An Evaluation Model of User Satisfaction with Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

Abstract

Over the past decade, organizations have made important investments in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, despite huge investments, many ERP projects failed to achieve corporate goals and led companies to financial difficulties. Accordingly, an appropriate choice of method for ERP success evaluation is much needed. Assessing post‑implementation success of ERP systems from the perspective of individual users is crucial because underachievement of the implemented ERP systems may be due in part to underutilization of the systems by the users. User satisfaction is regarded as being one of the most important constructs to evaluate the success of an ERP system from a user perspective. Many conceptualizations are proposed in the literature to measure this construct. From these, the End User Computing Satisfaction (EUCS) instrument developed by Doll & Torkzadeh (1988) seems to be the most appropriate regarding the unique context of ERP systems. Many reported ERP failures and the lack in agreement as to the way to evaluate their contribution to enterprise performance, have led us to conduct an empirical investigation of user satisfaction with several ERP systems. Empirical data was collected using a survey questionnaire which was distributed to ERP users working in four large Tunisian industrial groups. A total of 174 responses were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. This study offers a new conceptualisation of ERP user satisfaction. We identify two underlying components of satisfaction: satisfaction with ERP technological features and satisfaction with its content. The findings of this study are useful to IT managers and directors by helping them to evaluate the key components of ERP user satisfaction and then to choose the appropriate ERP for their organization, and also to act separately on one or both of these two components to improve overall satisfaction. Managers should consider, on the one hand, the intrinsic attributes of the system such as user‑friendly interface, easy to use features and presentation quality of the screen and, on the other hand, the quality of information content and its fit with the task supported.