Enterprise Resource Planning For Local G

CityUniversity
MSc in Business System Analysis and

Design
Project Report
2009
ERP FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A STUDY

OF PUBLIC SECTOR ERP VENDORS
Abubakar Sadeeq Sada
Supervised by: Dr. Bill Karakostas

Submitted: 25th September 2009
Declaration
By submitting this work, I declare that this work is entirely my own except those parts duly
identified and referenced in my submission. It complies with any specified word limits and
the requirements and regulations detailed in the coursework instructions and any other
relevant programme and module documentation. In submitting this work, I acknowledge
that I have read and understood the regulations and code regarding academic misconduct,
including that related to plagiarism, as specified in the Programme Handbook. I also
acknowledge that this work will be subject to a variety of checks for academic misconduct.
Signature ________________________________
Abubakar Sadeeq Sada
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Abstract
The buzzword in the private sector has been enterprise resource planning (ERP) over the
last four decades, because ERP promises to integrate the various applications within an
organisation and help streamline business processes to be more efficient. However, due to
tight competition for the top tier market segment and continued product innovation,
vendors have been looking out to other sectors to expand their market share. One such
sector that is recently being contested for is the public sector, with vendors providing public
sector specific solutions.
Government agencies on the other hand are embracing these systems as well due to the
challenges that they are facing, such as their mandates that are driving up time and costs, as
well as budgets that often remain flat or worse, while the option of hiring more personnel
remains farfetched, as they strive to manage their limited resources. However, the area of
interest to this study is the suitability of these solutions, which the vendors are offering
government clients that traditionally were meant for the private sector and are now being
adapted for usage in the public sector, because there is the notion that the ERP solutions
will not meet the requirements of government organisations.
Key words: Enterprise Resource Planning; Local Government Councils; Vendors; Suitability;
Business Process Reengineering
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Acknowledgements
First, I will like to give grace and thanks to God for giving me the life, strength, energy and
determination to see through this project to an end. I also want to give a big vote of thanks
to my supervisor Dr Bill Karakostas, for guiding me throughout the entire project; his
comments, encouragement and understanding were tremendous in the success of this
project.
I want to thank my parents for all their support and love, throughout my entire life, not to
mention the financial support. I also want to thank my beautiful wife Farida, for her
everlasting love, care and understanding, without, which this project would not have been
possible. To my beloved son Rafeeq, who just turned 2 years, for all those weekends that we
could not spend together, because I was so immersed in completing this project, I love you. I
also want to acknowledge, the contribution of my brother and friend Abdulrahman, who
was always there for me, when I needed him most.
Finally, I would like to thank all the staff of the computer science department, who gave me
the invaluable knowledge during the cause of my 2 years programme to be able to write this
project. Also not to forget my classmates during the past 2 years, Hardik, Nazeem and
Seanthat have helped me a great deal.
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Contents
1.1 Research Background ..................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Problem Statement .......................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Project Aim & Objectives ..................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Project Beneficiaries ............................................................................................................ 4
1.5 Project Methodology ........................................................................................................... 4
1.6 Evaluating Results ................................................................................................................ 5
1.7 Project Feasibility ................................................................................................................. 6
1.8 Work Plan ............................................................................................................................. 6
1.9 Report Structure .................................................................................................................. 8
1.9.1 Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................ 8
1.9.2 Chapter Two: Literature Review ................................................................................... 8
1.9.3 Chapter Three: Research Methods ............................................................................... 8
1.9.4 Chapter Four: Findings and Analysis ............................................................................. 9
1.9.5 Chapter Five: Discussions .............................................................................................. 9
1.9.6 Chapter Six: Conclusion ................................................................................................. 9
2.1 The evolution of Enterprise Resource Planning ........................................................... 10
2.2 Definition of Enterprise Resource Planning .................................................................. 12
2.2.1 Benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning ................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Limitations of Enterprise Resource Planning .............................................................. 16
2.2.3 Challenges of Implementing Enterprise Resource Planning ....................................... 18
2.3 Business Process Reengineering ................................................................................... 21
2.4 Trends in the ERP Market ............................................................................................. 23
2.5 ERP in Government ....................................................................................................... 24
2.5.1 Government ERP Selection & Implementation Strategy ............................................ 27
2.5.2 Government ERP Requirements ................................................................................. 28
2.6 Public Sector ERP Vendors and Their Promise ............................................................. 31
2.6.2 Oracle .......................................................................................................................... 31
2.6.3 SAP............................................................................................................................... 32
2.6.4 Aplicor ......................................................................................................................... 34
2.6.5 Lawson......................................................................................................................... 35
3.2 Research Approach ............................................................................................................ 38
3.3 Research Strategy .............................................................................................................. 39
3.4 Data Gathering ................................................................................................................... 40
3.4.1 Secondary Data ........................................................................................................... 40
3.4.2 Primary Data................................................................................................................ 40
3.4.2.1 Interview ............................................................................................................... 41
3.4.2.2 Questionnaire ....................................................................................................... 44
3.4.2.3 Research Population ............................................................................................. 45
3.5 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................. 46
3.6 Data Gathering Challenges ................................................................................................ 46
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4.1 Literature Review Findings................................................................................................. 48
4.1.1 Case Study Revelation ................................................................................................. 49
4.2 Interview Results........................................................................................................... 53
4.3 Questionnaire Findings and Analysis ............................................................................ 62
4.4 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 78
5.1 Literature Review Finding Discussions.......................................................................... 80
5.2 Background Study Finding Discussions ......................................................................... 81
5.3 Interview Finding Discussions ....................................................................................... 83
5.4 Questionnaire Finding Discussions ............................................................................... 85
5.5 Relating the Literature Findings and Research Findings............................................... 86
5.6 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 88
6.1 Project Objectives Evaluation ....................................................................................... 89
6.1.1 Objective One .............................................................................................................. 89
6.1.2 Objective Two.............................................................................................................. 90
6.1.3 Objective Three ........................................................................................................... 90
6.1.4 Objective Four ............................................................................................................. 91
6.1.5 Objective Five .............................................................................................................. 91
6.2 Recommendation............................................................................................................... 92
6.3 Lessons Learned ................................................................................................................. 92
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List of Figures and Tables
Figure 1: Enterprise system architecture......................................... 13
Figure 2: Extent of Change to Software............................................ 20
Figure 3:The Hierarchy of IT Challenges in Government.................. 26
Figure 4: Questionnaire Response to Question 1............................... 62
Figure 5: Questionnaire Response to Question 3 .............................. 63
Figure 6: Questionnaire Response to Question 4 ............................... 64
Figure 7: Questionnaire Response to Question 5 ................................ 65
Figure 12: Questionnaire Response to Question 10 ............................ 70
Figure 13: Questionnaire Response to Question 11 ............................. 70
Table 1: ERP Tangible benefits ........................ 15
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Table 2: ERP Intangible benefits .....................16
Table 3: Key Local Government Requirements and Possible Solutions ................. 49
Table 4: Case Study 1, Challenges and Benefits of ERP System ..................... 50
Table 5: Case Study 2, Challenges and Benefits of ERP System ....................... 51
Table 6: Case Study 3, Challenges and Benefits of ERP System ....................... 52
Table 7: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 1 ...................... 54
Table 8: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 2 ....................... 55
Table 9: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 3 ....................... 56

Table 13: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 7 ..................... 60
Table 16: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 10 .................. 61
Appendices
Appendix A: Project Definition Document .............................................98
Appendix B: Project Plan .........................................................................107
Appendix C: Case study ...........................................................................108
Appendix D: Interview Transcripts ..........................................................110
Appendix E: Questionnaire Questions .....................................................116
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1. Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Singla, A.R (2005) suggests that Enterprise Resource Planning software systems (ERP)
encompass a wide range of software products supporting day-to-day business operations
and decision-making. He further explains that ERP serves many industries and numerous
functional areas in an integrated fashion, attempting to automate operations from supply
chain management, inventory control, manufacturing scheduling and production, sales
support, customer relationship management, financial and cost accounting, human
resources and almost any other data oriented management process. It is therefore logical to
assume that ERP systems are designed to enhance an organization’s competitiveness by
upgrading their ability to generate timely and accurate information throughout the
enterprise and its supply chain.
Though ERP aims to achieve a lot for an organisation by making information timely and
accurate, there are reported issues of failure, in terms of implementation. Standish research
group on ERP reported 35% of ERP implementations are cancelled, 55% overrun their
budget or the system will only perform 41% of the functions it was intended to perform
(www.standishgroup.com), but still organisations are committed to implementing ERP
systems because they are competing in a global village, where effective delivery is very
essential.
It is important to note that the success of an ERP implementation relies not only on the
technical aspects of ERP, but also on the human, social and organisational factors of the
implementing organisation. This assumption brings us into the topical issue of Business
Process Improvement (BPI). Business Process Improvement (aka Business Process
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Reengineering/ Redesign) is a set of management tools used to improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of service delivery (RSe Consulting, 2006). It can help local government
councils to meet performance expectations from customers, achieve efficiencies and service
improvements.
1.2 Problem Statement
Public organisations are facing serious challenges, due to a high demand in the provision of
good and effective services to their constituents. The federal mandates are driving up time
and costs, and budgets often remain flat or worse, while hiring more personnel is not an
option (http://www.government-crm.com/erp.htm). As a result, governments are forced to
embrace technology to help improve their service efficiency and control costs.
Governments have been using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software systems
to automate and streamline many of the routine citizen facing activities that constitute the
responsibility of government. However, back office operations, which usually take more
time, cost more money and require even more human effort than the front office, are
receiving less attention.
There are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which have been designed to help
integrate these challenging back office operations such as SAP, Oracle, etc that have been
widely implemented in the private sector. However, there are reported issues of failures,
because of poor implementation and resistance to change, the benefits of a successful ERP
implementation is quite big. Additionally, there is the critique that ERP vendors have
focused more in servicing the private sector, which has resulted in so many ERP vendors for
the private sector; this has been an issue for the public sector as there are not many
vendors available for the public sector.
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1.3 Project Aim & Objectives
ERP vendors have paid much attention in developing good software package that integrates
the back-office operations of the private sector, but not much attention paid to the public
sector. As a result, many ERP software packages and vendors are available, that support the
private sector.
The overall aim of this research will be to investigate whether; existing ERP solutions that
are available have the capability of meeting the requirements of the public sector. To meet
the above-specified aim, the study will have to set a number of objectives, which will serve
as checkpoints in satisfying the attainment of the overall aim of the project.
The study will have as its objectives the following:
1. To understand what constitutes ERP, who are the vendors and what business
process does their product supports.
2. To identify suitable Local Government Councils for data gathering and analysis
3. To get government requirements that will reflect the need of Local Government
Councils.
4. To analyse the gap of existing ERP solutions against the Local Councils IT
requirement and identify whether the ERP modules of these software could be
adaptable to the public sector.
5. To provide recommendations for local councils in the selection of an ERP vendor to
meet their business needs.
3
1.4 Project Beneficiaries
This project shall benefit people that are interested in improving public sector business
processes using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Depending on the quality of
the research analysis, the outcome of the study could serve as a reference point for Local
Government Councils (LGC) that seeks to integrate their systems and streamline their
process. Furthermore, researchers that are interested in further investigating the challenges
that LGC’s face in delivering efficient and effective service to their constituent by integrating
their systems can use this study as a guide. The researcher also believes that ERP vendors
could benefit from the study, because the study aims to demonstrate the limitations and or
suitability of existing ERP solutions to public sector organisations, if limitations are properly
identified, vendors could see reason for product improvement, which would translate to
more product acceptability, improved market share, happy clients and most importantly
profit. With the user being the main beneficiary of all innovations, it is imperative that his
needs, behaviours and environment are studied, as well as engaging him in the design and
testing of products before their subsequent development.
1.5 Project Methodology
This study shall use literature review to form the basis of acquiring adequate knowledge of
ERP, as well as real case studies and examples of state or local government council that use
ERP to streamline and improve their service delivery.
The literature review shall put more emphasis on extracting relevant information from
industry specific print and electronic journals, white papers, reports and magazines, in order
to understand ERP and how, it relates to public sector specifically local government councils.
The importance of a good literature review will be to give the researcher and the reader
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alike a sound understanding of the topical area based on expert knowledge and academic
findings. It will also help the researcher to construct his arguments upon analysing the
findings.
Similarly, reviewing case studies will help in demonstrating the experience of some local
council in the implementation of an ERP system. It will also highlight the ability of the local
councils to adapt to change in organisational culture.
An interview and questionnaire will form the basis for primary data collection. They are to
be drafted, reviewed and distributed to relevant stakeholders to validate results from
previous and current research and add value to the existing case study. It will also help to
get a general perception of using ERP by local governments from vendors.
1.6 Evaluating Results
The results from the literature review will serve as a significant entry point for evaluating
the capability of existing ERP solution to cater for the public sector as they do the private
sector. While case study analysis is more than likely to show clearly the suitability and or
limitations of existing ERP packages or on the other hand show the lapses on the part of the
local councils in the implementation of an ERP system.
Interviews and questionnaires will help in the collection of meaningful data for evaluation
and interpretation, to present a coherent set of results that are useful for the purpose of the
research, which is to evaluate the capability and availability of various choices of ERP
vendors for the public sector.
Lastly, if all the five objectives mentioned earlier are achieved then the overall aim of the
project shall be deemed to be fulfilled.
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1.7 Project Feasibility
The feasibility of the project is largely based on the ability of the researcher to study and
understand a wide range of literature materials that have been presented in the past, some
of which the researcher is not familiar with. However, the Business Engineering with ERP
Solutions module has equipped the student with the knowledge on some of the ERP
packages such as SAP and the theories that apply to the study of integrated applications,
like Business Process Reengineering. These will form the foundation of the researchers
understanding of new ERPs and theories that will be encountered during the process of
literature review.
There is also the risk of the project falling behind schedule, in the event that qualitative data
cannot be collected. However, initial research has shown that there is wide range of data
available for the study to progress.
Identifying the right local council for the study has a very high risk of pushing the project
behind schedule, Supervisors expertise shall be utilised here to minimise the risk.
Applying primary research in to the study, could add more value to the research, but for the
limited nature and resources available for the research.
1.8 Work Plan
The Project shall have the following schedule as detailed below, also there shall be
contingency imbedded in the plan in the case of any unforeseeable events.
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Target Milestone Activities
1. Identify problem area

2. Identify aim and set objectives that will
test the project aim.
3. Relate project to area of theory.
4. Methodology and techniques for the
Project proposal project
Deadline : 11/06/09 5. Project feasibility and Work plan
1. Conduct initial literature review
2. Design questionnaire and Interview
3. Publish questionnaire and Conduct
Interview
4. Literature review
Research stage 5. Local Government ERP case studies
Deadline: 10/07/09 review
1. Analyse questionnaires.
Analysis stage 2. Analyse Case Studies
Deadline: 22/07/09 3. Design a prototype
1. Initial Draft consideration

