A tale of success or complete disaster? : A case study of the post-implementation phase of a new ERP system

Abstract: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are considered to be the backbone of many organizations, however, many implemented ERP systems do not live up to the expected potential of organizations. The pre-implementation and implementation phases of ERP projects have received a fair amount of attention in previous literature, but the post- implementation phases have not received the same amount of consideration. This thesis will therefore aim to answer the research question of “How do employees perceive and experience the post-implementation phase of ERP systems?”. The thesis takes a qualitative research strategy in the form of a case study together with a public organization. In total, five semi- structured interviews were analyzed through a thematic analysis. In addition, one observation was conducted, and ten pages of internal documents were used to further contrast the data. The study shows that employees perceived an increase in autonomy from their interaction with the ERP system in the post-implementation phase because of an increase of availability of information, ability to collaborate, and flexibility. However, the employees experienced more complex tasks in the post-implementation phase of the ERP system. The study contributes to the understanding of the emergent changes among employees in the post-implementation phase of ERP systems.