From information technology integration to integrated organization: the SAP R/3 case in Schneider Automation.

Summary The globalization of exchanges imposes a globalization of the company's activities and therefore of the information. NICTs such as SAP R/3 are powerful means of integrating information but present major risks of dysfunction for organizations that are not prepared for these technological changes. The difficulties encountered show that these changes are not completely mastered by software package suppliers, consulting firms and companies. Beyond the integrated information system, organizational integration must be built through coherent action systems, cooperative networks of actors, and communities authentically constituted around values that give meaning to collective action. This need for social re-foundation renders obsolete the classic visions of organization calling for new logics of corporate management generated by the shift from the financial paradigm to the knowledge paradigm.