1a. Supervisor Review
2. Literature Review write-up
3. Methodology
4. Analysis of study
Report Stage 5. Conclusion and Recommendation
Deadline 30/08/09 5a. Supervisor Review
1. Format, edit and include appendices
into the report for finalization.
Final Stage 2. Proof Reading and Binding for
Deadline 25/09/09 Submission
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1.9 Report Structure
This study has six chapters, with each chapter discussing means and ways by which the
overall objective of this project could be achieved.
1.9.1 Chapter One: Introduction
This chapter introduces the reader to the research area and presents the reader with a
background on ERP systems. This is followed by the definition of the problem statement
including the reasons why the public organisations are facing challenges. The five aims and
objectives of this project, which will have been met by the end of the project, are also
defined here.
1.9.2 Chapter Two: Literature Review
Chapter 2 presents a literature review of existing study on the research topic. It starts by
introducing the evolution of ERP, its definition, benefits, limitations and challenges, as well
as its adoption in the public sector. It further reveals the challenges faced during
implementation of ERP systems in the past. Local Government Council requirements and
vendor solutions are also introduced.
1.9.3 Chapter Three: Research Methods
This chapter presents the reader with the research methods that will be used to conduct
this study. The research plan and strategy that are to be followed are contained in this
chapter, also data gathering techniques that will be used in collecting both secondary and
primary data are introduced. Lastly, the chapter presents the data evaluation techniques for
the collected information.
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1.9.4 Chapter Four: Findings and Analysis
This chapter presents the findings and analysis of the data collected through the research
methods that were applied to the study. A matrix of comparative analysis that shows
existing ERP solution against Local Government Councils requirements will be provided,
while case studies will be introduced to add meaning to the study. Finally, the response
from data gathered, which are interview and questionnaire is presented and analysed.
1.9.5 Chapter Five: Discussions
Chapter 5 discusses the findings and analysis of the literature review from chapter two, it
also discusses the finding and analysis from the case study, interview and questionnaire in
chapter four. Thereafter, it puts the literature findings, the case study findings, the interview
findings and the questionnaire findings into perspective, within the current study.
1.9.6 Chapter Six: Conclusion
This chapter evaluated the objectives of the project set out in chapter 1 to test the
completion of the project. In addition, the chapter recommends means by which Local
Government Councils should embrace ERP system to avoid high cost. This is followed by
lessons learned during the cause of this study.
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A review of existing literature on Enterprise resource planning (ERP), as it relates to
government is presented for the purpose of this research topic. The literature review looks
at how ERP has evolved over the past three to four decades and the challenges that have
been faced by organisations in their implementation. The literature covered will start by
giving a brief history of ERP, its definition, benefits, limitations and issues regarding ERP
such as its failure and success. The literature will further explore issues regarding change to
organisational processes, and the possible role that Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
plays. The chapter will conclude finally with a summary on the findings from the literature
explored for this research.
2.1 The evolution of Enterprise Resource Planning
Organisations have traditionally based their Information technology requirements on legacy
systems, which were built as independent applications for a specific business unit,
whichresulted in duplication of processes and data across various organisational units.
These costly applications and the lost in useful human efforts, resulted in organisations to
seek better ways of harnessing their huge investments in IT. As a result, organisations in the
manufacturing sector started some sort of automation by developing inventory control
systems in the 70s. One of such systems was the ‘Material Requirements Planning’ (MRP)
systems. Wallace and Kremzar (2001, p6) see MRP as a simulator of the universal
manufacturing equation. The reason behind their thought is that MRP uses the master
schedule to decide what to produce, what it takes and what is available to determine future
requirements of what to get. Organisations, soon, observed that the system could do even
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better than just planning, but also keep track of orders due dates after they had been
released from production or suppliers. This achievement gave birth to Manufacturing
Resource Planning (MRP II), which aimed at optimizing manufacturing processes by
synchronizing the materials with production requirements (Hossain et al. 2002, p4). MRP II
supported business processes such as human resource, finance, engineering, project
management and distribution management.
However,the rapid advancement in Information technology, which is because of these
sophisticated computer hardware and software and the decrease in their cost,played a
significant role in the way organisations operate in this challenging times. At the same time,
the business environment was becoming increasingly complex with functional units
requiring more and more inter-functional data flow for decision-making, timely and efficient
procurement of product parts, management of inventory, accounting, human resources and
distribution of goods and services (Hossain et al. 2002 p2). Consequently, organisations
began to seek evenmore efficient systems that will help reduce cost, improve
competiveness and add value to their customers.
Over the past three decades, the evolution of Enterprise Resource Systems gained
momentum because of the awareness by organisations of the need to make their systems
more robust and compliment and or replace their legacy systems. In addition, the rise in
mergers and acquisition in the business terrain, which was due to globalisation, faster and
shorter product life cycle in a customer focused and service-oriented economy are a few of
the factor that encouraged the demand for ERP.For these and other reasons, the Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) system was born in the late 80s early 90s, as a system that will
meet the overall business requirements of an organisation, by making real-time information
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readily available, thereby ensuring sound usage of resources and the integration of business
units.ERP supports some common business processes such as human resource
management, financial management, procurement, sales and marketing, supply chain
management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM), among others.
2.2 Definition of Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been defined as a “Standard application program,
which its modules support the execution of almost all company business activities across
functions and business units” (Davenport, 1998). O’Leary (2000, p27) defines ERP systems as
a “computer-based systems designed to process an organisations transactions and facilitate
integrated and real-time planning, production and customer response”. Koch (2001)
describes ERP systems as that which attempts to integrate all departments and functions
across an organisation into a single system that will be able to meet the needs of each
department. Laudon & Laudon (2006, p56) see ERP as a system that provides a single
information system for organisation-wide coordination and integration of key business
processes. These definitions clearly show that the overall aim of an ERP system is to
integrate independent applications and standardise the entire business processes of an
organisation where possible into one repository that will help the organisation coordinate
her activities, improve decision-making and manage knowledge across various functions of
the business, which will translate into a more efficient and effective organisation.
However, for the purpose of this study, we shall adopt the definition by Koch (2001), which
clearly fits our purpose.Figure 1, illustrates a typical ERP system.
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Finance &
Accounting
Sales & Human

Marketing Centralised Resources
Database
Manufacturing &
Production
Figure 1: An Enterprise System Architecture as adapted from Laudon and Laudon (2006,
p.381)
Figure 1 clearly shows the capability of an ERP system to integrate the various business units
of an organisation into one seamless enterprise. We can see how finance and accounting,
sales and marketing, manufacturing and production and human resources share a common
database, with each department having a view of its functions seamlessly. ERP has a number
of characteristics as reported by O’Leary (2000, p27), which are reproduced below:
1. ERP systems are packaged software designed for a client server environment,
whether traditional or web-based.
2. ERP systems integrate the majority of a business’s process.
3. ERP systems process a large majority of an organization’s transactions.
4. ERP systems use an enterprise-wide database that typically stores each piece of data
once.
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5. ERP systems allow access to the data in real time.
6. In some cases, ERP calls for an integration of transaction processing and planning
activities (e.g., production planning).
7. Support for multiple currencies and languages (critical for multinational companies)
8. Support for specific industries (e.g., SAP supports a wide range of industries,
including oil and gas, health care, chemicals, and banking).
9. Ability to customize without programming (e.g. switch setting).
All these characteristics point to the capabilities and strength of ERP (Koch, 2001; O’Leary,
2000; Laudon & Laudon, 2006), which has at the core of its objectives to support and
integrate business functions, operations and application in a standardised and acceptable
way.
2.2.1 Benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise Resource Planning systems are being adopted by many organisations due to
some or most ofthe characteristics earlier mentioned, which puts an organisations that
chooses to implement the system at an advantage. Markus and Tanis (2000) confirm this
assumption, in suggesting that Enterprise Resource planning is “a system that is rich in
terms of functionality.This is true because of its potential benefit to those organisations that
choose to implement the system. Other scholars such as O’Leary (2000) sum the benefit of
an ERP, as a system that integrates the organisations activities by processing a large majority
of the organisations transactions. Gefen (2000); Baskerville et al (2000) add by saying it
manages the information needsof an organisation.ERP software does the integrating job,
allowing the business to spend less time figuring out what is going on, thereby allowing
more time improving what's going on(Slater, 1999).Markus and Tanis(2000), conclude that
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both small and large organisations can benefit technically and strategically from ERP
systems, as it enables organisational standardisation, eliminates information asymmetries
and provides online and real time information.
All these benefits can be viewed in light of the definitions that were given by most authors
that organisations areImplementing ERP systems, because it integrates their business
processes and other activities within an organisation, which enables faster processing of
transactions, thereby saving time and improving efficiency in the delivery of their goods and
services.A Deloitte Consulting (1998) study investigated why organisations implemented
ERP and came up with a classification of the benefits derived into tangible and intangible
benefits. O’Leary (2004)re-examined these benefits in a related study five years later. Table
1 and table 2 below show us the comparative result of his study against the Deloitte study
and how clients’ perceptions of the benefits have changed over time.
Deloitte% O’Leary %
Inventory Reduction 32 16
Personnel Reduction 27 12
Productivity Improvements 26 20
Order Management Improvement 20 36
Financial Close Cycle Reduction 19 44
IT Cost Reduction 14 8
Procurement Cost Reduction 12 12
Cash Management Improvement 11 4
Revenue/Profit Increase 11 8
Transportation/Logistics Cost Reductions 9 4
Maintenance Reductions 7 4
On-Time Delivery 6 4
Table 1: Tangible benefits adopted from O’Leary (2004)
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Deloitte% O’Leary %
Information Visibility 55 64
New Improved Processes 24 16
Customer Responsiveness 22 40
Cost Reduction 14 8
Integration 13 44
Standardization 12 28
Flexibility 9 40
Globalization 9 24
Y2K 8 8
Business Performance 7 4
Supply/Demand Chain 5 4
Table 2: Intangible benefits adopted from O’Leary (2004)
It is clear from tables 1 and 2 that ERP systems can be very beneficial for companies and can
“increase their competitive advantage” (Sankar & Rau, 2006). Although there has been
some changes in the perceived benefits of this systems over the years, as more intangible
benefits are sort after compared to the tangible benefits. It is still arguable to say that these
business benefits mentioned can be achieved via a successful ERP implementation. In
essence, careful planning and excellent organisational support can make an ERP system
achieve its potential, without which, the system shall inevitably fail the organisation. An
example of a successful ERP implementation that has resulted in benefits is the IBM’s
storage system (disk drive) division that achieved a reduction in the time to enter pricing
information from five days to five minutes. While, replacement part shipping went from
twenty-two days to three days, and credit checks that previously took twenty minutes are
now completing in three seconds (Davenport, 2000, p. 7-8).
2.2.2 Limitations of Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise Resource Planning systems have helped to integrate various business units
compared to the disparate legacy systems that have featured in most organisations.
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However, just like any other technology, ERP has its drawbacks. Markus & Tanis (2000)
argue that there is likely to be a “lack of feature fit’’ between the organisational needs and
the packages available. Allen & Kern (2001) assert that ERP systems can have a negative
impact on the work practices and culture of an organisation.This assumptions are further
corroborated by Parthasarthy (2007 p.5), who suggests that ERP systems are typically slow,
transaction based, not intelligent, and as a result, they fail to encapsulate the complexity
required in cases where multiple courses of action are available. He further states the
shortcomings of ERP as follows:
 ERP systems are basically meant for recording what has already happened, rather
than planning for what will be. These systems can process orders, but they do not
analyse business situations to provide insight into future courses of action.
 ERP systems allow an enterprise to design complex and sophisticated workflows, but
are far too rigid in their ability to continually reshape and restructure workflows as
business challenges and opportunities arise.
 While ERP systems integrate multiple business functions, they lack the ability to
expand their scope to multiple enterprises.
All limitations that have been mentioned indicate the business risk that is associated with
the implementation of an ERP system, which include a misfit between the organisational
culture and the ERP system, resistance to change by users of the system and managing the
technology by the organisation.
While, some of the commentators have shown clearly that it is the system that has some
limitations, this study is of the view that, it is the organisations and not the technologythat
are not responsive to change, which has an impact of the success of the application.This
17
assertion is in line with Davenport’s (2000) view that implementing an ERP system is not as
much a technological exercise as it is an organisational revolution. Hence, an
organisationthat is composed of many different entities, will define success or failure of the
system in many ways.
2.2.3 Challenges of Implementing Enterprise Resource Planning
Traditionally, organisations decide on the business they want to go into and then build a
system to meet that business objective, however, with ERP, this trend is reversed, because
the business often must be modified to fit the system (Davenport, 1998). ERP systems
promise to integrate applications and streamline business processes across an organisation,
however, there implementation has been marred by issues of project implementation
failures, abandoned projects and over-budgeted cost.
Olsen, (2004, p. 105) argues that the main reason for such shortcomings is the failure of the
organisation to; thoroughly re-engineer business processes, manage errors in system
configuration, failure to map changes to the system deriving from changing business needs,
mistakes in estimating processing power and data storage requirements, and insufficient
training of end users. Sankar & Rau (2006) assert that ERP software implementation is
deeply intertwined with corporate business processes and it might take a large company
three to five years to fully implement all the organisational and technological changes
required. They also demonstrate the difficulty in making a change in only one part ofthe
business without affecting other parts, due to the integrating nature of ERP. Mergers &
Acquisition have alsobeen pointed asa challenging factor in the successful implementation
of ERP systems (ibid). This is as a result of globalisation, which has brought with it so many
18
corporate takeover across continents. The difficulties in integrating Information Systems
from different companies are flagged as the reason behind ERP failure in M&A, because
without a successful system integration, the benefits anticipated from the merger cannot be
realised or, worse the merged entity can no longer execute its own business process and
might lose customers.Alvarez (2002) adds to this discussion by suggesting that Information
systems (IS) implementations in general are notoriously difficult, however, ERP
implementations pose more difficult technological and organisational challenges than
traditional implementations.
The question is how do you contain these challenges? Researchers have suggested some
critical success factors that need to be adhered to for the successful implementation of ERP
systems, which include; top management support, client consultation, clear project
objectives, effective organisational change management, coping with technical issues and
extensive user training (Olson 2004; Laudon & Laudon 2004; Sankar & Rau 2006; CDG
Report 2005). Additionally, O’Leary (2000 p.128), suggest that the highest probability of a
successful implementation of ERP software is when there is only a minimal need to change
business processes and ERP software. This phenomenon is illustrated in the change to
organisational processes and extent of change to ERP software matrix presented in figure 2.
19
Extent of Change to Organisational Process Potential Project
Extensive
Potential Project Failure failure
because of Process because of Process
Changes Changes
and IT Changes to
Software
Potential Project
Minimal
Highest Probability of Failure

