=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1355/paper2
|storemode=property
|title=Spreadsheets in an ERP Environment - Not What the Doctor Ordered
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1355/paper2.pdf
|volume=Vol-1355
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/icse/Newman15
}}
==Spreadsheets in an ERP Environment - Not What the Doctor Ordered==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1355/paper2.pdf
Spreadsheets in an ERP environment: not what the
doctor ordered
No’am Newman
Doctoral candidate in Business Administration, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University
Kivunim.noam@gmail.com
Abstract Procedures and reports are written (and debugged) by
Modern ERP systems contain flexible report generators but the trained professionals
tendency exists for users to export data to spreadsheets for
manipulation, reporting and decision making. A purported A personal anecdote from the company in which I work
reason for this is that some users are more familiar with personal
reporting tools (spreadsheets) as opposed to enterprise reporting
(which employs about 150 people), dating from 2012: the
tools. The author's doctoral research intends to measure the comptroller required about five work days to put together a
extent of spreadsheet usage in ERP environments and to series of monthly reports by means of spreadsheets. When
determine which factors facilitate this. these reports were implemented by the ERP system, the time
required was reduced to a few hours. This simple example
Index Terms—ERP, spreadsheets, feral systems shows how using ERP can greatly reduce the time required to
create complex reports when the data already resides within
INTRODUCTION the ERP system.
The majority of spreadsheet research is concerned with the
data contained within the spreadsheet; little attention has been There are cases where users of an ERP system do not trust the
paid to the source of those data. The SME business sector (on stored data and decide that they will maintain their own
which my research is based) frequently bases its IT on system and ensure its accuracy (feral systems). Whilst it is true
spreadsheets, even though “for large spreadsheets, the issue is that ERP depends on data which accurately reflects reality,
how many errors there are, not whether an error exists" [1]. and that inaccurate input will lead to inaccurate output (and
thus to making wrong decisions), it would be better if these
In the past few decades, implementations of ERP systems in users spent their energy on working within the system (by
SMEs are becoming more and more frequent. Despite the improving the ERP data) so that all users can benefit from
flexible report generators which modern ERP systems contain, more accurate data, instead of keeping the accurate data to
the tendency still exists for users to export data to spreadsheets themselves.
for manipulation, reporting and decision making. Users also
make use of feral systems (data contained in non-officially RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES
sanctioned programs) to store data which should be stored in The research questions of my doctoral research are:
the ERP system. Yen et al. note that “employees in the 1. What is the prevalence of feral system usage in Israeli
company often use spreadsheet applications as an alternative SMEs which have implemented ERP?
to replacing missing functions in ERP systems, but this leads 2. What are the factors which facilitate feral system
to large amounts of manual work, which is time consuming, usage in those companies?
productivity impairing, and the creation of errors” [2]. 3. What are the factors that influence an ERP user in
using external reporting tools (feral systems) in
SMEs are generally dynamic, frequently making new demands preference to internal reporting tools (ERP)?
from their ERP systems. As modern ERP systems are 4. Do users who use feral systems have the necessary
extendable, allowing trained developers to add functionality competency to do so?
(tables, screens, data manipulation routines, reports), such new
demands can always be met from the ERP system. Advantages The operational hypotheses are:
which ERP systems offer over spreadsheets are: H1: there are specific factors which facilitate feral system
Data locking on a per-record level usage in Israeli SMEs which have implemented ERP.
Automatic backups H2: there are specific factors which cause users to prefer
Security (not everyone has permission to see external reporting tools to internal reporting tools.
everything) H3: users who employ feral systems (spreadsheets) lack the
Audit trails required competency.
Referential integrity
Easy production of reports with different parameters The research will concentrate on identifying factors leading to
Only one version – which is the most up-to-date feral system usage. These factors can be divided into two
version - of the data
classes: those dependent on the SME ('company factors') and of spreadsheet programming, which bodies such as EuSpRIG
personal factors. and SEMS try to disseminate.
The company factors include position within the ERP life Not all of the above factors are expected to influence feral
cycle, business sector, number of licenses owned, degree of system usage. The decision to adopt or ignore the ERP system
customisation, production approach and the degreee of the is known as “post-adoptive behaviour” [8].
