Pre-implementation roadmap : integration of readiness assessment with system options and selection methods

![CDATA[This paper discusses current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation practices and presents a pre-implementation roadmap, a means of improving current practices, mainly through eliminating causes of failures and ensuring critical success factors during the implementation. The pre-implementation roadmap is based on the concept of ERP readiness assessment, which integrates with selection methods and system options, and is expected to provide better planning, control and execution of implementation activities. The implementation cycle, supplemented by pre-implementation activities including organization's readiness assessment, is expected to increase success of ERP implementations through eliminating main causes of failures. ERP readiness assessment is based on the knowledge of critical success factors and common causes of failures, when making an assessment on a particular organization. It is shown that ERP readiness assessment can make a significant contribution towards a successful ERP implementation. It provides organization's readiness with an objective measure as a percentage, and can also be used to compare with what is required for a successful ERP implementation, depending on ERP system requirements, selection methods, and the project scope. The study concludes that ERP readiness assessment is a critical part of the pre-implementation roadmap and can provide useful information at various stages of the implementation cycle. Further, it highlights the need for further research, in developing a high level framework incorporating pre-implementation roadmap with the current implementation cycle, for better planning and monitoring of implementation projects.]]