Successful because of IT Changes
Implementation to Software
Figure 2:Extent of Change to SoftwareAdapted from O’Leary page 129
The matrix illustrate that if there is extensive change to the business processes and minimal
changes to the software, then there is the possibility of a failure, due to lack of
organisational adaptation, wrong choices of best practice and resistance to change. While if
the change was more Software driven with minimal changes to organisational processes,
then failure can be expected, because of the organisations inability to implement large IT
projects. Finally, if there are many changes to both organisational processes and software,
then the effect of both or either might result in a failure.
Following all that was mentioned earlier, it will be almost impossible to implement ERP with
minimal business process change, due to the nature of ERP systems, especially, when one of
the aims of an ERP is to streamline business processes. In other words, improve the business
process. Nevertheless, adopting the critical success factors earlier mentioned will most likely
lead to a successful implementation, where an organisation can see the expected benefit of
the ERP system.
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2.3 Business Process Reengineering
There has been attempt by several authors to define business process reengineering (BPR)
also known as Business Process Improvement, Business Process Redesign, etc, which is a
concept that aims to improve the way a business operates. Davenport and Short (1990)
define BPR as “the analysis and design of workflows and processes within and between
organizations”. While one of the early proponents of BPR Hammer and Champy (1993),
define Business Process Reengineering as the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign
of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical measures of
performance such as cost, quality, speed and service. BPR analyses the way an organisation
realizes each business task, to identify the best way of carrying out those tasks. BPR has a lot
to do with ERP implementation, because most of the expected benefits of an ERP
implementation are tied to a process change. The economist (2009) reports that Hammer
once wrote, “A company that does not focus resolutely on its customers and the processes
that produce value for its customers is not long for this world.” Process improvements come
from “walking in the customer’s shoes”, finding out what it is that customers really want,
and then designing processes to meet that demand.
Hammer (1990), believesthat IT is the main facilitator of BPR, which he refers to in his
definition as a “radical change”. He suggests that IT can be used to scrutinise old business
processes that have been in existence way before the advent of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). He argues that at the core of BPR is the idea of
“discontinuous thinking or recognising and breaking away from the outdated rules and
fundamental assumptions underlying operations... These rules of work design are based on
21
assumptions about technology, people, and organizational goals that no longer hold”.He
proposed these "principles of reengineering":
 Organize around outcomes, not tasks
 Have those who use the output of the process perform the process;
 Subsume information-processing work into the real work that produces the
information
 Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized
 Link parallel activities instead of integrating their results
 Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into
the process
 Capture information once and at the source.
Davenport and Short (1990),add that BPR requires taking a broader view of both IT and
business activity, and of the relationships between them. They further highlight the
significance of viewing IT not just as an automating tool, but a means of redesigning the way
business is conducted.Similarly, business activities should also not be seen as acollection of
functional tasks or individuals. Therefore, IT should be viewed as intertwined with business
process, its capabilities should support business processes, and business processes should
be in terms of the capabilities IT can provide.
It can be concluded from these discussions that business process reengineering is a
management tool that can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service
delivery. It can help organisations to meet the performance expectation of their
constituents and attain efficiency, because the concept of BPR and ERP are interwoven, as
22
they both aim to streamline business processes using industry best practices, with the
addition of application integration by ERP systems.
2.4 Trends in the ERP Market
Although, there are quite a number of challenges that needs to be overcome by
organisations implementing ERP, such asmanagement support, user engagement and
training, effective organisational change, etc, which have in one way or the other
contributed to ERP implementation failures, over-budgeted costs and abandoned projects.
The ERP market is thought to be one of the fastest growing software markets, because
many ERP vendors have increased their revenues from millions of dollars in the 1990s to
billions of dollars in the last few years (Sankar & Rau, 2006). Adam & Sammon (2004, p.16)
add that “contributing to this phenomenal growth of the ERP market is the estimation that
70% of fortune 1000 companies and 60% of fortune 500 companies have or will soon install
an ERP systems”. These organisations are still embracing ERP systems, because “for many
organisations today, ERP applications are becoming more a requirement rather than an
option of doing business” (Ferran & Salim, 2008, p.312). This can be substantiated by a AMR
Research that forecasts ERP application revenue to grow up to $47.7b by 2011 from $28.8b
in 2006, just as compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to be 11% by the year
2011 (Jacobson et al. 2007).
The ERP market can be divided into three segments that the ERP vendors have traditionally
targeted, which are: organisations with annual revenue of between $250-$500 million and
above, organisations with annual revenue of $10-$500 million and lastly, those with annual
revenue of less than $10 million (Callaway, 1999). In the past, vendors have focused more
23
on the big companies; as such, ERP software has mostly been developed to meet their
requirements and a resultant saturation within this segment of the market. We are however
beginning to see a shift to Small and Medium Business (Jacobson et al. 2007), which are
organisations that have revenue of less than $200 million.This is happening due to the
evolution in the structure of the market with the provision of specific solutions targeting this
group gaining importance (Sankar & Rau, 2006). We have also recently seen takeovers
amongst the ERP vendors, with a view of increasing their market share and product line
extensions. One of such take over is J. D. Edwards take over by People-Soft in 2003, which
was also subsequently purchased by Oracle Corporations in 2005. Another amazing trend is
the “new delivery mechanism” used by ERP vendors (Ferran & Salim, 2008, p. 313), whereby
ERP applications are hosted and supported by a third party organisation. This is referred to
as software-as-a-service (SaaS) or Application Service Providers (ASP).Ekanayaka et al
(2002), argues that this new means of providing ERP can prove to be more efficient, and
through the economies of scale, drive down the cost of ERP.
Despite the fact that ERP started in the manufacturing industry, “ERP vendors provide
industry specific solutions” (ibid), such as; aerospace & defence, financial services,
healthcare, education, public sector, etc. As most of the literature has focused on ERP in the
private sector, which is the predominant area of concentration for ERP vendors, we shall
introduce ERP in public sector with a specific reference to Government, which is the focus of
this study.
2.5 ERP inGovernment
Traditionally, ERP vendors did not produce software that was targeted at the public sector,
such as government organisations, but rather the private sector. This trend is however
24
changing, as ERP vendors have started to provide industry specific solutions. White (2007,
p.149), reports that government market for ERP is expected to grow by 33 percent from
$5.8 Billion in 2005 to $7.7 Billion in 2010. While in the UK, Local Government Councils
(LGCs) are seen as the big IT spenders and their anticipated expenditure for 2008/9 is
forecasted to be £3,772 Million, this figure represents 22 percent of all public sector ICT
spend (www.kabal.co.uk). This growth is as a result of government’s commitment to
strategically manage their human capital, improve competitive sourcing, improve financial
performance, expand her e-government initiatives and integrate her budget planning and
performance measurement.
Though LGC ERP projects tend to be small, there is still quite a lot of implementation going
on in this area of the public sector. ERP systems are reshaping business and government
organisations as they promise to solve the challenges posed by portfolios of supposedly
disconnected and uncoordinated applications (Davenport, 1998).Johnson (2007) adds
thatgovernment organisations have embraced ERP, due to the development of ERP in the
private sector in the late 1980s. Again, LGCs are adopting ERP systems to overcome their
various organisational challenges, automate their business process, and provide support to
their citizens in terms of social services, housing, welfare, etc.
To achieve all these, independent financial systems were improved to include those
functions required to manage the "business of government," where constituents replaced
the consumer in the value chain and accounting and budgeting were required to account for
tax revenue expenditures (ibid). This approach was necessary, because government
organisations initially developed their systems without a common architectural plan
(Markus & Tanis, 2000), which makes ERP or any IS implementation in government very
25
challenging. A white paper by Bearing Point Consulting cites a Gartner Group report that
confirms this assertion bypointing out the challenges posed by the implementation of
Information Technology (IT) in government as shown in Figure 3.
Politicss/Turf
Process
Technology
Figure 3: The Hierarchy of IT Challenges in Government; adopted from Bearing Point (2004)
Figure three, clearly shows that technology poses the least challenge in the implementation
of ERP in government, which was earlier pointed out by O’Leary (2000). This is followed by
poor change management, which is at the core of ERP, as it aims to streamline business
processes and finally, inadequate training and preparation, which has to do with the human
element. All these challenges point to the convoluted nature of government, which clearly
reveals the difference in government decision-making process in the provision of their
service to constituents, compared to the decision-making process in the private sector,
26
which is more efficient as a result of its responsiveness to change. Irani and Love (2008,
p.304) further suggest the shortcomings of existing government IT infrastructure, which are
as follows: Enterprise Resource Planning system failures, organisational information sharing
and IS integration, business process reengineering in e-government projects, supporting
management and decision making process, financial issues in implementing integrated e-
government, citizen data and security issues and front office/ back office operations and
functioning.
Understanding the magnitude of these challenges will require an introduction to the various
strategies applied by LGCs in the selection and implementation of ERP.
2.5.1 Government ERP Selection &Implementation Strategy
Government organisations have the choice between two strategies in selecting an ERP
system. The first option is to choose their applications from a single vendor, i.e. purchase
the various modules from the same vendor, e.g. HR, Finance, etc. The other option is to
acquire the applications from multiple vendors, in what is termed as “best of breed” (O’
Leary, 2000, p.32). That is to say in clear terms that they can choose to implement their HR
module from Oracle, while they implement their Finance module from SAP, this decision is
based principally on the applications fit to the desired business need.
There are primarily two types of ERP implementation strategies namely, the big bang
approach and the phased approach (O’Leary 2000 p.151). These two strategies have been
widely used by organisations both in the private and in public sector for implementation. In
a big bang implementation strategy, a full ERP suite is deployed at one particular instance,
while the legacy system is decommissioned (Olson, 2004, p.110). A popularly cited example
of an organisation that adopted this approach, was Quantum Corporation, which had to
27
close down it global operations for eight consecutive days to switch to its new ERP system
(O’Leary, 2000; Olson, 2004). This was a risky choice, in-terms of organisational revenue and
possibility of a likely system failure; however, it is believed that the risk was based on the
organisations circumstance (ibid).on the other hand, phased approach aims to have ERP
modules such as human resource, finance, accounting, etc implemented one at a time or as
a group of modules for a particular location at a time and then in the rest of the company
(Scott and Vessey, 2003).
Olson (2004, p.110) argues that though the Big Bang approach is more risky in
implementation, it is much wiser to apply this strategy when implementing ERP, especially
for dispersed organisations or conglomerates that cut across geographical boundaries.
Government, on the one hand are more likely to use a phased strategy, due to the
similarities in modules that they have implemented in recent times. Clearly, the big bang
approach poses much risk to an organisation that is faced with the challenges of
accountability, less funding, etc, like LGCs.
2.5.2 Government ERP Requirements
The implementation of ERP provides government with access to better data and
information, coupled with standardised business processes that complement their business
of governance. For example, a 2005 whitepaper by the centre for digital government (CDG)
suggests, “Each Local Government jurisdiction has unique needs”, hence the requirement to
evaluate each councils environment before choosing and implementing an ERP system. The
white paper further states that in evaluating LGCs, it was discovered that there were
similarities in the type of ERP modules implemented by LGCs.
28
In a related study in 2007, Saugatuck Technology identified that government organisations
tend to have a wide variety of users both internally and externally, each with different
requirements. Additionally, LGCs users have their distinctive ways of reporting and
interaction at various levels of their organisations. These factors make the task of ERP
requirements gathering and its subsequent customisation overwhelming. Below are some
sample ERP requirements of government adopted from the Saugatuck Technology report
(2007, p.6).
Public Accountability:
 Fund and program Accounting Compliance
 Encumbrance/Pre-encumbrance Accounting
 Governmental Accounting Standards Board Pronouncements
 Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting
Budgeting
 Annual, Multi-Year and No Year Budgets
 Appropriations and Allocations
 Carry-over and Lapsed Budgets
Grants Management
 Pre-Award to Receipt and Compliance Tracking
 Pass Thru Grants, In-Kind Contributions, and Sub-Grantee Monitoring
 Multi-Year Budgeting and Reporting for Grants and Projects
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Accounting and Budget Structures
 Fund, Program, Organisation, Function, Location, Object, Grant, Project Structures
 Variable Funding Control Structures
 Complex Multiple Step Down Cost Allocation Processes
 Multiple Bases of Accounting (Accrual, Modified Accrual, Cash)
Procurement
 Complex Acquisition Requirements
 Solicitation, Evaluation, Award and Contract Management Processes
 Vendor Diversity Procurement Programs
Human Resources
 FLSA Processing for Police and Fire-fighters and Employees with Multiple Jobs
 Complex Leave Processing with Automated Leave Accruals for Longevity and
Grandfather Clauses
 Position Control Supporting Multiple Grade/Step Pay Matrices
Looking at the sample government requirements mentioned above, one can assume that
some of the popular ERP vendors like Oracle and SAP can individually provide solutions that
meet the entire requirements of a government organisation. However, Johnson (2007)
argues, “The scope of functionality required by government is more than any single vendor
can provide, given the requirement for both government specificity and the enablement of
all processes”. This assumption is believed to be true, because Implementation decisions are
not ordinarily based on the choice of either buying from a single vendor or applying the best
30
of breed strategy, rather decisions are based on how well does a vendor understands the
complex business processes of government and how scalable is the solution being offered.
It is for this argument that the study chooses to reveal what the ERP vendors promise to
offer public sector organisations, which shall later be analysed in the context of LGCs.
2.6 Public Sector ERP Vendors and Their Promise
The best possible way of analysing ERP in government is to introduce the vendors and the
solution they promise to offer the public sector. Even though not many ERP vendors are
available for this sector, it is claimed that the solutions they offer to this sector are
impressive (http://www.government-crm.com/erp.htm). Some of the key players in the public
sector ERP are Oracle JD Edwards, SAP, Lawson, Aplicor, etc. This study will now present
some of these vendors individually.
2.6.2 Oracle
The Oracle website for public sector (http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/public-
sector/index.htm) claims to offer government a technology and application that will help
improve efficiency and accountability. Oracle also claims to be the only ERP vendor that can
provide all the key components database, middleware, and applications to transform
organizations in the public sector. Oracle is also assumed to be the market leader in public
sector ERP. Additionally, the oracle National and Local Government website
(http://www.oracle.com/industries/government/national-local-government.html) offers
governments organisation that choose to implement oracle ERP solutions the following
advantages:
31
 Government efficiency and transparency levels can be boasted using Oracle’s
financial management, human capital management, procurement, business
intelligence modules and the oracle fusion middleware. These products will enable
LGCs redesign their business processes, adapt to changing government regulations,
reduce procurement costs, assure compliance, and integrate information from
various departments.
 Government agencies and third party affiliates can collaborate much better in the
delivery of citizen service, using oracle’s case management CRM, master data
management, Oracle SOA suite and oracle portal. These applications will enable
LGCs to have centralised contact centres, provide a broad view of citizens across
departments and agencies and manage cases and workloads.
 Government revenue tracking and generation can be enhanced, using oracle’s
enterprise taxation management, case management CRM, business intelligence and
master data management. These modules will enable LGCs to have a consolidated
view of taxpayers across all tax and revenue sources, responsive resolution of
taxpayer issues, cut down on Fraud and increase compliance.
2.6.3 SAP
Systems Applications Products and data processing (SAP) is the world’s leading provider of
ERP solution, however, this market dominance does not extend to the public sector. SAP
websites for public sector (http://www.sap.com/industries/publicsector/public/index.epx)
claims that it can provide the public sector with innovative solutions that will improve
services, while lowering cost. It further claims that using its portfolio of products, it can help
public organisation connect silos of information and integrate processes across government
32
departments, levels and borders.SAP provides support for these public sector business
processes; human capital management, government procurement, public sector accounting,
social services and social security, government programs, tax and revenue management,
public security, and organisational management and support.
SAP (http://www.sap.com/industries/publicsector/public/businessbenefits/index.epx)
promises Federal, State and Local Governments that choose the public sector solution the
following benefits:
 Government productivity level and cost cutting measures can be improved to
achieve economies of scale, using SAP’s shared services excellence. The solution will
enable government to optimize her resources, provide responsive service and lower
costs.
 Returns on government IT programs can be measured, protected and
communicated, using SAP’s Public ROI initiative. This will help government to
demonstrate the full value of their IT programs and services across quantitative and
qualitative dimensions.
 Basic systems can be consolidated, using SAP solutions to improve horizontal (cross
agency) and vertical (national) collaboration and business processes.
 Gain highly integrated and standardized solutions that will reduce the overall cost of IT
systems and decrease the total cost of ownership.
 Instant access to credible and accurate data from a secure environment will enable
better decision-making. This will give a clear picture of the business processes across
the organisation and the limitations of technology.
33
 New and innovative business processes can be added to existing systems with minimal
risk and better return on investment, using the SAP platform. It will aid change
management through broad integration of applications.
2.6.4 Aplicor
Aplicor claims on its website to be a global software publisher of subscription-based, and
hosted customer relationship management (CRM) and ERP web-based software solutions
for high growth, mid-market and enterprise organisations. Aplicor offers public sector
organisation CRM and ERP solutions by mean of software as a service, i.e. service is
delivered via the internet, while the vendor also does the hosting of the applications. Aplicor
hosts accounting, human resources, distribution and CRM applications, which can be
subscribed by various sectors, including the public sector. It also offers its public sector
clients industry specific solutions, such as Citizen Request Management (CRM), Case and
Incident management, citizen self-service portal, and a workflow that can provide the
following benefits (http://www.aplicor.co.uk/government_crm.htm):
 Government can build constituent focused organisation, using their government
CRM solution to gain common and real-time view of the constituents, while sharing
and leveraging information across departments or agencies, as well as having a
common access point for programs and services.
 Service levels can be increased to exceed constituent’s expectation, through
coherent communication across the various delivery channels, staff empowerment
using automated process and measuring performance and trends levels.
 Organisational productivity and efficiency can be increased, by decreasing costs,
applying consistent processes, streamlining operations, and making better decisions.
34
2.6.5 Lawson
Lawson is a provider of software and service solutions to the manufacturing, distribution,
maintenance and services sectors. According to Lawson’s website
(http://www.lawson.com/wcw.nsf/pub/About_index), they believe that they offer
organisations that implement their solution “more value per dollar invested” than any other
ERP vendor, because they claim to spend more time with their customers measuring
progress, collecting feedbacks and understanding the very best processes needed to
strengthen and improve an organisations business or service.
Lawson claims to understand the unique challenges faced by public organisations in
managing their objectives and maintaining their aspirations. As a result, they offer a range
of “mission critical” administrative solutions for states, local government and other public
organisations, such as open technology architecture, business process management suite,
enterprise performance management suite, Lawson time management, Lawson enterprise
financial management suite, Lawson supply chain management suite, enterprise asset
management, services management, Lawson smart office and Lawson enterprise search.
Implementing any of these solutions from Lawson by a public organisation can result to the
following benefits:
 Operational productivity and efficiency can be increased via the integration of
enterprise business systems, because of the flexibility provided by open technology
architecture.
 The business of governance can be more transparent, financial discipline
strengthened and costs reduced, using the enterprise financial management suite to
drive enterprise value and growth.
35
 The management of operational assets can be improved, while the time users spend
interacting with the system can be minimised, using the enterprise asset
management solution.
 Project management timelines can be precisely estimated, while employee skills can
be matched easily to projects, using the service process optimisation.
 Information workspace personalisation, group collaboration and interoperability can
be achieved to make work more effective and dynamic with the Lawson smart office.
36
3. Research Method
A research method is a plan or framework for collecting, organising and integrating data in
order for a result to be reached (Remenyi et al 1998). Hussy and Hussy (1997) define
research methodology as the analysis of the rational for the specific method used in a
particular study. It can be concluded that what is important in a research is to inform the
readers of its findings. Therefore, it is logical to say that the aim of any research is to add
knowledge through new findings. Sharp et al (2003) described research as “seeking through
methodical process to add to one’s own body of knowledge and hopefully, to that of others,
by the discovery of non trivial findings”. The objectivity and validity of every research
findings are the common underlying requirement of all research methods. Albeit, objectivity
that is unquestionable can hardly be guaranteed, because of personal experience and
knowledge. This is particularly the case in a research that involves data gathering.
In order to meet the objectives of the topical area under research, there is the need for
careful planning, which requires the design of specific methods for the set objectives of the
research to be attained. Therefore, it is of utmost significance to clearly layout the type of
methods that will be used, in order to meet the overall aim of the research. The pattern of
the research methods are discussed below.
3.1 Research Design

