Empirical analysis of factors influencing ERP implementation in Indian SMEs

Small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) are opting for ERP (enterprises resource planning) implementation to stay competitive in International market. The aim of the SMEs to opt for ERP implementation principally is to manage and standardize business process effectively so as to stream line variety of local and global compliance requirement of customer. In developing countries like India, SMEs represent spinal cord of Indian economy which is contributing about 17 % to India's Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and 45 % to aggregate industrial output as per FICCI (The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) report, 2013. However SMEs are facing challenges to provide high quality product at low cost. Literature shows successful implementation of ERP in large scale enterprises however unable to derive ERP implementation in Indian SMEs. This paper focuses on identification of factors for successful implementation of ERP in Indian SMEs through exhaustive industrial survey in different type of industries ranging from manufacturing to service sector. Further paper describes the procedure for analyzing the identified factors so as to prioritize them for successful implementation of ERP in SMEs.