In the years following the formal introduction Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the early 1990s, there have been few ERP implementations that have been managed successfully, including those introduced by large corporations. Although much capital is usually put into ERP implementation, lack of key business practices has prevented extensive success. This paper reviews failed ERP implementations in three large organizations. It analyzes the reasons for the failures as well as the lessons to be learned so other organizations can avoid similar scenarios. ERP Implementation Failures
A Review of Three High-Profile ERP Implementation Failures
In August 2004, US-based HP, a top computer hardware and information technology
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There was nothing to fall back on to prevent the financial fallout documented.
2. Poor project management. This is highly evident in all three cases, specifically as it relates to budget management, schedule management, judgment and impact on the flow of the business. Where Hershey 's is concerned, the focus was on rolling out the new solution before Y2K, despite receiving recommendations to implement over a longer period of time. The project implementation team as well as senior management exercised poor judgment, especially given the fact that the new system would manage the entire flow of orders. The excessive spend on ECSS incurred by DoD took place over seven years, which is a clear sign that there was not enough importance placed on budget management. With HP, the company clearly indicated that the major reason for failed implementation was poor execution, which reflects badly on any project management team.
3. Organizational or departmental culture. As outlined by the case study entitled Assessment of DoD Enterprise Resource Planning Business Systems (Ketrick, 2011, p. 33), there are many different culture-related issues that prevent successful ERP implementation. However, of greatest significance to the ECSS implementation is what was termed as "a risk-averse or hyper-chain-of-command mindset" that "…discourages subordinates from revealing factual, but contrary information that may be
The University of Massachusetts suffered a major ERP failure in 2003. The university had begun work on the $10 million dollar project in 2000 as a replacement for the older ERP system (Rico, 2010). Under the previous system, each of the five University of Massachusetts’s campuses had its own systems that included the software, hardware, and project teams. Each was independently ran, modified, and maintained by its respected campus. The University of Massachusetts identified the need for a centralized ERP system that could standardize the many processes within it across all the campuses.
Kumar, P. (2010). Successful implementation of ERP in a large organization International journal of engineering science and technology. Vol. 2(7), 3218-3224. Retrieved from http://www.ijest.info/docs/IJEST10-02-07-151.pdf
Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP [HBR case #699022] Reviews Cisco System's approach to implementing Oracle's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product. This case chronologically reviews the diverse, critical success factors and obstacles facing Cisco during its implementation. Cisco faced the need for information systems replacement based on its significant growth potential and its reliance on failing legacy systems. The discussion focuses on where management was particularly savvy in contrast to where it was the beneficiary of good fortune.
An extensive research was done to fetch the historical background of company, the functioning of its legacy systems, and the issues that are being faced by the company as a result of ERP implementation. However, there are only few studies that showed ERP case studies for the company relative to the ERP issues.The web searches provided a restricted account of data on company’s ERP profile. In order to find details of the issues that are being faced by the
Foremost among these is that the ERP implementation efforts of many of their larger counterparts have resulted in partial failure, and in some cases total abandonment. Moreover, small manufacturers tend to lack the financial resources to adopt the entire system and may be forced to adopt a piecemeal approach to integrating the typically expensive ERP systems into their services. It is also felt that the lower staff levels in smaller enterprises when compared to their larger counterparts are inadequate for the rigorous and extensive IT training and development requirements for implementing an ERP project. It is however important for these firms to ensure that they make adequate studies of ERP systems before deciding to do away with them altogether because it has been found that they can be of use to the success of the business, especially after successful
ERPs are notoriously difficult and time consuming to install since they impact all areas of a business’s processes. Forty percent of all ERP installations are only completed partially and another twenty percent are complete failures resulting in a removal of the system (Yick, 2011). This leaves successful, complete, ERP implementations in the minority and NIBCO’s selection committee did not want to create additional opportunities to fail, especially with the data issues that were occurring with their legacy systems (Brown, DeHaynes, Hoffer, Martin, & Perkins, 2012).
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 2 2. Discussion and Analysis ................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Critical factors in ERP implementation ........................................................................... 4 2.2 Critical challenges with ERP implementation .................................................................. 6 2.3 Factors driving ERP implementation challenges .............................................................. 7 3. Statistics on ERP implementation...................................................................................... 8 4. Changes needed for successful ERP implementation.......................................................... 9 5.
ERP implementation is unlikely experience that any company will have. It has to be planned prepared and stimulated from the entire stakeholder otherwise it will sunk the millions of dollar and it drain the companies market. In case of Nestle USA, it confronted a lot of difficulties due to improper implementation plan yet be able to recover as a successful project. Many organisations have gone through the similar situation that there are plenty of lesson to be learned. We can conclude that ERP implementation needs big consideration on business requirement, business process reengineering, stakeholder’s involvement, hardware and software and other units.
As a result of the vast nature of the ERP implementation process, risks are always present and existent. The related risks are commensurate with the scale of the ERP system project. Risks range from broad to narrow and pervasively affect the outcome of business processes after the “go-live” date when the ERP system is fully operational and available to end users (employees, lower level managers, etc.).
The entire case history revolves around enterprise resource planning (ERP). The Resort case talks about carefully structuring an IT system so that the IT program is well-matched to the company and corresponds to its offerings and needs. The case history provides us with an indication of 3 recommendations that can be employed in order to choose an ERP system that is most effective and helpful to one's needs.
It was stated that an adequate training that is provided to end users can increase the likelihood of ERP implementation success, whereas the lack of suitable training may cause ERP system implementation failure (Nah et al., 2003). Moreover Khandekar & Sharma (2005), Tharenou et al. (2007) argued that in order to achieve the organisation’s financial, managerial and performance objectives from the ERP implementation, training programs that are designed to enhance users’ skills and develop human resource capabilities are vital. In addition, training and education reduces user resistance and increases ease of use, as the result, increases the chances of ERP systems success and willingness to use (Bradley, 2008). An implementation an ERP system without sufficient training possibly will have a negative impact on the organisational performance (Somers & Nelson, 2004).
On December 30, 1997, this so called “brutal” system implementation went live. The key decision makers involved in this implementation were:
In order to survive in this competitive business world, every business must produce or provide not only a better product or service, they must also provide better customer service, minimize their production costs and overhead costs, have a more efficient management system, a highly reliable infrastructure…the list is endless. Many of these can be achieved through a customized enterprise resource planning system (ERP). ERPs serve as “one comprehensive database to house all of [the company’s] corporate information” so that “when you enter new information in one place, the system automatically updates related information.” However, if these systems are not implemented correctly with the necessary change in management of people and technology
This case was written by P. Indu, under the direction of Vivek Gupta, IBS Center for Management Research. It was compiled
Anderson (2014) said “ERP implementations rarely fail in formulation; however, they frequently fail in implementation.” It does not in with just purchasing an ERP system. A well designed implementation plan is the company’s ticket to success. A well designed implementation plan addresses all potential bottlenecks like execution problems such as lack of training, attitude and participation of the entire workforce from leaders to staff, and member selection for the whole ERP project implementation team. An ERP project is