Definition

Knowledge Management is one of the key areas today organizations are much cared about. Organizations today are bound to face immense competition from the market players both domestic and global. The twin effect of Globalization and the growth of Information Technology (especially Internet) have really put them in a situation to manage their resources effectively to serve their customers in a better way. Further emergence of Global market really brought out the concepts of ERP and CRM - caring for customers

Knowledge is basically classified into two namely Explicit and Tacit.

Explicit Knowledge is Procedural, systematic and is out of the practices that are followed. It can be easily articulated, captured, recorded and distributed as procedures in different formats. Organizations adapt various methods that reflects the Explicit knowledge gained out of past experiences and learning.

The other is Tacit Knowledge, which is difficult to articulate and which are the outcome of individual's direct experience towards a situation along with his intellectual capability. These are not shared through formal procedures but by informal ways like storytelling, conversations and shared experience. Tacit knowledge found in the subconscious mind of the individual is very difficult to cultivate and where the real challenge for the organizations lies

Knowledge management involves the capture of organization's information and experience so that it becomes part of the organization's know-how and expertise, which can be pooled, disseminated and used by the skilled staff in doing and winning profitable business. Thus, Knowledge management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival, and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Organizations should build their own systems to carryout the Knowledge Process. With the state of art technology in Information Systems like Expert Systems, Artificial Intelligence Organizations can really pool out the Knowledge base existing in the organization (Internally and Externally) in order to make the quick response to the demand and the change. The whole Knowledge Management Process evolves

The advancement in the field of computers and its applications gave a momentum to Knowledge management where Organizations started realizing it as a competitive advantage. And now, Knowledge Management is considered to be beyond the Data Warehouses and Data Marts. It is not only the application of those technologies like OLTP, Data Mining and OLAP but beyond which speaks on collaboration, Expertise Location, Learning and Business Intelligence etc. Yes, Knowledge Management is just not the use of technologies. Consider the following key myths of Knowledge Management