The design of this research will be exploratory in nature, because the study is aiming to
discover the capabilities of ERP systems to service the public sector, in particular Local
government councils. This will involve reviewing existing literature, asking questions from
subject experts and assessing the phenomena of ERP in the public domain. Saunders et al
(2007, p.133) suggests that exploratory study is a valuable means of finding out what is
37
happening to seek new insights. The following research questions will be answered in the
cause of this study:
a. What is the suitability of existing public sector ERP solutions against the
needs of UK Local Government Councils?
b. What factor(s) have affected the implementation of ERP in Local Government
councils?
c. Which ERP modules have the Local Government councils implemented and
which ones do they intend to implement in the future?
d. What level of satisfaction has been attained through the implementation of
the ERP system?
e. What impact does the implementation of ERP systems have on their working
processes?
3.2 Research Approach
The approach to this research can be deductive, inductive or abductive. Deductive approach
tests current theory in order to verify its validity, using testable parameters that are
identified from secondary sources, while using primary data to validate. Hussy and Hussy
(1997) emphasize that it adds to existing knowledge and substantiate the underlying theory.
It is also an approach, which agrees or disagrees with the research hypotheses (Saunders et
al 2007, p.117). This approach has mostly been used in the natural science to prove and
disprove hypothesis. While on the other hand, inductive approach is based on evidence of
the data gathered, without any predetermined theory that the researcher needs to adopt, it
evolves as the research is carried out (ibid). The essence here is to make sense of the data
that is gathered and come up with new finding. Lastly, the abductive approach is a
38
combination of both principles; researchers usually used this method to make sense of
existing theory and related theory.
This study will take an inductive approach into the conduct of the research, because it aims
to validate the data that it will gather about the suitability and implementation of ERP
systems in Local Government Councils. The reason behind this choice is that, government
ERP requirements are known, some Local Government councils have already implemented
ERP, and vendors have product offerings for the service sector. Thus, the system-
organisational fit of these systems and the Local Government Councils business processes
will be of interest to this study.
3.3 Research Strategy
Saunders et al (2007) points out that a research strategy can help researchers to be clear
about how to answer their research questions. In essence, it highlights and specifies the
means by which a researcher intends to collect and analyse data and include the
consideration of the constraints that a researcher will inevitably have in meeting their
objectives.
This study adopts as a strategy, the review of case study materials to deepen the
understanding of the researcher about real-life challenges and issues that are relating to the
topic (See Appendix C). Although these cases study where reviewed from a vendor’s
website, they do not form a part of this research, because they were solely used to help the
researcher in formulating better interview and questionnaire questions.
39
3.4 Data Gathering
According to Bell (2005), the collection of data is a significant part of every research. There
are two main methods of collecting data, which are secondary and primary data (Saunders
et al 2007).For the purpose of this research, both secondary and primary data are essential
and the process of collection is discussed below.
3.4.1 Secondary Data
To be acquainted with existing literature around the topic of ERP in the public sector, this
study consulted a wide range of written materials that included articles, reports, published
and online journals, books, magazines, ERP related websites such as www.erp.com,search
engines, etc. Search words such as, ‘ERP’, ‘ERP in public sector’, ‘public sector vendors’,
‘ERP implementation challenges’, ‘evolution of ERP’, ‘ERP trends’, ‘IS in government’, ‘ERP
modules’, ‘e-government’, etc were used to extract relevant material for the related study.
This method helped the researcher in becoming more familiar with existing literature
surrounding the topic of ERP in government, extracting sample government ERP
requirements, and the possible solutions offered by ERP vendors as reported in the
literature review.
3.4.2 Primary Data
The primary data for this research was gathered through interview and questionnaire, which
together form the basis of addressing some of the major topical issues highlighted during
the literature review in part two of this study, such as the expected benefits, limitations,
challenges and also highlight the future of ERP in the public domain. These two techniques
40
combined will allow freedom to explore the responses of the respondents and uncover
meanings and probe opinions as shown below.
3.4.2.1 Interview
An interview is conservation or questioning session, for the purpose of gathering
information for research or other purposes. Interview can be thought of as a “purposeful
discussion between two or more people” (Saunders et al 2007 pg 310). Interviews need to
be planned carefully so that the line of questioning that the interviewer follows is relevant
to the issues being investigated. Interviews can help in the formulation of research
questions and objectives, where a researcher has not yet identified them.
There are three broad categories of interviews namely:
(a) Unstructured interview has some predefined topics, but no succession,
thereby allowing the interviewer some freedom to follow the interviewee’s
replies and to find out about areas of interest.
(b) Semi-structured interview is based on both closed and open questions. The
interviewer often has some set of questions to draw on, if the interviewee
either digresses or does not say much, then he can be prompted to draw out
more information.
(c) Structured interview is the more formal form and has pre-determined
questions that are asked in a standardised way and there is no exploration of
individual attitudes, structured interviews are very useful where goals are
clearly understood and specific questions can be identified.
41
Interviewis a useful way of obtaining information that is difficult to extract through
background knowledge and general principles. This data gathering technique helps to
generate rich data that provides a researcher with a deep understanding of the topic under
investigation. It also brings out issues of concern for the interviewee, which the interviewer
may not have considered. On the other hand, there is the danger of bias due to researchers
own knowledge and beliefs. The accuracy and honesty of the information provided by the
interviewee’s canalso be questioned.
For the purpose of this study, a structured interview approach was selected, because it will
allow the researcher to ask specific questions that border on the personal experiences of
the interviewees, who are professionals in the field of this study. The interview questions
were developed with the help of the literature review and case studies, which revealed a
number of interesting topical issues. The questions for the interview were drafted and
reviewed. Thereafter, a copy of the interview questions were sent with an accompanying
confidentiality document to the interviewees via email, so that they could prepare before
the actual interview(See Appendix D). The reason behind this decision was to allow the
interviewee to be familiar with the areas of questioning to be covered and it is believed that
it will result in good qualitative data collection.
The actual interview coveredtentopical questions that reflect the research questions, with
each part awarded a five minutes timeline for answers and probing, where necessary. It is
worth mentioning that most of the questions were open ended, while a few were closed.
The following questions were asked:
42
 What do you make of existing public sector ERP solutions, which traditionally were
developed to cater for the private sector?
 Which factor(s) do you consider in the selection of your chosen ERP system?
 What were the main motivators for ERP implementation?
 ERP systems are considered a necessity in the business operations of private sector
today; do you in your opinion see this view to hold for public sector organisations
alike?
 Various strategies, such as “big bang, phased, single vendor, and best of breed” have
been used in the selection and implementation of ERP systems, which of these
strategies will you recommend for the public sector. What are your reasons for this
recommendation?
 There are reports of ERP integration concerns with other non-ERP systems; how
does this affect your Local Government councils IS strategy?
 How has the implementation of an ERP system influenced the business process of
your Local Government Council?
 Will you consider the implementation of a full public sector ERP suite?
 Have your work practices changed significantly after the implementation of the ERP
system?
 How would you rate your current ERP vendor in terms of the following
aspects:Product innovation, Reliability, Quality and Support?
43
3.4.2.2 Questionnaire
Questionnaires are well-established techniques for collecting demographic data and user
opinions; they are similar to interviews in that they can have closed or open questions.
Traditionally, questionnaires have been on print, but the coming of the internet has made
this technique to make a transition, with the buzz word now being “online questionnaires”.
This has been as a result of the effectiveness of the medium to reach a much larger number
of people quickly and easily with the added benefit of a quick response time (Bell, 2005).
This study drafted a manual questionnairethat will take approximately 45 minutes to
answer, which was developed based on the issues raised by the literature review and case
studies on public sector ERP and the need to meet the projects objectives. The
questionnaire was sent on the first instance to the project supervisor for possible
amendments and recommendations, after which the final draft was sent to participants as
an attachment document via email, who then in turn responded to the emails by answering
the questions on the attached document and replying to the researcher via email. The data
from their response was collated and analysed manually, see (Appendix E) for the copy of
Email and questionnaire. The questionnaire took a closed question approach, thereby
allowing participants to choose only from a number of pre-defined options, and in some
cases, options were given to specify opinions. This was aimed at testing the researchers
understanding of the topical issues raised by the literature review, as well as putting the
knowledge from the case studies into perspective. Extracting of quantitative data for
meaningful analysis to give the project more credibility, while avoiding researcher bias and
protecting participant’s privacy and confidentiality was of utmost importance to ensure
ethical responsibility.
44
The questionnaire was split into two parts with a total of 25 questions. The first part asks
general information regarding the person responding and the organisation under research,
which seeks to explore the kind of environment that the LGC was operating. Therefore,
questions that relate to the council type, population, role of respondent, etc were asked.
The reason behind this approach is to establish whether, these demographical factors have
any role to play in the decision and or selection process of an ERP system.
The second part asks questions that border on existing system and organisational processes.
Here the goal is to understand, the ERP maturity level within the councils, in terms of
implemented modules, benefits achieved, challenges faced and the impact of the systems
on the councils, where implemented. Below is a sample question from the questionnaire
and the reason for asking such question:
Question:Do you agree that Local Government Councils are implementing ERP systems to
increase efficiency?
Reason:The reason for asking this question is to verify the general assumption that Local
government council are embracing ERP systems to improve efficiency.
3.4.2.3 Research Population
The research population for this study is the entire England (UK) Local Government Councils,
which comprises of boroughs, unitary authority, metropolitan districts and metropolitan
and non-metropolitan counties. Due to the time constraints of this research, which is 3
months and the large number of the English Local Government Councils, it was decided to
ensure that at least two samples are drawn from each type of the Local Council. These were
45
selected based on the council size (human Population) with the total target number that
makes up the sample composing of 10 Local Government councils.
Additional criteria for selecting the sample for the research was Local Government Councils
in England that have either implemented an ERP system or are considering the
implementation of one. Similarly, the people that will contribute to the research must be
senior personnel, who make decisions within these organisations about the management,
upgrade and purchase of their Information Systems.
3.5 Data Analysis
Some information gathered from the literature review such as the sample requirements and
the solution provided by the ERP vendors will be analysed, thereafter-selected case studies
that were chosen to add value to the research would be discussed. The results from the
interview conducted by this paper will be subjected to exploratory analysis, to discover
meaning and reason, if any for adopting ERP in LGCs. Lastly, the data collected from the
questionnaire shall be presented and explained using statistical and graphical presentations
where possible to validate the collated data.
3.6 Data Gathering Challenges
In the process of data gathering, it was identified that objective two of the project had to be
modified, because it was not seen as fit for purpose in attaining the aim of the study. As a
result, the word council was substituted with councils, while requirement was substituted
with data. In a similar fashion, objective three was amended to reflect that sample
government requirements were to be collected through secondary source, because the
nature of the project will not permit for requirements gathering through primary sources,
46
but rather comparing known requirements to existing ERP solution. Time it took
respondents to react to the questionnaires was also worrisome, though fortunately, this
was overcome after follow up calls to the various people that promised to participate.
47
4. Findings and Analysis
This section aims to produce the outcome of the literature review and the discoveries from
the applied research methods of the study. The findings from the literature review will be
revealed and discussed, followed by the presentation and analysis of the results derived as a
result of reviewed case studies and the conducted interview and questionnaire.
4.1 Literature Review Findings
The literature review revealed that there is huge amount of material related to ERP, its
implementation, challenges and market trends within government cycle. It was also able to
reveal generic ERP requirements by Local Government Councils, as well as possible solutions
that are offered by various vendors, such as Oracle, SAP, etc. The added benefits that a
potential ERP systems implementation will offer these public sector organisations were also
obvious. Hence, the potential shift in growing interest by ERP vendors to service this sector,
which has resulted in big competition among the big Vendors.
A comparative analysis of the requirements and possible solution promised by the four
vendors mentioned in the literature review is presented and discussed below.
Government Oracle SAP Lawson Aplicor

Requirement
Public Oracle Business SAP Corporate Lawson Business Aplicor Online
Accountability Intelligence Services Intelligence Accounting
Budgeting Oracle SAP Financials Lawson Aplicor Online
Financials Financial Accounting
Management
Grants Oracle SAP Grants Lawson X
Management Enterprise Management Financial
Grants Management
Management
Accounting and Oracle Financial SAP Financial Lawson Aplicor Online
48
Budget Management Management Financial Accounting
Structures Management
Procurement Oracle E- SAP ERP Lawson S3 Aplicor Online
Procurement Operations Supply Chain Distribution
Management
Human Oracle Human SAP ERP Human Lawson Aplicor Online
Resources Capital Capital Strategic Human Human
Management Management Capital Resources
Management
Table 3: Key Local Government Requirements and Possible Solutions
Table 3 illustrates the key requirements that are thought to be sought after by Local
Government Councils, from the observation made in the literature review, the researcher
was able to draw a comparison between what the councils require and what the vendors
are able to provide. From a broad perspective looking at the table 3, one will assume that
the ERP vendors’ have a possible solution against every requirements of the Local
Government Councils. However, this is not necessarily true. For example, the government
procurement requirement that is shown on the table encompasses complex tasks in the
sourcing of the council’s products and services. The challenges in this business process will
include soliciting for requirements acquisition, evaluation, award and management of
contract, and the process of managing supplier diversity programs. To successfully handle
this challenging task, Oracle, SAP and Lawson offer a similar solution that are locally hosted,
while Aplicor offers an externally hosted solution using its distribution solution.
4.1.1 Case Study Revelation
A number of case studies were selected from one of the vendors to display the challenges
faced by Local Government Councils in the implementation and adoption of ERP systems.
These case studies demonstrate the benefits that an ERP system implementation can add to
a council’s IT strategy.
49
Case Study 1
Local Government Council Details
Council Type: City Council
Industry: Public sector
Products and services: Local government services
Residents: 1.3 million
Revenue: £2.1 billion
Employees: 57,000
Challenges Benefits
 There was the need to automate  Realize nearly £900million in

manual data gathering andanalysis savings over 10 years through
more efficient administration
methods to improve efficiency.
 Aggregate demand and spending;
 Consolidate information from improve purchasing compliance
disparate systems and government buying power
 Accurately measure performance

 Eliminate duplicate processes against objectives
 Have a standardize financial  Redirect time spent on routine

accounting and reporting system administrative activities to
constituent-facing services
 Develop shared services for the

