B418 Lecture 8

1. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.1
Analysis 1: Evidence and the Nature of
Knowledge in the Digital Age
Topic: Digital Knowledge Management
Topic Number: 8

2. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.2
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To explain the nature of systems thinking
• To describe the key drivers of knowledge
management systems
• To distinguish between the different types of
knowledge management systems

3. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.3
WHAT IS A SYSTEM?
• Has elements
• Has relationships between elements – may be causal
or feedback loops
• Has a boundary
• Has an environment outside the boundary
• Has an input and an output

4. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.4
SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
Figure 8.1 General characteristics of a system

5. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.5
DRIVERS OF KM SYSTEMS
• Deming and Juran – most errors arose from
ineffective systems rather than operators
• PDCA: Plan, Do, Check, Act
• TQM and continuous improvement
• BPR led to flatter hierarchies
• Lean production including just-in-time and eliminating
zero-value activities

6. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.6
ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS
• Convergence of document processing, imaging and IT
• Combines text with digital audio and video
• Forms management allows organisation and
structure of data
• Indexing, searching and retrieval

7. Slide 8.7
ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGES OF EDMS
• Privacy – sensitive information
• Currency – can add ‘date of last change’
• Performance – whether the existing bandwidth
• Security – encryption, intelligent firewalls etc.
Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

8. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.8
DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
• Assist decision making by combining data, analytical
tools and models to support structured and
unstructured decisions
• May use statistical models and trend analyses
• Analyse data to produce graphs, charts and reports
• May use internal and external data

9. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.9
TYPICAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM
Figure 8.2 Typical configuration of decision support systems (DSS)

10. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.10
DSS APPLICATIONS
• Supply chain management to determine implications
for purchasing and distribution depending on
customer analysis and segmentation
• CRM uses datamining to guide pricing, customer
retention, market share and revenue streams
• Business scenarios by asking ‘what if’ questions

11. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.11
Questions to think about
• How would you go about capturing, storing and
retrieving tacit knowledge?
• What are the likely difficulties with a technology
oriented approach?

12. Slide 8.12
GROUP DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
• Interactive system to facilitate solution of
unstructured problems working in a group
• Electronic brainstorming and idea organisation tools
• Questionnaire tools
• Voting and priority setting tools
• Stakeholder identification tools
• Policy formation tools
Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

13. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.13
EXECUTIVE SUPPORT SYSTEMS
• Help senior managers with unstructured problems
• Avoid information overload by filtering organisational
data into graphical form
• Can ‘drill down’ to lower levels of detail
• Can use OLAP tools

14. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.14
PERFORMANCE SUPPORT SYSTEMS
• Assist groups or individuals to perform certain tasks
• May contain multimedia delivery and use techniques
such as expert systems and natural language
recognition
• Examples: assisting with tax returns or creating an
entry for a financial transaction

15. Slide 8.15
WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
• Allows documents and other forms of knowledge to be
routed among individuals and applications according
to predefined processes
• Processes may be predefined or vary according to
certain rules
• Workflows set up as users, types of information,
processes, timing, alternatives etc.
• May alert users to problems that need resolution
Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

16. Figure 8.3 Example of a Petri Net for a university application
Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.16
PETRI NET FOR UNIVERSITY APPLICATION
• Circles indicate places or states within process
• Rectangles indicate activities between states
• Arrows indicate direction of workflow

17. Slide 8.17
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS
• To coordinate all business and technological processes
dealing with the customer
• Share customer information between sales, marketing
finance and service divisions
• Consolidate customer data from various sources and
use analytical tools to answer questions
Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

18. Slide 8.18
WHAT’S THE FINAL GOAL OF KM SYSTEMS?
• Cost savings?
• Quality control and assurance
• TQM – cultural change
• Partnering
• Benchmarking
• BPR – radical change by questioning organisational
processes
• Lean production by using less human effort,
manufacturing space and equipment by focusing on
value
Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

19. Slide 8.19
Reading and preparatory work to be done
Read:
• Jashapara, A. (2011) “ Knowledge Management:
An Integrated Approach” Pearson Education,
Chapter 8
Work to be done before the seminar:
• Carry out all the reading above
• Answer the questions on the handout
• Bring your work to the seminar
19
Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011

20. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.20
Essential work for next week
• Please consult the OLE for details of:
– Essential readings*
– Seminar/workshop preparation work*
– Recommended further readings
– Any additional learning
* Essential readings and preparation work must always be completed in time
for the next session
20

21. Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 8.21
End of presentation
© Pearson College 2013