A survey on the recent research literature on ERP systems

The research literature on ERP systems has exponentially grown in recent years. In a domain, where new concepts and techniques are constantly introduced, it is therefore, of interest to analyze the recent trends of this literature, which is only partially included in the research papers published. Therefore, we have chosen to primarily analyze the literature of the last 2 years (2003 and 2004), on the basis of a classification according to six categories: implementation of ERP; optimisation of ERP; management through ERP; the ERP software; ERP for supply chain management; case studies. This survey confirms that the research on ERP systems is still a growing field, but has reached some maturity. Different research communities address this area from various points of view. Among the research axes that are now active, we can, especially, notice a growing interest on the post-implementation phase of the projects, on the customization of ERP systems, on the sociological aspects of the implementation, on the interoperability of the ERP with other systems and on the return on investment of the implementations.