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Introduction
Effective implementation of IT projects, of which enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is a subset has become important for modern businesses. Although project management methods have evolved over time, the track record of IT project implementations remains poor and project success rates may have actually regressed ([24] Standish Group Chaos report, 2009). Although the reference is to all IT projects, the situation related to ERP implementations is no better.
In this paper we ask the question: "Why do ERP projects fail?" A body of literature attempts to addresses this issue by identifying critical success factors (CSFs) which are defined as those critical areas where things must go right for the project to succeed ([22] Rockhart, 1979). These CSFs are a descriptive list of conditions that lead to implementation success or failure ([4] Bussen and Myers, 1997). But an examination of such literature spanning the last three decades reveals that there are several hundred CSFs identified; different researchers have defined the same CSF differently; there are internal contradictions on what constitutes a particular CSF ([6] Chua and Lim, 2009). So much so that the large list of CSF has become unwieldy and is even criticised as being just a laundry list (Richmond, 1993 quoted in [1] Akkermans and Helden, 2002). If CSFs have to be useful there is a need to understand them better especially the way in which they operate and influence outcome.
We use a case study research approach to examine this problem. Case study research has been used in information systems research for the last three decades ([13] Markus, 1983; [3] Benbasat et al. , 1987; [12] Lee, 1989; [26] Yin, 1993; [11] Keil, 1995; [18] Parr and Shanks, 2000; [6] Chua and Lim, 2009). ERP by its nature is dynamically reconfigurable and therefore "emerges" in an organisation through repeated use and interpretation by its users ([16] Orlikowski, 2000). ERP is, therefore, best studied in the context of its implementation and use hence the case study approach.
In this paper, we report on two case studies relating to different ERP implementations in ABC Corporation, a midsized, multi location process industry in India with over 2000 employees, over a 100 customers and a supply chain extending across the country as well as overseas....