ERP in Higher Education: Implications, Challenges and Benefits

Running head: ERP IN HIGHER EDUCATION
ERP IN HIGHER EDUCATION
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ERP IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Table of Contents
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in higher education: A literature review and
implications................................................................................................................................2
Enterprise systems education: where are we? Where are we going?.........................................3
Enterprise systems education: new directions & challenges for the future...............................4
Enterprise-wide technological transformation in higher education: The LASO model............5
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system as an innovative technology in higher education
context in Egypt.........................................................................................................................6
The San Diego city schools: enterprise resource planning return on investment......................7
ERP systems in the higher education sector: a descriptive study..............................................8
Improving the quality and productivity of the higher education sector.....................................9
The critical success factors of ERP implementation in higher education in Saudi Arabia: A
case study.................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

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ERP IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Introduction
ERP system refers to enterprise resource planning, which is a systematic automation
of the business processes and workflow of an organization, undertaken for the purpose of
ensuring that there are no disruptions in the work processes, and also to save costs and
improve efficiency. However, the concept of ERP systems had not been very much popular in
higher education until recent times. This is because of the fact that ERP itself is a new
innovation and it was primarily brought about for the purpose of improving business
processes. However, since at present the concept has been becoming highly prevalent in the
field, a proper investigation is required to understand how exactly ERP is impacting in the
higher educational sector.
This report aims at developing a portfolio by summarizing 9 distinct articles that have
studied the effects and implications of ERP in higher education, to come up with a
comprehensive way of listing all of the possible issues, concerns, benefits and insights that
are required to be known for implementing ERP systems in higher education.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in higher education: A
literature review and implications.
This is an article by Abugah and Sanzogni (2010), in which the authors argue about
the implications of ERP in higher education in a more holistic approach. The research is
mainly based on literature review, and is therefore, purely based on past studies on the
subject. The authors suggest in this article that the benefits and the impacts that have been
posed by ERP systems in higher education need a more rigorous evaluation. That is to say,
most of the studies that have been conducted in the field mainly focus on the main things that
are related to ERP, which are technical issues and implementation processes. It is for this
reason why the authors suggest that the main thing that has to be properly investigated in this

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ERP IN HIGHER EDUCATION
regard is to find an explanation regarding how ERP’s effect an institution’s workflow, or how
well or poorly it aligns with a specific user in a particular setting. The idea of how ERP’s
work with a user group has been prominently highlighted by the authors consistently
throughout the research paper.
For future directions, the authors suggest that the main thing that6 has to be
considered is the fact that the need for ERP’s in higher education is becoming increasingly
important, and it is for this reason why the evaluation on how ERP’s have an effect on each
of the components in an organization is of critical value. These components include staffs,
tasks, quality of services and even outcomes. The main thing that the authors point out is the
need to come up with a proper conceptualized framework for each of these factors, in which
the ERP’s would work to understand the effect of it on each of the factors. The paper also
argues that focus should be shifted from technical and organizational perspectives, to user
perspectives, that create outcomes and values for the ERP systems.
Enterprise systems education: where are we? Where are we going?.
This paper by Antonucci et al. (2004) aims at identifying the level at which ERP in
higher education is currently at, and how far it actually has to go from here, and also to find
the direction in which the system is going. The authors point out that the main thing that has
to be noted is the fact that enterprise systems have a huge benefit for organizations that
implement them, as it is a highly beneficial tool for the purpose of cost and labour saving.
This is the reason why there has been an increasing demand and implementation of ERP
systems across several and various businesses, and they have proven to be highly effective
and mature. However, the authors point out that ERP in higher education is a comparatively
new concept and therefore, it might not be as mature as the ERP system in other established
businesses.