DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Of the seven categories of critical success factors, 'ERP
Team Composition, Skills and Compensation' is found to be the
most important overall for both implementation and upgrade.
Throughout the interviews, the participants in both organizations
emphasized the importance of the team responsible for both the
implementation and the upgrade. During the initial
implementation, both companies tried to have "the best and the
brightest...the people you can't afford to lose," as the CIO of
Public Power Company described it, in the project team.
Another factor that was evident for both organizations was the
importance they put on empowering the project team. It is very
important for the success of both the implementation and
upgrade projects that the project members are trusted to take
hard decisions and not have to constantly ask for approval from
their managers. The importance that was given to this factor was
demonstrated in State University when top management sent
everyone in the project team a letter explicitly describing their
commitment to empowering the ERP team during the
implementation.
The amount of involvement of the team members and the
incentives to complete the project decreased from the original
implementation to upgrade. In one of the two organizations, the
team members were offered to be eligible for overtime during
the original implementation. Before the start of the project none
of the team members were eligible. This bonus was not offered
during the upgrade. Furthermore, in the same organization, even
thou^ the participants were involved full time in the original
implementation, they were only involved part time in the
upgrade project. The importance of the ERP team also changed
throughout the project. This category of critical success fectors
was shown to be critical during the project phase. In the end, it
is the project team who is implementing the system. If the
group's skills and knowledge are not sufficient, the project can
be compromised.