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Community of practices, knowledge transfer, and ERP project (ERPP)

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Knowledge Management Research & Practice

Abstract

In this research, we are interested in ERP systems which are common information repositories that are aimed at matching the knowledge, practices, and skills that drive the organization in the best possible way. Can the cognitive and hierarchical models coexist within the same project? What is the impact of ERP on the interconnection between communities? To answer these questions, we rely in particular on the work of Levina and Vaast (MIS Quarterly 29(2):335–363, 2005), which underlines that the modes of interaction between CPs must be mediated by the activation of boundary objects and/or the mobilization of boundary spanners. Finally, this leads us to discriminate between two types of ERPPs (hierarchical/cognitive) and to underline the role of the switch in the ERPP success.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lyon, BETA, UMR 7522, CoactiS, Lyon, France

    Wilfrid Azan

  2. EM Strasbourg Business School, Université de Strasbourg, HuManiS EA 7308, Strasbourg, France

    Jean-Philippe Bootz

  3. Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5032, Villingen, Switzerland

    O. Rolland

Authors
  1. Wilfrid Azan
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  2. Jean-Philippe Bootz
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  3. O. Rolland
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wilfrid Azan.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 6.

Table 6 Questionnaire used to find the existence of communities of practice
Full size table

Appendix 2—computer system architecture including X3

  • 1 DL380-type HP server with internal HD for the database. ORACLE 64 bits on OS Windows 64 bits. (64 bits in order to increase the processing speed of the database).

  • 1 DL380-type HP server for the processing server. X3 is using a 32 bit operating processor.

  • 3 DL360-type frontal servers (smaller), user connection servers in TSE (1 master and 2 slaves and redundancy if the slaves crash).

  • 1 DL360-type server: print server (for X3 reports).

  • 1 HP DL360 supervision server: it runs an HP application which supervises the hardware organs of all HP servers.

  • Client workstations: normal PCs in TSE mode. Some use a thick client (in the event of a service continuity problem related to the TSE master server).

  • A large PC supports the X3 configuration and the databases in order to perform developments.

  • A server accessed the X3 database and the X3 processing server to launch interactive requests in Webservices (SOA architecture) with a specific application making it possible to manage stocks for each location using scanners.

  • A centralized backup on an HP robot, 1 server, 1 Netvault application.

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Azan, W., Bootz, JP. & Rolland, O. Community of practices, knowledge transfer, and ERP project (ERPP). Knowl Manage Res Pract 15, 238–256 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41275-017-0047-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41275-017-0047-9

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