Enhancing functionality in an enterprise software package
Although enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages strive to integrate all the major processes of a firm, customers typically discover that some essential functionality is lacking. To address this issue and to complement their capabilities, both ERP vendors and customers increasingly recognize the importance of collaboration. Using a grounded theory approach, this studys objective is to derive a theoretical understanding of how customers collaborated on enhancements to an ERP module. The main contribution is, therefore, a theoretical model that relates the two processes  selection of participants, and interorganizational collaboration  to share knowledge of a subsysytems best practices. Important findings are that swift trust from the occupational community, conflict resolution, reciprocity, and informal networks impact functionality enhancement. The implication from these findings is that a deeper understanding of the functionality enhancement process benefits not only team members, but also ERP customers and collaborators overall.
software packages enterprise resource planning collaboration trust conflict resolution informal networks organizational learning information requirements determination user requirements development team