Chapter 10 • Methodologies for Purchased Software Packages 405a “satisficing” mind-set, as opposed to expecting an
“optimal” solution for every aspect of the system. For
companies with many business units across the globe,
business managers will also typically be asked to
accept some less-than-optimal ways of doing things in
their unit in order to have a standard configuration
across the enterprise. A typical rule-of-thumb here is
to try and keep a standard solution for about 80 per-
cent of the package configuration, recognizing that
some local customization will even be required due to
specific country or regional regulations. Related is the
need to carefully select measures of ERP project suc-
cess in different phases of the project. In general, big
picture measures of success need to be used (e.g.,
“achieving commonality of systems and business
practices in a decentralized organization”) in order for
the organization to sustain support for the project.Brown and Vessey also point out that later adopters
of a new kind of enterprise system always have the advan-
tage of learning from the mistakes of early adopters. For
example, companies that purchased an ERP package in the
second half of the 1990s could talk with other companies
in their industry who had already implemented an ERP,
and then they could benchmark their own implementation
plans in order to avoid making costly mistakes. These au-
thors also suggest that much of what is learned from ERP
projects will help the early adopters of the next wave of
enterprise systems (e.g., customer relationship manage-
ment and supply chain management systems).
Other researchers (e.g., Ross, 1998) have emphasized
the importance of recognizing that large, complex enter-
prise system initiatives really don’t end with the initial “Go
Live” date. Rather, managers should anticipate that there
will be a period of time following the initial implementation
in which the system and new processes become more stabi-
lized (a “shakedown” period). After the new ways of doing
business have become more routinized and the technical op-
erations of the new system are running smoothly, the com-
pany can begin to make smaller changes (continuous im-
provement) to help it achieve the promised business benefits
from implementing this new type of software package. For
example, many companies report having achieved cost effi-
ciencies in materials procurement within the first calendar
year after an ERP implementation, but other value-chain
improvements might not be realized for several more years.
Open Source Software
Although the open source movement began with system
software like the Linux operating system, the Firefox Web
browser, and the MySQL database management system,
open source is now viable for application software and
other enabling packages (e.g., for data warehousing and
business intelligence). Open source softwaregoes beyond
freeware, which can be downloaded from various bulletin
boards. With open source, you obtain the source code and
the right to modify it. Depending on the license for acquir-
ing the software, if you change it, you may be obligated to
share your changes with the community of organizations
that are using the software.
Although an open source application is free to
acquire, the provider of the software as well as third parties
often provide fee-based products and services to extend the
product with advanced features, maintenance and training,
and documentation and books about use of the software.
Thus, for some, the real advantage of open source software
is not the lower cost but rather the independence from a
single software provider that may not have the same prior-
ities as you do for enhancements and that may lock
adopters into their services and add-on components by not
allowing third parties to be involved.What makes open
source an attractive type of purchased software? Certainly
the up-front acquisition cost is important, but the total cost
of ownership (for maintenance, upgrades, support, train-
ing, thorough documentation, etc.) may make proprietary
packages not much more expensive. However, an open
source application also has other advantages, including the
following (see Hoffer et al., 2011):- A large pool of volunteer testers and developers
facilitate the construction of reliable, low-cost soft-
ware in a relatively short amount of time; in other
words, the future viability of the application soft-
ware does not depend on one vendor. - The ability to modify source code to add new features
you want, not those on the priority list developed by
the marketing department of the software vendor;
your new code can be easily inspected by others;
even the ability to review the original source code
(rather than having to treat it as a “black box”) means
that you can inspect it thoroughly before deployment. - You do not become dependent on one vendor or pro-
prietary code, which may not allow you to enhance
the software as your needs change. - The acquisition cost is the same for one copy or
thousands, so it can be much less expensive to make
the software available to a large number of users
throughout your (perhaps global) organization than
would acquiring multiple-user licenses for propri-
etary applications. - You may use the software for any purpose (e.g., for
your own use, to distribute with software you write,
for profit-making activities).