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REQUIREMENT FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Ibrahim A.

Abu-Alsondos, Faizuniah Pangil, Siti Zubaidah Othman College of Business, University Utara Malaysia, abu_alsondos@yahoo.com Abstract Knowledge Management (KM) is becoming a good source of competitive advantage. Failure to implement a knowledge management system is a major concern for most organizations today. With the drive for necessary attention to this issue, this paper intends to provide the means of implementing knowledge management system. The success of this implementation would come from the reduction of loss of critical information and improvement of data retrieval. This paper would also guide the implementation principles and review the implementation process in a step-by-step approach. This paper investigates the knowledge management implementation system requirements in various manners. The investigation covers the ways of devising the implementation system for information sorted by definition, requirements, and implementation. The source definition and data retrieval process is also investigated. This paper would consider the cooperation of the knowledge workers as one of the important aspect of the implementation. In addition to these, the importance of centralization in storage and retrieval process for necessary information is also included in the scope of this paper. The ways of eliminating loss of knowledge when the skilled workers leave or retire is also a subject matter of this paper. The contribution of this paper goes to more clarification of knowledge management system implementation. Keywords: Knowledge Management (KM), Knowledge Management System (KMS) 1. Introduction Knowledge is very widely accepted as a source of power, and now for all organizations, it has become an important strategic resource (Alhawary & Al-Zegaier, 2009; Sung-Ho, YoungGul, & Min-Yong, 2004). This strategic resource is composed of different knowledge and skills brought in the organization by different people from different professions. The role of knowledge management in consolidating organizational knowledge resources is crucial in the era of k-economy (Azmi, 2010). Knowledge management system (KMSs) helps the organization to capture internal knowledge and makes it available to be used by the employees. This process can improve organizational learning (Damodaran & Olphert, 2000; Haseman, Nazareth, & Paul, 2005). Todays success, as many organizations have realized, is critically influenced by the creation, transfer, and management of knowledge (Anantatmula & Kanungo, 2010; Rezaie, Byat, & Shirkouhi, 2009). For maximizing organizational success, significant development is necessary in the area of Knowledge Management (KM) in every organization. For supporting this development, knowledge management and intellectual capital (KM/IC), as a core discipline, is evolving over a decade, and recently has become an attractive and productive area of study (Serenko, Bontis, Booker, Sadeddin, & Hardie, 2010). The study of knowledge management should be able to address the challenging use of KM to face the increasingly competitive business world. Nurturing business knowledge is becoming
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more challenging due to intensified competition and other changes in the external business environment. Surviving competition needs competitive edge and better access to knowledge and important within the organization can be a good source of the competitive edge. Quick ability to capture, store, and utilize critical information related to processes and best business practices can prevent the loss of the edge over the competitors. The process of attaining this ability can be, at first, identifying the requirements, and then, developing a complete solution for the knowledge management. Thus, solving the information problem can be facilitated by using the operative paradigm where the Information Technology (IT) is driven by business requirements (Ray, 2008). Many companies do not follow any systematic process of preparing their organization to manage and to utilize available knowledge resources. Despite of having a vast reservoir of knowledge in a wide variety of organizational processes, best-practices, know-how, culture, and norms, they followed an ad-hoc basis of using these knowledge and experiences (Gupta, Iyer, & Aronson, 2000). The top management of these companies must consider systematic knowledge management as a top priority and try to implement it. They can follow the best practices of knowledge management system as a way for this implementation (Ray, 2008). Given the success brought to the successful users of knowledge management and lack of good knowledge management system in many organizations, this paper intends to discuss the crucial elements of a knowledge management system and to suggest a step-by-step process of knowledge management implementation. 2. Knowledge Management (KM) Knowledge is one of the important organizational resources and its effective management is crucial for success. The process of knowledge management and its necessity for leveraging organizational knowledge has been studied by many researchers. Their views have been changing regarding the definition of knowledge management and the contribution of technology to the knowledge management. Table 1 provides some examples from the literature. The focus of the early conceptualization stage of KM research has been on the empowerment of the knowledge worker and on supporting the adoption of methodology. On the technology side, executive information systems, decision support systems, and expert systems were the predecessors of KMS (Nevo & Chan, 2007). Table 1: KM definitions an organizational capability that allows people in organizations, working as individuals, or in teams, projects, or other such communities of interest, to create, capture, share, and leverage their collective knowledge to improve performance(Lakshman, 2007). The process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge in an organization(Davenport & Prusak, 1994). The identification of categories of knowledge needed to support the overall business strategy, the assessment of the current state of the firm's knowledge, and the transformation of the current knowledge base into a more powerful knowledge base by filling knowledge gaps(Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and put information into action in ways that will improve organizational performance(O'Dell & Grayson, 1998). Knowledge management is the formal management of knowledge for facilitating
