For users of ERP (enterprise-resource planning), the challenges appear to be morphing from inside the enterprise to outside.The Conference Board, a business membership and research network based in New York City, published in December 2000 a study called “ERP Post Implementation Issues and Best Practices.” The report described a survey of 117 firms in 17 countries that had implemented ERP (the goal of which is to integrate companies' functional areas onto a single computer system). As many as 87% had done so on an enterprisewide basis.In the study, 34% of the organizations were very satisfied with ERP, 58% were somewhat satisfied, 7% were somewhat unsatisfied, and 1% were unsatisfied. The study also found that 78% of the organizations that were “very satisfied” had made a quantifiable business case for ERP when they looked into using it — compared with only 22% that had not. Satisfaction rose as ERP modules were interfaced more tightly with one another.
