SLP 4

© HEC Montréal 2010

All rights reserved for all countries. Any translation or alteration in any form whatsoever is prohibited.

The International Journal of Case Studies in Management is published on-line (www.hec.ca/revuedecas/en), ISSN 1911-2599.

This case is intended to be used as the framework for an educational discussion and does not imply any judgement on the

administrative situation presented. Deposited under the number 9 65 2010 012 with the HEC Montréal Centre for Case Studies,

3000, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal (Québec) Canada H3T 2A7.

Volume 4 Issue 1

March 2006

An ERP Story: 1 Epilogue (D)2, 3

Case prepared by Professors Carmen BERNIER 4 and Vital ROY,

5 as well as

Éric BRUNELLE 6

Epilogue

Over the next few days, the current project leader is replaced by André Gagné, a candidate who

has studied accounting and has a master’s degree in information systems, in addition to solid

experience in the insurance industry. He has also managed several systems development projects

involving integration of information technologies and business process review.

The project leader’s main concern is to restore the project’s credibility and win the confidence of

the project’s team members as well as of the users and management. He reorganizes the project

team into multidisciplinary teams in charge of formulating solutions for each of the problems

identified by the project, while respecting the established project plan, budgets and calendars as

well as the constraints of the company. Each of these teams includes technical and management

experts as well as experts from each of the business units involved. Once this reorganization is

underway, André Gagné organizes an orientation meeting, followed by an evening cocktail hour

for all of the members of the project and the users involved.

A few weeks after the arrival of the new project manager, there is still apprehension about the

changes to come among the staff of the various business units affected by the project. The most

serious rumours are about the number of layoffs that will result from the implementation of the

new software package, the process review and the reorganization of tasks. André Gagné requests

and obtains the budgets needed to offer future users intensive information sessions on the

potential and features of ABC. He also gives users a more active role in the project: they are

made responsible for reviewing their business processes. As for ABS’s technical experts and the

1 This case was produced with the support of the Programme de parrainage professoral CGI and the Fonds de développement

pédagogique HEC. The authors would like to thank the evaluators for their valuable comments.

2 Translation from French of “Histoire d’ERP : épilogue (D),” case deposited under number 9 65 2006 008.

3 This project was made possible thanks to funding from the CGI Professorship.

4 Carmen Bernier is an Associate Professor and Director of the Department of Information Technologies at HEC Montréal.

5 Vital Roy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information Technologies at HEC Montréal.

6 We wish to thank Jean-François Jutras for his collaboration in the writing and layout of the text.

An ERP Story: Troubles Ahead (C)

Copyright © HEC Montréal 2

ABC supplier, their responsibilities evolve into the role of consultants who propose configuration

options that meet the needs of users.

Twelve months later, André Gagné and his team go live with the new information system at ABS

Canada. The project team and management at ABS are now confident that the new information

system will be used and will represent a major evolution in the company’s business practices.

While most of the team members are exhausted due to long hours spent on implementing the

project, they are all eager to move on to new challenges.

For the consultant, the time has come to carry out the project post mortem. François Caron

reviews the performance evaluation document that his client Jean Roberge has just submitted.

The second project leader has successfully met the challenge and exceeded the client’s

expectations. He is now getting ready to complete his report that will summarize the main points

of the project and the lessons learned.

Question:

Jean Roberge and François Caron wish to document the key elements that led to the success of

the ABS project. They ask you to prepare a synthesis report of these factors.

2010-06-14