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creation, access, and reuse of knowledge, typically using advanced technology.(OLEARY, 1999). Knowledge Management is a business process. It is the process through which firms create and use their institutional or collective knowledge. It includes three sub-processes: Organizational learningthe process through which the firm acquires information and/or knowledge Knowledge productionthe process that transforms and integrates raw information into knowledge which in turn is useful to solve business problems Knowledge distributionthe process that allows members of the organization to access and use the collective knowledge of the firm.(Sarvary, 1999). Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrates approach to identifying, managing and sharing an organisations information assets, including databases, policies and procedures as well as unarticulated expertise and experience resident in individual workers (Jager, 1999). a systematic and integrative process of coordinating organization-wide activities of acquiring, creating, storing, sharing, diffusing, developing, and employing knowledge by individuals and groups in pursuit of major organizational goals(Rastogi, 2000). Knowledge management as distinct but interdependent processes to create, store, retrieve, transfer, and apply knowledge(Maryam Alavi & Leidner, 2001). Knowledge management may be defined as doing what is needed to get the most out of knowledge resources. Knowledge management focuses on organizing and making available important knowledge, wherever and whenever it is needed.(Sabherwal & Becerra-Fernandez, 2003). Knowledge management concerns an organizations ability to develop and utilize a base of intellectual assets in ways that impact the achievement of strategic goals.(Morgan, Zou, Vorhies, & Katsikeas, 2003). We can conceptualize knowledge management as a process whose input is the individual knowledge of a person, which is created, transferred and integrated in teamwork within the company, while its output is organizational knowledge, a source of competitive advantage.(Zarraga & Garcia-Falcon, 2003). an umbrella term encompassing the fields of knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, knowledge mapping and indexing, knowledge distribution and storage, and knowledge valuation and metrics(Gloet & Terziovski, 2004). KM is defined as doing what is needed to get the most out of knowledge resources.(Sabherwal & Sabherwal, 2005).

3. Knowledge Management System (KMS) Proper knowledge management is operationalized by the knowledge management system. Scholars also provide the definition of knowledge management system. For example, (M Alavi & Leidner, 1999) define knowledge management system (KMS) as the use of modern information technologies (e.g. the Internet, intranets, extranets, collaborative computing/groupware, software filters, agents, data warehouse) for the purpose of systematizing, enhancing and expediting both intra and inter firm knowledge management. They describe KMS as one of the information systems classes which is applied to support and enhance the knowledge creation, storage /retrieval, transfer and application process in an organization. According to (Maryam Alavi & Leidner, 2001), there are three possible applications of KMS: (1) in transferring best practice within an organization; (2) in creating corporate knowledge directories like internal expertise mapping; (3) in creating network to
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facilitate knowledge sharing, for example, an online forum. KMS success model has three dimensions, according to (Halawi, McCarthy, & Aronson, 2006), knowledge quality, system quality, and service quality. These factors can affect two determinants of KMS success, the users intention and satisfaction following the use of KMS. Successful use of KMS in improving organizational performance also depend on the level of commitment and motivation of the knowledge users (Malhotra & Galleta, 2003). Knowledge management is composed of various activities. Rowley (1999) mentioned eight step-by-step activities of knowledge management. These are, (1) generating new knowledge, (2) accessing knowledge from external sources, (3) representing knowledge in documents and databases, (4) embedding knowledge in processes, products, or services, (5) transferring existing knowledge around an organization, (6) using accessible knowledge in decision making, (7) facilitating knowledge growth through culture and incentives, and (8) measuring the value of knowledge assets and the impact of knowledge management. These activities also help to define the business requirements for a KM system. 