ERP II is Dead- Long Live CRM

Abstract

In the early 2000s, several practitioners and authors have predicted the overshadowing of customer relationship management (CRM) systems by what is called enterprise resource planning systems II (ERP II). ERP II was envisioned to virtually cover all the processes within organizations from supply chain, CRM, to e-business. In 2000, Gartner group published an article titled “ERP is dead, long live ERP” in which they argued that in near future, ERP systems will overcome the need for other specialized systems (e.g. CRM). While there have been major advances in ERP systems since then, and the fact that most current ERP systems include CRM modules and applications, however, separate CRM systems are still widely adopted by organizations. Thus, this research attempts to investigate the main reasons that motivate organizations to invest in distinct CRM systems instead of using the CRM related modules in the acquired ERP system. Via a multiple case study, our results show that ERP II as envisioned, is not existent yet. Organizations tend to prefer separate CRM systems. Thus, we have developed four main reasons for this preference, which are: scoping during ERP implementations, costs, features, user-friendliness and ease of use. This paper, ultimately, leaves space for further research.