City Council and its partner
agencies
Table 4: Case Study 1 Challenges and Benefits of ERP System adapted from
www.sap.com/Publicsector
Table 4 clearly illustrates some of the real life challenges that are faced by the Local
Government Council and the possible benefits that a successful implementation can
produce. The case study was able to demonstrate, how the need to improve data gathering
methodthrough system integration and the improvement of business processes have
produced the council with a possible means of saving at least £900 million over a period of
50
10 years, as well as improve performance measurement against set objectives. Additionally,
implementing the business solution has helped the council to focus more of its time in
providing efficient service to her constituents against spending the time on administrative
task. This is a classic example of the real life challenges faced across the different business
units of a Local Government Council in today’s technology driven world.
Case Study 2
Council Type: Metropolitan Borough Council
Residents: 211,000
Employees: 10,000
Challenges Benefits
 Modernize an inefficient social-  Single data repository

services system coveringentire social-services
client base
 Improve operational capabilitiesof  Easier management of
the council and its partner client’scases with single instance
agencies of each client accessible to
 Consolidate its paper-based and authorized workers
legacy databases into a single  Integration of social-services
system with Council’s IT infra
system structure, including financial
 Develop an end-to-endintegrated systems
social-care system  Availability of performance
 Integrate the social-care system indicators and current status
through a
with the Council’s financial managementdashboard
systems to provide efficient client  Reduction of paperwork
support andimproved effectiveness
 Provide management with instant throughonline availability of all
access to current performance social services forms and
reportmanagement functions
indicators
 Enable deployment of electronic
social-care records for clients
Solutions and Services
Table 5:Case Study 2 Challenges and Benefits of ERP System adapted from
51
The above table shows us the challenge that is faced with in a specific business unit of a
council and how ERP could help the unit meet the needs of their constituents. The case
study shows how ERP can integrate the social care application with the financial application
to provide better reporting. Again, it highlights how ERP systems can improve an
organisations process, thereby making the organisation more effective and efficient in the
provision of its services to their constituents.
Case Study 3
Council Type: City Council
Residents: 600,000
Revenue: £2.4 billion
Employees: 40,000
Challenges Benefits
 Non-integrated legacy  Reorient organization tocustomer

systemsspread throughout the City service culture
 Cost savings approaching £1.3
Council leading to inefficiencies million annually in payroll
 Decentralized business processes processing with a total projected
 Need to integrate operations and savings of between £10.1–12.9
improve efficiency of servicedelivery million annually
 Reduce operating costs solutions and  Improved sales and distribution
processes leading to cost
services reductions
 Increased efficiency in
deliveringgovernment services
through shared service centre
implementation
Table 6: Case Study 3 Challenges and Benefits of ERP System adapted from
Again, table six shows how effective the implementation of an ERP system can be in the
integration of disparate business applications and the streamlining of outdated
52
organisational business processes to have a single view of the organisation and so as to spot
new challenges and improve on efficiency and service delivery.
4.2 Interview Results
This study conducted a face to face interview with 2 councils that were willing to participate
in this important part of the research. The interview was derived after careful study of
existing literature on the topical issue. The 2 councils that contributed to this research have
advanced in their implementation of ERP systems. The result of the interview and analysis is
presented below, while the transcript of the actual interviews are shown on Appendix D, as
stated in the research methods on part 3.
53
1. ERP systems are considered a necessity in the business operations of private sector today; do you in your opinion see
this view to hold for public sector organisations alike?
Response Analysis
Absolutely, I believe that ERP systems are integral to modern day This response agrees to the supposed value that ERP systems could
business operations in government because just like in the private add to a local government council in the integration of back-end
sector, the public sector has to service the needs of its customers, in processes where staffs spend quite a lot of time carrying them out, in
this case the constituents that are made of citizens and business order to support the front-end of the service that they deliver their
organisations. In the past, we have improved our customer contact constituents. All the mentioned business processes in the response
process by implementing CRM systems, which proved to be beneficial. such as HR, Finance, etc could lead to a better and informed
However, the current economic challenges have led government management decision, which is a primary factor of ERP
budget mandate to decrease, coupled with ever-ambitious implementation
constituents that demand for faster and improved service. We need
to do everything possible to stay more efficient and effective, while
remaining within our budgetary constraints; and one such way is to
embrace ERP systems that can us streamline our backend processes,
such as accounting, HR, procurement, maintenance, etc. This will
bring our distinct systems together, thereby reducing duplicity,
improving accountability, making staff more efficient by saving time,
and enhancing our decision making process.
Table 7: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 1
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2. There are reports of ERP integration concerns with other non-ERP systems; how does this affect your Local Government
councils IS strategy?
Response Analysis
This is true, we had such experience when we implemented our HR, The result shows that there are information sharing challenges
Finance and CRM solutions from the same ERP vendor, which all between ERP systems and Legacy applications, which have
worked well; because these modules combined helped improve traditionally been serving the councils business purpose, even though
citizen satisfaction and business process efficiency. The applications they are not as efficient as ERP systems would be in the fulfilment of
were able to communicate with each other; however, they wouldn’t the constituent mandate. Again, this result draws on the fact that was
share information with non-ERP applications. As such, we decided to established during the literature review that a single vendor could not
integrate the other applications; it became obvious that we will be service the requirement needs of a local government council, due to
able to integrate these applications with those implemented from the their complex business processes.
vendor. Therefore, we considered the options of either phasing out
the applications that were not from the vendor, which was considered
to be a very costly exercise or to integrate the systems with the ERP
system and make them more efficient and save cost.
55
3. How has the implementation of an ERP system influenced the business process of your Local Government Council?
Response Analysis
Initially the idea of implementing the ERP system was daunting as we The response suggest that, it almost impossible to implement an ERP
had a structured process in place, which although it involved a lot of system without reengineering the organisations business process,
manual work, it was what our staff were used to working with. because ERP systems are hard coded, as such it is the implementing
Naturally, they were reluctant to switch to the new complex system, organisation that will have to adapt to the system but not the other
which even though it would make their jobs a lot easier in the long way round. The response also reveals the human element of
run, would require time and effort to master. The management, on resistance to change that has been mentioned by many writers with
the other hand were in full support of implementation of the ERP regards to adopting a new system
system as they were aware that the benefits would greatly counter
the challenges it would take to implement it. Therefore, they
encouraged the staff to embrace it. Gradually with training, the staff
became accustomed to the system and we can collectively see how
the business process has been greatly improved.
56
4. What were the main motivators for ERP implementation?
Response Analysis
Reducing our annual maintenance and licensing cost, automation of The result shows that Local Government Councils are actually
report distribution, better functionality. For example, real time embracing ERP systems to arrest the rising cost of maintaining their
processing, commitment accounting, quicker period closure, ability to disintegrated legacy systems and the need to be more efficient in the
integrate HR, projects and financial information for budgeting and delivery of their services through improved and standardised
management control purposes. This can be seen in the light of processes.
achieving better management information “single view of the truth”,
removing the need for subsidiary applications and supporting the
review and redesign of existing business processes.
57
5. Various strategies, such as “big bang, phased, single vendor, and best of breed” have been used in the selection and
implementation of ERP systems, which of these strategies will you recommend for the public sector. What are your
reasons for this recommendation?
Response Analysis
Well, funding is an issue in the consideration of a strategy to choice This response points to the fact that Local Government Councils will
from, while selecting and implementing an ERP system. At the same not subject themselves to the degree of risk that private sector
time, we understand that one vendor cannot support our entire organisations will go in the implementation of ERP software. This
business processes end to end. This understanding therefore, leaves however does not mean that a Local Government Council cannot
us with basically, one strategy, which is to adopt a best of breed apply the big bang approach as an ERP implementation strategy.
approach in the selection of applications and their vendors, and our Again, it reflects on the rate of accountability expected by
resultant application of a phased implementation strategy. Another constituents on their council and the decrease in government funding.
reason for taking this approach is that the capacity of the system (the
use of environment for development and testing, and the need to
safeguard performance of the production environment) are a
constraint on the pace and scope of further development, as well as
the affordability of additional modules.
58
6. Will you consider the implementation of a full public sector ERP suite?
Response Analysis
I don’t think we will consider taking such business decision, because The result here indicates a misfit with some of the modules that are
there is a partial match to our business processes. Why? Actually, this offered to public sector clients by ERP vendors, due to the difference
is too simplistic. Local Government simply doesn’t do the full range of in business process compared to the private sector. Also the concern
business processes that the full suite is designed to support, so even if of having to acquire licenses for various modules makes the cost of
we matched our ways of working perfectly to fit the Oracle processes running a full ERP suite non attractive, even if they were willing to
we still wouldn’t require the full suite. As it is, quite a lot of local implement.
government processes require bits of several modules to complete
the end-to-end process, and this is rather an expensive way to
operate unless the modules are already licensed and implemented.
7. What do you make of existing public sector ERP solutions?
Response Analysis
Major vendors such as SAP and Oracle have great solution for the Generally, the response asserts that it is true that ERP system can help
private sector, they have revolutionised IT in the private sector, a Local Government Council to improve its business process and save
because most organisations have implemented one module or the the cost of keeping disparate legacy systems, though the challenges of
other, while some have even implemented full ERP suite. Even adoption in the public sector is different from that of the private
though, there are cases of failure the system has proved to be sector.
59
successful in most cases. I believe we are seeing the same trend in the
public sector, as more and more public sector organisations are
embracing packaged software. However, I will have to mention that
the operational modus of government is different from that of the
private sector, due to its bureaucratic nature. In addition, the diversity
of the system stakeholders, which includes the management team,
councillors, employees, constituents and suppliers, and the level of
accountability within government organisations, is much more
complex than in the private sector. These factors make it even more
challenging to meet the needs of local government. As such, though
public sector solution are considered to be worthy of implementation
in government, the challenges are enormous and they cannot be
overlooked.
8. Which factor(s) do you consider in the selection of your chosen ERP system?
Response Analysis
Functionality/features  The response to this interview question indicates that Affordability
Support  was the final criterion, once there is some sort of match between the
Training organisational quality requirements and the solution provided by the
Price  vendor. Additionally, it also tells us that a vendors reputation has a
Reputation pivotal role to play in selection, which encompasses number of
successful deployments and the kind of support that is provided after
go-live.
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9. Have your work practices changed significantly after the implementation of the ERP system?
Response Analysis
Sure, Teams and jobs were restructured to fit with the Oracle This answer demonstrates that a Local Government Council that
processes in several areas. Processes were changed completely in choose to implement an ERP system will have to adapt its
favour of standard functionality in certain areas e.g. bank organisational processes to the pre-defined processes of the ERP
reconciliation, iProc and lodgements. There was a significant increase system, consequent upon which some organisational restructuring
in interface development from other core systems and fundamental can be expected. In other words, it can be seen as business process
changes to the chart of accounts, which changed budgetary control improvement or reengineering.
reporting processes.
10. How would you rate your current ERP vendor in terms of the following aspects in a scale of 1-3:
Response Analysis
Product innovation Overall, the result highlights that ERP vendors have very qualitative
Reliability  software that are very reliable. They are also very innovative in terms
Quality of product upgrade; however, these upgrades are at a cost to the
Support Councils who have as their main objectives to cut down cost. The
result, though positive presents some sort of conflict.
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4.3 Questionnaire Findings and Analysis
The research questionnaire was emailed to various respondents within the Local Government
Councils that showed interest for the project in the month of July, and their responses started
coming in towards the month August. The questionnaire was divided into 2 sections, with the
first being a General part with 3 questions and the second being system specific questions with
22 questions. There were a total of 10 responses that were collected and presented in this part
of the study for discussion. The result from the General part will not feature on this analysis, as
they are demographic in nature; this can be cited on Appendix E as earlier mentioned. In
addition, question 2 from the second section, which was dependent on the response from
question 1 did not produce any data and therefore shall not be presented.
Question 1: Which ERP System(s) do you have in your Local Council?
20%
ORACLE
10% 50%
SAP
20% OTHER
ORACLE/SAP
Figure 4: Questionnaire Response to Question 1
The response from this question indicates that out of the 10 Local Government Councils that
responded to this study, half of them or (50%) are using Oracle as their vendor, while 20% have
their ERP system from SAP. Another interesting thing is the number of those councils that use
both Oracle and SAP applications on their platform, which stood at 20%, which is exactly the
62
percentage of councils that deployed SAP. The result further reveals that only 10% of the
councils indicate the use an ERP package that is not from the major vendors, such as Oracle and
SAP. It is also logical to conclude that by comparison, Oracle has an even greater presence in
the Local Government ERP market than any other vendor in the UK.
Question 3: Which ERP module(s) have you implemented?
COUNCILS
8
6
4
2
0 COUNCILS
The result from this question shows that 80% of the councils have implemented the financial
module of an ERP system, while 50% of the sample population have also implemented HR-
Payroll application. Some of the councils have in addition to these 2 different applications
deployed ERP in other areas such as procurement, CRM and Billing. The result suggest that the
most challenging business process that needs to be tackled by the deployment of ERP systems
in Local Government are Finance and HR, based on the frequency of the modules deployed.
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Question 4: Do you agree that ERP vendors have the capability to meet the needs of
government clients?
Capability Match
10%
AGREE
40% STRONGLY AGREE
30%
DISAGREE
20% STRONGLY DISAGREE
Majority of the respondents agree that ERP vendors have the capability, in terms of available
technology and innovation to meet their growing needs for good software. This is reflected by
the combined response of those councils that agree and strongly agree, which is equals to 60%.
There are however, some dissenting voices, amongst those councils that disagree and strongly
disagree with this view, which together make up 40% of the total response. Therefore, with a
ratio of 2:3, this result is still subject to debate, even though there is a simple majority.
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Question 5: How much customisation was required for the ERP module(s)?
CUSTOMISATION LEVEL
NONE
EXTREME
SIGNIFICANT
SOME
MINOR
0 1 2 3 4 5
MINOR SOME SIGNIFICANT EXTREME NONE

CUSTOMISATION LEVEL 5 3 1 0 1
The level of software customisation experienced by the respondent council is predominantly
good, with no reported case of the need for extreme customisation. The result has revealed by
a 50% response of minor customisation to their chosen ERP software, with 30% having to do
some customisation and 10% reported significant customisation. These responses show us
some evidence of the ability of ERP vendors to match the business requirements of their Local
Government clients.
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Question 6: Did you partially implement some modules of your ERP, because of?
Implementation Response
Phased
0% Implementation
20%
Limited Funding
40%
Best of Breed
40%
Management Strategy

