1152
A Comparative Analysis of
Major ERP Lifecycle Implementation, Management and Support Issues
in Queensland Government
She-I Chang, Guy G. Gable
Information Systems Management Research Centre
School of Information Systems
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Box 2434 Brisbane, QLD Australia 4001
Email: sx.chang@student.qut.edu.au, g.gable@qut.edu.au
Abstract
This paper reports on a study of ERP lifecycle major issues from the perspectives of indi-
viduals with substantial and diverse involvement with SAP Financials in Queensland Gov-
ernment. A survey was conducted of 117 ERP system project participants in five closely re-
lated state government agencies. A modified Delphi technique identified, rationalized and
weighed perceived major issues in ongoing ERP life cycle implementation, management and
support. The five agencies each implemented SAP Financials simultaneously using a com-
mon implementation partner. The three survey rounds of the Delphi technique, together with
coding and synthesizing procedures, resulted in a set of 10 major issue categories with 38
sub-issues. Relative scores of issue importance are compared across government agencies,
roles (client vs implementation partner) and organizational levels (strategic, technical and op-
erational). Study findings confirm the importance of this finer partitioning of the data, and
distinctions identified reflect the circumstances of ERP lifecycle implementation, manage-
ment and support among the stakeholder groups. The study findings should also be of interest
to stakeholders who seek to better understand the issues surrounding ERP systems and to bet-
ter realise the benefits of ERP.
Keywords: ERP, ERP Life-cycle, Delphi Method, Key IS Issues
1. Introduction
Organisations worldwide are moving away from developing Information Systems (IS) in-
house and are instead implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and other
packaged software (Price Waterhouse IT Surveys, 1995; AMR Research, 1998; IDC, 2000).