Improving ERP Usability Through User-System Collaboration

Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have unintuitive user interfaces that hinder usability, frustrate users, and ultimately interfere with their successful adoption and utilization in organizations. Despite the huge costs associated with poorly implemented systems, ERP usability has received little attention from the IS and HCI research communities. We argue in this article that existing theories on usability should be extended in order to address the unique challenges resulting from the size, complexity, and integrated functionality of these industrial behemoths. We believe that collaboration theory is a new and beneficial way to conceptualize the relationship between the user and the system. This theory has the potential to provide a foundation for user-system interaction that enhances user performance and satisfaction with ERP systems.