Using Fuzzy Flowsort Inference System to Rank the Factors Leading to Failure for ERP Projects among Iranian Enterprises

Abstract

The survival guide to competitiveness for organizations is to become closer to the customers and deliver value-added products and services in the shortest time. This, in turn, requires integration of the business processes of the enterprise, which is the stronghold of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). On the other hand, most ERP projects are believed to be doomed to failures. In this research, the factors leading to failure of ERP projects implementation in Iranian enterprises were identified and surveyed. Subsequently, the factors have been classified and ranked consulting the experts and using fuzzy flowsort inference system. For this purpose, the failure factors were extracted reviewing the previous related researches. After that, the experts merged the synonymous and homogeneous factors. The remaining 58 factors were classified in seven categories including: organizational, project management, human resources, managerial, vendors and consultants, processes-related, and technical factors. The factors were prioritized using the experts' opinions and were ranked utilizing fuzzy flowsort inference system. Finally, ten criteria were determined as the most critical failure factors of ERP projects implementation in Iranian enterprises.