Authored by:

Table of contents:Table of contents:...........................................................................................................................1

List of figures:.................................................................................................................................2

List of tables:..................................................................................................................................2

Executive Summary.........................................................................................................3

Abstract..........................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................4

What is knowledge?.......................................................................................................................4

Knowledge management................................................................................................................5

Why do organizations need Knowledge management...................................................................7

Knowledge management process:..................................................................................................8

Biggest difficulties to successfully managing knowledge in organizations:...................................10

e-Business Development and Knowledge Management..............................................................10

KM and real business application from your working environment.............................................12

Conclusion....................................................................................................................................12

REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................12

List of figures:Figure Description PageFigure 1 (NASA KM roadmap) 8Figure 2 KM Success Factors 9Figure 3 Biggest difficulties to successfully manage knowledge 11Figure 4 (Position KM Process Perspective within E-Business Development) 12

Figure 5 Developing e-BusinessSystems based onKnowledge ManagementProcess Perspective

13

List of tables:Table Description Page

Table 1 Sharing and Using Knowledge 9

Executive SummaryKnowledge management is a strategic initiative essential for any corporation mission success. As a rising retirement rate diminishes the size of the workforce, the organization’s ability to protect – and effectively utilize – its intellectual capital is similarly diminished. A lack of critical knowledge negatively impacts an organization’s ability to make effective decisions in a timely manner. This limitation also inhibits organizations from being able to successfully execute their program on time, as well as being able to stay within the program’s budgetary limits. One assessment of this dilemma comes from the Aberdeen Group, who says, “Knowledge workers today are losing productivity in an endless search for information they know resides in the organization but is not easily accessible.” By implementing an enterprise knowledge management strategy coupled with an effective knowledge framework, the organization can distribute this critical program knowledge to widely dispersed stakeholders. This flexibility enables teams to continuously understand the interdependencies and consequences of changing requirements and changing environments across the life of the entire program/ project. However, data by itself is only representative of a single point in time with no understanding of that data’s relationships or how it can be used for decision making. By being able to fully comprehend all aspects of organization knowledge (i.e., its lifecycle), knowledge workers can employ this information more effectively during the decision making process. This approach allows end users to understand organization knowledge as a whole so that they can ascertain its patterns and develop additional knowledge about how to use this information on a best practice basis. In turn, these knowledge management techniques enable organizations to make informed decisions that improve the likelihood of success

What is “knowledge management”? Knowledge management is getting the right information to the right people at the right time, and helping people create knowledge and share and act upon information in ways that will measurably improve the performance of the corporation and its partners. This means providing access to information at the time people need it to make the best decisions possible for mission safety and success. It means

Providing an engineer the history of design decisions on previous projects Giving a project manager access to the best risk management practices and tools when

he or she needs them Providing the time for a senior scientist to mentor a promising young star

Some of this can be accomplished through clever information technology solutions. The larger part of this relates to capturing the tacit knowledge of our workforce and effecting cultural changes that will encourage people to share what they know. There are three goals where KM activities can help corporation’s ability to deliver its missions

1. To sustain the corporation’s knowledge across missions and generations, KM activities will identify and capture the information that exists across the organization.2. To help people find, organize, and share the knowledge we already have, KM implementations will help to efficiently manage the Agency’s knowledge resource.3. To increase collaboration and to facilitate knowledge creation and sharing, KM teams will develop techniques, tools, venues, and facilities to enable teams and communities to collaborate across the barriers of time and space In realizing these goals, some of the specific near-term objectives should include capturing key employee knowledge, managing the information resources organization already have, and creating ways for remote teams to work collaboratively. The knowledge management efforts are envisioned as a coordinating function that encompasses implementation responsibilities that might be necessary to “fill the gaps” that exist between organizations.

AbstractThe focus of this paper is proposing a framework for developing e-Business systems based on knowledge management (KM) process perspective. In past, developing e-Business systems were often given priority according to technical criteria rather than business imperatives. “Technology for technology’s sake” problem tends to be a business phenomenon. The study tries to give some ideals for building e-Business systems based on KM process perspective and expects that the viewpoint will facilitate the company using IT to achieve the effectiveness of ebusiness systems development.

INTRODUCTIONIn today’s 21st century, e-Business has become an important means by which enterprises respond to competition. *Hesterbrink (1999) pointed out that e-Business uses an innovation approach to utilize organizational resources and partner relationships in order to create strategic advantage. Moreover, *Kalakota and Robinson (1995)consider e-Business to be the complex fusion of business processes, enterprise applications, and organizational structure necessary to create a high-performance model. According to the above discussion, e-Business is without a doubt the means to survival of enterprises in the future, and a necessary path for the enterprise to follow. As a result, e-Business has already become a major policy and program used by the world’s industrialized countries and enterprises in responding to this new economy. Following a five-year study, *Luftman and Brief (1999) pointed out that the vast majority of enterprises that engaged in computerization did not obtain ideal results, which meant that it was not necessary for them to engage in computerization to increase the value of their enterprise and create business competitiveness(*Davenport,1998;Ryan, Harrison and Schkade,2002). As soon as managers regarded e-Business as that computers had been popularized, that time spent on line had increased, and that the computerization of the original

functional procedures, it had in fact been of little real assistance in creating and increasing enterprise competitiveness.

What is knowledge? Denham Grey offers the following view on Knowledge stating that it is the full utilization of information and data, coupled with the potential of people's skills, competencies, ideas, intuitions, commitments and motivations.

In today's economy, knowledge is people, money, leverage, learning, flexibility, power, and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more relevant to sustained business than capital, labor or land. Nevertheless, it remains the most neglected asset. It is more than justified true belief and is essential for action, performance and adaption. Knowledge provides the ability to respond to novel situations.

