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ABSTRACT

Nowadays, logistics industry plays an extremely important role in the development of the economy and society and is one of the largest growing industries in the world. In order to sustain in the highly competitive market logistics enterprises are forced to speed up their processes, reduce their costs and improve their performance. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems represent important information technology investment options and have a huge potential to improve business performance. Therefore, our paper is focuses on understanding the challenges and benefits of ERP systems applications in the logistics enterprises. The main objective of our article is to investigate the impact of ERP application on different aspects of business processes in logistics sector. In order to achieve this objective a survey was carried out via a closed interview questionnaire across logistics services enterprises in the Republic of Bulgaria. The results provide empirical evidence that the application of the ERP systems in logistics has the most beneficial effect on the following areas: transport management and documentation, accounting and sorting and distribution. At the same time the ERP is considered cost-effective and it could replace human effort of approximately 60 to 80%. Based on the study, it was found that the application of ERP systems leads to increased cost efficiency and respectively to better overall performance of the logistics enterprises.

JEL Classifications: D22, L86, L87

Keywords: logistics industry, enterprise resource planning

I. INTRODUCTION

Every business has its own set of methods, products and services that makes it different. Nowadays, logistics industry is one of the largest growing industries in the world. More than 90% of transportation and trade is carried via shipping and logistics. The logistics industry, which exhibited great development during recent years globally, is defined as the lifeblood of the all economies (Sezer and Abasiz, 2017).

Moreover, logistics industry plays an extremely important role in the development of the economy and society and has a great impact on growth and employment. The logistics industry directly employs around 11 million people and accounts for about 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Europe Union (EU). Effective logistics systems are fundamental for the European companies' ability to compete in the world economy. Logistics account for 10-15% of the cost of a finished product for...

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