Integrating IT and change management : A benefits analysis

Abstract: IT as an enabler, by obtaining benefits to an organization, was the coherent apprehension behind the purchase of the Enterprise Resource System R/3 by Ericsson in 1997. Public Networks, a 33.000 worker’s division at Ericsson, have had profitability problems during the recent years prior to the purchase. By integrating R/3 with an organizational change, the management aimed to obtain foreseen benefits, such as headcount reduction and shorter lead times. This thesis shows in theory as in practice difficulties and obstacles in reaching and calculating benefits of IT. Through analyzing the system along with the business processes targeted by the integration project, a list of Key Performance Indicators was brought to the stakeholders of the organization. Through numerous interviews and meetings throughout the division the indicators were discussed, depicted and analyzed. In a consensus driven organization as Public Networks, the integration project withholding the largest Enterprise Resource Planning systems had to work politically with communication to be able to gain approval for its benefits. In failing to win the process against different views and stakeholders, benefits was to be at risk and more importantly, later shown to be impossible to measure.