The study “Understanding the Returns from Integrated Enterprise Systems: The Impacts of Agile and Phased Implementation Strategies” (MIS Quarterly, 2024) by Sinan Aral, Erik Brynjolfsson, Chris Gu, Hongchang Wang D.J. Wu, explores how the strategy you choose for implementing your integrated enterprise system can significantly influence performance.
The findings reveal that agile implementation strategies (simple, quick, flexible) lead to higher returns than phased strategies (rich, phased, pre-determined).
Agile vs Phased
- Simple vs rich: fewer vs more initial modules
- Quick vs phased: shorter vs longer connection
- Flexible vs pre-determined: can adopt modules later vs adoption of all modules as planned before going live.
Key insights
- Start small, gain fast: companies that begin with a basic version of their systems (fewer initial modules) see better results faster, while the phased approach, which waits for everything to be fully ready before going live, can delay or hinder positive outcomes.
- Speed matters: companies that integrate their core systems quickly perform better than those that take more time to connect their systems.
- Keep evolving: the best results come when companies keep improving their systems after the initial launch by adding new features and tools. This ongoing evolution leads to better long-term outcomes.
