ASSESSMENT ON THE PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP) IMPLEMENTATION THE CASE OF AFRICA UNION COMMISSION

Abstract

The world has become more digitalized. Businesses are depending on technology to help them enhance their business processes. Organizations are looking for an information system that can handle massive workloads. This is where Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems come into play. An ERP integrates different subsystems into one huge system that shares one database. This study was designed to assess the existing practice and challenges of System Application Product (SAP) ERP in African Union Commission (AUC) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Related literature was reviewed; theoretical frame work and models of other scholars were used to know facts related to ERP. The data were obtained through questionnaires that were distributed to 287 employees of the AUC at head office in which 253 were fully completed and returned. The questionnaire was distributed to the employees based on the stratified random method to get the perspective of the system users. Interviews were also conducted with two HR and finance Mangers and three SAP system experts. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 20. The findings of the study indicated that SAP ERP implementation supported the Organization by reducing the financial cycle time, decision making cycle time and procurement lead time. On the other hand there are challenges related to, lack of appropriate training for all system users, the deployed ERP system doesn’t make the working process fully automated, the organization still using both manual and automated working system, Finally, the reporting formats as per the user friendly nature of the system has been identified as a major challenge in relation to the decision making activity and other stakeholders usage.