Software and Organisations...
The central argument of the book is that the nature of the modern enterprise-wide information system is radically changing. Most large and medium-sized organisations around the world now use a ‘packaged enterprise system’. These are enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and other kinds of financial and administrative computer systems. Crucially these are not the context specific information systems from a few years ago but the most highly generic and standardised kinds of solutions. Yet no one has explained in a conceptually and empirically robust manner just how this has happened - how did the corporate information system shift from specialised to generic solution? We argue that social scientists have missed one of the most important shifts in the short history of corporate information systems:
this is the onset of packaged solutions; the rise of a new breed of software supplier; and the extension of the generic enterprise system across organisations and sectors.As a result there are no social science or management texts which comprehensively or adequately set out
just how software suppliers like the global giant SAP have been able to install their standardised systems in so many organisations around the world;nor are there any studies which consider the wider dynamics surrounding software suppliers; and finallythere is a lack of concepts to explain the extension of this software to all sectors and this wider shift from specialised to generic systems.This book attempts to rectify this gap in our understanding through discussing the results of qualitative studies of supplier organisations, user organisations, and other relevant sites. It includes, as far as we know, the first detailed ethnographic study of the inner workings of one of the world leading ERP supplier. Here we were able to witness the huge challenges package vendors face in attempting to manage their relationships with an ever-growing number of customers, as well as with how they design generic solutions. The book includes a study of the design and evolution of an ERP module (which we have followed now for the entire length of its career – which is almost a decade now). It also includes, again as far as we know, the first study of the work of the industry analysts, The Gartner Group. We argue that these experts play a crucial role in constituting the wider information system arena. Our study draws attention to how industry analysts seek to establish boundaries around the information system field and generating assessments of the relative location of various software suppliers (their current products and future prospects) within product market for different user sectors. In addition, we noted the role of Gartner and other analysts in drawing up signposts about the state of the industry and its future development. It uniquely draws upon longitudinal research conducted over a twenty year period, which offers surprising insights into the evolution of technical fields (showing for example that the success of packaged solutions was not widely anticipated).
