Software and Organisations: The Biography of the Enterprise-Wide System or How SAP Conquered the World (Routledge Studies in Technology, Work and Organizations)

The modern enterprise-wide information system has become a software package. A small number of software suppliers, of which the software giant SAP is the clear leader, have apparently succeeded in deploying their enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions across many different organisations, sectors and countries around the globe. This illustrates a significant shift involving the reshaping of the corporate information system. This is the first book that addresses the genesis and career of the modern day enterprise system in a comprehensive and robust manner. It does so through setting out a new approach for the study of packaged solutions and presents novel empirical studies based on in-depth ethnographic and longitudinal research conducted within supplier organisations and other relevant sites. The authors shift the debate within the social study of information systems, from one that is primarily focused on "implementation studies', to one that follows software as it evolves, matures and crosses organisational boundaries. Through tracing and comparing the "biography' of a number of software systems the authors develop a new vocabulary for the dynamics that surround standardised software. Original in its approach, this book draws on a number of ethnographic studies in supplier organisations, user settings, user forums, and applies theories from the Sociology of Technology, Technology Studies, Innovation Studies, and beyond. As such it will be of interest across all of these subject areas and to researchers from the wider fields of Information Systems and Business Studies.Neil Pollock is the author of 'Software and Organisations: The Biography of the Enterprise-Wide System or How SAP Conquered the World (Routledge Studies in Technology, Work and Organizations)', published 2008 under ISBN 9780415403979 and ISBN 0415403979.