This paper argues for a return to fundamentals as we enter the new millennium. It argues that the field of Information Systems should no longer be distracted from its natural locus of concern and competence, or claim more than it can actually achieve. More specifically, and as a case in point, we eschew IT-enabled Knowledge Management, both in theory and in practice. We view Knowledge Management as the most recent in a long line of fads and fashions embraced by the Information Systems community that have little to offer. Rather, we argue for a refocusing of our attention back on the management of data, since IT processes data- not information and certainly not knowledge. In so doing, we develop a model that provides a tentative means of distinguishing between these terms. This model also forms the basis for on-going empirical research designed to test the efficacy of our argument in a number of case companies currently implementing ERP and Knowledge Management Systems.
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