Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a theoretical model to measure the impact of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems and moderating relationships of system and process integration on business value. Design/methodology/approach – ERP and CRM systems are analysed with the resource-based view theory and measured by their impact on business value, having in consideration the moderation of system and process integration. The model was tested and analysed with data collected by Microsoft, from firms that have adopted both ERP and CRM systems in their organisation. Findings – ERP system is found to be an important asset to business value, but CRM systems’ impact on business value is found to be not significant. System integration as moderator of ERP or CRM system is found to be not significant but has a positive and significant impact on business value. For process integration, the study finds that it is significant only when moderating the CRM system variable. Research limitations/implications – The model shows that the moderating effects of system and process integration are important variables for understanding the joint business value of ERP and CRM. Practical implications – Adopting an ERP system and ensuring system integration provides a direct impact on business value. In order for a CRM system to have a positive impact on business value, process integration with ERP system must be ensured. Originality/value – This study provides new knowledge on how ERP and CRM systems used together may positively influence value from IT investments, and how systems integration and process integration provide business value.
7. Concluding remarks
Our work focussed on measuring the impact of ERP and CRM systems, as well as the moderating effect of system and process integration on business value. For that, we developed a research model based on RBV theory. To test the proposed model, data were collected by Microsoft. In total, 125 valid responses from the Iberian region (Portugal and Spain) were used to test the conceptual model. According to the results and their significance, we propose that companies continue to implement ERP systems in order to create business value but at the same time not neglect the importance that the integration between those ERP systems and the broader IT infrastructure might bring to their business value. Our results show that ERP systems still have a direct impact on business value by themselves, so they should be kept as a priority to companies. Moreover, firms should take into consideration the integration between business processes and CRM systems, as this will definitely impact the business value extracted from these systems. CRM systems need to be part of a broad set of business processes and not just another software package in which data are stored but without effect on business processes or decision making. We find our study to be unique in the way we approach the integration between ERP and CRM systems as drivers of business value, and also in the way we bring system and process integration to moderate the two IT resource variables. We also hope that this study and the model we developed and tested can contribute to further research in this area, for example, by extending it to other systems such as e-business and supply chain management systems.