4. Business Requirement 4.1. Objectives It is necessary to define an objective before pursuing the KM. Example of such objectives is available in (Rowley, 1999): creating knowledge repositories for storing knowledge and information, improving knowledge access through connectivity, enhancing the KM environment, and managing knowledge as an asset and value to the firm. Before placing in the repository, the firm must categorize and prune knowledge and information. The repository should have placed for all of external, internal, and informal categories of knowledge. The source of external knowledge is the competitive intelligence. Internal knowledge is normally gathered from research and product documentation (Rowley, 1999). However, the informal knowledge is generated in the form of individuals knowledge of how to do certain things. In addition to the use of latest technology, cooperation from the individual employee plays crucial role in accessing the informal knowledge. Latest technologies that help in this process include automated tools like document collaboration and data warehouse databases. But gathering the informal knowledge mostly depends on whether the experts holding the knowledge wish to give it. The environment can play a big role here. The cultural norms and values also are important consideration in gathering information for a KM system. In addition to gathering, companies must manage the knowledge. Managing activities include buying and selling the information for profit. 4.2. Design goals The goals to be focused by every successful KM design are filtering, integration, sharing, and offline access (Honeycutt, 2000). Given the vastness of available information, it becomes a burden for the individual employees to search for the key data. This is why an effective KM system focuses only on critical information. To reduce the burden, KM involves using filter to identify the focused and vital information, categorizing user-specified information, and summarizing the information (Honeycutt, 2000). Information integration is another important goal. Important corporate information come from various sources like files, folders, e-mails, intranet, and applications and the KM systems organize them for the purpose of effective display. It is difficult for the internationally operating business organizations to leverage employee knowledge. KM systems can make the process of international knowledge
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collaboration easier. Experts often use the KM systems to collaborate the documents and presentations related to projects over vast distances (Honeycutt, 2000). In a nutshell, KM gives the opportunity for informed, quick, and effective decision making anywhere and anytime.

4.3. Defining business information Defining particular business information is the step that follows defining objectives and designing goals. Based on the review of all the organizational processes the management can identify necessary information along with their importance. A knowledge analyst (KA) may guide this process by gathering and modelling the knowledge requirements (Trepper, 2000). The primary task of the KA is to build an information network for the purpose of achieving problem-solving process, driving decisions, and getting a competitive advantage (Honeycutt, 2000). The KA may need to collaborate with employees, customers, and stakeholders to identify the sources of information. Information source can be found from various levels including personal, team, corporate or even external to the firm. For example, the experienced employees can be a valuable source because they normally have invaluable collection of tips and tricks of solving different types of problems of the organization. In addition, some knowledge is subject to cross-functional sources among the departments and business units. An effective KA can handle collecting information from these complex sources. Sometimes, this process faces political struggles within the organization. KM system has to face and manage this kind of situation (Trepper, 2000). Sometimes the KA has to act as negotiator among groups and even to handle delicate issues and turf battles in the process of information gathering. The information defining process follows several assumptions. First is the importance of information for the smooth operation of the business. The continuity of the business operation may be hampered in case of any lose or damage of information. For example, the company may face loss of customer as a result of lost of sales information. Second, the company should keep only important information and avoid keeping obsolete or miscellaneous information to endure efficiency and effectiveness of the KM. Third, successful KM project implementation is not possible without senior management commitment. This commitment can encourage the employees to perceive this as a major project and to cooperate with the process. As an alternative the company consider to keep knowledge management as one of the company objectives (Ray, 2008). 4.3.1 Needs assessment After identification of the information need, the KM strategy should be implemented. However, the information need may change within a short time interval. This situation requires the KA to perform a needs assessment. In the process of needs assessment, the enduser needs are compared and given weights to properly maintain the overall project strategy. This requires conducting the needs assessment and information research simultaneously facilitating continuous development of the KM system. The KA has to look at business goals, business processes, usage characteristics, and user needs in the process of the needs assessment (Ray, 2008). 4.3.2 Decision making The role of KM in improving the decision making by the employees and managers should be considered carefully at the time of defining business requirements. Simple access methods
