Development of a Small Business ERP Consultant Knowledge Base

David L. Olson, Univ. of Nebraska Vo Van Huy, Ho Chi Minh City Univ. of Tech. Nguyen Manh Tuan, Ho Chi Minh City Univ. of Tech.

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

ERP ISSUES
Applicability of ERP to small businesses How consultancy knowledge bases can be built ERP Training
How to use the software How to do your job in the new environment

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

ERP in SMEs
There are risks to SMEs from ERP
Iskanius [2010]; Chang & Hung [2010]

SAP, Oracle too expensive for SMEs

Premkumar [2003] SMEs can develop in-house ERP Olsen & Stre [2007]

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

ERP Risks for SMEs

Poba-Nzaou et al. [2008]

1. Organizational risk includes personnel and organizational structure impact 2. Business-related risk involves changing business processes 3. Technological risk relates to computer and software systems 4. Entrepreneurial risk relates to top management views, 5. Contractual risk deals with relationships with contracted partners 6. Financial risk involves cash flow impact
ERP system benefits tend to be in the long-run Costs tend to occur early

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Consultant Role
Consultancies emerging to serve SMEs
Chen et al. [2008]; Koh et al. [2009]

Help with
System design Selection Implementation Training

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Knowledge Management
Consultants have experience in multiple ERP installations
Can thus develop knowledge bases
Tsai et al. [2009]

Training especially critical

Wang et al. [2007]; Bradley [2008]

Strong tendency to underestimate training cost

Slater [1998]

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

System Components
(Adapted from Gharajedaghi, 2005)

Function

Structure

Process
1st iteration

Context
2nd iteration .. nth iteration

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Structure
HY-ICT information-communications technology consultant, Vietnam

Consulting case structure

Symptoms to identify problems, difficulties Diagnose to explain problems Treatment to remove symptoms

Consulting manifestations:
Key organizational knowledge tracks sales
Historical project profiles by industry, service Pre-sales activities visits, client business practices ERP Implementation user training, product installation, customization, Signed-off agreement
CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Function
Human resources
1. Number of people involved (educational level, training) 2. Human resource quality (ability to develop & design products) 3. Development strategy

Training
Consultant training about ERP functionality Key user/division head training of business applications Client end-user training about operations

Key role as organizing business processes and tasks

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Process
Business specifications & requirements Allocation of technical staff Create project development plan Software product
Identify existing business activities & systems
Competitive advantages Off-the-shelf products available

Explore existing business processes

Train key users Perform customization or select modules Obtain management approval
CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Context
Knowledge about dealing with new circumstances Common source of change governmental regulation (accounting requirements) EXAMPLE:
Call center services
Individual operation response/action to inquiries Over time operator response data file is key asset Give every operator instructions on rules of action
Organizational habits
CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

HY-ICT
Private medium-sized InformationCommunications Technology consulting company Specialize in enterprise-wide software implementation
Customization & implementation of ERP systems such as Oracle, Microsoft

BUSINESS GOALS:
Serve SMEs in Vietnam
CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Knowledge Management Data

HY-ICT mission
Consult in implementing ERP packages

Two key business activities

Sales of ERP packages Training

Database
Historical project profiles Original product provider training & support Pre-sales activities
Visits, explore client software practices

Implementation
User training Product installation Customizing

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Initial Codes
13 common business processes
Organized into 5 categories of incidents
Time Business actors Business environment Business actions & Processes Business performance

Based on 8 interviews, 20 web pages coded by interview protocol Four types of concepts
Ends Means Process (behavior) Context (threshold)

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Knowledge Management as Training

1. Training for business consultants 2. Training for client key users or division heads 3. Training for client end-users Each had different problems
Ground knowledge on experience
By vendor (SAP or Oracle)

Clearly identify key business processes to sort training classes Organize training by business process
CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

Conclusions
HY-ICT revealed value of ERP consultants to SMEs Competitive pressures make ERP mandatory for some organizations
New regulations also create demand

KEY ISSUES
Applicability of ERP to SMEs How consultant knowledge bases can be developed Training issues

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg

KEY FINDING
Organizational knowledge behaves as a system
Manifests itself as business activities
Structure
Justification of ERP packages as business effects on the bottom line

Function
Focus of ERP implementation on organizing business processes and tasks, particularly training.

Process
Customized ERP packages as in-demand products

Context
Adopted best practices or maintained business acts as business habits

ERP can be very useful to Vietnamese SMEs

CONFENIS 2011, Aalborg