Introduction

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an advanced modern complex technology that integrates and co-ordinates almost all functional areas in the modern organisations. ERP implementation and its impact on organisations differ from the implementation and impact of custom software systems. This book investigates the processes of management accounting change triggered by the implementation and use of these two types of information technology (IT) in four Egyptian organisations, two government agencies and two state-owned enterprises. In particular, the study compares ERP with customised software in relation to change in management accounting systems and practices and change in management accountants’ role and relationships with other organisational members in highly regularised Egyptian organisations that have been influenced by recent institutional transformations. On the one hand customised software, which is designed to satisfy the organisation’s specific needs, tends to reinforce existing management accounting practices. On the other hand ERP systems are a special type of packaged software. Their implementation is characterised by complexity and cross-functional nature. ERP systems, with their built-in ‘best’ management accounting practices, promise radical change in the way of doing things, especially in developing countries.