ERP – a moving target

Enterprise Resource Planning systems are central elements in longterm wide-ranging design and use networks. Present ERP research focuses on single-enterprise implementation and fails to address important features of the ERP networks such as multi-spatiality, the design of the generic and the dynamics over time. A six-field matrix is proposed as a conceptual frame,encompassing short- and long-term, and micro, meso and macro elements and leaving implementation as but one out of six aspects. Empirical research shows the long-term drift of an ERP community crosscutting locally and globally, and a single-enterprise case combines implementation and use underlining the marked reconfiguration of ERP modules and processes in a professional service company.