Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems in Higher Education: A Deeper Look at Their Failures and the Way Forward

ERP systems are the life blood of institutions of higher education but however they require substantial investments to implement. Many institutions of higher education are not deriving the expected benefits from the ERP implementation due to ERP failures. The aim of the study was to critically examine the causes of ERP failures in higher education from the primary studies. The study used thematic synthesis to generate new concepts from the primary studies. The results that came from the inductive analysis were that the ERP technology is failing to be integrated in higher education; stakeholders requirements are not considered in ERP systems development and the productivity of the stakeholders are not being enhanced by the ERP systems. The study made the recommendation that there is need to identify critical stakeholders to be involved in requirements engineering to preclude ERP failures.