The Future of ERP Systems: look backward before moving forward

This paper explores the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems literature in an attempt to elucidate knowledge to help us see the future of ERP systems’ research. The main purpose of this research is to study the development of ERP systems and other related areas in order to reach the constructs of mainstream literature. The analysis of literature has helped us to reach the key constructs of an as-is scenario, those are: history and development of ERP systems, the implementation life cycle, critical success factors and project management, and benefits and costs. However, the to-be scenario calls for more up-to-date research constructs of ERP systems integrating the following constructs: social networks, cloud computing, enterprise 2.0, and decision 2.0. In the end, the conclusion section will establish the link between the as-is and to-be scenarios opening the door for more novel ERP research areas.