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(like web browsers) to access centralized information helps employees make decisions anywhere utilizing vast amount of information which previously were scattered in many places. The ability of the managers to drill down through data and information help them to make effective and efficient decisions. A good KM system helps the process of quick and easy analysis of information down to the lowest degree for employees at any level and whenever they need it. Right business decision making demands the information to be timely and accurate. Lack of time and accurate information can result loss of business opportunities. Lastly, accessing information should be user friendly and easy enough so that the employees do not find any difficulties in using the facilities. This requires automated and user friendly tools (Ray, 2008). 4.3.3 Employee management Providing responsive employee management is another requirement for KM. The organization should nurture its employees by monitoring its employee training, skills, and benefits. According to (Honeycutt, 2000), an effective KM system in the organization can motivate, reward, and align employees in a better way. Being the internal customers, employees require attention just as much as a companys external business customers. A good KM system can improve employee skills and job opportunities, and thereby help improve employee job satisfaction status of the organization. KM systems can make the organization adaptive to changing marketplace where continuous new skills are needed. Identification of problems related to skill gaps and providing possible solution are some other roles performed by the KM systems (Ray, 2008). Good KM system can also help the management to establish good performance recognition and reward system. 4.4.Technological Infrastructure Engagement of IT follows the development of the business requirements. The organization may choose to develop a partnership with the IT organization. Before that the organization has to define the role of IT in developing the KM system. Many organizations take the opportunity of utilizing IT for sharing and integration of knowledge as IT make the acquisition, storing, or dissemination of knowledge easier than ever before (Kankanhalli, Tanudidjaja, Sutanto, & Tan, 2003). With more advances in information technology (IT) and communication the development, storing, and transferring knowledge are becoming even easier (Anantatmula & Kanungo, 2010). Both in academia and industry, the role of technologies in KM has always been a contentious topic. As a general perception, although technology had been a driver in many of the KM projects in the late 1990s, recent organizational emphasis is on the process and people as the critical KM success factors (Tsui, 2005). The assistance of technology is important for established KM initiative, but it is not the sole success factor (Wei, Choy, & Yew, 2009). (Tanriverdi, 2005) finds the positive influence of IT resources of a firm on its KM ability and performance. The study empirically found that, (1) cross-unit KM capability is enhanced by IT relatedness of a firms business units; (2) KM capability is associated with superior firm performance. (Serban & Luan, 2002) postulate that technology is a prerequisite but not all for successful KM. Organizations, including universities and companies, use technology as a key success factor of KM. The role of IT is not limited to merely storing and retrieving data. The advancements in artificial intelligence and other information processing techniques over the decades lead IT to extend its role in the discovery of new actionable knowledge (Tsui, 2005).

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The basic IT support for KM comes in two basic approaches: codification and personalization (Hansen, Nohria, & Tierney, 1999). The codification approach codifies and store more explicit and structured knowledge. People can share knowledge from the common storage which can achieve economic reuse of knowledge. An electronic knowledge repository is an example of such IT tools (Kankanhalli, et al., 2003). The codification is mainly aimed to provide organized, explicit, portable and easy to understand form of knowledge accessible to those who need it (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). On the other hand, the personalization approach uses direct and personal communications for sharing more tacit and unstructured knowledge. IT facilitates the process of locating communication among the people in order to achieve complex knowledge transfer. Knowledge expert directories and video conferencing tools are examples of such IT tools. For understanding the role of IT in KM, both these KM approaches are fundamental (Kankanhalli, et al., 2003). 5. Implementation There are six elements of the implementation of any enterprise-wide KM system. First, a chief knowledge officer should be given responsibility for the political, strategic, and technical implementation of KM. Someone already in the organization such as the Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Director, or manager with small- and medium-sized enterprises can perform this responsibility. The appointed individual should be ready to take risks and to be self-starters (Earl & Scott, 1999).They should have the understanding about the knowledge requirement and possible sources. They should have the entrepreneurial ability to transform the organization. They also have to deal with setting up the supportive culture in favour of knowledge collaborations. According to, (Honeycutt, 2000), using KM systems and document knowledge by the knowledge workers is the prerequisite for the KM to work. A reward system for sharing valuable knowledge can improve the success of KM. Next, interconnection should be established among all individual pockets of knowledge management residing on intranets through hyperlinks and create a KM infrastructure. Everyone should utilize this infrastructure to implement a well-established set of collaborative processes, which can convert knowledge into usable information. This is how the enterprise KM information can be kept healthy and current (Honeycutt, 2000). 