Why do so many organisations fail to derive significant value from their investments in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems?
Many large organisations now reject the in-house development of business software in favour of purchasing the pre-packaged ERP systems available from major suppliers such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft.
Organisations increasingly view bespoke software projects as risky and expensive. And due to the continuing trend towards outsourcing IT tasks, many large organisations no longer have the capability or knowledge to undertake in-house projects.
However, ERP large systems are designed to meet the generic information needs for an entire organisation and frequently require expensive and substantial revision to make a good ‘fit’. They also require organisations to painfully review and amend their core business processes, review key job roles and install fresh hardware platforms.
Consequentially, organisations commonly fail to extract significant value or enjoy the predicted benefits from immense ERP system investments. Yet ERP systems continue to be viewed as a 'must-have' business tool, and due to potential supply-chain efficiencies, inevitably their popularity remains strong.
So how did we get to this point? ERP systems evolved from computer-managaged Manufacturing scheduling systems that were designed and matured back in the 1980s. So why has the successful implementation of follow-on ERP systems continued to elude so many seemingly competent organisations?
This book can help to prevent further failure by proving strong insights into historically significant causes. Typical failure consequences include overrunning schedules and budgets; loss of esteem and reputation; productivity downturns; staff malcontent and resistance; and even cessation of trading or corporate bankruptcy.
This involved investigating the history of ERP systems, reviewing a wide range of available publications, identifying related trends, issues, and defining the criteria for success and failure.
Once the theoretical research had been completed, it became necessary to investigate some real-world contemporary implementations at first-hand. This provided an opportunity to ask pertinent questions based on earlier work, and to ensure the completeness of the research.
The practical research phase was undertaken by identifying a set of six large and medium-sized UK organisations which had recently completed commercial ERP implementations. Key individuals within these organisations were contacted and asked to contribute towards the research by relating their individual experiences.
The results were methodically analysed and assimilated with earlier findings from previous publications. The completed research was then used to produce a defining series of ‘good-practice’ recommendations, which include a strong focus on preparation activities and people-management.
By reading this book, you can quickly understand the historical and real-world factors relevant to minimising the frequency and severity of problems typically encountered by organisations considering implementing an ERP system.
The book concludes by presenting a straightforward 'scorecard' utility to assist organisations to rapidly and objectively evaluate their own suitability and capability for successfully introducing an ERP system.
Many large organisations now reject the in-house development of business software in favour of purchasing the pre-packaged ERP systems available from major suppliers such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft.
Organisations increasingly view bespoke software projects as risky and expensive. And due to the continuing trend towards outsourcing IT tasks, many large organisations no longer have the capability or knowledge to undertake in-house projects.
However, ERP large systems are designed to meet the generic information needs for an entire organisation and frequently require expensive and substantial revision to make a good ‘fit’. They also require organisations to painfully review and amend their core business processes, review key job roles and install fresh hardware platforms.
Consequentially, organisations commonly fail to extract significant value or enjoy the predicted benefits from immense ERP system investments. Yet ERP systems continue to be viewed as a 'must-have' business tool, and due to potential supply-chain efficiencies, inevitably their popularity remains strong.
So how did we get to this point? ERP systems evolved from computer-managaged Manufacturing scheduling systems that were designed and matured back in the 1980s. So why has the successful implementation of follow-on ERP systems continued to elude so many seemingly competent organisations?
This book can help to prevent further failure by proving strong insights into historically significant causes. Typical failure consequences include overrunning schedules and budgets; loss of esteem and reputation; productivity downturns; staff malcontent and resistance; and even cessation of trading or corporate bankruptcy.
This involved investigating the history of ERP systems, reviewing a wide range of available publications, identifying related trends, issues, and defining the criteria for success and failure.
Once the theoretical research had been completed, it became necessary to investigate some real-world contemporary implementations at first-hand. This provided an opportunity to ask pertinent questions based on earlier work, and to ensure the completeness of the research.
The practical research phase was undertaken by identifying a set of six large and medium-sized UK organisations which had recently completed commercial ERP implementations. Key individuals within these organisations were contacted and asked to contribute towards the research by relating their individual experiences.
The results were methodically analysed and assimilated with earlier findings from previous publications. The completed research was then used to produce a defining series of ‘good-practice’ recommendations, which include a strong focus on preparation activities and people-management.
By reading this book, you can quickly understand the historical and real-world factors relevant to minimising the frequency and severity of problems typically encountered by organisations considering implementing an ERP system.
The book concludes by presenting a straightforward 'scorecard' utility to assist organisations to rapidly and objectively evaluate their own suitability and capability for successfully introducing an ERP system.
