Understanding complexity of ERP implementations: Exploration of three complexity research approaches,

Implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (in this thesis referred to as ERP implementation) is considered to be a complex matter. ERP implementation is considered complex because, in most cases, it affects many parts of an organisation. Also, the costs of software, hardware, maintenance and particularly the implementation process itself are high and risky for an organisation. Therefore, research in ERP implementation is focused on providing practice with useful insights and tools for better cost and risk handling. ERP implementations are executed for over 20 years. Unfortunately, neither science nor practice has produced sufficient tools, guidelines and methods for proper management and control of ERP implementations. After 20 years, research and practice still consider ERP implementation a complex matter. Through our research, we intend to approach this complexity of ERP implementation from a new perspective. A perspective which takes the mere construct ‘complexity’ as a starting point. We studied ERP implementation complexity as a construct in the context of complexity research and asked ourselves how the complexity of ERP implementations can best be explored.