Question

Assess the role of knowledge management and knowledge management programs in business Describe the types of systems used for enterprisewide knowledge management and demonstrate how they provide value for organizations Describe the major types of knowledge work systems and assess how they provide value for firms Evaluate the business benefits of using intelligent techniques for knowledge management

Answer 1

Role of Knowledge Management:

• The goal of knowledge management is to improve business efficiency and save knowledge within the company.
• It consists of a cycle of creating, sharing, structuring and auditing knowledge, in order to maximize the effectiveness of an organization’s collective knowledge.
• Knowledge management therefore implies a strong tie to business goals and strategy, and it involves the management of knowledge that is useful for some purpose and which creates value for the organization.

• Knowledge management involves:

  1. Where and in what forms knowledge exists,

  2. What the organization needs to know;

  3. How to promote a culture conducive to learning, Sharing, and knowledge creation;

  4. How to make the right knowledge available to the right people at the right time;

  5. How to best generate or acquire new relevant knowledge;

• There are three major types of knowledge management systems:

  1. Enterprise wide knowledge management systems,

  2. Knowledge work systems and

  3. Intelligent techniques

• Knowledge management promotes organizational learning by increasing the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to incorporate knowledge into its business processes.

2. Types of systems used for Enterprise wide KM and its value:

Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are firm wide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge.

There are three major categories of enterprise-wide KMS:

1. Structured knowledge systems
2. Semistructured knowledge systems
3. Knowledge networks

Structured knowledge systems:

• It provides databases and tools for organizing and storing structured knowledge that exists in formal documents.

Semi-structured knowledge systems:

• It provides databases and tools for organizing and storing semi-structured knowledge, such as e-mail or rich media that is not in a formal document or report.
• Such systems provide a database and technical infrastructure that tracks, stores, and organizes semi-structured content.

Knowledge network systems:

• It provides unstructured knowledge into explicit knowledge that can be shared in a database.

Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems can provide considerable value if they are well designed and enable employees to locate, share, and use knowledge more efficiently.

3. Knowlegde Work System:

• Systems for supporting knowledge management are called Knowledge Work Systems (KWS).
• Knowledge work systems are specialized systems for engineers, scientists, and other knowledge workers that are designed to promote the creation of knowledge.
• KWS require easy access to an external knowledge base; powerful computer hardware that can support software with intensive graphics, analysis, document management, and communications capabilities; and a user-friendly interface.
• KWS is created to ensure that new knowledge and technical expertise are properly integrated into the business.
• Knowledge work systems help create and integrate new knowledge within the organization.
• Examples of knowledge work systems include:

CAD

Virtual Reality

Investment Workstations

Human Resource Systems

4. Business benefits of using intelligent technique for knowledge management system:

BI systems reduce labor costs for generating reports by:

1. Automating data collection and aggregation,
2. Automating report-generation,
3. Providing report design tools that make programming of new much simpler,
4. Reducing training needed for developing and maintaining reports.

Align the organization towards its business objectives and the most successful organizations are those that succeed to make every person in the organization work towards a common goal.

The data will be stored more efficiently ad coherently for future reference purposes and helps in establishing newer markets.

Combining multiple data sources in common reports, thus saving the user from manually combining data in spreadsheets etc

Fast decisions can be made and are important for two reasons:

1. It makes the organization more responsive to threats and opportunities,
2. It shortens the time between thought and action.