The implementation response figure shows us a split response of 40% each amongst those
councils that said, the only reason why they implemented some modules and not the full suite
of ERP offered by the various vendors to the public sector was based on limited funding and the
application of a phased implementation approach to reduce risk. On the other hand, only 20%
say it was a best of breed approach that made them to implement one module or the other.
There is a correlation between this response and the response from question 3, because it
showed us the kind of modules that were sought after by the councils, while this response
confirms some of the challenges faced by Local Government to remain accountable and
responsible to their constituents in this difficult economic time.
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Question 7: Do you intend to implement the full suite of the ERP software?
8
7
6
5
4
3
2 No of councils
1
0
This response captures one of the most important reasons of this research; it tells us that 70%
of the Local Government councils were of the view that deploying the full suite of ERP software
will not be on their agenda. Though 20% said they would, despite some customisation that will
be done to the software and 10% insisting that there is a perfect match with their
organisational processes. The reason for the high response of none implementation of the full
suite is in line with the belief that Local Government councils operate differently with private
sector and as such only modules that are fit can be deployed.
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Question 8: Data conversion from Legacy System to the new ERP system is thought to be a
challenging process.
Data Conversion
7
6
5
4
3 Data Conversion
2
1
0
AGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE STRONGLY
AGREE DISAGREE
There is a unanimous agreement between the respondents that data conversion from Legacy
system to the new ERP system is a very challenging task. About seven Local Government
Councils strongly agree to this view, while three agree. This view holds because most ERP
systems are not compatible with the Legacy applications that the councils have traditionally
used.
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Question 9: Who were the major contributors in the decision making of the council’s ERP
vendor selection, feasibility and analysis?
5
4
3
2
1
0
Senior Consultants Employees IT staff All of the
Management Above
Series1 5 1 0 4 0
The contributor figure suggests that it is mostly the decision of senior management and IT staff
that is taken into consideration during feasibility, analysis and selection of an ERP vendor. 5 out
of the 10 councils report their senior management to be the decision makers, while 4 report IT
staff make this decisions. While only 1 council say it is the responsibility of their consultants to
decide. This response shows the organisational element of ERP selection, which has a possible
consequence such as employee resistance to change.
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Question 10: What were the main criteria for selecting an ERP vendor?
0%
10% 20% Functionality/features
0%
Support
Training
70% Price
Reputation
The above chart shows some of the criteria used by Local Government Councils in choosing
their ERP vendor. Most of the councils, which in this case is 70% of the sample see cost as the
deciding factor of selecting a vendor, while 20% choose their vendor based on the features of
the application in need and 10 % choose their vendor based on reputation. Arguably, this are all
valid reasons in selecting a vendor, however, as Local Governments are facing a decrease in
funds, the response received by the majority cannot be contested by this study.
Question 11: Do you agree that implementing ERP system significantly improves work
practices?
AGREE
0%
STRONGLY AGREE
40%
60% DISAGREE
STRONGLY
DISAGREE
70
The respondents to this question agree that implementing an ERP system improves on the
working practices of their Local Government Councils. Forty percent agree that their working
practices have improved, while 60% strongly agree that their working practices have sharply
improved since implementing ERP in their councils. This response affirms the importance of
deploying an ERP system to lessen the burden on staff that do back end processes and use their
effort elsewhere to improve efficiency.
Question 12: Would you agree that senior management support is a key element for a
successful transition to ERP?
Management Support
STRONGLY DISAGREE
DISAGREE
STRONGLY AGREE
AGREE
0 2 4 6 8
STRONGLY STRONGLY
AGREE DISAGREE
AGREE DISAGREE
Series1 3 7 0 0
The chart shows that seven respondents strongly agree that senior management support is a
key for the successful transition to an ERP system in a Local Government Council, while three
also agree that they have an important role to play. This is a valid argument, because without
their support, the tendency of a serious resistance to change by employees is very high.
Additionally, the responsibility of any unforeseeable delay in the completion of the transition by
the project management team will have to be assumed by a senior executive.
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Question 13: Here are some factors that we believed led to the transformation of IT and the
implementation of ERP in Local councils and we will appreciate if they are rated.
Response %
120
100
Axis Title
80
60
40
20
0
Increase Replace Improve Enhance
Increase Reduce
Constituent Legacy Decision Accountabil
Efficiency Cost
Confidence Systems Making ity
Response % 90 100 40 100 70 30
The graph above shows us the weighting of the factors that have resulted in looking at ERP as
an IT solution in Local Government Councils. Reducing cost and replacing legacy systems stand
at par at 100%, because the maintaining this legacy systems is very costly to these councils. Also
increasing the councils efficiency and improving the decision making process of the councils
management team were conceived to be important with 90% response for efficiency and 70%
for decision-making. Again, these factors are vital, if efficiency is improved, service delivery will
be good, while management will have a good view of the council and therefore make informed
decisions. Surprisingly, increasing constituent confidence did not receive much response,
probably because it is the overall object of a Local Government council, so also is accountability.
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Question 14: Do you agree that as a measure to driving down the cost of ERP systems, the
concept of Software as a Service or ASP should be adopted?
AGREE STRONGLY AGREE DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE
30%
10%
10%
0%
60%

The chart shows clearly that Local Government Councils are in favour of a means by which they can cut
down on the cost of implementing ERP systems. There is a combined representation of 90% by the
respondents, who either agree or strongly agree to the notion of looking at the option of software as a
service as an alternative to the normal in house hosted applications. This thought is based on the
knowledge that a third party vendor hosts software as a service, thereby eliminating some cost that
associated with hosting the application in house.
Question 15: Do you agree that ERP systems can have an impact on flexible working?
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5
0
AGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE STRONGLY
AGREE DISAGREE
Series1 5 3 2 0
Figure 17 shows that five and three Local Government Councils agree and strongly agree
respectively that implementing ERP system has an impact on flexible working, while two
disagree that it does. It is interesting to know why the two councils disagree, because by
implementing an ERP system, employees are able to remotely-access the necessary information
they need to do their job from any location, thereby improving on the needed human effort of
the council.
Question 16: Has your implemented system required any re-organisation in the business or IT
departments?
40% YES
60% NO
74
This pie chart shows the response on the impact that the implementation of an ERP system on
the Local Government Councils departments. It reveals that 60% of the Local Government
Council did not go through any sort of re-organisation either in the business or in their IT
departments, while 40% said they did. This response shows only some Local Government
Councils follow the underlying principle of an ERP system, which incorporates some sort of re-
engineering.
Question 17: Did the system have a major impact on internal business processes such as
financial controlling and auditing?
20% YES
80% 20%
NO
Majority of the respondents to this question answered positively that their internal business
process were impacted in one way or the other by the deployment of an ERP system, with 80%
saying yes it did have an impact on financial controlling and auditing within their councils. The
response displays the type of added benefit that an ERP system can add to a public sector
organisation like LGC, because controlling financial earning and outgoings as well as auditing
their spend is part of accountability.
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Question 18: Has the system introduced any effects on job descriptions and or responsibilities?
50%
50% YES
NO
Respondent to this question show a split decision on the effect that their chosen module of the
ERP has brought on the job descriptions and responsibilities of their staff. The reason for this
split is that some of the Local Government Councils have taken a headcount while others have
not.
Question 19: Does your implemented ERP module(s) meet the desired business purpose ?
0%
YES
NO
100%
The respondents to this question of the study show a 100% satisfaction with their implemented
ERP module(s) about meeting the desired business purpose. Therefore, the participants of this
study have confirmed the suitability of their chosen vendors for the selected modules.
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Question 20: Did your council re-engineer her business process before or after selecting an ERP
vendor?
60%
Yes Before
Yes After
10% 10%
Not At All
Dont Know
30% 0%
Over half of the Local Government Councils admit re-engineering their business process after
selecting a vendor, and 30% did before, while 10% did not at all. Councils that re-engineered
there a process after selecting a vendor is because the council must adapt to the software not
the other way round. However, the reason for councils that implemented before the selection
is organisational IS strategy; we also have to keep in mind the issue of change in the public
sector differs from the private, as it tends to take longer in the public sector.
Question 21: Would you agree that resistance to change is a major challenge in implementing
ERP?
0% 0%
Agree
50% 50% Strongly Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
77
The result of this question shows that all the participants of this study believe that resistance to
change is a challenging factor in implementing ERP in government. Though the result is split
50:50 amongst those that agree and those that strongly agree, it can be viewed as unanimous.
Therefore, the human element of technology deployment must always be considered.
Question 22: Would you agree that ERP systems could have the same effect in the public sector
as they do in the private sector?
Strongly
Agree
20% Disagree
30%
Other
40%
Agree
40% Strongly
Disagree
10%

