This section details the relevance of the findings to the real situation on the ground. It takes into consideration the difference between the public organisational environment and the much-documented private setup. The key findings are given headings as they pertain to the area of relevance:
5.4.1 Capabilities and functionality of an ERP system in a municipality
The research had an objective to establish and highlight the relevance of ERP system implementation to public organisations such as the Municipality. The research concluded that the ERP system implementation by the Municipality as a public enterprise is valid and relevant. Given all the capabilities and functionalities that support and extend citizen benefits, the implementation of ERP systems is deemed to contribute towards worthy outcomes for local government.
The ERP system has a transformative effect on the way the Municipality interacts with the citizens. However, while acknowledging that there is still further implementation to take place, it is worth noting that the Municipality is trying to take advantage of the potential citizen benefits. These include an accurate profiling of citizens, integration of departmental systems, improved service delivery by enabling efficient, effective, and reliable services, etc., and the
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Municipality only has to extend additional benefits such as full self-service and e-services, etc. to further improve the value for the citizen. The best level of ERP system utilisation will be reached when these potential benefits are extended to the citizens.
5.4.2 ERP systems successes and failures
In investigating the critical success issues affecting ERP system implementation, the academic literature available lacks relevant research on ERP system benefits in the public sector. This prompted the research to derive the critical success factors that resemble public interests from those that are academically documented and which predominantly concern the private sector. A number of issues identified in the literature fitted into the case study scenario when a comparison was finally done with the findings from the empirical study. This might mean that the ERP system implementation is being implemented successfully even though it is not yet complete. Nevertheless, the Municipality also admits that it is still working towards extending more citizen benefits that are potentially possible in line with the e-citizen expectations. Time will judge as to whether these benefits will be delivered in time and at sustainable costs. The reasons for exclusion of some departments is a major concern as the concept of ―integration‖ is not satisfactorily accomplished if other departments are still stand alone within the Municipality. Of course, the reasons are incompatibility of systems but that is what the ERP system is capable of solving.
5.4.3 Benefits management
This research also aimed at analysing available models and frameworks for understanding the benefits of ERP system implementation. It also covered two categories of citizen benefits, i.e. tangible and intangible. The Municipality does not have a formal citizen benefits management strategy besides the Policy Framework for the Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System that still needs a lot of alignment to fit into a municipality scenario.
The Municipality is only managing the ERP system, thus treating the citizen benefits as consequential benefits without proper frameworks to plan, nurture, assess and sustain them.
Proper benefits management should be targeted at sustainably maximising citizen benefits and their accessibility.
The issue of benefits management is further complicated by the fact that in a public organisation it is important to convert the indirect benefits, such as improved internal processes, to become tangible, such as improved service delivery. This happens over time as indirect benefits accrue as soon as the ERP system is implemented. Tangible or direct benefits will only emerge as a result of proper benefit management. An illustration of the above scenario is depicted in Figure 5.2 on the next page.
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Figure 5.2: Benefits Tangibility with Time
The much needed benefits management framework must convert the indirect benefits into direct and tangible benefits that the citizens can relate to and ultimately realise. Based on Figure 5.2 above, the Municipality has accrued the indirect benefits, such as the improvement of internal processes, and is now at the stage of enabling the direct benefits. As soon as the direct benefits are extended, proper management will be needed to sustain all the benefits. More so, if consideration is given to the fact that the tangible benefits will not replace the intangible ones but augment them and result in a better overall position of both the organisation and the citizens at large. Finally, municipalities must seriously consider the issue of performance planning, i.e. government departments now have to measure their performance against expenditure as a treasury requirement. Thus having a framework of benefits will enable them to hone in on benefits, to justify initial capital outlay and on-going expenditure for ERP systems.
5.4.4 The typical benefits of public ERP systems
The relevance of this finding was to highlight the difference between the benefits extended to private organisations ERP systems and public by ones implementing. Given the scarcity of academic literature on this area, it was important to note the benefits expected within
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municipalities. This finding noted benefits related to ERP system implementation, based on previous studies (see Section 2.6) and the empirical evidence. This research examined the foundation that was laid by the ERP system to provide a continuous efficient and effective improvement in service delivery to the citizens.The findings define the basic benefits. Any organisation implementing an ERP system must not only ensure realisation but also sustainability through the lifetime of the ERP system. The benefits are categorised in accordance with the themes that emerged from the data analysis to make them more understandable, even to the ordinary citizen.
