An examination of barriers to benefits-realisation from enterprise systems in the public service

Examination of barriers to benefits-realisation from Enterprise Systems (ES) has potential to provide an innovative perspective on strategic management of large-scale packaged software, and on the extended virtual enterprise explicitly or implicitly deployed across the ES life-cycle. Private sector experience has revealed distinctive conditions applying to ES that create barriers to benefit-realisation. For public service organisations, ES have the potential to enable the provision of end-to-end integrated services, consistent with the demands of public accountability, but are encumbered by a poor track record in large systems implementation and associated process-reengineering. This research analyses the Australian Public Service ES experience, with the aim of dismantling barriers to public sector exploitation of ES. Early results reflect conventional perceptions of implementation issues, but application of the distinctive Dephi-based methodology designed for this study is expected to yield a basis for shared action on the part of government administration, vendors and consultants.