5.1. Establish a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) There are some challenges in the implementation of a knowledge management solution. Complete integration of knowledge is the first one among them. For the perfection of the KM system, a good understanding of how to build, locate, and relate knowledge is necessary. For this purpose the expertise embedded within employees should be recorded. Firms should make the knowledge and services accessible to others throughout the organization. Next step is the technical integration looking at the infrastructures needed for the knowledge management system. Last step relates to the ability to manage it centrally. For this purpose the integration points should be identified properly (Honeycutt, 2000). The positions are created in order to handle this implementation challenges. Information discovery and KM audit. KM audit is used for information discovery, which is the first step in developing a KM system. The activities of the CKO and the KAs will include identification of all sources of information assets, locating all sources of knowledge (i.e. staff experience, information on the company intranet and e-mail systems), and establishment of the knowledge foundations of the organizations core competencies within the organization (Pemberton, 2004). In order to capture these sources of knowledge and information, KM audits use questionnaires, surveys, interviews, and group discussions. The audits can reveal
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the available map of knowledge and location of intellectual asset (Pemberton, 2004). Knowledge maps help to capture and disseminate knowledge all over the organization. More specifically, knowledge map identify where knowledge resides, determine which knowledge should be shared with whom, how, and why along with the built-in rewards for knowledge creators and brokers (Gupta, et al., 2000). This is how the KM audit contributes to the process of developing the knowledge-based strategies and also to achieve the goal of the project. Careful scrutiny of all knowledge and information with respect to the organizational value is also a part of the knowledge-based strategy. The ability of transforming knowledge into information provides value for the organization (Beveren, 2002). The combined effort from the KA team and the stakeholders would identify and dispose of content that does not have good source of value for the organization. The sorted hot lists of KM portals can provide more valued stored knowledge available to others (Honeycutt, 2000). Most of the information is a collection of rules and procedures as found by the researcher in their investigations and collection process. Knowledge workers perform the key part of the information discovery process. A knowledge worker is someone who designs or creates services within a firm (Laudon & Laudon, 2003). According to Laudon and Laudon knowledge workers perform three key roles for the KM. Their role can be considered as the means for maintaining knowledge of customers and industry changes continuously. As an example, they can improve a firms competitive advantage by keeping up information about technology changes and their use in various organizations. Second, they act as consultants to the management, who help them to cope with the changing information and by showing the opportunities in the changing marketplace. Third, knowledge workers can be considered as change agents who evaluate, initiate, and promote projects of change in the organization. The amount of information needed drives the need for IT resources and determines the performance of the KM system. To determine size and performance characteristics of the KM system, the KA team and the IT staff need to work together. Beveren (2002) argues for the contribution of IT improvements in implementing KM by providing necessary tools. The budget of the KM project is also important consideration because the resource costs, project schedule, volume of requirements, and amount of information to be stored should comply with the budget. 5.2. Organizational Culture It is a general agreement that a successful KM implementation demands nurturing a knowledge-friendly organizational culture. The culture must allow the sharing, learning and creation of knowledge in order to produce value adding information for the business (Gupta et al., 2000). However, according to (Zack, 2003) despite their ability to understand the competitive necessity of KM implementation, a few firms can understand the process of cultural changes. A well-balanced KM system in a successful organization can provide supports through rewards, incentives, and compensations to encourage knowledge transfer (Davenport, De Long, & Beers, 1999). One of the challenging problems of implementing KM is to convince, coerce, and direct potential people who can share their information (Gupta, et al., 2000). CKO deals with this problem for the purpose of change management, which include getting senior management commitment, knowledge owners participation, employees to use system, and technology support. Data warehousing and data mining tools, document collaboration systems, company

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intranets, electronic mail, desktop video conferencing, chat rooms, and web-based software applications are the examples of some of these technology supports. In order to motivate employees to see KM as a necessary business component, senior management commitment is also important. A favourable environment for knowledge activities can help the KM system (Gao, Li, & Nakamori, 2002). Environment can be brought in favour of information sharing by promoting employee creativity and innovation by leveraging human capital (Beveren, 2002). Creating an atmosphere of trust, team spirit, and learning climate for improving the productivity of employees and experts can help this process. Employees can be encouraged to equally share their knowledge with other stakeholders. This is more effective when recognition and reward are consistent with their understanding of KM process and their creativity and intuition at work. A