ERP selection process 251 Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 7 No. 3, 2001, pp. 251-257. # MCB University Press, 1463-7154 ERP selection process in midsize and large organizations Edward Bernroider and Stefan Koch Department of Information Business, Vienna University of Economics and BA, Vienna, Austria Keywords Resource management systems, Decision making, Selection, Empirical study, Information systems Abstract In this paper we detail the results from an empirical study concerning differences in characteristics of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system selection process between small or medium and large sized organizations. In particular we address the fields of software packages considered and chosen, the weights assigned to different selection criteria, the size and structure of the team responsible for the decision, the methods employed and the effort expended. Introduction The selection of the most appropriate enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is a semi-structured decision problem without agreed-on and formal procedure (Laudon and Laudon, 1998; Hecht, 1997). In recent years, most ERP system suppliers have increased their focus on small or medium sized organizations, especially the total European midsize market for IT products and services surpasses US$50 billion per year (Everdingen et al., 2000). There are some reasons for this trend, including a saturation of the market, as most large organizations have already implemented an ERP solution, increasing possibilities and need for the integration of systems between organizations and the availability of relatively inexpensive hardware (Gable and Stewart, 1999). Given this development, it seems necessary to understand the ways in which small or medium sized differ from large organizations and the resulting consequences for ERP system selection and implementation. In this paper, differences in the requirements and in the selection process between these groups of organizations are explored. Frequently, references are made to factors proposed (Gable and Stewart, 1999) within a framework that identify four main dimensions of the specificity of small to medium sized organizations: organizational, decisional, psycho-sociological and information systems. Methodology To investigate these research problems an empirical study was designed. The process undertaken included the design of a questionnaire, that was validated in several pretests, and the mailing, together with separate, prepaid envelopes. The questionnaire consisted of 36 questions concerning both the independent variables such as number of employees, turnover and industry, and the characteristics of the selection process such as size and structure of the team The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft