Benefits of Enterprise Systems Use

Realizing business value and identifying the benefits arising from implementations of enterprise systems remains a significant challenge for both research and practice. A review of existing work on enterprise systems benefits reveals some of the gaps in current research. This paper presents findings from an ongoing research project to develop a framework for investigating enterprise systems benefits and business change, which addresses the identified limitations of previous research and provides a more detailed analysis of benefits and their contextual variation. Using an iterative content analysis, this preliminary study provides a classification of enterprise systems benefits. The classification, based on 32 case studies is developed into a four level framework to guide the analysis and representation of benefits. The current framework is presented and illustrated by four exemplary company cases. Finally, some future applications of the framework are outlined.