Case 19: An IT Manager Intentionally Destroyed Company’s ERP to Increase Company’s Dependency on Him
Topic
IT/ERP, Team Management
Company
A Global Manufacturing Company
Problem
The company has an ERP that was supposed to be the best in world that was supposed to be able to handle ‘anything’, but only a small fraction of the ERP was used and there were many add-ons.
Facts known
The ERP is used world-wide and in other countries it run very well and was much more useful/powerful than how it was in Indonesia
Audit process
Interview, observation, system test
Findings
- The ERP implementation was done with insufficient internal team resources (not enough people understand the system).
- Not enough training was given to the internal team to increase the quality of their contributions
- There were only 4 people in IT department and the highest position was held by a supervisor who was caught to have intentionally destroyed the system by erasing a line of programming
- The ERP was prone to internal modification because it had open kernel
Suggestions
- Fire the IT supervisor
- Establish a small team who would work toward completing the ERP implementation to optimally harvest its benefits
Follow up
- The IT supervisor wasn’t fired but a new IT Manager was appointed to be his boss and the IT supervisor’s access to system was blocked.
- A small team to continue the ERP implementation was established and the implementation was continued and the benefit was harvested in several section
- Several years later, global HQ decided to implement an even newer more secure ERP
Engagement
4 months