Technological innovation in small and medium sized enterprises: Proposal of a plan to acquire enterprise resource planning systems (ERP)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show the results of research carried out in order to develop and validate an Ideal Plan to acquire Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) concerning the characteristics of small and medium sized enterprises (SME). The Plan offers an overview of the steps a firm should follow in the process of adopting ERP, and guides, not the selection of the system or supplier, but the evaluation of the appropriateness and the impacts in organizational changes. These changes are not secondary neither peripherical to adopting ERP, but in fact, define the system's potential operation and, as a result the efficacy of the acquisition. The field research was carried out in two steps: the first one investigated ten companies, after a bibliography review regarding adopting the information technology models; this step was useful to adjust the theoretical concepts to the reality of SMEs. The second phase was done after the Ideal Plan was developed, with the proposal of validating it in two enterprises. The research has limitations, but the results are relevant due to the scarcity of appropriate literature concerning ERPs and SME. The model which was developed has proved to be more detailed than the enterprises' previous procedures and, therefore, it may be useful to SMEs in innovation technological phases.