Big Vendor vs. Little Vendor: Managing the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Project to Overcome the Laggard Sales Barrier

The majority of international organizations, especially technologist “fast or first movers” who invest in a new enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) project are considered Laggards or “late arrivers” by a major software vendor. The majority of the Laggards segment does not purchase ERP software from a vendor without an established track record. Obviously, small or less prestigious vendors have difficulty fulfilling their bottom line without tapping the Laggards market. This paper is a critical and non-empirical review to better understand this complex phenomenon. A case study was conducted within a large public sector university in Australasia during a major ERP-managed project utilizing the Diffusion of Innovations theory integrating it with the concepts of internationalization. The findings confirm that small software vendors have a great challenge to overcome. But the Diffusion of Innovation could be one of many social analysis building blocks for promoting the “Little Vendor” over the “Big Vendor.”