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Knowledge Base and Knowledge Base Software

Knowledge Base and Knowledge Base Software

What is Knowledge Base?

Wikipedia defines knowledge base as, “…. a special kind of database for knowledge management, providing the means for the computerized collection, organization, and retrieval of knowledge.”

A knowledge base is a dynamic database of information. It is used as a tool for knowledge management, for gathering information, segregating the information into appropriate categories, and making it easily available for a person looking for the relevant information.

A knowledge base is very commonly used as a tool in Customer Relationship Management. It is an integral part of the Customer Service provided by any business. Data is made available to customers who can search for the information they require. This allows them to find what they want without having to contact a person at the business. When this happens, it saves the time of both the customer and the customer support staff. It cuts-down the response time for the staff, making it easier to provide effect service. This in turn saves resources for the business.

Knowledge Base Software

Now that we know what knowledge base means, its evident that knowledge base software is used to construct these knowledge bases. It helps to optimize data collection. This data is then organized with the help of the software into ordered formats, making retrieval effective.

The knowledge base is like a storehouse of information. It can be a dynamic collection of information. The database is generally related to a particular subject or product. A website can use knowledge base software to create a knowledge base about the product(s) or services that it deals with.

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For example, a website that offers services for the preparation of government forms will have a database regarding the various forms, the eligibility requirements to fill the form, the processing times, application procedures, etc. A customer looking for information about a particular form, or the filing fees can find the information he/she requires by visiting this database and looking up the relevant category. This makes it easier for the customers to find information by themselves. They need not waste time trying to call customer service. (The lines seem to always be busy only when we try!) This customer finding the information by himself/herself means that its one call less for the customer support staff to handle. So its a win-win situation for the staff and the customer.

A good knowledge base software will make the collection, organization and retrieval of data a simple and easy process for everyone involved. The business should be able to share its knowledge through the database. So the software should ensure that entering the information is easy. It should also be easy to put the information in appropriate categories or folders.

 The knowledge base software should provide features to make the organization of the information simple to understand. It should also be able to establish an hierarchy for the users who can update and edit the information. It should further ensure that persons looking for information can understand how to use the database. Hints and tips need to be provided to simplify usage. The search feature should be customized according to the information provided in the database.

In case of dynamic information, where users are allowed to edit the information, the knowledge base software should provide a feature to update the information while saving the older information for reference.

When the knowledge base software is effective, it becomes a very handy tool for both the business and the customer.

Salient Features that a Knowledge Base Should Have

It should be easy to find information in the database.

When the information looked for is not found, there should be an alternate solution – like a prompt about where else to look, access to the Customer Support number or the ability to send and email to Customer Support.

It should offer a lot of customized features and should be browser based.

Access should be provided based on the role of the user, whether customer, support staff or administrator.

Means to control what users can do.

Source: ArticlesBase.com

Rethink the Knowledge Economy and Value Chain

Rethink the Knowledge Economy and Value Chain

 

If you remember when we learn value chain in management classes, textbooks always talk about value creation in a value chain. Many of us are familiar with how values can be created when recourses such as, land, labor and capital are invested to convert raw materials into final products. Companies are responsible to create values to the materials through design and manufacturing processes until they become commercial products that customers are willing to pay for.

You may also heard about people talking about “moving up the value chain”. When a company has successfully moved up a value chain, for example, from manufacturing to Research and Development (R&D), we expect the company to gain higher returns, and become more competitive in the market. However, is R&D the ultimate upstream that we can reach? What are the resources for a design creation? In order to create a new design, we need people, tools and capital, but we think a little bit further “upstream”, we need the knowledge that enables people to become designers and to create tools and processes for design activities. This knowledge is coming from the “knowledge workers” who enable knowledge to be channeled through the designers and tools into the final products.

As we are evolving into the so call “Knowledge Economy”, many gurus have predicted that knowledge will be the dominant factor that brings higher value to the products in the market. In addition to physical products that we are familiar with, we have products in terms of knowledge intensive services that bring even bigger returns to the investors. Dr Peter Ducker believes that “knowledge is the only meaningful recourse” in the new “Post-Capital” era. Traditional factors such as land (natural resources), labor and capital have become secondary due to the evolution of our society.

However, the vision of  knowledge as the “raw material” that creates values to the products seems to be very elusive. We are still unable to grasp the concept of knowledge, and how to manage it as the resource for our products. Knowledge is not something we can keep, manipulate and use like other physical things. It moves easily from one point to another and we are not able to control how and where knowledge should “flow”. Hence, even though many people talk about knowledge management and value creation, there is still no viable process that we can use to clearly demonstrate how we can reward the knowledge workers who have created knowledge that eventually creates value to the products. The people who have largely benefited from the value creation are still the capitalists or investors, and not the knowledge workers.

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The knowledge workers that I am talking about can be teachers, trainers, lecturers, consultants, supervisors, writers, thinkers, parents and any experienced people who are responsible to transfer their knowledge to researchers, designers and design processes. They are definitely at the “upstream” before any design and development process. If we really value knowledge more than capitals, shouldn’t the profits created through the products been shared with these people too?