Local Government Councils agree with a total simple majority of 60% that ERP systems will have
the same effect in the public sector as they do in the private sector. Then again, with less than
half of the total sample, which is 40% they disagree. Nevertheless, the trend we are seeing in
the public sector ERP market swings the result in favour of those councils that agree, because
ERP vendors are focusing more on this sector the market.
4.4 Summary
This chapter has attempted to provide the benefits gained from ERP systems using the chosen
Local Government Councils case study that were presented at the beginning of this part. It
78
alsopresented the findings from the interview and analyse them for meaningful insight,
because the opinion presented in the interview is based on expert experience. Lastly, data
collated from the questionnaire for the purpose of this study was presented and analysis to add
more credibility to the interview process. All these findings and analysis were done to show
reason for the suitability of existing ERP vendors to service the need of the public sector,
specifically Local Government Councils.
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5. Discussions
This part of the study will discuss the results in the previous part of the research and put them
in context of the set objectives for this project earlier defined in part 1. The overall aim of this
research was to assess the suitability of existing ERP systems against the requirements of the
public sector, especially Local Government Councils. Interest for this study was borne out of the
belief that ERP systems originated from the private sector and as such could possibly not meet
the needs of the public sector. There was little interest for the public sector market by vendors
in the past, though recently; we have seen some shift in the interest for Local Government
Council ERP projects. As a result, this section will attempt to explore the result of the research
findings.
5.1 Literature Review Finding Discussions
The review of existing literature on the topical area provided valuable information that aided
the researcher to understand, articulate and spot any possible gaps that existed in past and
current writings. The reviewed literature has compiled useful information in to a single view
that can help future research into the topic of ERP vendors in Local Government Councils.
The presented literature in this study touched on areas that are of high importance to the
discussion of ERP systems in general as well as specific to the study of public sector ERP
implementation. Areas such as the evolution, definition and characteristics of ERP systems were
touched upon, as well as the benefits of ERP as described by various authors such as O’Leary
80
(2000) were discussed. Most of these authors see ERP system as software that integrates
organisations disparate systems and streamline their business process.
Additionally, some of the challenges faced by Local Government Councils for the successful
implementation and or adoption of ERP systems, such as; the cost of an ERP application, Lack of
fit with organisational processes and organisational challenges such as decrease in government
funding, resistance to change, bureaucracyand complex business process were revealed.
The literature review believes that any organisations that follow the donts of an ERP system can
gain competitive advantage over its contemporaries. It is however, worth mentioning that a lot
of emphasis was placed on senior management support for a successful ERP implementation,
especially in public sector where there is diverse stakeholders with thousands of requirements.
Generally, it is also accepted among the writers that ERP system can help bring down the cost
of IT, while making an organisation more efficient. Another important view from the literature
was the introduction of Software as a Service or Application Service Providers, which is a third
party hosted ERP service that aims to cut down the cost of having an ERP system. While, this
study has identified cost as a major barrier for councils to adopt ERP systems, the concept of
SaaS (ASP) can help in achieving a councils ERP strategy.
5.2 Background StudyFinding Discussions
The background study was able to demonstrate through the combined method of key words
search and case studies that were earlier mentioned in this study the existence of real world
81
challenges faced by Local Government Councils and the probable benefits that are promised by
ERP vendors.
The key word search showed there is a great degree of writing that relates to ERP in public
sector, some touched on Health Care organisations, Educational establishments, Defence sector
and States and Local Governments. It was also evident from these key words searches that
Local Government Councils have been implementing ERP systems for quite some time now and
some have gained the advantage sort after, which is to cut down on their operational IT cost. It
is worth mentioning here, that because the product that Local Governments offer is a service,
majority of their ERP investment benefits will be intangible.
Furthermore, the three chosen case studies were able to demonstrate the challenges faced by
Local Government Councils, which seem to be common among them and the benefits of
implementation. For example, Case study 1, showed the benefits of implementing the councils
ERP system to include saving money in excess of £900 million over a period of 10 years,
improved measurement of performance, improved utilisation of human resources and saving
additional cost through shared service with partners. This confirms the promise by public sector
ERP vendors; that their solutions will help improve the efficiency of a Local Government
Council.
On the other hand case study 2, illustrates the ability of an ERP system to integrate an entire
department with other departments, thereby enabling a single data repository for improved
performance and decision-making. Again, the core principle of ERP system, which is integrating
disparate systems to help save cost, is evident in this scenario.
82
Lastly, case study 3 illustrates the ability of ERP systems to improve business processes that
exist in an organisation. Here, the capacity to get rid of outdated processes and introduce new
ones was paramount for the councils IT strategy to succeed.
5.3 Interview Finding Discussions
The interview results were derived from discussions with two different managers that were
directly responsible for their councils ERP system strategy, management, selection and
implementation. These interviews helped in providing personal experience of Local
Government Councils in the selection and implementation of ERP systems as well as the
organisational challenges that are encountered. It also highlights the significance of ERP
systems in the public sector.
Despite all the benefits that were mentioned in implementing ERP systems in Local
Government Councils, the interview revealed some barriers that are evident in the adoption of
ERP by LGCs such as;
 The high cost of ERP systems to Local Government Councils
 The suitability of these systems to the business process of the councils
 The diversity of government stakeholders in an ERP Project
 The difference in the operation of government business
It is possible to counter these barriers, for example, if Local Government Council were to adopt
the shared service approach with other councils and their partners.They can drive down the
cost of licenses or ownership of their ERP system and gain the benefits for which the system
83
was intended. It is clear that Local Government Councils understand the significance of this
new breed of technology. As such, to curtail the suitability issue; vendors need to work very
closely with their Local Government clients on an individual case basis to provide them with a
solution that can result in full implementation of their ERP suite that is aimed at the public
sector.
The interview further revealed that Local Government Councils have a more different approach
in their selection and implementation process. Again, this is linked to the major concern, which
has featured in almost every discussion, which is funding. Local Governments have invested
hugely previously on legacy systems that are very costly to maintain and the licenses for ERP
system are also on the high side, so they are faced with a dilemma. Should we phase out our
old systems and where will the funds come from to replace them or should we leave our legacy
system and replace those that are necessary with selected ERP modules. Consequent upon
these questions that are asked, most councils tend to go for the latter approach, in what is
termed best of breed selection strategy and phased implementation strategy to minimise the
risk of a system failure during implementation.
It was also evident from the interview that communication between non-ERP applications and
ERP application is impossible. It is only possible to achieve this through Enterprise integration,
which again is dependent on cost. This issue signifies the possibility that Local Government
Councils are less likely to go big bang on ERP software as is seen in the private sector. Another
area of concern as well is the way the software seeks to change the existing business processes
84
of the Local Government Councils, so rather than have the software adapt to known processes,
they are forced to change their usual ways of doing business.
Overall, the interview revealed satisfaction with the ERP modules that have been implemented
by the Local Government Councils, in terms of production innovation or upgrade by their
vendor, reliability of their chosen software, Quality and the support they get before, during and
after implementation.
5.4 Questionnaire Finding Discussions
The questionnaire aimed to gather as much information as possible from the respondents to
assert the suitability of ERP systems in Local Government Councils. The data gathered is mostly
quantitative in nature; as such, so many graphs and statistical data were presented in the
previous chapter. The results from the questionnaire helped identified general trends,
challenges and strategies in government circle; it also highlighted the benefits of using ERP
systems and a confirmation of the findings from the literature review. There is also a
correlation between the results of the questionnaire and the interview. Therefore, credibility to
the report findings is asserted.
Although, the sample of the questionnaire comprised of only Local Government Councils that
have implemented one module or more, about 50% were in favour of implementing Oracle
products. There is also a consensus on the need to implement ERP systems in Local
Governments by the respondents, even though most of the councils have only implemented
Finance and HR Modules. One interesting data that the questionnaire revealed was the split
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decision on why council were partially implementing ERP modules. While some suggest they
were following a phased approach others suggest it was as a result of limited funds.
Surprisingly, 60% of the respondents agree that ERP vendors have the capability to meet the
needs of Local Government Councils. Despite this positive response from the councils, seven
councils still say they will not implement the full suite of an ERP. The reason for this kind of
counter response lies in the interview conducted, because Local Government Councils business
process requires bits and pieces to complete an end-to-end task.
5.5 Relating the Literature Findings and Research Findings
The findings from the literature review shows that ERP systems are very important to Local
Government Councils, if they are to remain efficient and effective in this challenging times that
federal mandates are driving up time and costs, and budgets often remain flat or worse, while
hiring more personnel is not an option (http://www.government-crm.com/erp.htm). This is
true, because most Local Government Councils have deployed legacy systems that were built
in-house and in most cases, the developers that built the systems have left with no proper
documentation to maintain these systems further. The consequence of these actions has
resulted in data duplicity between departments, poor communication, inefficient processes and
high cost of maintenance.
Although, Local Governments have deployed customer facing software in the past to improve
their routine citizen facing activities, the bulk of their work lies in their back end processes,
which take a reasonable amount of time to complete. It is for these reasons that the Literature
86
finding point to the fact that Local Government Councils must embrace ERP system to integrate
their disparate applications and improve or discard their existing business process.
One issue that kept being mentioned during the literature findings is the exorbitant cost of
implementing and owning an ERP system. However, there were suggestions from both the
interview findings and Questionnaire findings for Local Government Councils to embrace the
principle of shared service to drive the cost of ERP. Another interesting innovation that can help
Local Government Councils to enjoy the benefits of ERP application at an affordable price is
through the provision of Software as a Service by third party vendors via the internet.
There has been a clear view between the Literature findings, the interview and the
questionnaire that Local Government Councils will not implement a full suite of an ERP that is
offered by vendors, because government operational processes are so rigid that Johnson (2007)
suggests that the IT needs of Local Government Councils cannot be provided by oneindividual
vendor. We have seen this same view in both the interview transcripts and the result of the
questionnaire, with participants highlighting that their councils need a mix approach to satisfy
their desired business needs.
Both the interview and the questionnaire further demonstrate that when councils move to a
new ERP system, they face issues of integrating their legacy applications with the new ERP, as
well as data conversion from the legacy system to the new ERP system. Consequent upon which
they only select ERP modules that they need for their mission critical tasks such as finance or
HR. Therefore, vendors will have to provide solution that looks at interfacing business processes
within the councils.
87
The literature review helped in drawing the comparison between the sample requirements of
Local Government Councils and the possible solution that can match that requirement by the
vendors that were introduce therein. The researcher was only able to draw this comparison
based on the findings that emanated from the literature review and the chosen case studies. In
addition, all the reported underlying principles of ERP systems in the literature are applicable to
Local Government Councils, based on the findings of both the interview and questionnaire.
Therefore, considering all the arguments in the literature concerning the benefits, limitations
and challenges of implementing ERP in Local Government Councils, both the interview and
questionnaire have confirmed that full ERP suite are not suitable for Local Government
Councils, as is the case in the private sector. Even though, many Local Governments have
implemented one or more module of an ERP system.
5.6 Summary
This part of the study has shown how the findings from the literature review contributed to the
success and meaning of this study by educating the researcher on the topical issues and
identifying the challenges and possible solutions that exists for Local Government Councils that
chose an ERP system. It also discussed the findings from the background study, which is the
problem that councils face in their operating environment, as well as the findings from the
conducted interview and questionnaire response. Finally, a link was drawn between the
literature findings and that of the current study, in order to put the current study into
perspective of existing literature.
88
6. Conclusion
This part of the research will evaluate the objectives set out in part one of this study to
ascertain if they have been achieved. Also, recommendations are to be suggested based on the
findings of the literature review in part two, the findings of the interview and questionnaire in
part four and finally reveal any lesson that have been learned during the cause of this project.
6.1 Project Objectives Evaluation
At the beginning of this study, five objectives were clearly spelled out to achieve the overall aim
of this research, having presented the applicable literature and the findings of this study, these
objectives are hereby, reviewed individually for completion.
6.1.1 Objective One
To understand what constitutes ERP, who are the vendors and what business process does their
product supports.
This study believes that this objective has been met after extensive review of existing literature
on ERP systems in both the private sector and public sector, and understanding the underlying
principles of an ERP system, who the major vendors are for both private sector and public
sector and the solution that they bring to the market for the public sector.
Achieving this object was only possible through key words search of content material relevant
to the topic online and in print, reading printed materials that talk about ERP in general or
89
specific to Public Sector and participation in ERP forums online for better understanding and
questioning.
6.1.2 Objective Two
To identify suitable Local Government Councils for data gathering and analysis
Again, this study is of the opinion that objective two has been satisfied, because several
councils were contacted for participation in this project, while some rejected others agreed to
participate. Ten Local Government Councils participated in this study, with only two having the
time to participate in an interview, while the rest responded to the questionnaire that was
emailed to them.
Considering the fact that this is an academic research that is not commissioned by any of these
councils, I will say that the participation is remarkable, especially in this period of the year most
Local Governments are very busy upgrading their systems with limited staff that have mostly
gone on summer vacation.
6.1.3 Objective Three
To get government requirements that will reflect the need of Local Government Councils.
The researcher was fortunate to collate sample government requirements from secondary
sources; as such gathering requirements through primary source was not possible. However,
depending on how this is viewed, it will be right for the study to also claim successful
achievement of the set objective, because the nature of the project would not have permitted
the gathering of ERP requirement from all the councils that participated in this study.
90
6.1.4 Objective Four
To analysethe gap of existing ERP solutions against the Local Councils IT requirement and
identify whether the ERP modules of these software could be adaptable to the public sector.
Objective four was very challenging and it is the bedrock of the entire study. However, the
study attempted to solve the problem this objective was trying to detect through extensive
literature review to come up with the solutions offered by ERP vendors to the Public sector.
After which, the study composed a matrix that shows the solution against the requirements
from objective three.
Based on this matrix, this study believes that the set objective has been attained, even though
the study has revealed that not all modules offered by the ERP vendors are adaptable to the
public sector, specifically Local Government Councils.
6.1.5 Objective Five
To provide recommendations for local councils in the selection of an ERP vendor to meet their
business needs.
This objective is yet to come to realisation at this stage of the project. However, the literature
review, the interview findings and the questionnaire suggest best practices that should be
applied in the selection of an ERP vendor by a Local Government Council.
Overall, the project will conclude that the purpose for which the study was commissioned has
been achieved and therefore, will be in a position to make some meaningful recommendations
to Local Government Councils that are planning to select an ERP vendor.
91
6.2 Recommendation
Local Government Councils that want to select an ERP vendor should consider the budget
constraints that are attached to their ERP project and thereafter select a vendor that
understands the complexity of their business operations. They should also consider the
compatibility of the solution to be offered by the vendor against their existing IT infrastructure
as a whole, to avoid incurring additional cost. Customisation of the councils solution should also
be minor, if possible none at all, because this can minimise the level of process change that will
be needed. It was also eminent that senior management support is pivotal in the selection,
implementation and maintenance of the ERP system.
Finally, to cut down the cost of implementation, Local Government Councils will have to
consider the option of shared services with partner council and third party hosted ERP solutions
that are provided by vendors such as Aplicor.
6.3 Lessons Learned
The initial objectives set out by the researcher in the project definition document that was
submitted had to be modified, because they were vague, and will fail to satisfy the overall aim
of the research. As a result, a number of the objectives were amended to reflect the desired
need of the project. Similarly, during the data gathering stage, the researcher realised the need
for an interview to add value to the project, thereby posing the risk of a possible delay in the
submission of the report.
92
Finally, the correspondence between the student and the supervisor is of great importance,
because the guidance, which the supervisor provides helps the research to stay on course in the
event of drifting from the focus of the research.
Word Count: 21284
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Appendix A
Appendix A: Project Definition for MSc in Business Systems Analysis and Design
Name: Abubakar Sadeeq Sada
E-mail address: sadeeq25@yahoo.co.uk
Contact phone number: 07868266160/02083098071
Project Title: ERP for Local Government: A Study of Public Sector ERP Vendors
Supervisor: Dr Bill Karakostas
-------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
Signature: Dr Bill Karakostas Signature: Abubakar Sadeeq Sada
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Problem Statement
Public organisations are facing serious challenges, due to a high demand in the provision of
good and effective services to their constituents. The federal mandates are driving up time and
costs, and budgets often remain flat or worse, while hiring more personnel is not an option
(http://www.government-crm.com/erp.htm retrieved 16/05/09). As a result, governments are
forced to embrace technology to help improve their service efficiency and control costs.
Governments have been using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software systems to
automate and streamline many of the routine citizen facing activities that constitute the
responsibility of government. However, back office operations, which usually take more time,
cost more money and require even more human effort than the front office, are receiving less
attention.
There are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which have been designed to help
integrate these challenging back office operations such as SAP, Oracle, etc that have been
widely implemented in the private sector. However, there are reported issues of failures,
because of poor implementation and resistance to change, the benefits of a successful ERP
implementation is quite big. Additionally, there is the critique that ERP vendors have focused
more in servicing the private sector, which has resulted in so many ERP vendors for the private
sector; this has been an issue for the public sector as there are not many vendors available for
the public sector.
Project Aim & Objectives
ERP vendors have paid much attention in developing good software package that integrates the
back-office operations of the private sector, but not much attention paid to the public sector.
As a result, many ERP software packages and vendors are available, that support the private
sector.
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The overall aim of this research will be to investigate whether; existing ERP solutions that are
available have the capability of meeting the requirements of the public sector. To meet the
above-specified aim, the study will have to set a number of objectives, which will serve as
checkpoints in satisfying the attainment of the overall aim of the project.
The study will have as its objectives the following:
7. To understand what constitutes ERP, who are the vendors and what business process
does their product supports. This shall be achieved through extensive literature review
on the topical area of ERP, by consulting textbooks, online reports, journals, etc. This
objective will demonstrate the capability and or suitability of existing ERP solutions.
8. To identify suitable Local Government Councils for data gathering and analysis
9. To get government requirements that will reflect the need of Local Government
Councils (LGCs). These requirements shall be gathered through secondary and primary
source, such as interviews, questionnaires and databases of ERP studies.
10. To analyse the gap of existing ERP solutions against the Local Councils IT requirement
and identify whether the ERP modules of these software could be adaptable to the
public sector.
11. To provide recommendations for local councils in the selection of an ERP vendor to
meet their business needs.
Project Beneficiaries
This project shall benefit people that are interested in improving public sector business
processes using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Depending on the quality of the
research analysis, the outcome of the study could serve as a reference point for Local
Government Councils (LGC) that seeks to integrate their systems and streamline their process.
Furthermore, researchers that are interested in further investigating the challenges that LGC’s
face in delivering efficient and effective service to their constituent by integrating their systems
can use this study as a guide. The researcher also believes that ERP vendors could benefit from
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the study, because the study aims to demonstrate the limitations and or suitability of existing
ERP solutions to public sector organisations, if limitations are properly identified, vendors could
see reason for product improvement, which would translate to more product acceptability,
improved market share, happy clients and most importantly profit. With the user being the
main beneficiary of all innovations, it is imperative that his needs, behaviours and environment
are studied, as well as engaging him in the design and testing of products before their
subsequent development.
Theory Related to Research

Singla, A.R (2005) suggests that Enterprise Resource Planning software systems (ERP)
encompass a wide range of software products supporting day-to-day business operations and
decision-making. He further explains that ERP serves many industries and numerous functional
areas in an integrated fashion, attempting to automate operations from supply chain
management, inventory control, manufacturing scheduling and production, sales support,
customer relationship management, financial and cost accounting, human resources and
almost any other data oriented management process. It is therefore logical to assume that ERP
systems are designed to enhance an organization’s competitiveness by upgrading their ability
to generate timely and accurate information throughout the enterprise and its supply chain.
Though ERP aims to achieve a lot for an organisation by making information timely and
accurate, there are reported issues of failure, in terms of implementation. Standish research
group on ERP reported 35% of ERP implementations are cancelled, 55% overrun their budget or
the system will only perform 41% of the functions it was intended to perform
(www.standishgroup.com), but still organisations are committed to implementing ERP systems
because they are competing in a global village, where effective delivery is very essential.
It is important to note that the success of an ERP implementation relies not only on the
technical aspects of ERP, but also on the human, social and organisational factors of the
implementing organisation. This assumption brings us into the topical issue of Business Process
Improvement (BPI). Business Process Improvement (aka Business Process Reengineering/
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Redesign) is a set of management tools used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
service delivery (RSe Consulting, 2006). It can help local government councils to meet
performance expectations from customers, achieve efficiencies and service improvements.
ERP vendors provide a cost effective and powerful solution for public organisations who want
to reduce cost and need to show efficient service delivery to their constituents. SAP, which is a
leading provider of Public sector ERP solution, suggests that any state or local government
council that implements its public sector solution shall get these valuable benefits:
 Integrated and secure operations management
 Support for all aspects of government operations, minimising the need for new
development and decreasing delivery time for new services.
 Integrated citizen relationship management.
 Flexible and open enterprise services architecture.
 Robust reporting and analytics for improved decision making and performance
management.
 A comprehensive set of solutions for state and local governments that will minimise the
need for various niche applications.
 Future proof solution supported by significant ongoing R&D investment, with scalability
that supports growth to meet future business needs, such as e-government services.
 Improved controls and visibility, supporting compliance with state and local compliance
 The SAP Net Weaver open integration and application platform, minimizing the need for
interfaces and legacy systems and simplifying any required integration to non-ERP
systems.
Project Methodology
This study shall use literature review to form the basis of acquiring adequate knowledge of ERP,
as well as real case studies and examples of state or local government council that use ERP to
streamline and improve their service delivery.
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The literature review shall put more emphasis on extracting relevant information from industry
specific print and electronic journals, white papers, reports and magazines, in order to
understand ERP and how, it relates to public sector specifically local government councils. The
importance of a good literature review will be to give the researcher and the reader alike a
sound understanding of the topical area based on expert knowledge and academic findings. It
will also help the researcher to construct his arguments upon analysing the findings.
Similarly, reviewing case studies will help in demonstrating the experience of some local council
in the implementation of an ERP system. It will also highlight the ability of the local councils to
adapt to change in organisational culture.
An interview and questionnaire will form the basis for primary data collection. They are to be
drafted, reviewed and distributed to relevant stakeholders to validate results from previous and
current research and add value to the existing case study. It will also help to get a general
perception of using ERP by local governments from vendors.
Evaluating Results
The results from the literature review will serve as a significant entry point for evaluating the
capability of existing ERP solution to cater for the public sector as they do the private sector.
While case study analysis is more than likely to show clearly the suitability and or limitations of
existing ERP packages or on the other hand show the lapses on the part of the local councils in
the implementation of an ERP system.
Interviews and questionnaires will help in the collection of meaningful data for evaluation and
interpretation, to present a coherent set of results that are useful for the purpose of the
research, which is to evaluate the capability and availability of various choices of ERP vendors
for the public sector.
Lastly, if all the five objectives mentioned earlier are achieved then the overall aim of the
project shall be deemed to be fulfilled.
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Project Feasibility
The feasibility of the project is largely based on the ability of the researcher to study and
understand a wide range of literature materials that have been presented in the past, some of
which the researcher is not familiar with. However, the Business Engineering with ERP Solutions
module has equipped the student with the knowledge on some of the ERP packages such as
SAP and the theories that apply to the study of integrated applications, like Business Process
Reengineering. These will form the foundation of the researchers understanding of new ERPs
and theories that will be encountered during the process of literature review.
There is also the risk of the project falling behind schedule, in the event that qualitative data
cannot be collected. However, initial research has shown that there is wide range of data
available for the study to progress.
Identifying the right local council for the study has a very high risk of pushing the project behind
schedule, Supervisors expertise shall be utilised here to minimise the risk.
Applying primary research in to the study, could add more value to the research, but for the
limited nature and resources available for the research.
Work Plan
The Project shall have the following schedule as detailed below, also there shall be contingency
imbedded in the plan in the case of any unforeseeable events.
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Project Milestones and expected deadlines:
Target Milestone Activities
1. Identify problem area

2. Identify aim and set objectives that will
test the project aim.
3. Relate project to area of theory.
4. Methodology and techniques for the
Project proposal project
Deadline : 11/06/09 5. Project feasibility and Work plan
1. Conduct initial literature review
2. Design questionnaire and Interview
3. Publish questionnaire and Conduct
Interview
Research stage 5. Local Government ERP case studies
Deadline: 10/07/09 review
1. Analyse questionnaires.
Analysis stage 2. Analyse Case Studies
Deadline: 22/07/09 3. Design a prototype
1. Initial Draft consideration

