ERP systems and the university as a “unique” organisation

Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are widely used by large corporations around the world. Recently universities have turned to ERP as a means of replacing existing management and administration computer systems. In this article we provide analysis of the rollout of an ERP system in one particular institution in the UK, the particular focus being on how the development, implementation and use of both generic and university specific functionality is mediated and shaped by a fundamental and long standing tension within universities: this is the extent to which higher education institutions are organisations much like any other and the extent to which they are 'unique'. The aim of this article is not to attempt to settle this issue of similarity/difference in one way or another. Rather, it seeks to illustrate the value of taking discussions of similarity relationships surrounding the university and other organisations as the topic of analysis. One way of working with these kinds of issues without resolving them is to consider their 'distribution' and where ERP shifts the responsibility for their final resolution. This is a novel and insightful way of understanding how ERP systems are refashioning the identity of universities. We suggest, moreover, that ERP software is 'accompanied' by such tensions in which ever site it is implemented. The research presented here is based on a participant observation study carried over the period of three years.

Factors affecting enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems adoption among higher education institutions in Egypt

“…In this sense, a university has been regarded as a "unique" organization that is different from an organization in the corporate sector in the literature for several decades as they might be constrained by lack of resources (e.g. expertise, financial, technology) to carry out company-wide IT p rojects (Pollock and Cornford, 2004;Seo, 2013).…”

Usage of Finance Information Systems in Developing Countries: Identifying Factors During Implementation that Impact Use

“…Pollock and Cornford [15] argue that the need for implementation of FISs in high education sectors is a response to both internal and external factors requiring more efficient management processes due to increasing growth of the numbers of students, changes in the nature of academic work, increasing competition between institutions, increasing government pressure to improve operational efficiency, and growing diversity of expectations amongst all stakeholders [16].…”

User Perceptions, Motivations and Implications on ERP Usage: An Indian Higher Education Context

“…As ERP was extended to new contexts like public sector, higher education, and services industry, new modules have been added to cater to the industry specific needs and operations [5]. In the context of HE, ERP systems provide a different set of administrative and academic functionalities like handling admissions of students (e.g.…”

“…processing student application forms, candidate short-listing, fee processing), course enrollments, student data management (e.g., attendance tracking, grade information), course management (e.g. enrollment, feedback on courses), asset management(e.g., contracts, grants), library systems, financial systems, alumni management and research networks [5] [9]. Hence the context of HE offers unique set of requirements and challenges for the ERP implementation.…”

“…Globally there has been an increase in ERP adoption in higher education institutions and the HE ERP market has shown rapid growth and consolidation in the recent years [4]. While it is accepted that ERP in HE is different from implementing ERP in the corporate settings [5,6], existing academic literature studying ERP implementation in HE is limited. Literature covers the drivers for ERP adoption in universities and HE sector such as modernization of systems, need for greater flexibility and usability, business process reengineering, integration of data and systems, risk avoidance and reduced maintenance [6,7], and the issues with ERP implementation such as organizational issues related to decision-making process, management support, change management practices, project management issues, privacy & security issues and impact of organizational culture [1,8].…”