Stakeholder Salience in ERP Projects

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine stakeholder involvement in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System project that involves implementation and improvement of the implemented system. The study targets stakeholders, their classification, and their degree of importance during different phases of an ERP project life cycle, i.e. planning, implementation, stabilisation and improvement.

The study shows that stakeholder involvement and their salience vary along the ERP project life cycle and during different work situations. The salience of stakeholders could play a major role in decision-making in the ERP project. The Stakeholder Salience model presents a typology of stakeholders that is appropriate for an information systems (IS) project including ERP projects. On the basis of the background knowledge, the thesis proceeds with a case study and analyses how stakeholders are involved in a five-year project to implement an ERP system in a telecom service providing company. The study identifies eight stakeholders or stakeholder groups that are involved in an ERP project and describes stakeholder salience during different phases of the ERP project life cycle.

The thesis develops a stakeholder salience matrix taking into account the characteristics, functions and salience of each stakeholder or stakeholder group in a particular phase of ERP project life cycle.

Moreover, the thesis provides three recommendations related to the stakeholders for ERP projects. The recommendations include the use of Hybrids (employees having knowledge of business domain as well as information systems) in the ERP project team, the use of Project Management standards and the use of Agile methodology for ERP projects. These three recommendations give future directions to the thesis study and promise a theory development with long-term scope, provided more time and research efforts are devoted.