2. Literature Review write-up
3. Methodology
4. Analysis of study
Report Stage 5. Conclusion and Recommendation
Deadline 30/08/09 5a. Supervisor Review
1. Format, edit and include appendices
into the report for finalization.
Final Stage 2. Proof Reading and Binding for
Deadline 25/09/09 Submission
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References
1. ERP Software as a Service (SaaS) Government ERP Systems http://www.government-
crm.com/erp.htm retrieved 16/05/09
2. Singla, A.R (2005), Impact of ERP Systems on Small and Mid-sized Public sector
enterprises, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology
http://www.jatit.org/volumes/research-
papers/Vol4No2/Enterprise%20Resource%20Planning%20(ERP),%20ERP%20impact,%20
ERP%20Design%20and%20Implementation,.pdf , retrieved 13/05/09.
3. www.standishgroup.com
4. Ready to Transform? A snapshot of Local Government Business Process Improvement
26/07/06 (Rse Consulting) retrieved from
http://www.rseconsulting.co.uk/PDF/BPI%20local%20government%20Survey%20results
.pdf on 19/05/09.
5. SAP for Public Sector: Solutions for State and Local Government. Retrieved on the
30/05/09 http://www.sap.com/usa/industries/publicsector/stateandlocal/index.epx
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Appendix B
MSc Project
Plan.mpp
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Appendix C
With an annual budget exceeding €2.8 billion and 57,000 employees, the case study City
Council is the largest local authority in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe,
serving over 1 million constituents. When it decided to transform its corporate services, it
turned to SAP and SAP®Business Suite applications.
QUICK FACTS
• Name: X City Council
• Location: England
• Industry: Public sector
• Products and services: Local government services
• Revenue: €2.8 billion
• Employees: 57,000
Challenges and Opportunities
• Automate manual data-gathering and analysis methods
• Consolidate information from thousands of systems
• Eliminate duplicate processes
• Standardize financial accounting and reporting
Objectives
• Maximize government’s buying power
• Reduce IT complexity
• Standardize and consolidate financial, human resources, and procurement business processes
to reduce costs and improve productivity
• Leverage an integrated, scalable platform to support an improved external audit rating
SAP® Solutions and Services
• SAP® Business Suite family of business applications
• SAP NetWeaver® technology platform Implementation Highlight Proven, future-proof
integration platform
Why SAP
• Previous SAP experience
• Fully integrated solution Benefits
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• Realize nearly €1.2 billion in savings over 10 years through more efficient administration
• Aggregate demand and spending; improve purchasing compliance and government buying
power
• Accurately measure performance against objectives
• Redirect time spent on routine administrative activities to constituent-facing services
• Develop shared services for the City Council and its partner agencies
Here is the view of the councils staff
“I agree with Erwin Gunst, President of CSO EMEA for SAP – one of the biggest business
transformations is happening in this council. SAP is helping cut £1 billion in costs over the next
10 years. The council is using SAP software to serve its customers better.”
Mr X, Director of Corporate Finance
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Appendix D
Question 1: What do you make of existing public sector ERP solutions, which traditionally were
developed to cater for the private sector?
Interviewee: Major vendors such as SAP and Oracle have great solution for the
private sector, they have revolutionised IT in the private sector, because most
organisations have implemented one module or the other, while some have
even implemented full ERP suite. Even though, there are cases of failure the
system has proved to be successful in most cases. I believe the same can be said
of ERP in the public sector, because more and more public sector organisations
are embracing packaged software. However, I will have to mention that the
operational modus of government is different from that of the private sector,
due to its bureaucratic nature. In addition, the diversity of the system
stakeholders, which includes senior management, councillors, employees,
constituents, suppliers, and the level of accountability within government
organisations, is much more complex than in the private sector. These factors
make it even more challenging to meet the needs of local government. As such,
though public sector solution are considered to be worthy of implementation in
government, the challenges are enormous and they cannot be overlooked.
Question 2: Which factor(s) do you consider in the selection of your chosen ERP system?
Interviewee:
Functionality
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Support
Training
Price
Vendor Reputation
Question 3: What were the main motivators for ERP implementation?
Interviewee:Reduced annual maintenance and licensing cost, automation of
report distribution, better functionality, e.g. real time processing, commitment
accounting, quicker period closure, ability to integrate HR, projects and financial
information for budgeting and management control purposes. Achieving better
management information (single view of the truth), remove the need for
subsidiary applications and support the review and redesign of business process.
Question 4: ERP systems are considered a necessity in the business operations of private sector
today; do you in your opinion see this view to hold for public sector organisations alike?
Interviewee: Absolutely, I believe that ERP systems are integral to modern day
business operations in government because just like in the private sector, the
public sector has to service the needs of its customers, in this case the
constituents that are made of citizens and business organisations. In the past, we
have improved our customer contact process by implementing CRM systems,
which proved to be beneficial. However, the current economic challenges have
led government budget mandate to decrease, coupled with ever-ambitious
constituents that demand for faster and improved service. We need to do
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everything possible to stay more efficient and effective, while remaining within
our budgetary constraints; and one such way is to embrace ERP systems that can
streamline our backend processes, such as accounting, HR, procurement,
maintenance, etc. This will bring our distinct systems together, thereby reducing
duplicity, improving accountability, making staff more efficient by saving time,
and enhancing our decision making process.
Question 5: Various strategies, such as “big bang, phased, single vendor, and best of breed”
have been used in the selection and implementation of ERP systems, which of these strategies
will you recommend for the public sector. What are your reasons for this recommendation?
Interviewee: Well funding is an issue in the consideration of the strategy to
choice while selecting and implementing an ERP system. At the same time, we
understand that one vendor cannot support our entire business process end to
end. This understanding leaves us with two options, which is to adopt a best of
breed approach in the selection of vendors and then apply a phased
implementation strategy. Another reason for taking this approach is that the
capacity of the system (use of environments for development and testing, and
the need to safeguard performance of the production environment) are a
constraint on the pace and scope of further development, as is the affordability
of additional modules.
Question 6: There are reports of ERP integration concerns with other non-ERP systems; how
does this affect your Local Government councils IS strategy?
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Interviewee: Yes, this is true. We had such experience when we implemented
our HR, Finance and CRM solutions from the same ERP vendor, which all worked
well; because these modules combined helped improve citizen satisfaction and
business process efficiency. The applications were able to communicate with
each other; however, they wouldn’t share information with non-ERP
applications. As such, we decided to integrate the other applications; it became
obvious that we will be able to integrate these applications with those
implemented from the vendor. Therefore, we considered the options of either
phasing out the applications that were not from the vendor, which was
considered to be a very costly exercise or to integrate the systems with the ERP
system and make them more efficient and save cost.
Question 7: How has the implementation of an ERP system influenced the business process of
your Local Government Council?
Interviewee: Initially the idea of implementing the ERP system was daunting as
we had a structured process in place, which although it involved a lot of manual
work was what our staff were used to working with. Naturally, they were
reluctant to switch to the new complex system, which even though it would
make their jobs a lot easier in the long run, would take time and effort to master.
The management, on the other hand were in full support of implementation of
the ERP system as they were aware that the benefits would greatly counter the
challenges it would take to implement it. Therefore, they encouraged the staff to
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embrace it. Gradually with training, the staff became accustomed to the system
and we can collectively see how the business process has been greatly improved.
Question 8: Will you consider the implementation of a full public sector ERP suite?
Interviewee:I don’t think we will consider taking such business decision, because
there is a partial match to our business processes.
Why? Actually, this is too simplistic. Local Government simply doesn’t do the full
range of business processes that the full suite is designed to support, so even if
we matched our ways of working perfectly to fit the Oracle processes we still
wouldn’t require the full suite. As it is, quite a lot of local government processes
require bits of several modules to complete the end-to-end process, and this is
rather an expensive way to operate unless the modules are already licensed and
implemented. Therefore, we only implement modules that fit our business
purpose.
Question 9: Have your work practices changed significantly after the implementation of the ERP
system?
Interviewee:Sure, Teams and jobs were restructured to fit with the Oracle
processes in several areas. Processes were changed completely in favour of
standard functionality in certain areas e.g. bank reconciliation, iProc and
lodgements. There was a significant increase in interface development from
other core systems and fundamental changes to the chart of accounts, which
changed budgetary control reporting processes.
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Question 10: How would you rate your current ERP vendor in terms of the following aspects?
Product innovation 
Reliability 
Quality
Support
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Appendix E
Questionnaire Declaration
Your participation in this research is appreciated. The entire questionnaire should take about an
hour in duration.
This research is aimed at identifying the suitability of existing ERP systems e.g. SAP, Oracle, etc
to meet the business requirements of Local Government Councils. It is believed that the
analysis of the issues that surround the capability of this software will help in increasing the
success of implementing ERP systems and as a result help Local Government councils to be
more effective and efficient in serving their constituents. The particular focus of this research is
on the software capability and the challenges that are faced during ERP implementation, i.e.
‘Big Bang’ or ‘in stages’.
All information gathered from the questionnaire shall be kept confidential and used only for the
purpose of this research. All original names will be changed.
In appreciation of your participation, any relevant findings will be provided to you. On request,
a report can also be forwarded to the you outlining the findings of this research.
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Questionnaire
General Information
Council Type: County
Council Population: 450,000
Respondents Role in Organisation: Business Development Manager
System and Work Practices
1. Which ERP System(s) do you have in your Local Council?

a. SAP R.3
b. Oracle
c. Aplicor
d. Peoplesoft
e. Lawson
f. None
g. Other.......Please Specify
2. If you answered none at question 1, please select from the following options:
a. Exorbitant Cost
b. Non-compatability
c. Risk of failure
d. Data security concerns
e. All of the above
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3. Which ERP module(s) have you implemented?
a. Financial
b. HR-Payroll
c. Procurement
d. Accounting
e. Supply Chain Management
f. Constituent Relationship Management
g. Other, Please specify:
4. Do you agree that ERP vendors have the capability to meet the needs of government
clients?
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
d. Strongly disagree
5. How much customisation was required for the ERP module(s)?

a. Minor customisation
b. Some customisation
c. Significant customisation
d. Extreme customisation
e. No customisation
6. Did you partially implement some modules of your ERP, because of?
a. Phased implementation
b. Limited funding
c. Best of breed
d. Management decision
e. Other
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7. Do you intend to implement the full suite of the ERP software?
a. Yes, perfect match

b. Yes, despite some customisation
c. No, partial match
d. No, no match
e. Do not know
8. Data conversion from Legacy System to the new ERP system is thought to be a
challenging process.
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
9. Who were the major contributors in the decision making of the Council’s ERP vendor
selection, feasibility and analysis?
a. Senior Management
b. Consultants
c. Employees
d. IT staff
e. All of the Above
10. What were the main criteria for selecting an ERP vendor?
a. Functionality/features
b. Support
c. Training
d. Price
e. Reputation
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11. Do you agree that implementing ERP system significantly improves work practices?
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
12. Would you agree that senior management support is a key element for a successful
transition to ERP?
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
13. Here are some factors that we believed led to the transformation of IT and the
implementation of ERP in Local councils and we will appreciate if they are rated.
i. To increase the efficiency of business process

a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
ii. To drive down the cost of Information Systems

a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
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iii. To increase constituent confidence
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
iv. To replace existing legacy systems

a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
v. To provide effective management tools for reporting and decision-

making.
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
vi. To enhance accountability

a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
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14. Do you agree that as a measure to driving down the cost of ERP systems, the
concept of Software as a Service or ASP should be adopted
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
15. Do you agree that ERP systems can have an impact on flexible working
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
16. Has your implemented system required any re-organisation in the business or IT
departments? Yes [ ] No [ ]
17. Did the system have a major impact on internal business processes such as financial
controlling and auditing? Yes [ ] No [ ]
18. Has the system introduced any effects on job descriptions and or responsibilities?
Yes [ ] No [ ]
19. Does your implemented ERP module(s) meet the desired business purpose? [Y] [N].
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20. Did your council re-engineer her business process before or after selecting an ERP
vendor?
a. Yes before selecting an ERP Vendor
b. Yes after selecting an ERP vendor
c. Not at all
d. Don’t Know
21. Would you agree that resistance to change is a major challenge in implementing
ERP?
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
22. Would you agree that ERP systems could have the same effect in the public sector as
they do in the private sector?
a. Agree
b. Strongly agree
c. Disagree
Thank you for your participation.
123
Questionnaire Response Matrix
Question Council Council Council Council Council Council Council Council
Council C Council F
No: A B D E G H I J
1 Oracle SAP Oracle/SAP Oracle Oracle SAP/Oracle other Oracle SAP Oracle
2 NA NA NA NA NA NA A NA NA NA
3 A A B, F A A,B,C, G A, B, C B A A,B A,C,F
4 D C B A B A C C A A
5 A A A B E A C B A B
6 A C B C A A B A B B
7 C C C C A C D D C C
8 B B B A A B B A B B
9 D D B A A A D D A A
10 D D D D E A D D D A
11 A A B A B B B A B B
12 B B A A B B B B B A
13
14 A A A C A A B A B B
15 A A C C A A A B B B
16 NO NO YES NO YES YES YES NO YES YES
17 YES YES NO YES YES YES NO YES YES YES
18 NO YES NO NO YES YES NO NO YES YES
19 YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
20 B A A B B A C B B B
21 A A B A B B B A B A
22 C C A C B A D A B A
124
125

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CityUniversity

MSc in Business System Analysis and

ERP FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A STUDY

Abubakar Sadeeq Sada

Supervised by: Dr. Bill Karakostas

relevant programme and module documentation. In submitting this work, I acknowledge

including that related to plagiarism, as specified in the Programme Handbook. I also

Abubakar Sadeeq Sada

sector specific solutions.

will not meet the requirements of government organisations.

Business Process Reengineering

comments, encouragement and understanding were tremendous in the success of this

was always there for me, when I needed him most.

Seanthat have helped me a great deal.

Figure 1: Enterprise system architecture......................................... 13

Figure 2: Extent of Change to Software............................................ 20

Figure 3:The Hierarchy of IT Challenges in Government.................. 26

Figure 4: Questionnaire Response to Question 1............................... 62

Figure 5: Questionnaire Response to Question 3 .............................. 63

Figure 6: Questionnaire Response to Question 4 ............................... 64

Figure 7: Questionnaire Response to Question 5 ................................ 65

Figure 8: Questionnaire Response to Question 6 ................................ 66

Figure 9: Questionnaire Response to Question 7 ................................ 67

Figure 10: Questionnaire Response to Question 8 ............................... 68

Figure 11: Questionnaire Response to Question 9 ............................... 69

Figure 12: Questionnaire Response to Question 10 ............................ 70

Figure 13: Questionnaire Response to Question 11 ............................. 70

Figure 14: Questionnaire Response to Question 12 ............................. 71

Figure 15: Questionnaire Response to Question 13 .............................. 72

Figure 16: Questionnaire Response to Question 14 .............................. 73

Figure 17: Questionnaire Response to Question 15 ............................. 74

Figure 18: Questionnaire Response to Question 16 ............................. 74

Figure 19: Questionnaire Response to Question 17 ............................. 75

Figure 20: Questionnaire Response to Question 18 ............................ 76

Figure 21: Questionnaire Response to Question 19 ............................ 76

Figure 22: Questionnaire Response to Question 20 ............................ 77

Figure 23: Questionnaire Response to Question 21 ............................. 77

Figure 24: Questionnaire Response to Question 22 ............................. 78

Table 1: ERP Tangible benefits ........................ 15

Table 3: Key Local Government Requirements and Possible Solutions ................. 49

Table 4: Case Study 1, Challenges and Benefits of ERP System ..................... 50

Table 5: Case Study 2, Challenges and Benefits of ERP System ....................... 51

Table 6: Case Study 3, Challenges and Benefits of ERP System ....................... 52

Table 7: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 1 ...................... 54

Table 8: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 2 ....................... 55

Table 9: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 3 ....................... 56

Table 12: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 6 ...................... 59

Table 13: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 7 ..................... 60

Table 14: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 8 ..................... 60

Table 15: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 9 ..................... 61

Table 16: Response and Analysis to Interview Question 10 .................. 61

Appendix B: Project Plan .........................................................................107

Appendix C: Case study ...........................................................................108

Appendix D: Interview Transcripts ..........................................................110

Appendix E: Questionnaire Questions .....................................................116

encompass a wide range of software products supporting day-to-day business operations

functional areas in an integrated fashion, attempting to automate operations from supply

chain management, inventory control, manufacturing scheduling and production, sales

support, customer relationship management, financial and cost accounting, human

assume that ERP systems are designed to enhance an organization’s competitiveness by

enterprise and its supply chain.

(www.standishgroup.com), but still organisations are committed to implementing ERP

Process Improvement (BPI). Business Process Improvement (aka Business Process