Knowledge Management System - Essay Example

?Knowledge Management System Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Role of Technology in KMS 5 Challenges and Critiques 9 Success Applications 10 Recommendations 12 References 14 Introduction According to Fernandez & Sabherwal (2010), “Knowledge management is a concept in which an enterprise gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes the knowledge of individuals and groups across the organization in ways that directly affect performance”. It may be simply defined as the procedure by which one can attain maximum out of the same resources (Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2010). Knowledge is a combination of context, reflection, interpretation and information. For decision taking and action building process, knowledge is utilized intensely because it is highly valued while accessing any sort of application. A Knowledge Management System (KMS) is often viewed to be a specially computerized designed system that largely supports the generation, storage and broadcasting of information by a greater level. It is a well processed central processing system and a kind of well structured arrangement which offers huge figure of tools to find the answers of different questions quickly. It is worth mentioning that information technology (IT) is used in the KMS arrangement for conducting free flow of knowledge. This field has become quite popular in recent days. The main reason behind this is the advent of internet. KMS refers to an enhanced IT system that generally stores and retrieves knowledge, improves collaboration, locates related knowledge sources and uses knowledge. Basically, technology enhances the capabilities of KMS at large. The importance of knowledge in business organization is incessantly becoming much which is ultimately making the mangers to think utilizing technology in their respective KMS. It helps for the knowledge generation, codification and the transfer of knowledge. A few of the examples of knowledge management service providers include Cobble Soft International Ltd., ePath Learning, Knowledge Powered Solutions, KANA Software, Inc. and Overtone Software. KMS actually smoothes the flow of communication transfer. Any sort of information can be retrieved with the use of KMS. Knowledge management process requires well defined process of architecture for generating, storing, organizing, reviewing of knowledge. Today, economy is getting benefits from the contemporary communication and information technologies in terms of mounting the competence of the businesses globally by exchanging knowledge and ideas within the organizations (Maier, 2004). Globalization increases the communication between the organizations with the introduction of newer information technology involvement in KMS. Certain large organizations such as Ernst & Young and Andersen Consulting have been viewed to exploit innovative technology in their respective KMS. They have developed a number of techniques for the purpose of codification in the last five years (Hansen, 1999). The different activities along with the supporting procedures relating to the execution of technology especially in KMS can be better understood with the help of the following graphical representation. Source: (Nevo, 2003) With this concern, this paper intends to discuss about the technological aspect relating to KMS. Various aspects like the role of technology particularly in KMS, challenges along with critiques regarding this particular subject matter and valuable recommendations to mitigate those challenges will also be discussed in the paper. Role of Technology in KMS The increasing complexity of the business organization needs a process by which the knowledge can be transferred to anywhere in a faster way. Knowledge can now be seen as a factor of production. In this similar context, KMS has been introduced in business with the combination of information technology for a faster access (Rollett, 2003). The role of information technology especially in the arena of KMS not only lies on strategy implementation but also upon strategy formation as well. Thus, it is to be affirmed from a broader perspective that IT is regarded as one of the most strategic resources for any organization in recent times. The vital facets of the technological aspect linked with KMS have been viewed to be successful implementation of technologies along with related tools and smoothly execute various business processes among others. These facets ultimately lead towards the development and sharing of knowledge in an organization by a considerable level. To improve overall business performance, KMS helps the organizations by providing relevant knowledge. This can be better understood with the help of the following pictorial illustration. Figure 2: KMS with and IT advancement Source: (Milovanovic, 2011) The role of technology in KMS is quite huge. Companies currently strive to serve its customer in more effective manner. In case of contact centre, authorities are insisted on developing the process by which the customers always gets resolution of all their queries in a timely, accurate and consistent manner. It is worth mentioning that technology in KMS enhances customers’ handling time and responses at large. It also helps to satisfy the consumers. In case of call centre, the successful implementation of KMS helps an organization to resolute a customer’s queries in its first attempt. In addition, self service tools for the customers helps an organization to reduce its operational costs by a certain degree. On implementing self service tools, companies can directly contact with its customers. Most importantly, usage of technology particularly in KMS has provided the managers belonging to different organizations a range of tools to evaluate the performances of their employees. Another useful invention of technology based KMS is the introduction of websites for delivering effectual public services. With regard to determine the role of technology in KMS, it has been apparently observed that in a human resource (HR) portal, an individual can find documents relating to company’s procedures and policies in its own language. Through portal