7
Abandoned CCs: In MS, Employee reterritorialization began with the CC employees going
8
back to their original jobs. This departure from the CC mostly had three common outcomes:
9
First, employees go back to their respective departments with new responsibilities and create a
10
link to the CC or become evangelists for the CC. Second possibility is that the CC employees go
11
to their job disgruntle, are not welcomed back. Finally, the third possibility, these CC employees
12
go to different firm with a better job. The CC employees were territorialized by forming a strong
13
group with a clear purpose of implementing SAP during the ES implementation in Canada,
14
deterritorialized by this dismantling of the Canadian team and abandoning the clear purpose of
15
implementing SAP and instead focusing on the “numbers”, are finally reterritorialized by a few
16
employees joining a different firm. However, some key members from the new management
17
team maintained loyalty to the old bosses. The employees maintained relationship and often
18
sought technical and managerial advices from the old colleagues. Thus the social relationship
19
that impacted the CC reached far beyond the organizational boundaries. During the research
20
process, I discovered that many of the people who were part of the successful CC creation in HG
21
were part of the CC in MS.
The MU CC is was not able to take shape and stay mostly structure-less CC. The Despite the top
1
down mandate from the BOR, not all BUs followed those mandate. The formal CC created to
2
support the reporting requirement dissolved. However, some key members from this dissolved
3
CC continued to work together by creating a “phantom” CC. This newly formed CC shifted their
4
focus towards the data governance. The interview participant CG described that many of the
5
employee were not able create dual link.
6
So as long as things work well within the confines of that silo, they’re [employees]
7
happy. We, however, have the enterprise wide view of the data, so we look into each of
8
those silos and we pull data out of it. (CG)
9
The renewed goal of the CC was not on creating dual role but trying to integrate these silos via
10
providing common tools and technology to manage core data for the enterprise.
11
Successful CCs: In RU, the CC reterritorialized into smaller CCs in other BUs. When CC
12
employees realized that informal but somewhat “regulated” way of collaborating between the
13
departments were effective. These CC employees at their respective BUs tried to replicate this
14
model. RU faced the similar challenges as MU in terms of the business silos. While MU were
15
not able to overcome the problem of silo, RU tried to address it by creating thse “mini” CCs. The
16
research participant WD explains:
17
“What we are trying to do is build multiple competency centers around the different
18
areas on the campus so we make sure that we are maintaining the campus as it exists
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(WD)
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In RU, the CC not only acknowledge the silos exist, but understand that it might be important to
21
preserve these silos.
22
Each In HG reterritorializationr occurred when the CC continued to adapt and respond to the
23
need of different BUs. At HG, any system that is not directly rolled out with the institutionally
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adopted SAP and the companion SAP BI was considered to be a “rogue application”. When the
CC territorialized around the “preferred” platform SAP, many of the widely used applications
1
such as MS Excel were classified as “rouge” and its use were discouraged. However, business
2
units resisted. Historically many business units had created many departmental level applications
3
with the “familiar” Microsoft Excel. To follow the recommendation for the CC that SAP BI be
4
used, BUs would take data from SAP and other sources and later and transfer data back to the
5
SAP BI for corporate use. Several business units created workarounds from the firm’s canonical
6
adopted SAP implementation; they continued to use the “rogue” applications.
7
Deterritorialization caused by the workarounds of Microsoft Excel use was persistent; there was
8
concerted organizational pushback. Although this went against the CC’s vision of the data being
9
“single version of the truth” ultimately HG had to provide a way for users to use Microsoft Excel
10
and still be connected to the main SAP system (Reterritorialization). HG’s solution was to
11
transition from using SP BI as the sole front end and main analytical tool, they provided an SAP-
12
to-Excel connector tool to a) appease the users and b) maintain data integrity and concurrency.
13
Figure 7.5.1 following illustrates and example of a excel in exile, an underground tool, and the
14
post compromise solution allowing business units to build upon ‘certified’ data sources.
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Figure 7.5.1. Excel Use Before and After SAP BI
Summary of Reterritorialization: People (vendor, managers, employees), technology and
1
processes go through deterritorializing process and end up receiving somewhat temporary
2
stability. This period of temporary stability can be classified as reterritorializing process. In MS,
3
vendors were driven out of the organizations. While, HG embraced these vendors. MS
4
reterritorialized by creating their own home grown ES and CC. HG collaborated with ES vendor
5
to evolve theirs. The adaptability in reterritorializing phase is exemplified by HG finally
6
including previously banished Excel applications in the ES suite. In RU, many different BU
7
create their own version of the CC. Reterritorializing in MU is continued via attempt to loosely
8
connect different BUs to the data governance group.
9
While trying to manage these post implementation ESs, organizations often ignored or under
10
estimated the dynamic social relationship emerging between diverse stakeholders. From these
11
interactions, vendors emerged as possible partners, consultants became the bridge to additional
12
resources, and employees as dual role ambassador or CC evangelists. These emergent
13
relationships kept the CC in a flux forcing it to change in real time.
14
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