Successful Implementation of ERP Systems

Information technologies are becoming an inseparable part of a competitive business strategy. One of products of information technologies - enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) - are promptly making their way into the functioning of enterprises. In the present day business world, they have become an important instrument without which the majority of enterprises could no longer function. As practice shows, implementation of an enterprise resource planning system frequently does not justify the expectations of an enterprise, costs much more than expected, and its implementation lasts for a considerably longer period of time than planned. Variety of results of implementation makes it necessary to analyse the process of implementation of ERP and to look in it what should be done for successful implementation. The aim of this article is to investigate the process of implementation of ERP systems and to establish the factors of success. Implementation of enterprise resource planning systems is a highly complex process which is influenced not only by technical, but also by other factors. The sources describe approximately thirty factors determining the peculiarities of the process of implementation of ERP and its result. The analysis and generalisation all of these factors makes it possible to identify the most important factors determining the success of implementation of ERP. In order to establish the opinion of Lithuanian ERP specialists and users regarding the importance of the factors determining the result of implementation of ERP the survey was conducted.