CEO’s involvement in IT.
METHODOLOGY
There are three common models of the ERP life cycle [3, 4, 5] The research will be carried out by means of two separate
whose main difference lies in their terminology. The research questionnaires, one for companies and one for users. This
is primarily interested in companies which are in the division was created as it is unlikely that the average user will
'evolution' phase of the ERP life cycle which is generally be aware of the company data. The user questionnaire has
reached after about three years of using ERP. In this stage, undergone several revision stages which resulted in the
advanced capabilities are integrated which provide benefits removal of extraneous questions and clarification of the
such as advanced planning and scheduling, supply-chain remaining ones. This questionnaire now consists of 45
management and customer relationship management. questions.
Four types of production approach have been identified [6]: Possibly the most important conclusion reached from the
make to stock, assemble to order, make to order and engineer preliminary pilot stage was that the questionnaire should be
to order. MTS and ATO items will be expected to have a well- translated into Russian: many Russian immigrants are capable
defined bill of materials and so companies manufacturing with of working with ERP and talking in Hebrew, but their Hebrew
these approaches will be expected to use standard ERP reading skills are lacking which would reduce the response
techniques for production and costing. On the other hand, rate.
companies which manufacture with the MTO or ETO
approaches may well decide that standard ERP techniques are The pilot study in an SME using ERP is taking place at the
not cost effective. time of writing, so whilst no data are currently available,
preliminary results should be available by the time of
Personal factors can be divided into two categories: 'external'' presentation. In order to prevent bias, employees who work in
and 'internal'. The external factors are: age; years of the same company as the researcher will not participate in the
experience with ERP, department, education, gender and final research.
mother tongue.
REFERENCES
The internal factors include spreadsheet competency, [1] Panko R. (2008): "What we know about spreadsheet errors",
spreadsheet self-efficacy, sense of ownership (with regard to Journal of End-User Computing, 10 (1998, revised 2008), 15-21.
the data), learning style and degree of satisfaction with ERP. [2] Yen, T. S., Idrus, R. and Yusof, U. K. (2011): "A framework for
The literature survey for these internal factors was primarily classifying misfits between enterprise resource planning (ERP)
systems and business strategies", Asian Academy of Management
based on papers published in journals of applied psychology Journal, 16(2), 53-75.
where the research was performed with users of computer [3] Kwon, T. H. and Zmud, R. W. (1987): "Unifying the fragmented
systems. No papers were found which specifically researched models of information systems implementation", in Critical issues in
psychological constructs with users of ERP systems, and so information systems research (pp. 227-251), John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
this doctoral research might be considered pioneering. [4] Esteves de Sousa, J.M. and Pastor, J.A. (1999): "An ERP Life
cycle based research agenda", First International workshop in ERP,
Another factor which might contribute to feral system usage is Venice Italy 1999.
user training. Training is normally given in order to explain [5] Markus, M. L. and Tanis, C. (2000): "The enterprise systems
how to do something and not why to do something (another experience - from adoption to success", in "Framing the domains of
IT research: Glimpsing the future through the past", Cincinnati OH,
way of expressing this is that training generally deals with Pinaflex Educational Resources, pp173-207.
technical competency and not with business context) [7]. The [6] Bertrand, J. W. M. and Muntslag, D. R. (1993): "Production
average ERP user may be competent in the areas where control in engineer-to-order firms", International Journal of
training was given but may not be able to abstract the essence Production Economics, 30, 3-22
of the system in order to extrapolate new solutions. [7] Betros H. and Teplitz, C.J. (2011): “Managing end user resistance
in ERP installations”, POMS 22 nd annual conference, Reno, Nevada
Whilst ERP users will have received appropriate training, rare USA (Abstract number 020-0294).
is the employee who has received formal training in [8] Jasperson, J., Carter, P.E. and Zmud, R.W. (2005): "A
spreadsheets; their knowledge is normally based on snippets of comprehensive conceptualization of post-adoptive behaviours
associated with information technology enabled work systems", MIS
(not necessarily accurate or efficient) information which are Quarterly, 29(3), 525-557.
passed from hand to hand. Employees who do use
spreadsheets are generally unaware of professional standards With thanks to Professor P. O’Farrell and Dr F. Hermans.