بازاندیشی موفقیت برنامه ریزی منابع سازمانی (ERP) : چشم انداز جدید از مدیریت دانش و بهبود مستمر

Most IS research about ERP implementation stops short at system start-up and seldom addresses post-implementation issues. However, ERP implementation is a continuous improvement effort and continued efforts after system start-up will influence the ultimate success of an ERP implemented system. We defined a four-phase ERP refinement model that incorporated knowledge management (KM) into each major implementation phase. This knowledge-enhanced ERP implementation model adds insights when used to investigate ERP success. It also provides practitioners with a guideline for incorporation of KM into their ERP strategy to improve success rates of ERP systems.

A great deal of time, efforts, and costs has been directed toward the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Such systems are beginning to be adopted by many medium to large businesses. Over 60% of the U.S Fortune 500 had adopted ERP systems by 2000 [7] and [19] and projected spending on ERP adoption was an estimated $72.63 billion [1]. ERP projects are a large investment and commitment by an organization. Their inherent size and scope has often lead to complexities. Research of ERP implementation has mainly focused on their initial start-up [4], [8] and [10]. There has been little research effort in the area of post-implementation support [20]. Many organizations see the start-up of an ERP system as the final goal instead of a milestone, but many ERP systems have been discontinued 3 months to a year after they were “successfully” completed [17], which shows that a static view of ERP implementation is inaccurate, not strategic, and potentially costly. ERP implementation projects rarely have a static ending point. Consequently, continuous improvement activities are generally required to lengthen the life of these expensive systems. A critical process inherent to the lifecycle is knowledge management (KM) [5]. The knowledge created during ERP implementation and management is a significant resource for an organization and it should be properly managed [2] and the knowledge needs to be created and shared in each phase of ERP implementation, as well as post-ERP projects. Due to the size and scope of an ERP system, it therefore becomes a strategic asset of the organization. To understand the process of integrating KM into ERP lifecycle, a model is needed for assessing and validating an organizations’ efforts. As stressed by Nonaka and Konno [11], a knowledge forum, “Ba”, is an important platform where knowledge can be shared and new knowledge created. Our research model focused on an organization's KM execution structure – the “Ba” of ERP KM – and how this knowledge structure helps manage knowledge throughout the ERP implementation phases. It addresses both the processes used during the initial creation of knowledge and those processes used to maintain it. Although organizations are becoming more knowledge-focused, fundamental project management methodologies are still needed to embrace KM properly [6]. Systematic incorporation of KM into ERP project management is strategic and critical [16]. We therefore believed that ERP implementation was an enterprise-wide continuous improvement effort which consisted of initial ERP implementation plus a series of post-implementation projects and that to make enterprise systems successful, KM must be incorporated into each implementation phase of ERP implemented projects strategically and systematically. The model was established by consolidating knowledge theory [12] with fundamental ERP implementation methodology.

IS research for ERP projects generally analyzes critical success factors for new systems implementations. Seldom does it address perpetual support for the final success of ERP systems; in fact, many ERP systems fail shortly after they are completed. Techniques to capitalize on the knowledge created during the development process are not widely in use. Many organizations do not manage any of the knowledge they are creating. Giving the organization a knowledge-sharing community – established central support organization – provides a stable platform that can be used to provide a common frame of reference to all ERP activities. Knowledge is an important ERP project deliverable. Treating it as such provides four main benefits. First, project managers can visualize how KM can be incorporated to address specific project needs. Second, IT managers can use the iterative aspects of our model to achieve cross-project knowledge integration that would have otherwise been lost. Third, organizations can leverage the relative knowledge gain to improve their processes more than non-knowledge oriented project. Fourth, building on documented knowledge provides more current and accurate information to the central support organization so that it can be re-used to reduce and minimize future project costs. Our discussion of KM and ERP implementation has provided a model that combines high-level KM constructs with those of an envisioned continuous improvement methodology.