search, a knowledge seeker can also be able to search any sort of information from different search engines like Google and Yahoo among others. KMS helps to deploy knowledge ranging from simple to very complex. It supports multiple languages and different communication channels. For enhancing customer service and to increase efficiency, introduction along with execution of certain imperative approaches like Customer Relationship Management (CRM0 as well as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) would help both the customers and the organizations by a significant level (Beres, 2012). A few of the implications based on the aforementioned aspect has been portrayed hereunder. Database Users Business class users as well as general public enjoy the new level of information in the interaction between the KMS and technology. Its use can reduce the customer service cost with the fast resolution of different customer’s questions. The use of knowledge actually reduces the need for delivering greater customer support and enhancing superior technical stuff. Database Developers Design as well as the development of e KMS will become more complex in future due to the altering nature of the business environment. The developers should consider the whole technical architecture of the organization to work on the basis of seamless integrity. Both the administrators and the knowledge based developers should acquire a better knowledge base in the overall KMS. Database Administrators Database administrators have been viewed to operate similarly like the database managers. The integration of technology especially in KMS environment would ultimately support the database administrators to acquire better technical knowledge regarding supervising any sort of business or operational procedure at large. General Public General public will avail the advantages by obtaining effectual as well as enhanced customer service in a considerably less time owing to the reason of the integration of technology especially in KMS. The role of technology in KMS is quite vast. A few of the examples of technologies that have been used in KMS are applications based on artificial intelligence, task including decision support, groupware, computer-instructed collaboration applications, data warehouses of expert systems, communication technologies, video conferencing on internal web or corporate web and search portals. There are various types of technologies that broadly support the formulation of KMS. These technologies comprise intranet, e-mail, electronic messaging systems, group document handling systems, group calendar or scheduler group decision support systems, document management, desktop video along with real-time data conferencing, search engines and data warehousing. Interactive tools are another important instrument of KMS which takes communication level to a very high degree. These comprise electronic meeting systems, groupware to support enterprise collaboration, client relations and management systems, interactive electronic support manuals and client web site interface. Through KMS, it has been viewed that organizations train and evaluate the performances of their employees by using the approach of web-based training, electronic performance based support systems and computer-based training. Digital library has become an important innovation of KMS with the attachment of information technology (Borghoff & Pareschi, 1998). Challenges and Critiques Starting from the small business units to large organizations, effective knowledge management helps to diminish business challenges and accelerate new innovation techniques. It has been apparently observed in this similar background that the organizations belonging to this modern day context have been facing several challenges while implementing KMS in businesses. The main concern of KMS is to revolve revolving different sorts of cultural, managerial and informational issues. As per as informational challenges are concerned, a generation of vast amount of data in its usable form is a challenge for the organizations. Ensuring client’s confidentiality, deletion of old and wrong data and updating of all information are a range of challenges that often face by the modern organizations. It has been viewed that KMS is used worldwide, which needs to build a very high infrastructure development keeping up with all new updating technologies. Securities of data over internet are another concern for the managers. The main challenge for any organization for implementing KMS is the constant changing conditions of business. As it is a highly competitive business structure, so there lays a need of introducing continuous research programs. Challenges can be categorized into three distinct parts namely people, process and technology. As per as people are concerned, involvement of knowledge sharing in the organization increases the productivity, so for the leaders it is of great importance to develop and apply a knowledge sharing and exchange program in the organization. Leaders need to build an effective knowledge management process channel to capture, store, review and organize the content as well as the knowledge. Implementing appropriate technology is also regarded as a challenge for different business organizations. If the companies failed to invest in procuring right technology, then they will eventually fail to accomplish their desired business targets. Decentralization of infrastructure while implementing new technologies will certainly create several challenges for the organizations (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, n.d.). Thus, it is to be stated that the main challenge for an organization would be to use the combination of IT and knowledge management together for the purpose of attaining business targets. Success Applications Successful implementation of KMS can enhance the overall performance of the organizations concerning their continuous innovation in developing their respective business or operational procedures. On describing the successful implementation of KMS, one question can be arrived on the technique by which it can be measured. However, the following graphical representation would ultimately