IT Systems Case Study

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Q1. Drawing on the ideas of the IT systems failure types discussed in FIT3136Unit, analyse the failure of the ERP system described in the case article reported by Walter et al. (2011) in terms of: interaction failure, process failure, and correspondence failure.

According to Lyytinen and Hirschheim (1987), there are three types of IT systems project failures such as correspondence failure, process failure and interaction failure.
Correspondence failure
Correspondence failure exists when an IT system does not meet its predefined business objectives set by senior management. It also can happen because senior management fails to prepare a realistic goal of the IT project in the beginning.
ERP Systems are complicated, and implementing it may …show more content…

The BBI project manager was comforted by the number of customers using SupERP. However, it is not clear whether anyone from BBI project reached any of these customers to determine their degree of satisfaction. It is important to note that the order processing and operations capabilities had not been implemented by these references [1].
Poor quality of IS planning (i.e. poor estimation, monitoring, planning)
One of the critical failure factors (CFFs) proposed by critical failure factors (CFFs) is poor quality of information systems planning including lack of planning, estimation and monitoring.
Knowing that ERP is one of the most expensive information systems initiatives, a firm can undertake, Burleson (2001) proposes that the human costs, i.e., the expenses for people to install the software, implement the changes in the process, move the data, and train the users, usually cost three to four times the cost of the software itself …show more content…

No proof of concept or demonstration was conducted. After receiving verbal confirmation from SupERP, BBI and SupERP executed a Software License and Service Agreement (SLSA) [1].
BBI reported over 350 problems of the ERP systems to SupERP. They called on SupERP for assistance. Relations between BBI and SupERP became progressively strained, as requests for assistance seemed to take longer than expected or unanswered. BBI does not understand the complete functionality of the modules being used and still had not implemented every modules [1].
The circumstance became worse in August, one year after BBI had signed the Software License and Services Agreement, when SupERP inform BBI in a letter that it planned to discontinue sales and support for installations of its software on the AS/400 hardware platform in three years. BBI had expected that the SupERP system (when fully functional) would grow with the business for no less than ten years

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