Abstract The last decade has seen a dramatic growth in the number of organizations adopting Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs). To date, much of the research on ERPs has focused on the process of implementation, with relatively little attention given to their ongoing impact on organizations or how to effectively manage these systems over time. The papers in this special issue explore these issues. ERPs require a considerable financial investment and produce widespread change in organizations. The papers in this special issue suggest that for organizations to gain strategic benefit from ERPs, managers have to be prepared to make a long‐term investment of organizational resources and to develop the capabilities necessary to manage them. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.