Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology, G: Interdisciplinary, Volume 23 Issue 1

managing, and training ERP project stakeholders (Dezdar & Ainin, 2011). With the Covid-19 new normal and after adapting to work from home and aligning with online work activities, Change Management has been more familiarized with employees. Therefore, Change Management has become a necessity for managing their operational activities. Thus, the findings of the current study, doubts whether Change Management is a critical success factor especially for ERP implementation success in a remote setting, since the H2 is rejected statistically. According to Motwani et al. (2005), a company that encourages its employees to participate actively in the workplace is more likely to succeed. In par with the study findings, the current study accepts the H3 which indicates that Communication is a critical success factor in remote ERP implementation from system users’ perspective. The finding further emphasizes, a corporation that implements open communication is more successful than one that does not. Further, the findings exaggerate the statement where it was claimed that communication is a crucial technique for managers to use when attempting to overcome employee resistance to change (Dezdar & Sulaiman, 2009). Mandal and Gunasekaran (2004) stated that implementation strategy is the most critical CSF for successful ERP adoption. The current study findings are also on par with Mandal and Gunasekaran (2004), since hypothesis 4 is accepted, which states that the Implementation Strategy is a critical success factor in remote ERP implementation from the system users’ perspective. It is identified that having a proper implementation strategy is important to an ERP implementation as it helps to complete the project successfully. Considering the Implementation Strategy, it can be decided how the implementation activities need to be planned, whether the project will be conducted as phase-wise or in a big bang approach, deciding exact project milestones in each phase provides more smooth resource allocation and smooth transitioning into the business process. Also, before moving into project implementation, providing prototypes enhances the reliability and effectiveness of the ERP system. User training and education, according to Somers and Nelson (2004), are critical for deploying an ERP system. Further, in previous literature, it is also mentioned that to ensure that system user training is successful, it should begin well before the implementation process begins (Umble et al., 2003). Thus, the current study findings are also on par with the stated previous study findings since hypothesis 5 is accepted, which indicates that User Training and Education is a critical success factor in remote ERP implementation from system users’ perspective. Moreover, when planning for a new system, one of the most significant aspects to consider is education and training programs, which, along with other factors, are essential ingredients for successful implementation (Mabert et al., 2003). User Training and Education is a critical factor that ensures ERP implementation success, whether ERP implementation is conducted while the project team being physically present at the customer site or ERP implementation that is completely done remotely. After having proper training and education, system users will be more familiarized with the ERP system and will have the capability to continue their business operations through the ERP system effectively with minimum supervision since ERP consultants will not be available at the customer site even after the project Go-Live. Previous literature has empirically examined the impact of project management on ERP implementation in a physical setting and proved to be one CSF in physical ERP implementation success (Ranjan & Jha, 2018), and according to Nah et al. (2001), good project management is stated to be critical in ERP adoption projects. Although the stated previous literature discusses project management to be a critical success factor, the current study findings reject hypothesis 6, which indicates that Project Management is a CSF in remote ERP implementation. The deviation of the current study findings from the previous literature might be because, system user cannot see the presence of the project team, including the project manager and ERP consultants, in the customer site as usual in a typical ERP implementation setting, which might have been the main reason for the differences in perspectives. The current study was focused on the Sri Lankan setting due to budgetary and time constraints. Further, the study considered only 269 system users in the sample representing the manufacturing sector. However, increasing the sample size and taking sample from different sectors would have increased the generalization ability of the findings of the current study to the Sri Lankan context. Also, since the current study adopted the positivism philosophy having followed the quantitative approach, the current study could not identify new avenues or drastically new factors which would have impacted the remote ERP implementation success from users’ perspective that is not stated in the previous literature which was mainly focusing the ERP implementation success on the physical presence setting. The current study findings would aid in deploying remote ERP system implementation successfully and would help the companies to reduce the cycle time taken for making the decisions which would increase performance efficiencies. Based on the present study, User Training and Education, Communication, and Implementation Strategy are the critical success factors which contribute significantly to remote ERP implementation success. Finally, although Top Management Commitment, Change Management, © 2023 Global Journals Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology Volume XXIII Issue I Version I 45 ( )G Year 2023 Critical Success Factors of Remote ERP Implementation: From System Users’ Perspective