Case Study: First City Bank Implements an ERP System First Citybank initiated an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systemimplementation project to reduce overhead, increase efficiency,enhance the quality of operations, and increase customersatisfaction for its mortgage branch. The Systems Integrator (SI)Sigma Consulting, LLC, was brought onboard to analyze the existingbusiness processes at the mortgage branch of the First City Bankand help the bank achieve its business objectives by implementingand configuring the ERP system to increase automation of itsrepetitive operations, integrate various business functions, andoffer a portal for the customers to directly submit their mortgageinformation online by completing an online application themselves.The SI performed the stakeholder identification and analysis andcollected the stakeholder information in the stakeholder register.Thereafter, Joint Application Design (JAD) sessions were scheduledto gather stakeholder requirements. The JAD sessions were completedand requirements were collected. Based on the requirementscollected, solution specifications were created, and in turn, thesolution was developed and configured. However, the client did notaccept the solution because it was not configured correctly. Thisbecame apparent during the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase whenthe client asked specific subject matter experts (SMEs) to test usecases and test scenarios, and SMEs discovered that the new ERPsystem was configured incorrectly. Apparently, the requirementscaptured by the SI were incomplete and incorrect due to the lack ofparticipation by all required stakeholders. The incompleterequirements resulted in wrong solution specifications and henceincorrect configuration of the new ERP system. Jeff Barlow, themanager of the mortgage branch of First City Bank (the client),said that the SMEs engaged in performing the UAT were not availableduring the JAD sessions. This turmoil prompted the client FirstCity Bank and SI Sigma Consulting to go back to the drawing board.The design of the solution was subjected to significant changesinvolving time-consuming change requests and approvals followed byadditional cycles of the unit, system, and user acceptance testing.The solution, though, was finally approved and delivered, but itwas significantly late and over budget. Case Questions 1. Who arethe stakeholders in this case? 2. How do you define a successfulproject? In your opinion, was this project a success or a failure?3. What went well in this project? 4. What went wrong in thisproject? 5. What are some lessons learned from this project thatcan be applied in similar project environments?
