Knowledge management systems

Knowledge management is the process, by which an organization creates, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge required for the effective functioning of it. Knowledge management has been practiced by every professional and it is not constrained only to IT. As we all know that for example an advocate would have or collect all information of the cases whatever he had handled so that when he comes across similar situation he can refer to it. This is how knowledge management came in to picture and as more complicated technologies came it to picture knowledge management gained its importance and people started to knowledge management as a separate process. As per Dr Maarten Sierhuis Knowledge Management is the “ability to manage knowledge”. This is a very simple away of defining Knowledge management but this is the best way in which one can understand. Managing Knowledge includes creating, collecting, processing and making it available for everyone in the organization. For example in a company we may have few good technicians good in all the process of the company , when this knowledge is collected from them and shared across all the employees of the organisation with help of a knowledge management system we can expect good improvement in the quality of the entire organisation.

Development of IT has given new face to knowledge management system, now we can have all the working principles i.e. knowledge or information in a database and make it available for everyone in the organisation with ease. This database can be accessed as webpage making it simple for the user. The importance of the KMS can be seen in a customer service call centre’s both technical and non technical, as every employee will have access to the knowledge base of the company and when they have a customer calling them with an issue, the employee can refer to the knowledge base and would come to know what he is supposed to perform in order to get a solution to the issue. This in turn helps in improving the customer satisfaction towards the service offered to him. For example BT uses a KMS known as OWL which is used by every employee in BT to get the solution for any issues which they come across. BT has a separate group working on OWL in developing, collecting data from its employee and makes sure that all the relevant information about the products is available to the employees.

Knowledge management is a cyclic process as its needs to be constantly updated; every user can give information which is not available in it so that it may help others when in need. Sharing of valuable organizational information always helps the performance of the employee.KMS can avoid re-inventing the wheel, reducing redundant work. KMS can help in retaining all the good working principles of the organisation even when an employee quits from the organisation that had good knowledge about it. KMS can reduce the time required for training of a new employee as KMS can help the new employee with all his doubts about the process. As we know that for any company to survive in the market needs to satisfy its customers, KMS plays a vital role in it and helps achieving it.

References :
http://www.km-forum.org
http://www.km-forum.org, 3 march 2009.
Alavi,M and D.E.Leichner(2001) “knowledge management aand knowledge management systems conceptual foundation and researches issues”MIS Review,25,6.18 march 2009

Inatalling and managing workable knowledge management systems(page.5)Albert H.Rubenstein and Eleiser,Geisler 11 march 2009

Chua A, (2004) Knowledge management system architecture: a bridge between KM
consultants and technologist, International Journal of Information Management, vol.
24, pp. 87-98.retreive on 12 march 2009