The global ERP industry blossomed in the 1990’s automating back
office operations and in the new century moves have been made to
introduce a “second and third wave” of functionality in ERP systems to
facilitate benefit realisation. Research up to date has been limited in
respect to these “second wave” implementations. The benefits and barriers to attaining benefits are presented with analysis of the extent that
financial metrics are used to measure benefit attainment in core SAP
systems. The main findings of the paper indicate that many ERP implementations do not attain expected benefits and the main reason for this
lack of attainment are people related issues namely change management. --Information Resources Management Association (IRMA) International Conference, 2003