JUNGLES AND GARDENS: THE EVOLUTION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT J.D. EDWARDS

JUNGLES AND GARDENS: THEEVOLUTION OF KNOWLEDGEMANAGEMENT AT J.D. EDWARDS Case presentation, IS 904 15.10. Tero Päivärinta

Agenda • What is the main idea? • What are the technological functionalities / applications involved? • How mature is the technology? • What new does that idea bring, if compared to related previous ideas or solutions? • How is that technology applied? • Reflections on another case

Main idea • Evolution of three previously separate, innovative ECM applications to an integrated large-scale system • ”Phases” of such evolution + roles of developers in each phase: • initiation – need for evangelist / champions • contagion – content owners, standard-setters • control – technology upgraders, ”governors” • integration – implementors of unified visions…

Applications involved • Knowledge garden – intra-/extranet • Content manager – multi-lingual management of product manuals (90) and their controlled releases • Global website community – managing corporate website content • Figure 2 – technology evolution for these purposes, finally integration

Maturity of technology? • comments on that?

What’s the news? • 12 ”lessons” for… • whom? • Other organizations, which follow a similar ”evolutionary” development of enterprise content management? • …but, if you realize you follow such path of evolution… would you still function on that manner? • However, a very valuable in-depth case description.

Discussion • Evolutionary development of content management in other cases? • Org x. • Delivery of large-scale engineering products in projects • Still – separate content management for websites, Share Point for teams in certain areas, Technical documentation for products/projects in in-house applications, some documents in the ERP system… • …integration and new functionality development continuing • …but would the lessons apply as such? • need for research • would need to test – provide these 12 ideas for developers in the new target organization, and after a while ask if they have implemented it – why/why not

Challenges of ”evolutionary development”? • Organizational – how does one guarantee that ”integration” / common vision is even a goal? • a ”vision” sounds a bit ”teleological”… • Human – can one cultivate ”champions” consciously, or do they just emerge? • Technological – many increasingly large-scale systems side by side? -> from ”silos” to ”spaghetti”? • Managerial? • How to manage evolution? • …

Questions to discuss (could be exam questions) • Do you believe in the return-on-investment figures? • …how could that be done as a business case? • Does one need ”evolution” before a ”unifying vision” & integration? • …or… is it still possible to make ”innovative” enterprise-scale ECM / eCollaboration applications? • Is the ”unifying vision” possible without mature 3rd-party technology?

Contemporary Issues ofEnterprise ContentManagement Case presentation, IS 904 15.10. Tero Päivärinta

Main idea • identify a wide range of issues related to management of content, infrastructure, and change in connection to large-scale (strategic) ECM programs • > understanding the ”enterprise perspective” on ECM as a holistic concept

Applications included • at that moment, not clear yet • intent to replace previous applications • (later on, Microsoft-based application portfolio selected – Nordheim & Päivärinta, 2006)

Maturity of technology • Immature, visionary ideas about the corporate-wide requirements…

What’s the news? • ”Strategic” approach to ECM, replacing the old enterprise information ”jungle” fully • compare to the JD Edwards case • The (first version of) framework about the enterprise-wide ECM issues • …concept of ECM

Discussion • Would the strategic approach be possible in UiA? • Statoil IT alone is the biggest IT company in Norway… • UiA portal project – same time: • 2,5 mill. NOK – to build an enterprise portal • 50% project manager, more or less 50% participants • -> lead, in the end, some update of the website • ”realizing” that ECM is an organizational, not technological, challenge (although it is also a technological challenge)

Questions • Is the ”strategic” & holistic approach feasible / possible for smaller companies? • Will there ever be intact corporate-wide ECM system implementations? • according to the definition of ECM given in the article • Is ECM meaningful concept to be discussed as a whole, or should we focus on particular smaller-scale applications?

Corporate User Representatives and the Dialectics of EnterpriseSystems: A Quest for Social Actors with Political Skill Case presentation, IS 904 15.10. Tero Päivärinta

Main idea • Needs of particular user groups / organization units may clash with ”optimization” of enterprise-wide ideas / • > studying how, in a large-scale ECM program, one target organization has used the idea of ”corporate user representative” to solve such emerging contradictions • Describes, if one is to do such a job, characteristics required: • ” a corporate user representative should be a management function with political skill.”

Applications involved • Focuses on challenges of implementation projects – the actual applications not perhaps so important • (beyond the fact that they are complex – still need for a corporate joint vision)

Maturity of technology • immature / complex integrations -> leads to ”strategic program” in the first place

What’s the news? • The idea about the management role: ”corporate user representative” • & how s/he should be • (under the realization that enterprise-wide development involves conflicts, to-be-solved) • communicator, consensus-builder, domain-competent as well as tech-savvy, politician (personal power & weight in the organization!)

Discussion • …what if an enterprise does not realize in the first place that different stakeholders have competing goals? • a university project • very unclear goals: ”Here’s the money, just build a corporate portal” • a ”failure” will be conceptualized & advertised always by some stakeholder group • EITHER • clear, implementable and prioritized top mgmt goals onto which to claim success • OR • trying to implement some mechanism (like the user representative), which first realizes that contradictions are ”natural” and seeks ways to mitigate them!

Challenges • …in this case, human and managerial • can you find really competent persons • can you really recruit them to an ”IT development project”? • …while they might have much more rewarding management positions waiting in their career…?

Question(s) • Could you think you might work as a ”corporate user representative” some day? • Should this be a project-based or a continuing work role ? • and in what kind of organizations?

JUNGLES AND GARDENS: THE EVOLUTION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT J.D. EDWARDS