Deploying Distributed Computing: Parking Gets a New System

Abstract

This teaching case describes the efforts of one department in a large organization to migrate from an internally developed, mainframe-based, computing system to a system based on purchased software running on a client/server architecture. The case highlights issues with large scale software implementations such as those demanded by enterprise resource package (ERP) installations. Often, the ERP selected by an organization does not have all the required functionality. This demands purchasing and installing additional packages (known colloquially as “bolt-ons”) to provide the needed functionality. These implementations lead to issues regarding oversight of the technical architecture, both project and technology governance, and user department capability for managing the installation of new systems.