Picking up the pieces after a "successful" implementation: Networks, coalitions and ERP systems

The empirical focus of our paper is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implemented in a major University, itself formed by the merger of two independent establishments in October 2004. We found that the new ERP system replaced existing legacy systems for political as well as functional reasons. Within the University setting, we identified three distinct networks containing powerful actors who influenced and dictated the outcome of the ISD project. We show how an effective coalition between top management and the software supplier was able to transform the administrative structures of the University and inscribe the organizational new arrangement with the software. However, this was achieved by marginalizing the end users who were left to cope alone with many of the inadequacies of the new system through improvisation.