Wen-Hsien Tsai

Selecting management systems for sustainable development in SMEs: A novel hybrid model based on DEMATEL, ANP, and ZOGP

In recent years, sustainable development strategy for enterprises has become an important issue around the globe. There are four management systems (i.e. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, and SA 8000) that can help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to create sustainable competitive advantages. In view of the fact that the shortage of resources - time, personnel, as well as money - rules most SMEs, this paper proposes a novel hybrid model for selecting optimal management systems under resource constraints, and illustrates the practical application of such a model through an example. This model first applies the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach to construct interrelations among criteria that organizations require. The second step is to obtain the criterion weights through ANP. Lastly, ANP is integrated with a zero-one goal programming (ZOGP) model to obtain optimal alternatives with desired organizational benefits by fully utilizing limited resources. The purpose of this study is to present an integrated approach that could cope with the interdependencies among various criteria and deal with the constraints on resources, and to demonstrate how to select management systems for phased implementation. Therefore, the main contribution of this paper is to enhance the capacity of SMEs to effectively address the challenge of sustainable development through a novel model of prioritizing available management systems.

An empirical investigation of the impacts of internal/external facilitators on the project success of ERP: A structural equation model

In recent years many companies have improved their business performance and competitive position by implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This study goes beyond the boundaries of an individual organization to develop an integrated framework for successful implementation of ERP systems. We also discuss the internal/external facilitators which make this possible. Meanwhile, the authors utilize the SERVQUAL instrument, project management and information systems success theory in our empirically investigation of the roles and interdependent relationships of system vendors, consultants, project management and system performance, based on existing measures suitable for this study. The results reveal a significant causal relationship between system providers, implementation consultants and project management, and project to system performance, except directly from SERVQUAL to system performance. It is believed that an understanding of the relationships between the relevant factors for ERP success is necessary to satisfy the adopters requirement, both practically and theoretically.

A MCDM approach for sourcing strategy mix decision in IT projects

It is widely accepted that a business requires constantly evolving strategies that can not only adapt to external environmental change but also identify internal value-added activities and, even more effectively, achieve the goals of management. A sourcing decision about whether to keep IT functions in-house or contract with a third-party service provider is nevertheless entirely strategic and contingent upon organizational goals and contextual and project-specific factors. In order to adequately evaluate such sourcing decision and ensure that tasks can be assigned appropriately, this article proposes a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach to achieve effective problem-solving by combining the following three methods: decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), analytical network process (ANP), and zero-one goal programming (ZOGP). The final research results reveal that an organization can - simultaneously - not only take advantage of its internal or external resources to set priorities for task arrangements within the portfolio of sourcing decisions, but also optimize operating strategy and management despite limited resources after consulting with the expert panel.

The relationship between implementation variables and performance improvement of ERP systems

This study explores the relationship between implementation variables and performance improvements of ERP systems. DeLone and McLeans (1992) information systems (IS) success framework is adopted to develop performance measures to evaluate improvements in the performance of ERP systems after implementing ERP systems. The implementation variables investigated in this study are the ERP implementation status, ERP system source and ERP implementation strategy. Structured questionnaires were sent to companies listed in the top 5000 largest corporations of Taiwan. The research findings indicate that the strongest ERP systems performance improvement comes from companies that implement non-packaged ERP systems, using integral planning, and employing all the planned ERP modules.

An empirical investigation of the impacts of ERP consultant selections and project management on ERP is success assessment

Many companies regard Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation as a project management (PM). ERP project implementation is usually costly and time-consuming. To save time and lower the cost, many companies seek for the help from consultants to implement ERP project. Therefore, the selection of ERP consultant turns out to be a key success factor to attain the goal. The ignorance of the various factors of ERP consultant selection will lead to a failure in ERP project implementation. In this study, we will examine the impact of ERP consultant selection factors on ERP project management and the impact of ERP project management on the performance improvement on ERP systems. In the study, ANOVA and Regression analysis were applied to examine the impact of the ERP consultant selection on the ERP project management, and the impact of the ERP project management in the DeLone and McLeans IS success model.

Trends and developments in electronic lending: a preliminary research in Taiwan

This paper looked at E-LOAN benchmarking operation and reported on the issues related to the development of internet-based lending in Taiwan from an evolutionary perspective. Some driving forces for the changes and the opportunities and challenges offered by the growth of online lending business will be explored. In addition, authors not only provided a real-life Taiwanese example of how to initiate the development on the right way but also proposed a template framework with two dimensional studies. At last, this study concluded with some critical advantages and strategic factors to the case company as well as the industry generally.

The relationship between planning & control risk and ERP project success

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects have often been found to be complex and risky to implement in business enterprises. Thus, an understanding of the risk factors inherent in implementing ERP projects can help to reduce the incidence of failure. The results not only revealed which planning & control risk factors are associated with ERP project implementation, but also showed that management must be aware of the critical risk factors and their impact on ERP project success. Based on this studys findings, management must mitigate or eliminate significant risk factors such as schedule overrun, budget overrun, unclear goals, and ineffective communication. This intervention would increase the success rate of an ERP project.

The Evaluation of Post Implementation ERP Investment Performance by DEA Approach

The information technology (IT) management has become one of the critical factors that enterprises want to assess the business benefits and performances of ERP systems. This research tries to evaluate the relationship between ERP continuous investment and technical efficiency by using DEA approach. This study also utilizes the Tobit regression to investigate the relationship between efficiency scores and ERP continuous investment based on the concept of total costing ownership (TCO) for technology assets. The research results show as follows: (1) Maintenance expenses of ERP system whether on line or on the scene, has a favorable impact on companys technical efficiency. (2) Salary expenses of ERP personnel, has a favorable impact on companys technical efficiency. (3) Training expenses of ERP staffs has no significant impact on companys technical efficiency. (4) The company invests on ERP system continuously has positive affect on technical efficiency. (5) The local ERP systems show higher technical efficiency than international brands for those surveyed companies in Taiwan.

An analysis of ERP systems based on n-tier architecture

The proliferation of ERP systems naturally leads to an intriguing question of products classification. In this paper, a framework for analyzing ERP systems is proposed. This framework includes various IT infrastructures that can be incorporated in the n-tier architecture. By using cluster analysis, different groups of ERP systems are classified to verify the correctness of the framework. The results may be useful for ERP vendors to improve their products strategy and help companies to evaluate most suitable ERP products to satisfy their requirements