A good ERP system can provide businesses with powerful competitive advantage, including increased revenues (Petrissens, 1998).
South African businesses have displayed their operational agility over the last five years where macro-environmental pressures have dealt crippling setbacks. The shrinking economy and inflation peaks forced organisations to adopt a flexible mindset that support undergoing implementation of systems designed to analyse and interpret information into a powerful decision making frameworks.
According to George Finger, a representative of the Development Bank of South Africa, the conclusions drawn from his assessment of ERP implementation in South African businesses demonstrate ERP systems increase flexibility and responsiveness by breaking down barriers between functional departments and reducing duplication of efforts, the centralisation of data led to the provision of accurate data, communication and service to all customers.