| Abstract: | An Enterprise Resource Planning system is a corporate wide information system which is used to integrate the business processes and resources of a company. When the business processes of a company increases and becomes complex, it is difficult to continue with the traditional decentralized information systems for timely decision making and other activities. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to examine the benefits and challenges of implementing ERP in ethio telecom and to recommend possible solutions for the gap created during the implementation. The data was collected using questionnaire and semi-structured interview from a target population. From the total of 621 target population, this research selected 243 samples and used stratified random sampling method to get the perspective of the system users. The researcher has used descriptive research method. The collected data was analyzed using mainly by computer such as SPSS version 25 and the findings were presented using tables. Then the data presented using descriptive statistics with the help of frequency and percentage to provide information. Mean and Standard deviation through measure of central tendency were also used to analyze data. The data that were collected by semi-structured interview questions and open-ended questions, interpreted manually. The result shows that the main benefits of implementing ERP includes; centralized control of operation, better resource management, decreased financial close cycle, improved decision making, quickened information response time, better Planning and quick information flow. On the other hand, the main challenges are difficulties in changing to new from old systems, network problem, inadequate training, and inadequate ongoing support, high costs of implementation and lack of top management commitment. From this fact the researcher recommend that the top management is expected to provide in the area of committing to the ERP system. In addition, the company should re-consider its system utilization since there are important features not yet utilized by the company, consider the way to give adequate training and development for both end user as well as super user to bring the required level of skill on the system. The finding is also identified the above discussed challenges and benefits for the company and suggests solutions to prepare proactively to minimize the effects of the challenges and to enjoy the benefits. |