fair and equitable reward system can help the knowledge sharing behaviour (Smith, 2001). This reward system can become a reflection of expectations to knowledge employee and the benefits of knowledge sharing. Without the reward system, the employees may choose to share a small portion of their knowledge. It is also good to show the employees that knowledge sharing and open communication can bring recognition to the knowledgeable employee (Ray, 2008). Different motivators such as bonuses, percentage of company profits, peer recognition, special titles, and challenging assignments can be included in the reward system to influence them positively toward knowledge sharing. After the KM system is built, employees must utilize it in a proper way. For performing their job, they can get an easy access to necessary information when the KM system of integrated customer networks and databases are available to them (Ray, 2008). However, if people are reluctant to share their information, the system will not work. This problem can be solved by a favourable organizational culture. They should be made aware that KM can also improve the personal knowledge and professional careers of the employees. Formation of community teams that identify, gather, and share new knowledge assets is another option for that. These individual can foster the whole process if the ownership and control over their knowledge is given. Further support is possible if the environment stimulates the sharing process. It is important to note that more information does not necessarily mean more knowledge (Ray, 2008). Hence, information overload is another thing that should be avoided in the KM systems. KM systems should be oriented toward only pertinent information and easy and quick access according to necessity. Technology consideration comes after the identification of the knowledge management services. IT can act as an enabler in the whole process. According to (Honeycutt, 2000) the infrastructure requirement should be measured against the requirement of the KM system to avoid unnecessary costs and increases in the project schedule. It is better to find out the best fits including functional fit, technical fit, cost, and cultural fit (Smith, 2001). These fits are actually the analysis how the technology would support the changes in the business. Functional fit is related to business function changes, like moving to web-based billing statements. Technical fit relates to integration with current systems and data, like the case of deploying a data warehouse database on the current back office environment. Cultural fit is the most important and related to the openness for knowledge sharing. Lastly, cost can define the limit of the accomplishments of the KM project. According to Beveren (2002), electronic mail, chat rooms and web sites are good communications tools for information collaboration although limited in terms of access and storage capability for a growing KM system.
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According to Smith (2001), the role of technology in collecting and coding knowledge for distribution is possible to ensure by having a strong IT framework. Thus, to support business needs across the enterprise, there is no alternative to a robust and dynamic infrastructure. 5.3. KM infrastructure After defining business requirements locating information, it is time to engage IT resources to help build the KM infrastructure. There are four components of a KM infrastructure: a data warehouse, content management, collaboration, and access tools. The process of the KM systems to capture, share, and find information efficiently throughout the corporate enterprise systems is facilitated by the infrastructure (Honeycutt, 2000). Laudon and Laudon (2003) postulate that the support from the KM systems comes in the form of discovering and codifying knowledge, sharing knowledge, and distributing knowledge, as well as in the form of creating new knowledge and integrating it into the organization. Often the infrastructure is standardized in different organizations in order to facilitate knowledge sharing across organizations. As Trepper (2000) argues, exchanging important business documents is simpler and faster if standardized document formats are used (Trepper, 2000). 5.3.1. Data warehouse No matter where they are located, standardized databases allow exchange of data among the employees and stakeholders across the firm. Data warehousing is a process extracting captured data and organizing them in a meaningful way for the business (Duffy, 2001). Current and historical information found from different human and automated sources in the organization are extracted by KAs and stored in a database. Query and reporting tools are used by the data warehouse for extracting this information. Data mining can provide a centralized place to find analysis and report. Dada mining uses variety of tools in order to find out hidden information from various sources (Laudon & Laudon, 2003). This process may use either or both of qualitative and quantitative analysis to determine trends and the outcome can be used to understand the patterns and the future possibilities. This process involves the transfer of operational data to the warehouse (i.e. data extraction, cleansing, transformation, loading, and administration) and management of the warehouse for multi-user database applications(Duffy, 2001). 5.3.2. Content management Content management involves with maintaining documents. The tools of content management allow users to create, publish, search, and manage information easily (Duffy, 2001; Honeycutt, 2000). Web-based applications are used to integrate sources of information together for access to a variety of corporate databases, directories, documents, and processes. These tools also work for improving access by the web-based application. The selection, preparation, and interpretation of the contents of large databases are other aspects of the content management which helps to identify novel and valuable patterns in the data (Laudon & Laudon, 2003). The KAs use content management as part of their system maintenance. 5.3.3. Collaboration Customer feedbacks and best practices are possible to share by using collaborative tools (Trepper, 2000) For supporting the sharing and reuse of information, the goal of collaboration is to create a basic, collaborative knowledge management system (Honeycutt, 2000). A growing number of capabilities covering individual, team, departmental and enterprise productivity can help the organization to collaborate. More specifically, the capabilities include electronic mail, discussion sessions, shared devices, group calendars, and schedules
