A research study on the relationship between critical success factor management maturity and user satisfaction with ERP implementation projects

With today's economic difficulties that many corporations are facing, many information technology investments are under extreme scrutiny to demonstrate long-term strategic success. For many companies, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects are major capital investments that require reliable and accurate success assessment processes. User satisfaction is one of the most widely used measurements of IS success. Additionally, critical success factors (CSFs) are used in ERP implementation projects as an indicator of projected success. There exists a gap between measuring user satisfaction and critical success factor success. Based on the literature, no approach has been developed that allows ERP implementation project teams to determine their current state of CSF management and perform the necessary steps to increase project implementation success. To fill this gap, a new framework called CSF Management Maturity Model (CSFMM) is proposed. This framework is based on adaptations of the DeLone and McLean IS Success model (DeLone and McLean, 2002) and the Unified CSF Model (Esteves and Pastor, 2004). Data from a survey enabled testing of various associations between user satisfaction and the determinants of ERP implementation success and CSF management. A positive association between user satisfaction and the level of managing critical success factors was demonstrated. Practitioners and academia for purposes of increasing ERP implementation project success could utilize this confirmation, of the proposed theoretical framework.