Part II : Resistance to change

In the second part of a three-part series, M Alagappan* spells out critical success factors in any ERP implementation

Customer feedback solicited at the end of projects gives interesting insights about practical difficulties in ERP implementation. The survey results, shown in the figure below, illustrate issues recorded as feedback from 61 respondents across 10 major-issue categories.

The respondents were diverse in terms of business domains (medicine, technology, services), core business models, the market position of the company, the globalisation component of the business, geography (Ireland, USA) and the type of products (pharmaceutical, computers, electronic goods).

It is, in fact, quite surprising to note that the choice of ERP package itself ranks at the bottom of the Top Ten list of critical success factors of any implementation

The main implementation risks cited with ERP projects are two-pronged. First, there are change management issues. Second, handling the business re-engineering that results from switching to the ERP's elemental business model.