A methodology for ERP misfit analysis

Commercial off-the-shelf ERP systems have been adopted by many large companies to support their inter- and intra-business processes. Midsize market firms are now also investing their use. However, research has indicated that about three quarters of attempted ERP projects are unsuccessful: a common problem encountered in adopting ERP software has been the issue of fit or alignment.This paper presents an ERP selection methodology, grounded in task-technology fits theory, for measuring, at a high-level, the misfit between ERP candidates and the enterprise's requirements ex-ante implementation. With this approach, organizations can more easily and systematically determine the locations of possible misfit and their degree of importance, thereby understanding the risk in their implementing an ERP. Our research thus contributes practical solutions to the problem of misfit analysis and ERP package selection.