Creating and executing an internal communications plan for knowledge management systems deployments

Purpose – The purpose of the article is to identify and define an internal communications plan that may assist in the successful deployment of a knowledge management system. Design/methodology/approach – This article focuses on communications strategies that may be adopted by organizations deploying knowledge management systems where resistance to the implementation of such systems may exist. Such resistance may be a result of issues such as trust, organizational culture and misunderstandings as to the nature of knowledge management and knowledge management systems. An internal communications plan is proposed with a focus on knowledge management systems which details target audiences, timing strategies and suggests possible media solutions including traditional collaterals and conversational support technologies to facilitate improved deployments of such systems. Findings – The article proposes a framework of communications methodologies, timings and target audiences to be considered during the deployment, pilot and pre‐pilot phases of a KM system implementation. It concludes by discussing the opportunities to use conversational technologies in deploying KM systems to knowledge workers. Originality/value – The deployment issues raised in this article are expected to be of value to KM system developers, project managers, systems analysts, business executives and academic researchers.