Because enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems integrate the basic functional areas of business and transform the organization in terms of how work is performed, their implementation and maintenance is a challenging activity. Therefore, investigating the factors that influence the success of ERP projects has been an important topic in information systems (IS) and software project management research.

It is rare for an organization to possess all the expertise and competencies needed to implement an ERP system. As a consequence, external entities, such as business consultants and ERP vendors, are part of the ERP project implementation team. This may lead to an ERP implementation that is on time and within budget, but it may not yield the expected business payoffs. Therefore, investigating which business consultant and system-provider factors impact ERP success is an important research problem.

This paper tested whether the satisfaction of SERVQUAL factors--tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy--by systems providers and consultants impacted the degree of improvement on system performance.

The paper is written for researchers. The focus is on describing in detail the research methodology and the manipulation of the survey responses. Because the survey questions that operationalize the constructs used in the study are not shared, the reader has to go to other papers to understand what is being measured. The paper also fails to discuss how practitioners can use the insights uncovered in this research in future ERP implementation projects.