TITLE:
Exploring Causes for Underutilization of the XYZ Cloud ERP System for Effective Strategic Decision-Making: A Case from ABC (Pvt.) Ltd.—Sri Lanka
AUTHORS:
Mohamed Fasileem, Bandara Rajapakse
KEYWORDS:
Sri Lanka, Cloud ERP, Strategic Decision-Making and Apparel Industry
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.10 No.4,
July
26,
2022
ABSTRACT: Utilizing the right resources and adequate capabilities helps to bring
competitive advantages and it assists to generate valuable positions for the
business. Most importantly, utilizing the unique resources within the
organization enhances the senior management’s decision-making capabilities.
From Sri Lanka, one of the leading apparel manufacturing organizations was
selected for this research study and a case-based qualitative method was
adopted for it. XYZ Cloud ERP system was selected to implement at ABC (Pvt.)
Ltd. by expecting to bring competitive advantages and a
valuable position to the business. However, the preliminary study revealed that
the organization has failed to bring expected outcomes and it is required to
identify the causes and explore the reasons for the underutilization of the XYZ
Cloud ERP system. This study has adopted thematic network analysis to identify
the causes and explore reasons from the senior management who are responsible
for taking strategic decisions. To understand the central phenomena of the
above problem setting, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Nine (9) senior executives and one (1)
director were selected representing different levels of industry
experience, academic backgrounds, and decision-making authority. The study was
aimed from the organizational, cultural, information system quality,
information quality and service quality perspectives. Altogether thirteen (13)
factors were identified and seven (7) of them were recognized as the most
influencing causes and reasons for the underutilization of the XYZ Cloud ERP
system. Findings explain that the XYZ Cloud ERP system has failed to provide
different levels of analytical information and senior management has failed to
understand the significance of the information system’s data. Moreover, the
merging of the ERP system’s data with the excel spreadsheet’s data helps to
produce decision-making information and it negatively influences the use of the
XYZ Cloud ERP system. The findings further reveal that the lack of support from
the ERP vendor and top management promotes traditional practices and
discourages to use of the XYZ Cloud ERP system maximum. Finally,
recommendations are proposed to overcome the negatively influencing causes and
reasons. Most significantly, it helps to bring people development,
organizational transformation and organisational business processes
improvements.