A Dissertation Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master Science
in Procurement and Supplies Chain Management (Msc.PSCM) of Mzumbe
University
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is of particular importance to many
companies in these years of technological advancement, the continuous national
economic reform and entrance of foreign companies to the increasingly Tanzania
business market, has significantly changed Tanzania business status quo.
Faced with this competitive environment and economic pressure, some of the
Tanzania companies have implemented ERP systems in order to improve operational
efficiency and enhance core competencies. However, the adoption of ERP is not a
straight forward task and can always result in significant impact to all business
divisions in operational, managerial and strategic level of the company.
Implementing ERP system project is a difficult and high cost proposition as it places
tremendous demands on organization’s time and resources. Many organizations do
not achieve success in the implementation of ERP since companies are faced with a
number of complexities when implementing these systems.
Therefore this study aims at finding the Critical success factors (CSFs), the barriers
encountered during implementation of ERP and propose the best approach on
implementation of ERP to avoid failures.
The study ranked the intensity of each CSF by using rating average method
depending on the respondent’s opinions on the critic of each of the success factor.
The sample size for this study was 48 peoples who are the users of ERP system, the
response rate was 72.9% equal to 35 respondents returned the questionnaires on time.
The result indicated that Top management support, Technological infrastructure,
Communication, Process redesign, Clear goal and objectives, Project management,
Change management, Project team work, User training and User involvement are key
factors influencing the overall success of an ERP implementation.
The outcome of this study would throw light on the areas where more attention needs
to be paid towards facing the successful ERP implementation and related barriers
with minimal impact.