While direct competitive threats were not cited by survey respondents as a primary
reason for implementing an ERP, global competitive pressures are constantly causing
businesses to seek more efficient ways of producing and delivering their products. The trend
toward an integrated world economy is forcing manufacturing firms to produce products for
a global market. As the global market becomes more competitive one way top managers can
keep up is by implementing strategies that exploit information technology, such as ERP,
which was the top respondents gave for implementing such a complex system. Often,
existing technologies are no longer sufficient for the activities of the firm; therefore the only
way to respond to the changing market needs is to upgrade or change the current
technology.