprise resource planning systems in large organizations. While a few universities have adopted ERPs in their infrastructure, there is still a need to understand the success factors that are needed in order to have successful implementation of ERP.

Objectives of the study

This paper will have the guidance of the objectives that are stated in the statements below:
Explore the critical success factors for successful implementation of ERP in universities
Develop and evaluate a framework for successful implementation of ERP in universities
Assess the ERP systems implementation in universities
Research questions
The paper will have the guidance of the following research questions:
What are the critical success factors for implementing ERP in universities
What framework can be used to guide in the adoption of ERP in universities?
What are the practices that are required while implementing ERP in universities?
Chapter 2: Literature review
This chapter will focus on the past researches that have been carried out regarding the implementation of ERP in organizations. Mays Business School defines MIS (Management Information Systems), as the relationship between technology, individuals and the organizations they work for (Mays, n.d.). ERPs are large software packages that are used to integrate an organization’s business processes so that there is one way in which the processes can be managed and enhanced. Research shows that there are stages that will have to be followed while implementing ERP in IT infrastructure (Nah, Lau, & Kuang, 2001). Just like any information system, there is a need to understand the issues that will have to be considered while implementing the system. Failure can occur at any stage in the implementation process. It is important to understand the failures that can be experienced in the process of implementing the system.
Large systems will need to have planning and organization so that there is an understanding of what will need to be undertaken in the entire process (Nah, & Delgado, 2006). ERP systems implementation will undergo a long process. It will be important to understand the entire process and have ways in which the systems will be implemented and understood.
Research show that there are frameworks that have been developed and are used in the field. However, these frameworks do not work effectively on the ERP implementation because they were developed for other information systems (Peter, Yuanqiang, & Song, 2009).

Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design
The research design which will be adopted in the paper will be that of a case study. A case study is the development of an intensive research about a single case. It is suitable in this case because the researcher wants to gain rich understanding of a single case regarding the issue that is being developed (Kothari, 2004).

Target population

The target population will be IT department of the case university. The IT manager and the different heads of sections in the department will be targeted for information. Sampling technique that will be used in the study will be that of purposive sampling where specific people will be targeted in the entire process (Kothari, 2004).

Data collection tools

The instruments of collecting data in the research in the research will be questionnaires and interviews. The various personnel will be targeted and information will be obtained from the personnel that are of interest in the study. The validity of the data collection instruments will be achieved with the use of construct validation technique. There will be the use of many data collection procedures and tools in the entire process. The data will be collected, cleaned and the analyzed using SPSS. The results will then be presented in form of graphs, tables, and percentages (Kothari, 2004).

References

Jiang Y. (2005), Critical Success Factors in ERP Implementation in Finland, Masters Thesis, The Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration
Kothari C. R. (2004), Research Methodology Methods and Techniques, 2nd Edition, New Age International Publishers
Nah F. and Delgado S. (2006). Critical success factors for ERP implementation and upgrade. Journal of Computer Information Systems, Vol. 46 No. 5, pp. 99-113.
Nah F. F., Lau J. L. and Kuang J. (2001), Critical factors of successful implementation of enterprise systems, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 7 No.3, pp. 285-296.
Peter L. , Yuanqiang X., and Song Y. (2009), The ERP Implementation of SME in China