« Human agency », ERP and CRM: the roles of final users in the postimplementation phase

Many studies on information systems (IS) place greater emphasis on the concept of users than on structures to explain the impact of information technologies (IT) in organizations [Boudreau & Robey 2005, Cousins and Robey, 2005; Chu & Robey, 2008]. Human agency offers a theoretical framework for greater insights into the use of new technologies like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in relation to three temporal dimensions: the iterations of the past, future forecasts and the contingencies of the present. We apply this theory to two case studies. The first is an exploratory study that focuses on the implementation of a CRM tool in a large French telecommunications company, and the second is a confirmatory study of an ERP software system, following its introduction in a large state-owned organization in France (RTE). The findings from these two cases illustrate the value of the theory of human agency 1 to explain the way CRM and ERP use evolves. End users continued to work in the old way, deliberately choosing not to use these tools whenever possible, then improvised uses in response to urgent demands, and finally reinvented uses in accordance with their own interpretations of future needs, stages described by Boudreau and Robey as inertia and reinvention (2005).