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(Duffy, 2001). Knowledge seekers can use them to acquire information from experts. To allow searchers to identify the best information sources from others using these collaborative activities, collaboration applications also use profiling tools (Duffy, 2001). 5.3.4. Portals and access A portal can provide the access to the collaborative knowledge through a web interface into a company database or data warehouse. Enterprise information portals (EIP), advanced searching tools, and web-based query can be the components of a portal (Duffy, 2001). Decision making and the productivity of users are improved by EIPs as it provides an easy and user-friendly graphical interface. It can provide access to data, classification and searching of data, and document collaboration. Enterprise information portal is defined by Laudon and Laudon (2003) as an application working as a gateway to the sources of information. Cost-effective methods of tiny programs called artificial agents are used in these portals. These agents can find and organize the information like the employees (Kotorov & Hsu, 2001). They can extend our intellectual capabilities and help faster information finding. Often portals can be customized to the user to provide valuable information on marketing, customers, and products. Their use can also provide some degree of competitive advantage to the organization. For instance, quick access to information on what customers need can sometimes initiate the new product development (Kotorov & Hsu, 2001). This is how knowledge can contribute to innovations, creativity, and increased profits. 5.4. Establish collaborative processes The process for sharing information should be established carefully. Without guidance the automated tools cannot provide good help. Trepper (2000) stated that the integration of both people and technology is a feature of a good KM process. Employees would use the KM facilities if they can access the information in a timely manner to support decision-making (Honeycutt, 2000). The company intranet is a good source for knowledge. An example of a source of information on human expertise is a simple and easily accessible directory. Developing good repositories to provide easy access to organizational expertise needs looking at what user requirement and their way of searching (Pemberton, 2004). Another process may increase value through reuse of information, which involves reusing same information in similar situation. It also allows for avoiding repeated mistakes. Beveren (2002) identified knowledge to exist already in organizations and its easy extraction by sharing best practices. Users experiences and knowledge are stored in repositories using appropriate technology. However, some knowledge is not understandable to others without transcription into information. This strategy would help firms to manage the contained knowledge within its individual members. Knowledge communities can be established among the employees who possess knowledge and wish to share their ideas. These communities can contribute to knowledge innovation using the employees own creativity and innovation complying with the organizational requirements and then turn that into valuable products and services. KM collaboration can also improve product design (Honeycutt, 2000). Highly integrated and professional teams with a single focus and goal, and keen insight from various areas can bring best products and services to the market. It also brings keen insight from various areas to produce faster results. 5.5. Managing knowledge inventories

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The interaction between the users and the knowledge database is important. If the interaction is not proper, and they do not use it properly, then all is wasted. The KM system must be able to create value from using and reusing of the information and capture insight from various relationships among various information elements (Duffy, 2000). A detail and proactive manner of managing and organizing the repositories is a feature of responsible companies (Duffy, 2000). Duffy (2000) further illustrates that poorly organized, over-populated, or obsolete information result in reducing the use of the repository. Hence, a constant care of the knowledge management repositories is necessary for the success. Based on regular analysis of customer usage and identify trends, the CKO and KAs should regularly review and manage content to make sure that the information is current. This process can help the KM system to meet the company needs. Honeycutt (2000) emphasized the necessity of removing unused or useless documents or other information from the knowledge management information base. Failure to do this may clog up the knowledge database as an unreliable one with useless information. This process can make sure the database to be current, useful, clean, and cost-effective. Considering these facts, it is necessary to establish policies and guidelines for maintaining KM information. The policies and guidelines should include the determination of what to keep, devising the organization process, and deciding how long to keep them. The focus of the KM process here is on the document content, not the physical document (Duffy, 2000). This demonstrates a lifecycle consisting of following stages: acquiring (capturing, buying, generating), organizing (classifying, indexing, mapping), retrieving (searching, accessing), distributing (sharing, moving), and maintaining (pruning, growing, nourishing) the contents of the repository (Duffy, 2000). Pemberton (2004) also emphasize filtering unnecessary information, along with establishment of annual reviews or evaluation, and implementation of policies and procedures for disposing of outdated material. 