In the past, we can argue that we are not able to do that, as there is no way to track the contributors of knowledge in the value stream. However, I think it is time for us to rethink about the possibility. We can see that more and more people are “registered” online, and we have created online identities that track our presence, activities, financial accounts and many more using online technologies (what ever you want to call them). I believe we are approaching the capability (in terms of technological and cultural maturity) to track our knowledge contributions. If we are able to do that, then we are really evolving into the real Knowledge Economy, and Dr Peter Drucker’s vision will become a reality.

If you imagine knowledge flows in the form of an abstract network, you will be able to visualize so many “channels” being connected to you. Your parents, teachers, supervisors and friends could be the channels that provide input knowledge to you, and you are also supplying output knowledge to people around you. If any of the parties uses specific knowledge to work on, or add value to something that enable them to receive monetary returns, certain amount of these returns should be channeled to the people upstream, who have responsible to bring the knowledge to make this value creation activity possible.

You may think this is too ideal, too complicated and it’s an impossible process. How about visualize it the form of a collaborative network? What if your social networking accounts are included as a part of a collaborative network? How about a network that linkages are clearly defined, and we are able to record our transactions with others’ accounts through the network? After all, every single thing of our activities is actually a result of collaborative efforts.

I think it can really impact the way we live and resolve global problems we faced today. We will truly need to work collaboratively for our mutual benefits rather than merely meeting individual desires. The aged communities will be rightfully rewarded with passive incomes due to their past contributions that bring values to our current needs. We can really see rewards being channeled through knowledge networks and everyone can share the benefits of the value creations.

It is my hope that we can work together to create real collaborative networks that bring well-deserved rewards to our knowledge workers and realized the dream of a collaborative world. Then, we can confidently say that we are in the age of Knowledge Economy.

Source: ArticlesBase.com

How important is Knowledge Management for businesses?

How important is Knowledge Management for businesses?

Knowledge is a philosophical concept defined by Plato as a belief supported by an account or an explanation (Blair, 2002). Under the context of knowledge-view of an organization, the definition suggests that knowledge comes from firm’s increased ability to make use and sense of available information to create value for the shareholders (Leiponen, 2006). There has been a significant growth in the knowledge-based school of thought, which suggests that generating and retention of knowledge can have positive effects on the firm’s performance (Di Mattia & Scott, 1999). To manage this intangible asset to leverage firms for benefits is considered to be its core capability. Knowledge management (KM) has been aimed at capturing, integrating and using existing organizational knowledge and consequently creating a knowledge asset that can be a source of sustained competitive advantage in the long run (Brooking, 1999; Havens & Knapp, 1999). The revolution in the KM came with the rise of technology and there has been a misconception of linking IT with KM although it just facilitates the process (Papers4you.com, 2006).

The literature has divided knowledge into two major categories depending upon its nature to be codified for the use in a KM system. The structured and systematic knowledge that can be described in formal language and easily communicated and shared through formal means qualify for the explicit knowledge type (Elizabeth, 2001). It has been established that such knowledge is easy to codify in the form of databases and is seen as a base resource because of its inherent nature of easy imitation by other organizations. The other form of knowledge which has gained tremendous importance is the automatic collective behavior and is called tacit knowledge (Richard et al, 2001). Tacit knowledge, according to Sajjad et al (2005), comprises of mental models, values, beliefs, assumptions and perceptions which are deeply entranced into the intellectual capital of an organization. It has been suggested that tacit knowledge is faced with an apparent dichotomy i.e. the feature of inimitability that make it a source of sustained competitive advantage also makes it hard to capture and share within the organization to gain the potential benefits.

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Therefore it can be concluded that the elusive asset of knowledge, where provides an organization with capability to undermine competition also proves to be a challenge to leverage itself (Papers4you.com, 2006). Any organization should not only look at the ‘best practices’ in the field but should customize each approach to its own unique culture and requirements to be able to successfully use KM.

References:

Blair, D.C. (2002), “Knowledge management: hype, hope, or help?”, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 53(12), 1019-1028

BROOKING, Annie (1999), “Corporate Memory: Strategies for Knowledge Management”, Intellectual Capital Series London: International Thomson Business

Di Mattia, S. & Scott, I. A. (1999), “KM: hope, hype or harbinger?”, Library Journal, 15 September, 122(15), p. 33

Elizabeth A. Smith, (2001), “The role of tacit and explicit knowledge in the workplace”, Journal of Knowledge Management; Volume: 5 Issue: 4; 2001 Research Paper

Havens, C. & Knapp, E. (1999), “Easing into Knowledge Management, Strategy and Leadership”, 27(2), p. 4

Leiponen, Aija (2006), “Managing Knowledge for Innovation: The Case of Business-to-Business Services”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, May2006, Vol. 23 Issue 3, p238-258

Papers For You (2006) “P/M/440. Tools of knowledge management”, Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtmgt8.htm [22/06/2006]

Papers For You (2006) “P/M/325. Knowledge management: definition of the concept”, Available from Papers4you.com [21/06/2006]

Richard T. Herschel, Hamid Nemati, David Steiger (2001), “Tacit to explicit knowledge conversion: knowledge exchange protocols”, Journal of Knowledge Management; Volume: 5 Issue: 1; 2001 Research paper

Sajjad M. Jasimuddin, Jonathan H. Klein, Con Connell (2005), “The paradox of using tacit and explicit knowledge: Strategies to face dilemmas”, Management Decision; Volume: 43 Issue: 1; 2005 Conceptual paper

Source: ArticlesBase.com