Critical Barriers and Risks Affecting ERP Post-Implementation Success

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) systems have now become an integral part of the organisational structure of thousands of modern organisations with any sizes and in many countries and sectors. However, after very substantial investment, successful implementation of ERP is in fact not the end of the journey. Very often, the system post-implementation stage is where the real challenges begin. This book reports on a research study that aimed at identifying and exploring potential barriers and risks that can affect successful post-implementation of ERP systems in the context of Chinese Stated-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The study adopted a mixed-methods research design, which consisted of a questionnaire survey and a follow-up multiple case study. The findings of the study showed that the identified ERP barriers and risks are interwoven and closely interrelated with each other. More importantly, business-oriented and human-related challenges, which are associated with the hitherto management deficiencies in SOEs, were found to be the main triggers of potential ERP post-implementation failure and should therefore receive substantial attention from managers in Chinese SOEs.