Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) The Great Gamble

About the Book

This book is not a technical manual explaining all the nuts-and-bolts details of ERP that must be mastered to successfully implement the technology but is a guide to senior executives, managers, project managers, and project teams to understand the different aspects of an ERP project.

An ERP project is far broader than the software technology and it is these other issues that can be the difference between success and failure.

This book is based on 35 years of experience of the author, who has worked in organisations all over the world in various capacities and has project-managed ERP projects with varying degrees of success and failure and has analysed many ERP projects from a recovery, mediation and litigation perspective to determine the underlying reasons for ERP failure.

The book is written in layman’s terms and seeks to provide senior management, middle management, project management, and their project teams with an understanding of the issues that need to be addressed and managed in order to achieve a successful outcome from an ERP project.

About the Author

Ray Atkinson is a consultant specialising in ERP systems for manufacturing, distribution, mining, and construction industries. Ray graduated from the Sydney School of Business (NSW Department of Technical Education) in 1974 and has lived and worked in UK, Middle East, Japan, and Norway on major projects ranging from manufacturing, quality systems, logistics, supply management, and clients representative for offshore oil construction projects. He has designed a computer-based system for the engineering, procurement, logistics, and construction of major oil field drilling and production platform for the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. Ray has lectured and consulted on MRPII, ERP, and lean principles across a wide range of industries in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and India for the past 30 years and has produced a video series on the technology funded by the Australian Federal Government in 1988. Ray is currently the CEO of Atko Global, a consulting company that specialised in assisting companies to recover from failed or poorly operating ERP systems. Ray acts as an independent advisor on ERP projects to management, has published many papers and blogs on ERP and lectures extensively on the subject publicly, in-house and through his website, www.atkoglobal.com