Learning and performance in ERP implementation projects: A learning-curve model for analyzing and managing consulting costs

Consulting fees form a large portion of enterprise resource planning (ERP) costs and may cause serious budget overruns. The extent and duration of the consulting support required by a team is dependent on the team's expertise. The choice of a training strategy significantly impacts project costs, but analytical tools to predict the extent of this impact have not been available. This research offers three major contributions: a means of selecting a training strategy that minimizes project consulting costs, an analytical method for accurately predicting a project completion date, and a theoretical basis for empirical studies of learning and ERP (and other IT) implementations.