THE ROLE OF PROJECT ACCEPTANCE IN THE SUCCESSFULPEOPLESOFT HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SYSTEMIMPLEMENTATION FOR THE KENTUCKY COMMUNITYAND TECHNICAL COLLEGE SYSTEM

摘要

In July 1998 House Bill 1 formed the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Astatewide ERP information system was initiated to seamlessly integrate the functional requirements of HumanResources, Student Administration, and Financial Systems for all KCTCS institutions statewide. This paperdescribes how the project was planned, designed, and implemented in the short span of 35 months, ahead ofschedule, operationally on target, and $3,775,000 (21%) under budget. The lessons learned draw attention tothe fact that attention to detail in the planning, resource allocation, and schedule execution were important,but not the key reasons for the project’s acceptance. As Umble and Umble (2002) point out, there are fourprimary reasons why ERP implementations fail at the time of project acceptance: inadequate education andtraining, poor leadership from top management, resistance to change, and unrealistic expectations. This papershows how these potential pitfalls were addressed.