C11- Managing Knowledge
About Knowledge
Knowledge is a firm asset:
• Data: Flow of events or transactions
captured by organization’s systems
• Knowledge: Cognitive event in
people's heads; know how; situational
• Knowledge Management:
– The set of business processes developed
in an organization to create, store, transfer,
and apply knowledge
Intangible
asset
Requires
organizational
resources
Can be source
of competitive
advantage
The Knowledge Management Landscape
15-4
The KM value chain
Knowledge acquisition, Knowledge storage, Knowledge dissemination, Knowledge application
The Knowledge Management Landscape
15-6
Types of KMSystems
There are three major categories of knowledge management systems, and each can be
broken down further into more specialized types of knowledge management systems.
Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management System
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Enterprise-wide KMS
• Knowledge repository
– A collection of internal and external knowledge in a
single location for management and utilization by the
organization
• Structured Knowledge System
– Knowledge repository for explicit knowledge –formal,
structured text documents and reports or
presentations
– Needs to be accessible
Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management System
Knowledge Systems
• Semi-structured Knowledge Systems
– Knowledge repository for less-structured documents,
such as e-mail, voicemail, chat room exchanges,
videos, digital images, brochures, bulletin boards
– Also known as digital asset management systems
• Organizing Knowledge: Taxonomies and
Tagging
– Taxonomy:
• Scheme of classifying information and knowledge for easy
retrieval
– Tagging:
• Marking of documents according to knowledge taxonomy
Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management System
Knowledge Network Systems
• Online directory of corporate experts, solutions
developed by in-house experts, best practices,
FAQs
• Document and organize “tacit” knowledge
• Also known as expertise location and
management systems
Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management System
The Problem of Distributed
Knowledge
Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management System
The Ask-Me Knowledge
Network System
Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management System
15-16
Supporting Technologies: Portals,
Collaboration Tools, and Learning
Management Systems
• Learning Management Systems (LMS):
– Provides tools for the management, delivery, tracking,
and assessment of various types of employee
learning and training
– Integrates systems from human resources,
accounting, sales in order to identify and quantify
business impact of employee learning programs
Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management System
Knowledge Workers and
Knowledge Work
• key roles of knowledge workers:
– Keeping the organization current in knowledge as it
develops in the external world – in technology,
science, social thought, and the arts
– Serving as internal consultants regarding the areas of
their knowledge, the changes taking place, and
opportunities
Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management System
Requirements of Knowledge
Work Systems
Knowledge Work Systems
Examples of Knowledge Work
Systems
• Computer-aided Design
– Information system that automates the creation and
revision of industrial and manufacturing designs using
sophisticated graphics software
• Virtual Reality
– Interactive graphics software and hardware that
create computer-generated simulations that emulate
real-world activities or photorealistic simulations
Knowledge Work Systems
• Knowledge Discovery
– Identification of underlying patterns, categories, and
behaviours in large data sets, using techniques such
as data mining
• Intelligent Agents
– automating tasks like searching for information for ecommerce, supply chain management
Intelligent Techniques
Capturing Knowledge: Expert
Systems (ES)
• How Expert Systems Work
– Two strategies for searching the rule base in an ES
– Forward Chaining:
• Begins with the information entered by the user and searches
the rule base to arrive at a conclusion
– Backward Chaining:
• Acts like a problem solver by beginning with hypothesis and
seeking out more information until the hypothesis is either
proved or disproved
Intelligent Techniques
Capturing Knowledge:
Expert Systems (ES)
• Knowledge Engineer:
– A specialist who elicits information and expertise from
other professionals and translates it into a set of rules
for an expert system
Intelligent Techniques
Organizational Intelligence
• Case-Based Reasoning (CBR)
– Knowledge system that represents knowledge as a
base of cases and solutions
– Searches for stored cases with problem
characteristics similar to the new case and applies
solutions of the old case to the new case
• Rules in an expert system
– Coming up
Intelligent Techniques
Intelligent Techniques
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Intelligent Techniques
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Case-Based
Reasoning
Intelligent Techniques
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Intelligent Agents in P&G’s Supply Chain Network
Intelligent agents are helping Procter & Gamble shorten the
replenishment cycles for products such as a box of Tide.
Intelligent Techniques
15-28