Case Study Analysis: ERP Failures at Cambridge and Queensland Health

This case study analysis examines two significant Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project failures: one at Cambridge University and another at Queensland Health. The analysis delves into various factors contributing to these failures, including sound governance, user involvement, projec...Read More

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Enterprise Resource Planning System - Case Study Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Sound Governance.................................................................................................................2
User Involvement...................................................................................................................3
Experience Project Manager..................................................................................................4
Clear Business Objectives......................................................................................................4
Firm Basic Requirements.......................................................................................................5
Organizational Commitment to Change.................................................................................5
Adequate Resources...............................................................................................................6
Flexibility...............................................................................................................................6
Clear Communication............................................................................................................6
Managing Stakeholders..........................................................................................................7
Vendor Support......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Introduction
In this business report, following would be the analysis consisting of two case studies
along with their comparison that have been gathered from understanding and researching
about to verified cases of project failures. Having strategic understanding of the papers
presented in this regard, both the papers presented in this context would analyse the reason
behind project failure with the help of several conditions. The first paper in this case
describes the lessons that has been gathered from a failure at Cambridge and RMIT
University following a faulty package enterprise application software while going live. the
second paper presented in this regard describes the biggest self-proclaimed IT project failure
which is also known as the Queensland health implementation project failure. The thorough
analysis in comparison of both the papers would go through the sound governance process
behind the project implementation, the involvement of the user, the experience of the project
manager, flawless demonstration of the business objectives, the form basic necessities, the
organisational assurances to change the satisfactory resources, clear communication,
flexibility, management of stakeholders and support from the vendors.
Sound Governance
In the first case, the failure of project was also provided to the reason that the entire
project was built upon a poor governance structure that could not solve the problem that the
software code already has while going live. When the organisation wanted to upgrade from
Oracle 11.0.2 to 11.0.3, did not understand that the project could also need a fully functioning
governance system that would not allowed the project to be regarded as a poor problem
which was found to be one of the root causes of the project failure at Cambridge.

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
On the other hand, in the Queensland healthcare sector, the project was initiated with
objective of demonstrating project governance and policy, but it was found that there were
mostly policy issues and project governance that affected the information system and project
implementation. The issues that were found during auditing by the Royal Commission and
auditor general reported that there were heightened issues of project management and
governance pertaining to the project implementation process. They even highlighted them but
it was too late as the project was already initiated.
User Involvement
There were several stages in the first project that provided with two mini examples of
mismanagement in the project. One of them was also found to be the four project progression
phase where only proper importance was given only to the project deadline. To reach the
deadline the new project manager had also reduce the scope of the project in such a
significant way that it later was the much bigger issue in the user dissatisfaction. there was a
deficiency in the engagement of the organization as well as user involvement found in the
projects as there was no attend by the project director in obtaining any kind of involvement
from the managers who also doubled as users in the project.
In the next project, it was found that it the implementation approach of the entire
project was faulty at various levels since the user acceptance testing was performed in a
parallel way between various stages before the project was implemented. The shortage of
employees within the organisation made it difficult to perform user acceptance testing and
this negatively affected the testing faced by the users. This also minimise to the extent of the
resistance from the user and this is why the project faced communication issues.

4CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Experience Project Manager
The first project had project managers changing at random, where one project
manager was changed after another without prior information shared to the entire project
team. in addition to that they were also situations where the previous project managers could
not pass on the respective knowledge to the next project manager and therefore the
knowledge management system within the project was hampered. The new project manager
did not understand what was going around and therefore this created a huge problem in
understanding the crux of the entire project implementation plan.
In the next case study, it was seen that there were freelance project manager appointed
for Queensland health implementation project and the only followed the suit of working
within the organisation and implement the project out of sentimental issues. Before joining,
admitted that the program was an unsubstantiated one, but still out of sentiments they wanted
to join.
Clear Business Objectives
Comparing both the project failures it can also be said that during the first project
initiation, the business objectives with absolutely clear to both the project team, the
organisation and the customers to home the project would be served as an end product. There
were no issues found to be in the delivery of business objectives.
On the other hand, the Queensland health organisation needed to be satiated buy
CorpTech and Queensland health. this had further resulted in roles, responsibilities and
objectives of the entire project to be very unclear and there was a huge demand for the project
management and governance strategies to be emphasising clearing all the doubts that the
project team had in their mind regarding the objectives of the project.

5CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Firm Basic Requirements
The reason that the project in RMIT, Cambridge failed could not be held responsible
for the firm basic requirements of the organisation, as because they understood that this was
one of the phases that would have inadequate control or encouragement generated due to the
project manager and this was one of the critical project success factors. They understood this
section extremely well before the project was initiated.
On the other hand, there was no initiation in the Queensland health project about firm
basic requirements, and this was not realised into the organisations before the project work be
implemented initiated about the planning.
Organizational Commitment to Change
The first organisation in Cambridge understood that training and change management
was one of the high level control of the project manager that was a critical success factor
behind every project. understand this and the insured the training is given to all the members
in the project team so that they could understand the importance of having a strategy
developed for any kind of change is needed within the organisation.
The Queensland health Institute also understood the change within the organisation
and this is why they wanted to initiate the project to provide the healthcare institution with
technological advancements. however, they could not understand the proper way of handling
the change management procedure and this was one of the reasons that the project in the
organisation failed.

6CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Adequate Resources
There were adequate resources in the Cambridge University while adapting to the
implementation of the project and they understood what was required. However, during the
project phase when the technology was implemented, there were many technological
shortcomings that were found within the organisation and the project team which made it
even difficult to initiate go live. the lack of having proper and adequate resources does add to
the failure of the project.
Again, the objective of the organisation in the next phase was considered United
technology and resources that need to be delivered with the standardized business processes
and high quality solution. The planning did not go as birthday execution, what the adequate
resources cannot be blamed for that. this cannot be considered as one of the primary
explanations that the organisation failed to implement the project.
Flexibility
The reasons that the project in Cambridge failed where found to be the difficulty in
paying the bills and various other technological factors but flexibility of the entire problem
cannot be blamed for the project failure.
Where on the other hand the organisation of Queensland health Institute was flexible
enough, since they wanted to roll out the previous system and wanted to ensure that the new
system is implemented within the organisation.
Clear Communication
Communication is one of the major factors that makes a business project succeed or
become a successful project. In both the cases of the project initiation phase for both

7CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Queensland health Institute and Cambridge University, the lack of executive to handle the
project resulted in in whose communication and bad knowledge management. This was
considered to be one of the reasons by which the organisations failed to implement the
project.
Managing Stakeholders
One of the primary and important factor of handling a project in a feasible where is
the way by which the project handle stakeholders. The stakeholders are the ones that are
directly or indirectly affected by the project outcome. During the process at both of the
university and healthcare Institute did not follow the management of stakeholders in a proper
way due to which the end result did not satisfy the customers are the stakeholders would be
directly affected by the outcome of the project.
Vendor Support
One of the external factor that affects a project is the vendor support which was found
to be failure in the first project of Cambridge University.
The vendors in the second project for Queensland health Institute had full support
about the project implementation but the random changes that were made in the business
scenario need the vendors fail to cope up with the existing systems and the absolute ones. this
is another reason why the project failed because the windows could not keep up with the
current trends.
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion, it can be said that both the projects in Cambridge University
and Queensland health Institute had failures but owing to different reasons. With an analysis

8CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
of both the research papers presented to find out the reasons that the projects failed, there
were several factors that had been analysed to find out the reason why the project failed.
From the above analysis of the two projects through the research papers the reason can be
established.

9CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
References
Eden, R. and Sedera, D., 2014. The largest admitted IT project failure in the Southern
Hemisphere: a teaching case. In Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on
Information Systems: Building a Better World Through Information Systems. AISeL.
Freeman, P. and Seddon, P., 2004. Factors affecting the realisation of benefits from CRM
packaged software-based work systems. PACIS 2004 Proceedings, p.140.