A Framework for Adoption of ERP by Banks: the Case Study of Kenya Commercial Banks
Abstract
Choosing a particular operational system and software can have a significant effect on a
company's formulated business strategy. The investment required in an enterprise resource
planning (ERP) system is very high and inappropriate selection of the system could present
difficulties for the company. Therefore meticulous planning is required in the implementation
process and only knowledge is needed to increase chances of success in of implementation of
ERP which is one of the goals of this research which was to establish the factors which
influences the ERP adoption by Kenya commercial banks. Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) systems are configurable information systems packages that integrate information and
information-based processes within and across functional areas in an organization. ERP
systems promise seamless integration of all the information flowing through the organization.
Acquisition of ERP systems often lead to huge financial investments that could adversely
affect an organization's performance. It is therefore important for organizations to be able to
evaluate their needs for ERPs before investing in them. Equally, it is imperative that
organizations be able to evaluate the impact of these systems on their performance. The study
identified important factors that influence ERP adoption in by Kenya commercial banks. The
study employed a survey research design and was carried out in the population of interest of
this study which was commercial banks operating in Kenya. Currently there are forty six
banks operating in Kenya, the sample size for the study included 10 commercial banks that
have currently adopted ERP systems.
A preliminary confirmatory study was done in Equity bank. The study being a survey meant
that questionnaires was distributed to all selected commercial banks in Kenya, three
employees in each bank were selected from the operations, IT and user department of each
bank. A pilot study was initially carried out to establish the reliability and validity of the
instruments. Reliability was determined using the test-retest method as well as the
Cronbach's coefficient formula. The reliability coefficients vary between values of 0.00 and
1.00 case of this study. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics which included the
mean, standard deviation and multiple regressions with the help of statistical package for
social sciences (SPSS).
Findings were presented using frequencies, percentages and means. The research findings
showed that organizational factors which included top management factors, banks' size,
absorption capacity and internal need of the bank are the most important factors when it
came to the factors influencing adoption of ERP. Other factors included the environmental
factors, technological and individual factors respectively. The study recommended that it is
important for a bank to perform a thorough research and audit of the internal systems before
implementing ERP.
Publisher
University of Nairobi