“The Relationship between Quality Characteristics and the Effectiveness of ERP in Post Implementation Stage at UNRWA’s Gaza Field Office”

Abstract

Many organizations in the world either commercial or service, started to adopt new information systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), in order to overcome challenges, keep surviving in the market and to gain donor’s confidence. Therefore, among these organizations, there are international and relief organizations, for example United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which considered the biggest relief agency taking care of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA started applying ERP (REACH) in April-2015 in all its operations areas (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza), in order to improve the efficiency of its processes, and to overcome the difficulties, which existed in the old system (RAMCO). This study aims to investigate the relationship between quality characteristics (system quality, service quality, information quality, compatibility, and complexity) and effectiveness of ERP in post implementation stage at UNRWA’s employees in Gaza Field, and to identify the impact of these characteristics on system usage (individual and organizational impact). The study followed the descriptive analytic approach, and used a comprehensive survey method through a developed questionnaire to measure the research variables. (184) questionnaires were distributed, (174) usable questionnaires were received. The study found that three of independent variables (system quality, information quality & compatibility) affect directly and positively on ERP effectiveness, also the study reveals that (system quality & information quality) affect directly and positively on individual usage. On the other hand, the study reveals that there was no significant difference among the respondents, toward each field due to gender, educational level, age, current job, level, and years of experience. The study recommends that, there is a need to increase the awareness about REACH usage benefits, enhance training, and facilitate effective communications to sort out REACH problems quickly and easily.