Knowledge Management Tools

KM Tools

 are used to create, organize and share the knowledge that can be found, most of the time,
in a document, a project report, or a memo from one employee to another

 An ideal knowledge management tool must include features like mobility that allows users
to interact with the system from any place at any time.

 tools must be readily available and user friendly, other-wise employees will not use them

A. document management system

B. enterprise portal
C. knowledge map and skills management
D. information database and lessons learned system
E. collaboration tool
F. communities of practice

A. Document Management System

 Documents are the most common repository of information and knowledge in any
organization.

 Documents: a project proposal, a contract or agreement, a technical report, a scientific

paper, and others

 Because of the great variety of the types and lengths of documents that an organization
can produce, the systematic and organized management of these documents can save
the organization considerable effort and money.

 Two key functions: (1) content (2) facilitates content management and access

Reference:
 Uriarte, F., Introduction to Knowledge Management (ASEAN Foundation
 4 Basic Elements of Document Management System:
1. it records discussions and emails and archives documents;
2. it organizes these electronic documents in a hierarchical or
network framework;
3. it provides search engines for the retrieval of the desired
documents;
4. it enhances content security by allocating appropriate levels of
access to each document

Search
Keywords
Engines

B. Enterprise Portal

 Portals can be defined as single points of access that provide easy and timely access to
knowledge. (Central point of knowledge making it easier to share knowledge in an
organization)

 Through portals, users can contribute information to the corporate pool of knowledge,
access information, and collaborate with other experts and their peers.

 One of the goals of portals is to enhance corporate performance, it is essential to populate

the portal with information of the highest quality in order to ensure its successful use in a
knowledge management system

 Portals are frequently Web-based, allowing creation of distributed documents and making
possible to search online information.

C. Knowledge Map and Skills Management

 In an organization where people are the most important assets, managing their skills,
capabilities, interests and experience is critical.

 A skills management system is a web-based tool that supports this in a distributed way,
spreading the workload over the whole organization.

Reference:
 Uriarte, F., Introduction to Knowledge Management (ASEAN Foundation
  Employees are entitled to update their own skills and interests, they can also locate
individuals with specific or particular skill/s. (Skill Levels 1-5)

 Having stored all skills along with their history, the system can generate a knowledge map
of the company, which gives insight in the strong and weak points of the company, as well
as in emerging trends.

 A knowledge map helps navigate through documents, versions, authors, experts and
external users of information, which could be partners, customers, suppliers and
competitors.

 Knowledge maps are the standard tools employed in order to control crawling, portal
access to repositories and categorization of documents and experts.

D. Information Database and Lessons Learned

 Lessons Learned knowledge base forms the memory of the company (supports the
process of capturing and diffusing the knowledge)

 Lessons Learned systems are very important in organizations where mistakes can be very
costly and avoiding them in the future provides significant savings.

 It is known that experience has shown that a properly functioning Lessons Learned system
can provide many of the required functionalities to turn a company into a learning
organization.

E. Collaboration Tools

 Collaboration is one of the most important aspects of knowledge management tools.

 A collaborative environment enables people to work in secure online workspaces, in which

they use e-mail, Internet web browser and desktop applications in order to share
knowledge, build closer organizational relationships and streamline work processes.

 Collaborative environment also encourages employees to share information in open

discussion forums, thereby providing access to tacit knowledge.

 Collaborative functionalities - groupware, workflows, e-mails and virtual rooms.

Reference:
 Uriarte, F., Introduction to Knowledge Management (ASEAN Foundation
  Groupware is technology designed to facilitate the work of groups. This
technology may be used to communicate, cooperate, coordinate, solve
problems, compete, or negotiate - (1) real-time and (2) “co-located” or “face-
to-face” or in different places “non-co-located” or “distance”
 Workflows describe interactions among employees by defining paths, time
and individuals involved in certain procedures.
 E-mail messaging is a basic but highly efficient way to collaborate, allowing
people to make contacts and share views on work, problems and solutions.
 Virtual rooms open a series of possibilities - chats, videoconferences,
forums, email and web pages

F. Communities of Practice

 If community of practice has decided to create one from scratch, there are three main
considerations that will need to be taken into account:

(1) the size of community

(2) the system of interaction,

(3) the budgetary allocation to adequately support its activities.

Reference:
 Uriarte, F., Introduction to Knowledge Management (ASEAN Foundation