Background
One of the benefits of working in Higher Education is that you are surrounded by academics who are always looking for data to analyse. An ERP implementation in a University provides much data for academics to chew over, analyse, summarise and publish to the wider community.
You would think that everything that could be said about ERP implementations was said long ago. However, this is a review of a paper from as recent as 2024 from two academics (Kevry Ramdany and Asniati Bahari) in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the Universitas Andalas in Indonesia. They looked at a single ERP project in West Sumatra and used a research technique of interviewing key stakeholders to draw out the key themes that shed light on Digital Transformation.
Academic papers have a strict layout and way of doing things that can often result in a difficult read. However, I aim to use my academic background to help cut through the density and to present the key pieces of information that will help you with your own digital transformation
What does the paper say?
The first two findings are not surprising:
- Plan carefully and prepare (including the selection of modules you want to use, outreach and training)
- Reduce risk through a phased approach (configuration, data migration, sequential launching)
One aspect of the paper’s findings is the early socialisation of the system through seminars, workshops and presentations. From my own experience this can be a tricky one to pull off. In the early days of the project lifecycle you don’t have all the key features working and, without migrated data, the experience of the system can be less than compelling. However, I’m an advocate of starting to tell the story early and demonstrate how intuitive modern systems are. Ask yourself, “when in the journey will we be getting in front of schools, faculties and departments to tell the story of our ERP journey?”
Challenges faced
The paper calls out two key challenges faced by this particular project
- Resistance to change
- Budget limitations
Regarding resistance to change, the key point that the paper makes is the lack of technical skills among staff and lecturers and that comprehensive training is critical.
For budgetary limitations, the paper specifically quotes one of the participants who took part in the research:
“After implementation, universities must consider the costs of maintaining the ERP system, including technical support, software updates, and system security. These costs may vary depending on the complexity of the system.”
It is certainly true in my experience that many projects focus on the cost of implementation and often do not factor in the required cost to manage ongoing change. Ask yourself, “have we set aside enough in the business case for post go-live support?”
Factors for Successful ERP Implementation
The paper focuses on 3 key success factors for people to take into consideration:
- Management support (including the allocation of adequate resources for the project and active support to overcome obstacles during implementation). The paper also references the need for project leadership to being experienced in the relevant technology as well as an understanding of University operations.
- User Engagement (including serious consideration from end users in the planning and implementation process)
- Careful planning stating that “a detailed implementation roadmap is essential”. This helps with regular reviews of milestones and budgetary expenditure.
Impact of ERP implementation on Operational Efficiency and Service Quality
The paper looks at the the success of the project through interviews finding, for example, “a faster and more structured registration and payment process”. I know we often seek to have a business case with benefits that are quantitative and cashable. However, I would suggest that the starting point for any such project is the qualitative approach that we see in this paper and many others:
- What pain points with this project remove?
- After go-live, simply ask the question of the functional managers (accounts receivable, accounts payable, collections, cash management, fixed assets, general ledger) what service improvements are we seeing?
The paper concludes with the key points that becomes your key take-aways:
- Plan carefully and prepare for adoption (module assessment, outreach and training)
- Implementation should be phased to help manage risk
- You will see a positive impact on operational efficiency and service quality through process automative, data Integration and access to information
- Adopt a strong communicative approach to overcome resistance to change
- Invest in comprehensive training on how to use the system (referred to as “technical” training)
- Effective and transparent budget management is a priority with sufficient resources both for implementation and long term maintenance
- Plan to continuously evaluate and monitor the system after go-live
Formal Reference of the paper
Ramdany, K., & Bahari, A. (2024). Digital Transformation in Higher Education through the Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning. JOURNAL OF APPLIED MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING, 8(2), 310–319. https://doi.org/10.30871/jama.v8i2.8454
Link to the actual paper
The paper can be found through Google scholar at no cost and is available at the Journal of Applied Managerial Accounting.
https://jurnal.polibatam.ac.id/index.php/JAMA/article/view/8454
With the keywords
Digital Transformation, Higher Education, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and ERP Implementation
