Understanding Misalignments of Enterprise Resource Planning System

Adopting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system has become a symbol that represents both business and IT capabilities, as all ERP systems have inherent best practices of business models for diversified industries. However, misalignments between the functionality offered by the package and that required by the firm are common problems when adopting an ERP system. Moreover, implementing packaged software necessitates disruptive organizational change and the degree of change is determined mostly by the resolution of misalignment problems. This study draws upon data from a case study to understand the change dynamics and the misalignments of adopting an ERP system from a stage view. The results reveal that industrial-, company-, and regulatory-specific misalignments often occurred in the chartering phase; misalignments of input, control, data, process, output, and schedule are the major problems in the project phase; misalignments of information and new business requirements are the main concerns in the shakedown and onward and upward phases. Cascading effects of misalignments and change actions are also illustrated from case analysis. The findings suggests that different change drivers dominate different stages. The transition of change drivers represents a fundamental change in strategies of misalignment resolution.