provide a better idea about how the model concerning KMS is measured. Figure 3: measurement of the KMS Success Model Source: (Wu & et. al., n.d.). As per the above diagrammatical representation, it can be apparently observed that the model concerning KMS can be measured through different ways. In this similar concern, KMS model can be measured by taking into concern various significant factors like circumstances, tools belonging to IT, potential profit and needfulness. Apart from these, there are few critical factors which need to be taken into concern for successful implementation of KMS. Proper leadership techniques and support from top management helps an organization to think systematically and conduct better strategic planning. It also helps to form as well as to develop a team learning culture and teach its employees the way of taking risks by exchange of stimulation and compensation. Organizational characteristics are not only measured by the business performances but also with the learning and business activity. Thus, knowledge need to be coordinated as well as integrated with the aspect of IT for its better usefulness (Wu & et. al., n.d.). Recommendations An organization should implement its KMS structure in a flexible manner so that the employees can easily share knowledge to one another effectually. Specially mentioning, technology has to be updated with concerning online security regarding the matter of preserving customer privacy policy. With the successful implementation of KMS, there also require for its monitoring incessantly. Close monitoring will ensure a fast data transfer within and outside the organization. Knowledge and experience sharing between employees need to be commenced in the organization. Everyone is busy with the tasks allocated to them but each of them has some knowledge inside it. So it better to share and exchange knowledge. Leaders are recommended to perform this significant activity. Managers should start with a small group to discover its knowledge. There should be a proper tactics on the application of KMS in the organizations. It should be commenced with a brainstorming session to have an idea that how a team react on that particular session through its knowledge and experiences. All personnel must have to be participated in the knowledge process on answering a couple of questions such as “who depends on me?” and “whom do I depend?”. Each and every question will automatically include a superior and a subordinate. This has to be done with the same work group that means within colleagues. Another advantage of knowledge sharing will be experienced on the retirement of an employee. This retirement might not affect the organization because that employee left a substitute in terms of delegating responsibilities to his or her co-worker. Management of the respective must establish this attitude amid its existing employees. Thus, it can be stated that the above set of suggestions need to be considered by the different business organizations while implementing KMS for the fulfillment of their desired business targets. Conclusion The successful implementation of KMS can help an organization in many ways. It encourages managers on exploring and generating innovative knowledge with the increase in the data transfer process along with enhancing quality. It has been viewed that knowledge is created with the help of KMS through the procedure of integrating technology within KMS which finally increases the innovation and competitiveness of the organizations at large. Establishment of KMS model helps in better decision-making, increases customer satisfaction and raises business reputation that finally leads to profit maximization for the organizations. Apart from a theoretical model, the KMS approach provides a practical approach which helps in the process of evaluation. Through this process, an organization can realize its main drawback on which it needs to work upon. It enhances the opportunities for the development of environmental culture. It also helps for making continuous growth of the organizations. With regard to the implementation of KMS, there is a need for the organizations to structure the knowledge management information technologies. Though technologies are very crucial in terms of KMS, the managers should not ignore the usage of cultural, organizational and social factors. A single knowledge management technology cannot solve all the organizational problems, so for this reason several information technologies should be mingled. Without sharing of knowledge and collaboration culture, an organization will not be able to reap full benefit from it. Full benefits from the knowledge management can only be derived when organizational structure, culture and leadership leads towards formation of knowledge exchange & knowledge sharing situation. References Beres, T., 2012. Knowledge Management Systems. Technologies. [Online] Available at: http://www.howto.gov/contact-centers/technologies/knowledge-management-systems[Accessed May 18, 2013]. Borghoff, U. M. & Pareschi, R., 1998. Information Technology for Knowledge Management. Springer. Fernandez, I. B. & Sabherwal, R., 2010. Knowledge Management: Systems and Processes. M.E. Sharpe. Hansen, M.T. & et. al., 1999. “What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?”. Harvard Business Review. Milovanovic, S., 2011 Aims and Critical Success Factors of Knowledge Management System Projects. Economics and Organization. Vol. 8, No 1, pp. 31 – 40. Maier, R., 2004. Knowledge Management Systems: Information and Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management. Springer. Nevo, D., 2003. Developing Effective Knowledge Management Systems. University of British Columbia.pp.1-34. Rollett, H., 2003. Knowledge Management: Processes and Technologies. Springer The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, No Date. Introduction to knowledge management. What Is Knowledge Management? [Online] Available at: http://www.unc.edu/~sunnyliu/inls258/Introduction_to_Knowledge_Management.html[Accessed May 18, 2013]. Wu, C. & et. al., No Date. Exploring Knowledge Management Systems Success on Business Concerns. National Dong Hwa University, pp.1-10. Read More