The management of cross-functional inter-dependencies in ERP implementations: emergent coordination patterns

Abstract

This paper reports a study examining cross-functional coordination in enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects. We collected primary data related to ERP implementations at four large organizations representing different industries and implementation strategies. These are presented through rich descriptions organized on the basis of an emergent process theory framework. Our case studies suggest that there are three main patterns of managing functional inter-dependencies:

1. A lean coordination pattern that involves intricately planned ‘vanilla’ implementations using reference process models and strong methodologies

2. A rich coordination pattern that is based on managing inter-dependencies through organizing arrangements and cultural interventions, and

3. A mediation pattern that is based on executive mandate or a dominant functional unit laying out the rules of engagement.

This study provides practical implications for industry managers engaged in large-scale enterprise system implementations. It also significantly advances theory by outlining and characterizing cross-functional coordination patterns. Our findings confirm that studying surface regularities as well as the underlying situated phenomena, in combination, can help in generating new insights for guiding ERP projects.

Keywords:

• ERP projects
• functional coordination
• case study

Notes

1 Attention to coherence focused on ensuring that we had a complete timeline of the project and the events fit the timeline; assessments of different executives were consistent among themselves and with external news stories and reports; and, attributions about events and actions and the implied causal reasoning were mutually consistent.

2 A vanilla (or plain vanilla) approach refers to implementations of pre-configured packages with as little customization as possible. ERP vendors provide industry-specific templates that are designed to minimize the need for customization.

3 We thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing us to this literature and Claudio Ciborra's seminal insights.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sanjay Gosain

Dr. Sanjay Gosain is an Assistant Professor in the Decision and Information Technologies Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in information systems from the University of Southern California. His research broadly addresses the drivers of effective IT design, use, and value leverage in inter- and intra-organizational settings. He is interested in the design of information systems and examining their impact in three areas – enterprise process coordination, management of knowledge, and nurturing of social relationships. He is also interested in strategic issues related to organizational transformations that leverage IT.

Zoonky Lee

Dr. Zoonky Lee is Associate Professor of Graduate School of Information at Yonsei University in Korea. He holds a Ph.D. degree from University of Southern California. He received master's degree from University of Michigan in Statistics and Carnegie Mellon University in Social and Decision Sciences, respectively. Prior to joining Yonsei University he was Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln from 1999 to 2003, and a business consultant at Coopers and Lybrand from 1991 to 1994. His research interests include IT impact on business strategy and e-Business strategy in channel design and pricing. He has published in various IT journals including Communications of the ACM, Communications of AIS, Computers and Security, Data Base, Information and Management, Journal of Information Technology, and Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce.

Yongbeom Kim

Dr. Yongbeom Kim is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Seoul National University, and M. Phil. and Ph.D. in information systems from the Stern School of Business of New York University. His research interests include software reuse, performance evaluation of interactive computer systems, and enterprise resource planning. His work has been published in the Journal of Management Information Systems, Information Processing & Management, Information Resources Management Journal, Business Process Management Journal, and Journal of Information systems Education.