IJRAM 2005 1 Multivariate Methods in Enterprise System Implementation, Risk Management and Change Management Ron S. Kenett 1 and Orit Raphaeli 2 1 KPA Ltd. Raanana, Israel & University of Torino, Italy. E-mail: ron@kpa.co.il 2 Faculty of Management, Tel-Aviv University & KPA Ltd, Israel. E-mail: oritra@kpa.co.il Abstract. This work is a first step towards the application of multivariate methods in Risk Management and Change Management in Enterprise Sys- tem Implementation (ESI). ESI is characterized by concentrated efforts to inte- grate, within an active work environment, an IT system such as ERP, PDM or CRM. Such projects typically experience unplanned problems and events, which may lead to major restructuring of the process. In this work, we rely on ESI theory developed by the BEST project (www.best-project.com) and more conventional Risk Management methodology. Both Change Management and Risk Management consist of data collection and data analysis. We will show that the data structures of both efforts are similar so that similar data analysis techniques are applicable. In fact one can consider Change Management as a special case of Risk Management. The paper’s focus is on the application of multivariate methods in comparing risk profiles and readiness assessments at various stages of an ESI project. The techniques we introduce here are Corre- spondence Analysis and Partial Order Mapping. These techniques help char- acterize and compare ESI readiness across different parts of a company and compare risk profiles of different ESI components. . 1. Introduction Enterprise System (ES) are software packages that offer integrated solutions to com- panies' information needs [Davenport (2000)]. Enterprise Systems like ERP (Enter- prise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Requirement Management), and PDM (Product Data Management) have gained great significance for most companies on an operational as well as a strategic level. An ES implementation (ESI) process, as other system development processes, is a complex and dynamic process that cannot be fixed from the start. The process is characterized by the occurrences of unplanned problems and events [Buhl et al (2004), Fan et al (2004), Wognum et al (2005)]. These situations may lead to major restructuring of the process with severe implica- tions to the whole company.