5.4.5 The ERP system at the Municipality
The study intended to establish the status of ERP system application at the Municipality of Cape Town (the Case Study). Thus, this section gives the setup in which the study was undertaken without which many findings become meaningless. It details the phases undergone so far in the implementation of the ERP system. This gives a better understanding of whether citizens are gleaning the maximum benefits in accordance with the extent to which the implementation has progressed. The Municipality ERP system is still under implementation with further modules still pending. The back office is now complete to support the system. Several projects that are already supported by the ERP system are directly benefitting the citizens. For example, the smart city initiatives will see citizens accessing multiple services from the City, such as transport, recreation, etc., using smart cards. This means that even the configuration and integration-aligned benefits are not yet fully gleaned in comparison with the full potential of the ERP system.
However, an analysis of the benefits extended so far and the business case shows that most of the benefits that were used to convince the stakeholders to support the ERP system implementation are now achieved. Therefore, the citizen benefits that are extended by the ERP system so far support the concept of a successful implementation. The pace of adoption and utilisation depends on the circumstances within which the ERP system is implemented. This ERP system implementation is one of the few in South Africa; thus every development on it is effected without confidence and certainty. Most of the stakeholders are not sure what to expect now. Currently, the Municipality ERP system is slowly extending e- citizen benefits to residents as they form the operational and tangible benefits that citizens directly enjoy now and expect tomorrow. Therefore, an assessment of the status quo that details achievements so far becomes crucial in giving the implementers the confidence they deserve. It goes on to boost the transparency that the ERP system is bound to support when the citizens are aware of the benefits that are available for their consumption.
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5.4.6 ERP system contribution to maximum citizen value
This study aimed at finding out if citizens are afforded maximum value from these technology investments such as ERP systems in municipalities. This was done through identification of the planned and realised benefits, whether tangible or intangible. Greater business performance and efficiency resulted from integration of all critical business functions. This finding proved that the value of the system is in its use and not necessarily in its existence. It explained that the way the ERP system is used could result in citizens failing to benefit even though their funds would have been used. It highlighted the indirect benefits that are invisible and very difficult to measure in fiscal terms.
The indirect ERP system benefits such as transparency, organisational transformation, business process configuration or even the control of corruption are difficult to account for in the business case. These are, however, directly linked to the other direct ERP system benefits. For example, effective benefits management results not only in efficient use of public funds, but also both direct and indirect benefits. An accumulation of these benefits results in increased value for the citizen. What determine a high citizen value are the availability, accessibility and sustainability of all the possible benefits. This means that any public organisation that only accrues indirect benefits cannot be categorised as a failure.
Even though the citizens may not be concerned about the specifics of how the Municipality officials are fighting corruption, they just want to see it eliminated. The Municipality should not be influenced by the citizens, who are only aware of the direct benefits. This means the onus is on the implementers to identify and structure the benefits for the citizens without the influence of the nature of the benefits. Again, instead of explaining and justifying how the legacy systems were integrated, it is necessary just to ensure that citizens access their information anytime and anywhere (one stop shop). Therefore, this study highlighted that all benefits are crucial as they contribute to a better life for the citizens.
Finally, this finding highlighted the difference between the public aligned organisation and the privately aligned ones; citizens are more sensitive to benefits while customers of private organisations are interested in products. Noting this difference is crucial especially when taking into consideration the business case that needs to identify and differentiate the main stakeholders to the ERP system.
5.4.7 Relationships among the findings
The findings of this study were also instrumental in revealing how the different categories of benefits are related. The contribution of these findings bridges the gap between the theory
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and the operational ERP system right down to finer implementation details. The following key issues emerged from the findings:
Once implemented by a municipality, an ERP system enables both direct and indirect benefits to the citizen.
Contrary to what most writers claim, both direct and indirect benefits are difficult to quantify in monetary terms. This becomes even more difficult in a public setup where there is no competition. If you reside in Cape Town then you can only get services from its municipality.
A public organisation operates in a public environment where it is exposed to public scrutiny and so is its system.
The general ERP system implementation, in a public organisational environment, automatically realises indirect benefits.
Having realised indirect benefits, municipal organisations are further mandated to sustainably enable the realisation of direct benefits.
More direct ERP system benefits for the citizen result from management of the ERP system and additional functionalities.
Alignment can be drawn with the Framework for Strategic Plans and annual performance Plans (see Section 2.7.9 for the adapted structure of this framework). In this case, the outcomes become the indirect benefits; the outputs are the direct benefits while the impacts are the final value for the citizen when the public funds are efficiently and transparently used.
The explanations above harmonised the research findings with the research question. This was done by analysing how each finding contributed to the response to the main research question. It is, however, important to note that the findings will only make sense if they are treated in totality. If treated partially, then the main research question will not be satisfactorily answered. A summary of the findings is illustrated in Figure 4.5 on page 92 as the findings framework that emerged from the research.