Management Information System
CHAPTER 11: Managing Knowledge and Collaboration
I. Question 2 (Chapter 11 - Page 442)
What types of systems are used for enterprise-wide knowledge management and how do they provide value for businesses?
1. Define and describe the various types of enterprise-wide knowledge management systems and explain how they provide value for businesses
a. Structured knowledge systems The essential problem in managing structured knowledge is creating an appropriate classification scheme to organize information into meaningful categories in a knowledge database that can be easily accessed by employees. Once the categories for classifying knowledge have been created, each document needs to be "tagged," or coded, so that search engines can retrieve it and the quality of search results can be improved. Structured knowledge systems perform the function of implementing the tagging, interfacing with corporate databases where the documents are stored, and creating an enterprise portal environment for employees to use when searching for corporate knowledge. All the major accounting and consulting firms have developed structured document and engagement-based (case-based) repositories of reports from consultants who are working with particular clients. The reports typically are created after the consulting engagement is completed and include detailed descriptions of the consulting objective, participants, and the practices used to achieve the client's objectives. These reports are placed in a massive database to be used later for training new consultants in the company's best practices and for preparing new consultants joining an existing on-site consulting team.
b. Semi-structured knowledge systems Semi-structured information is all the digital information in a firm that does not exist in a formal document or a formal report. It has been estimated that at least 80 percent of an organization's business content is unstructured—information in folders, messages, memos, proposals,
I. Question 2 (Chapter 11 - Page 442)
What types of systems are used for enterprise-wide knowledge management and how do they provide value for businesses?
1. Define and describe the various types of enterprise-wide knowledge management systems and explain how they provide value for businesses
a. Structured knowledge systems The essential problem in managing structured knowledge is creating an appropriate classification scheme to organize information into meaningful categories in a knowledge database that can be easily accessed by employees. Once the categories for classifying knowledge have been created, each document needs to be "tagged," or coded, so that search engines can retrieve it and the quality of search results can be improved. Structured knowledge systems perform the function of implementing the tagging, interfacing with corporate databases where the documents are stored, and creating an enterprise portal environment for employees to use when searching for corporate knowledge. All the major accounting and consulting firms have developed structured document and engagement-based (case-based) repositories of reports from consultants who are working with particular clients. The reports typically are created after the consulting engagement is completed and include detailed descriptions of the consulting objective, participants, and the practices used to achieve the client's objectives. These reports are placed in a massive database to be used later for training new consultants in the company's best practices and for preparing new consultants joining an existing on-site consulting team.
b. Semi-structured knowledge systems Semi-structured information is all the digital information in a firm that does not exist in a formal document or a formal report. It has been estimated that at least 80 percent of an organization's business content is unstructured—information in folders, messages, memos, proposals,