The AST view of ES knowledge management: Insights from world’s fastest SAP R/3 implementation

Organizations invest substantial resources in Enterprise Systems (ES) expecting positive outcomes for the organization. Implementing an ES is a lengthy-costly undertaking, with general upheaval for many of the organizations. Many organizations therefore are seriously considering rapid implementations of ES to reduce related resources. A rapid ES implementation requires effective management of knowledge (KM) as the extent of the engagement of external and internal parties (consultants and vendors with the client) is limited. This research paper introduces a theoretical model to assess the impact of KM in a rapid implementation of SAP R/3 that had completed in a record time of three weeks. Using the Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) this paper proposes a theoretical model 1) to identify the KM enablers and KM strategies of an rapid ES implementation that facilitate knowledge creation, retention and transfer and 2) to determine the importance of knowledge transfer modes in a rapid ES implementation.