WELCOME

Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English

Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a
person through experience or education; by
theoretical or practical understanding of a
subject;

Data = unit of fact

Information = combination of data

Knowledge = potential for action on information

There is no universal definition for knowledge management

At its broadest, KM is the ‘process through which organizations

generate value from intellectual and knowledge based assets’

Knowledge management (KM) comprises a range of strategies

and practices used in an organization to identify, create,
represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and
experiences
 Why Knowledge Management ?
 • The benefits of Knowledge Management are traditionally
 focused on:
 – Reducing cost and risk
 – Leveraging existing assets to reduce cost, risk & cycle time
 – Improved Decision Making
 – Improved Strategic Planning,
 – Faster Development of New Technical Approaches
 – Faster more Robust Problem Solving
 – Reduced Cost of Employee Training
 – Increased Versatility of the Workforce
 The Benefits of Knowledge Management
 Whether to minimize loss and risk, improve organizational efficiency, or embrace
innovation, knowledge management efforts and initiatives add great value to an
organization.
 Some of the benefits of KM include:
 • facilitates better, more informed decisions;
 • contributes to the intellectual capital of an organization;
 • encourages the free flow of ideas which leads to insight and innovation;
 • eliminates redundant processes, streamlines operations, and enhances employee
retention rates;
 • improves customer service and efficiency; and
 • leads to greater productivity.
 Knowledge Management Benefits - An Overview
 Whenever you decide on investing in a new strategy, program, process, or project, you need to make sure that it is really
worth investing and value-adding.
 You also need to analyze the cost-benefits of such an investment and the return or value that you get out of that
investment.
 These are some issues that need to be considered before going in for knowledge management initiatives.
 Today's increasingly difficult economic times pose the need for cost-effective initiatives such as knowledge management
programs and practices.
 Organization heads always need a clear understanding of the bottom line Knowledge management benefits before they
invest in such initiatives.
 The Knowledge management benefits can be categorized into three which include:
 knowledge benefits
 intermediate benefits
 organizational benefits
 A typical example would be of an organization such as a manufacturing firm or an academic institution or a government
agency which has numerous physical files.
 Categorization and segregation into working databases allows the employees who need specific information to access the
databases more efficiently through word or category searches instead of having to sift through so many folders.
 Updating of these databases will also result in having the most recent and relevant information and knowledge stored and
easily accessible by any employee who may need any specific information.
There are two types of knowledge assets –

◦ Explicit or formal assets like copyrights, patents,

templates, publications, reports, archives, etc.

◦ Tacit or informal assets that are rooted in human

experience and include personal belief, perspective,
and values
 Today, KM draws from a wide range of
disciplines/practices –
◦ Cognitive science
◦ Groupware, AI, KBMS
◦ Library and information science
◦ Document management
◦ Decision support systems
◦ Technical writing
◦ Organizational science
◦ Many more
 There is a great risk today of KM over-
reaching itself
◦ Everything from organizational learning to business
and competitive intelligence has become fair game
for KM
◦ There are KM components to each of these but
these spaces are however best left to specialized
practitioners