Managing knowledge in enterprise systems

Abstract

Enterprise Systems are comprehensive and complex applications that form the core business operating system for many companies worldwide and throughout most industries. The selection, implementation, use and continuous change of Enterprise Systems (ES) (e.g. mySAP.com) require a great amount of knowledge and experience. Due to the lack of in-house ES knowledge and the high costs of engaging experienced implementation consultants, organizations realize the need to better leverage their knowledge resources. Managing this knowledge is increasingly important with the second wave of ES projects focusing E-Business applications like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM). These new applications embrace an open-integration strategy that will incorporate and support other vendors' applications as part of its Internet-based enterprise computing platform. This paper proposes a framework for managing knowledge in Enterprise Systems. The framework draws its strength from meta-case studies and comprehensive literature analyses, which is consolidated into a three-dimensional framework. The preliminary results show that the importance of value-adding activities and innovation are elemental to knowledge management in the aspect of ES. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMSEnterprise Systems (ES) (synonyms are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise-wide Systems and Enterprise Application Systems) can be defined as customizable, standard application software which includes integrated business solutions for the core processes (e.g. production planning and control, warehouse management) and the main administrative functions (e. g. accounting, human resource management) of an enterprise (Rosemann 1999). In order to configure and use ES efficiently, components like implementation tools (procedural models, reference information models, customizing guidelines, project management software), workflow functionality, tools for the development of add-on modules and system administration, and office suites are usually embedded.

Improving enterprise resource planning (ERP) fit to organizational process through knowledge transfer

“…Studies about ERP implementations focus on identifying critical success (and/or risk) factors associated with ERP implementations, one of which is the impact of knowledge transfer (Chan & Rosemann, 2001;Jones, 2001;Lee & Lee, 2000;Parr, Shanks, & Darke, 1999;Volkoff & Sawyer, 2001;Willcocks & Sykes, 2000). While an organization may lack necessary experience or knowledge for ERP implementation, it could nonetheless transfer this knowledge from external sources such as consulting firms (Timbrell & Gable, 2001).…”

Identifying the Knowledge Requirements of a New Project Entrant: An Informing Science Approach

“…It involves the planning, organizing, controlling the project, and managing project risk, in order to meet the project objectives within various time and budget constraints (R. Chan & Rosemann, 2001;Goles, Hawk, & Kaiser, 2008). Reich (2007) refers to this as process knowledge in her research.…”

“…This refers to knowledge about the "customer" organisation that the IT project is delivering to. It includes knowledge about the business processes, rules, activities, functional areas, entities, business operations and policies, customer business objectives, and stakeholder needs (R. Chan & Rosemann, 2001;Kang & Hahn, 2009;Lee, Trauth, & Farwell, 1995;Tiwana, 2004;Zhao & Zuo 2011). Reich (2007) expands on this and states that it includes knowledge about the industry and the business opportunity or problem currently at hand.…”

“…Reich (2007) advises that institutional knowledge is not so much about the facts of the organisation, but rather about how facts are to be interpreted to understand "what is really going on". R. Chan & Rosemann (2001) refer to this as company-specific knowledge. In their research on managing knowledge of enterprise systems they claim that systems cannot be successfully implemented without taking individual companyspecific factors into accounts.…”

The effects of ERP implementations on the profitability of big firms: the case of Spain

“…For the Spanish case, it has been estimated that for big companies the implementation costs of ERP systems can amount to 2%-3% of the annual sales (Grupo Penteo, 2003). In addition, it is necessary to keep in mind that ERP implementations require a wide range of knowledge, including project knowledge, technical knowledge, product knowledge, business knowledge and company specific knowledge (Chan and Rosemann, 2001). So firms must make an additional investment in the training of the users.…”