Interesting posting. If I understand you correctly, you're suggesting that using open source software or SaaS offerings for the things that commercial ERP typically gets used for, would increase success rates?

Could you expand on how?

The Panorama study you refer to indicates a few common problems - lack of buy-in, lack of expertise being the most prominent two - none of which seem to be related to whether the software used is open source, proprietary, or provided as-a-service ?

Those problems are related to issues like the nature of business processes involved, changing the roles+jobs+skills at the same time as the system without dropping the ball, engaging and incentivising the stakeholders etc. But not the type of software.

So I'm not clear. Are you questioning the (proprietary) software, the scope and design of the projects, the quality of the business cases, the cost of people who understand these types of systems, the idea that large-footprint pre-integrated enterprise systems are a good idea at all, or something else?

It's not that Open Source and SaaS aren't forces for good. They undoubtedly are. But I don't understand your association of them to ERP project success rates?

I wear the scarlet 'E' for ERP brazenly on my chest having been doing them for almost 30 years.

In Spain in the early 1980s a crack group of us did a major ERP conversion off of a vacuum tube system that was ready to go down for good at any time. That didn't stop a chorus of in-house staff from 'contributing' to the project with constant complaints about how they didn't see the need for the change.

Who says porno has no value? A few years ago we converted a large staffing company to our ERP system. The CIO did his best to derail the project, and I eventually got him fired for watching porno. Oddly it was porno that saved the project because it kept that guy busy so we could get the work done. Amazingly i came across his resume on Monster claiming that it was he that had managed our major 'on-time' and 'on-budget' ERP conversion.

Did someone here mention in-house development? This site's disk drives don't have enough space to tell all the stories of failed, in-house development projects that ruin companies or at best drain them of cash and energy that could have gone to successful ERP implementation.

Like Dimmesdale in the Scarlet Letter, CIO editors and in-house CIO lackeys out to fess up to their sins of laziness and whining and come clean.

Gregg Dourgarian
CEO, Tempworks Software
http://www.tempworks.com
blog: http://www.staffingtalk.com

While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I'm a bit concerned that you misinterpreted the data concerning failed ERP implementations so badly. Using the theory that the ERP systems are to blame for the rampant "failure" of implementations is extremely short sighted and is more akin to recommending removing someone's brain because they have a headache.

ERP systems are not the enemy here, poor project management, equally poor up front project estimating, and unrealistic expectation setting are the reasons that these projects fail. In my 15 years of experience implementing mainframe ERP systems, Oracle ERP Apps, and MS DynamicsAX ERP systems, I have seen both the ridiculous and the truly brilliant take place. The successful projects all have one thing in common, honesty.

IT management needs to be honest with the users and with their software vendor. Business department management needs to be honest with IT and focus on what is best for the organization as a whole instead of being concerned with territorial politics. In addition, software vendors need to be honest with their clients not simply telling them what they want to hear, but telling them the reality of the effort associated with this type of a project. ERP system selections become a parade of vendors who tout the simplicity of implementation because they feel that is what the customer wants to hear. It is the strong CIO who knows that while the ERP implementation project may not be easy, or inexpensive, it will provide a much more robust foundation for the future. Too often, CIOs are handcuffed with budgets that are far too constrained to effectively deliver what the corporate "bean counters" want. So, you end up with software vendors choosing between no sale, and one where they are gambling on best case scenarios in order to come in on time and on budget. The project has failed even before it started.

Are ERP implementations expensive relative to individual, single focus applicaitons? Yes. Can they sometimes be painful to an organization that is not properly prepared? Yes. Can they provide immense value to an organization that is being crushed by the weight of its own silos of cobbled together individual software components that are "integrated" yet still leave users without the critical apps and data they need to become strategic instead of transactional? Absolutely.

I suggest you take a look at why ERP implemenations succeed as opposed to making the statement that ERP systems are to blame. You would do your readership well to do some editorial research instead of trying to grab the sensationalistic headline.

Thad Neal, PMP
Director Consulting Services
Junction Solutions
www.junctionsolutions.com