Critical success factors in enterprise wide information management systems projects

In the past several years many organizations have initiated enterprise-wide information management systems projects, using such packages as SAP, Peoplesoft, and Oracle. These projects often represent the single largest investment in an information systems project in the history of these companies, and in many cases the largest single investment in any corporate-wide project. These enterprise-wide information management systems projects bring about a host of new questions. Some of these questions and issues are:. How are these projects justified?. Do firms need to change their fundamental business processes, organizational structures, and business strategies to fit the package?. What are the technical challenges associated with implementing a large-scale package such as SAP?. What is the best way to implement a large-scale package: To work through the organization unit-by-unit? Or to use a cross-functional pproach?. What are the critical success factors in the implementation f a large-scale package?. What are the implications of these projects for the skill and knowledge requirements of the IT workforce? This paper will provide case studies of seven organizations implementing enterprise-wide information management systems projects and will provide insight into each of these questions based upon their experiences. 1. BACKGROUND: Some of the “success factors ” associated with large-scale client-server implementation projects include securing the support of top management (Beath, 1991), improving or “re-Permission to make digital or hard copies ofall or part ofthis work for personal or classroom we is granted without fee probided that copies are not made or distrihutcd for protit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To Copy otherwise. to republish. to post on sewers or to redistribute to lists. requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. SIGCPR ‘99 New Orleans LA USA