5.6. Training People should be trained to use the KM system. This is important. Lack of training can be a barrier to the implementation of the KM project. If the KM system is not easy to use and learn, people may bypass it to gather knowledge from other sources (Dickelman, 2001). This is why familiarization training should be included in the KM training (Riege, 2005). Training should also help the users to understand the advantages and limitations of the KM system. Locating knowledge or colleagues who possess the knowledge can be one way of showing the easiness of the system. The training may also illustrate how to collect and retrieve information. Both classroom and e-learning methods should be used in the training to allow all users to have convenient learning experience. E-learning uses web-based learning tools and is considered as an easy way of learning new technology (Ralph, 2003). If there is a lack of learning interface, users may be reluctant to use the new system. 5.7. Critical success factors Four key elements to introduce successful KM systems are suggested by (Stool, 2004). First, starting with a team dedicated to the project and wants to see it through to the end. Second, get employee and management with the proper understanding of the benefits to the individual and the organization. Third, be patient considering that development of KM systems take time, involve labour, and affect organization priorities. Last, in order to gauge the project success against the baseline, survey the staff opinion before and after the KM implementation. The survey will provide baseline information about the way people use knowledge. Some other factors to consider include the available project funding, setting goal
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and its changes. Funding shortage can influence the completion time. Also, lack of appropriate and dynamic goal setting may result in failure of the project. 6. Conclusion It is crucial that organizations seek for competitive advantage and recognize find the source of that advantage in the form of wealth of knowledge in employees. They should also seek ways to share the knowledge with others. Smith (2001) supports these ideas by describing companies to develop interactive and sharing environments for fostering ideas. The idea of a reward system is also recognized by him. The reward system can encourage employees participation. The reward system also can build trust, openness and collective ownership that can encourage the acquisition and sharing of personal knowledge (Smith, 2001). According to Honeycutt (2000), one of the main outcomes of KM is turning experience and information into results. In addition to competitive advantages, KM also provides other advantages to the company: better organization and use of institutional knowledge; reduction of staff time used searching for information; less duplication of work; more efficient customer service; more time spent improving services (Stool, 2004, p.56). KM system implementation is one example where business requirements drives IT activities. IT facilities are additional supports for fulfilling the business requirements. However, other considerations, such as money, time, and volume of information also need to weigh in the KM system implementation because they may define the scope of the project. Finally, simple rule can make the KM system building simple. These include stakeholder involvement, knowledge value scrutinizing in a careful manner, employee participation encouragement, and effective and efficient KM infrastructure possible to access anywhere, anytime. References Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. (1999). Knowledge management systems: issues, challenges, and benefits. Communications of the AIS, 1(2es), 1. Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. E. (2001). REVIEW: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS AND RESEARCH ISSUES. [Article]. MIS Quarterly, 25(1), 107-136. Alhawary, F., & Al-Zegaier, H. (2009). The Successful Implementation of Knowledge Management Processes: The Role of Human Resource Systems" An Empirical Study in the Jordanian Mobile Telecommunication Companies". Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), 8(02), 159-173. Anantatmula, V. S., & Kanungo, S. (2010). Modeling enablers for successful KM implementation. Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(1), 100 - 113. Azmi, I. M. (2010). Legal and ethical issues in knowledge management in Malaysia. [doi: DOI: 10.1016/j.clsr.2009.11.001]. Computer Law & Security Review, 26(1), 61-71. Beveren, J. V. (2002). A model of knowledge acquisition that refocuses knowledge management. Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(1), 18 - 22. Davenport, T., De Long, D., & Beers, M. (1999). Successful knowledge management projects. The Knowledge Management Yearbook 1999-2000, 89107. Davenport, T., & Prusak, L. (1994). Information ecology: Oxford University Press New York. Davenport, T., & Prusak, L. (1998). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know: Harvard Business School Pr. Dickelman, G. (2001). The Case for Creative Abrasion: Experts Speak Out on Knowledge Management. Performance Improvement, 40(7), 9-15.

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