• ERP and ITSM projects require considerable financial
resources and are risky.
• As both ERP and ITSM are built on best practices,
some “customisation” in the form of changes to the
business processes is necessary to ensure that the
resulting system will meet the needs of the organisation.
• Organisations implementing ERP and ITSM commonly
engage vendors to leverage the deep knowledge that
these external parties gather from their experience with a
wide range of clients.
• Change management is a central issue in both ERP and
ITSM implementation as they require staff to work
across functions under a redesigned process environment.
The distinction between the two is that ERP implementation is
centred on a software package whereas ITSM implementation is
based on a set of industry guidelines and standards.
The CSF approach was first established in the 1960s and
popularised by various researchers, including Rockart and
Bullen
[36] who provided an operational definition of CSF:
“key areas where things must go right in order to successfully
achieve objectives and goals” (p.9). It has been pointed out by
Williams and Ramaprasad [45] that although the CSF approach
is widely used by researchers to produce a plethora of factors,
it is important to discriminate between different levels of criticality.
They distinguish four types of criticality: (1) factors linked
to success by a known causal mechanism, (2) factors necessary
and sufficient for success, (3) factors necessary for success, and
(4) factors associated with success. This research offers guidelines
to practitioners by focusing on the fourth level. We identify
a set of CSFs associated with successful ITSM implementation.