Changing Spaces for Social Learning in ERP Implementation: A Situational Analysis

The research presented in this paper focuses on two different periods of implementation choices in the history of an Italian public sector organization as ERP software support shifts from being provided in-house to a market-based supply. The case illustrates a deeply contextual reflexivity between the various compositions of supply and use space and the social learning that shapes organizational members’ representations of ERP system implementation choices. Data on distinctive situational maps of organizational resources concerning implementation choices and post-implementation enhancements of the system were gathered through biographic interviews and observations of the system in use. Two different situational maps of IT related expertise were identified across different time periods: the “Steering Committee” period (1998–2001) and the “Key Users” period (2002–2005). We explore the role played across time by the reconfiguration of actors and their interactions along the ERP system support chain in patterning the way project participants make sense of notions like “customization” or “standardization”.