ITM 501 Mgt. Information. System. and Bus. Strategy SESSION LONG PROJECT 1 FRITO-LAY, NASA & GOOGLE - Essay Example

Submitted by: XXXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX of XXXXX Knowledge Management – Case StudiesKnowledge management is one of the growing techniques that are being adopted by almost all industries. The fact that every company irrespective of the industry has a lot of information trapped in numerous files across the organization has been recognized and the need to collaborated and integrated into the processes and procedures of the companies. Here in the three cases, i.e. Frito – Lays, NASA and Dow Jones, it is clear that the basic reason to implement the knowledge management systems is the same, i.e. keeping all the information and knowledge that is available in the company in a single place so all the members of the company can access and utilize the knowledge in their day to day processes.

The definition of Knowledge management is similar in the three cases and there is a clear focus on accumulating all the knowledge that is available across the organization to build one strong and effective knowledge database.The three companies have faced several problems. Taking the case of Frito Lays, it is clear that the company faced the issue of working unnecessarily to find customers and for sales. It is noted that all the employees worked on the same processes to gain the same information.

In the case of NASA, the problem that the organization faces is that it needed a central point for all the information to be provided so all employees in the organization can learn and benefit from the previous mistakes and experiments of others in the organization (DowJones). Also the issue is the amount of risk involved in the space exploration and the human space flights which indeed need a through and well designed and implemented work to ensure that all the NASA employees have the specialized knowledge and are in track with all the events that occur within the company.

The lack of centralized point was the main issue of NASA (Murphy and Holm). In the case of Dow Jones, the company has a wide range of data and knowledge and is spread across the over 157 countries with over 23 languages. Hence again the company lacks a well designed and centralized place for all information. The solution implemented by each of the companies is very similar and there is a main idea of developing a centralized control for the company employees to easily access and use to work more effectively (Murphy and Holm).

One of the only major differences that is present is that NASA has a more developed and has used higher technology to develop a more complex system, this however is simply due to the nature of the business. The solutions have been very effective for the companies. NASA however has spent an extra amount of time and money on the development of a more complex system which has not only been good for the initial problem but also for the overall organization in several different ways and corresponding to all the processes and procedures within the organization (Shein).

Works CitedDowJones. Solutions for Research and Knowledge Management. 2010. 18 March 2010 .Murphy, Keri and Jeanne Holm. "Knowledge Management at NASA: Supporting Missions and Collaboration." Knowledge Management and Collaboration Technologies (2008): 2 - 23.Shein, Esther. "Case Study: Frito-Lay Sales Force Sells More Through Information Collaboration." CIO (2001).