The impact of enterprises systems on sales performance: a study of ERP system implementations in Polish SMES

While having been the object of numerous studies, the link between ERP implementation and SMEs performance still requires understanding. This paper documents the effect of investments in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems on a firm’s sales performance and profitability measure such as return on sales (ROS). The models are based on a sample of 240 during time of defined activities in the sales process realized during the each month by 40 knowledge workers in each of 5 Polish SMEs announcements of ERP implementations. Our analysis of the financial benefits of these implementations yields mixed results. Our results are encouraging that we find the business activity that can persistent evidence of sales performance associated with ERP investments. This should help alleviate the companies that some have expressed about the viability of ERP given the highly publicized implementation problems at some firms.