How Solutions Emerged in a System Implementation and Integration Project Led by the Middle Management: A Case Study

Abstract

System implementation is full of many unknowns and risks, and different solutions emerge according to the various context structure in the process. This study explored how solutions emerge during a system implementation project to understand the interactions among series of events, actions, outcomes, and their impacts on implementation. This study employed the contextualistic approach to analyze the solution emerging process for the system implementation and integration project of a case company which was initiated by the managers of the Accounting and IT departments. The main goal of the project was to solve the issue of too many exceptions in sales-allowance orders by implementing a new workflow system and integrating it with the ERP system. This study identified, in the solution emerging process, the events, the stakeholders and their responses to the events, and the action outcomes and their impacts on the context structure. Based on the analysis, this study discussed the possible strategies to speed up the solution emerging process.