Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to find out whether and how Indian small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are benefiting because of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation, through survey-based research. This will help other SMEs take appropriate decisions about ERP implementation. Design/methodology/approach -The research is exploratory in nature, a survey methodology is used for study and it is cross-checked with the personal interviews of the key personnel in the SMEs and the ERP vendors. A structured questionnaire was developed to get the information. Findings -The survey of 130 SMEs in one of the industrially advanced cities reveals that most of them have implemented ERP to integrate the existing information system and found ERP implementation mainly beneficial in reducing inventory, improving customer services and improving communications. Top management support, and user involvement and participation are found to be the major contributors of ERP success.Research limitations/implications -The research is targeted on SMEs in one part of India and hence it has limitations in terms of scope. However, the results are quite encouraging with very good response from the SMEs, though the industry-institute interactions are not so strong. Other SMEs, planning to implement ERP in the near future, will be highly benefited from the performance evaluation of ERP in Indian SMEs. Originality/value -This paper demonstrates how Indian SMEs have benefited from ERP implementation. The findings will encourage Indian SMEs to implement ERP when facing challenges of the competitive market.

Due to globalization, there is tremendous demand on Indian companies to lower costs, enlarge product assortment, improve product quality, and provide reliable delivery dates through effective and efficient coordination of production and distribution activities. To achieve these conflicting goals, companies must constantly re-engineer or change their business practices and employ information systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). However, implementing ERP system is a difficult and high cost proposition. There are mixed results of success and failure in different companies. With a survey of manufacturing companies in India and subsequent detailed case study in one ERP implemented company, this study analyzes various parameters of ERP implementations with factor analysis and logit regression analysis. It is revealed that with clear goals of ERP implementation and proper ERP software selection, the companies are benefited in reducing inventory, improving customer service and other intangible benefits. The top management support, strong and meaningful training program are found the enabling factors of its success. It is argued that this study and ERP implementation model proposed in this paper is valuable to researchers and practitioners interested in implementing ERP system. The findings will also be helpful in extracting the better results from ERP implementation.