A holistic view considers knowledge to be present in ideas, judgments, talents, root causes, relationships, perspectives and concepts. Knowledge is stored in the individual brain or encoded in organizational processes, documents, products, services, facilities and systems.

Knowledge is the basis for, and the driver of, our post-industrial economy. Knowledge is the result of learning which provides the only sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge is the next paradigm shift in computing following data processing 1945-1965 and information management 1966-1995. Knowledge is action, focused innovation, pooled expertise, special relationships and alliances. Knowledge is value-added behavior and activities. For knowledge to be of value it must be focused, current, tested and shared.

Knowledge managementAn Open Discussion of Knowledge Management", Brian (Bo)Newman, 1991, Knowledge Management is the collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge. In one form or another, knowledge management has been around for a very long time. Practitioners have included philosophers, priests, teachers, politicians, scribes, Liberians, etc.

So if Knowledge Management is such an ageless and broad topic what role does it serve in today's Information Age? These processes exist whether we acknowledge them or not and they have a profound effect on the decisions we make and the actions we take, both of which are enabled by knowledge of some type. If this is the case, and we agree that many of our decisions and actions have profound and long lasting effects, it makes sense to recognize and understand the processes that effect or actions and decision and, where possible, take steps to improve the quality these processes and in turn improve the quality of those actions and decisions for which we are responsible?

Knowledge management is not a, "a technology thing" or a, "computer thing" If we accept the premise that knowledge management is concerned with the entire process of discovery and creation of knowledge, dissemination of knowledge , and the utilization of knowledge then we are strongly driven to accept that knowledge management is much more than a "technology thing" and that elements of it exist in each of our jobs.

“Knowledge Management” Pankaj Sharma 2008, Maarten Sierhuis provided the following definition of Knowledge Management and supporting concepts. Knowledge Management (KM): This is, as the word implies, the ability to manage "knowledge". We are all familiar with the term Information Management. This term came about when people realized that information is a resource that can and needs to be managed to be useful in an organization. From this, the ideas of Information Analysis and Information Planning came about. Organizations are now starting to look at "knowledge" as a resource as well. This means that we need ways for managing the knowledge in an organization. We can use techniques and methods that were developed as part of Knowledge Technology to analyze the knowledge sources in an organization. Using these techniques we can perform Knowledge Analysis and Knowledge Planning. Knowledge Analysis (KA): In Knowledge Analysis we model a knowledge source in such a way that we can analyze its usefulness, its weaknesses and its appropriateness within the organization. Knowledge Analysis is a necessary step for the ability to manage knowledge. Within Knowledge Analysis we can use knowledge modeling and knowledge acquisition techniques. Knowledge Planning (KP): When an organization has a grip on its knowledge (i.e. has performed Knowledge Analysis), it will be able to plan for the future. An organization will now be able to develop a multi-year knowledge plan that defines how the organization will develop its knowledge resources, either by training its human agents, or by developing knowledge-based systems to support the human agents, or by other means that allow the organization to stay competitive. Knowledge Technology (KT): This is, as the word already implies, the (application of) techniques and methods from the field of AI, or to be more specific, the field of knowledge-based systems. KT has been around for quite some time, and most people know about the application of KT in the form of expert systems, and decision support systems. Techniques and methods to design these kind of systems are well known; The best known methodology for building knowledge-based systems is CommonKADS (formerly known as KADS). Computer Supported Work Systems (CSWS): This is a formal and informal (human) activity system, within an organization where the (human) agents are supported by computer systems. The application of Knowledge Technology is very helpful in such work systems, although definitely *not* the only important factor in the analysis and design, nor in the effectiveness of the activity system.

In April 2002 NASA has releases its Knowledge management strategic plan identifying Knowledge management is getting the right information to the right people at the right time, and helping people create knowledge and share and act upon information in ways that will

measurably improve the performance of NASA and its partners. For NASA this means delivering the systems and services that will help our employees and partners get the information they need to make better decisions. There are three priority areas where KM systems and processes can help NASA's ability to deliver its missions: 1)To sustain NASA's knowledge across missions and generations KM activities will identify and capture the information that exists across the Agency. 2)To help people find, organize, and share the knowledge we already haveKM processes will help to efficiently manage the Agency's knowledge resources. 3)To increase collaboration and to facilitate knowledge creation and sharing The Knowledge Management Team will develop techniques and tools to enable teams and communities to collaborate across the barriers of time and space.

Figure 1 (NASA KM roadmap)

Why do organizations need Knowledge managementThe three key areas upon which organizations need to move forward to more effectively manage their knowledge are;

Capturing more of the critical knowledge organizations need to safely conduct missions. Enabling virtual teams to work collaboratively at peak efficiency

Managing more effectively the information we have already capturedIf organizations do not begin to manage their knowledge, they will repeat their mistakes. Worse, they will be destined to never learn from their successes.

Knowledge management process:

Knowledge management—facilitating the sharing of knowledge—occurs when people have easy access to and use tools, processes, venues, and facilities provided to help them solve problems and achieve understanding. Given the highly distributed, “virtual” teams at the organization today, the challenge before is to bring together people and their expertise across barriers of time, space, and culture. KM activities can provide an environment in which knowledge sharing and learning lead to actions in support of the corporation’s goals (Figure 1). KM activities is to capture design decisions as they occur and share those with current and future projects could help lead to a culture where sharing knowledge is part of the daily work.

Sharing and Using KnowledgePeople Process Technology

Enable remote collaboration

Support communities of practice

Reward and recognizeknowledge sharing

Encourage storytelling

Enhance knowledge capture

Manage information

• Enhance systemintegration and datamining

• Utilize intelligentagents

• Exploit expertsystems

Supporting ActivitiesEducation and training

IT Infrastructure HR Security

Some organizations have achieved success in knowledge management through a centralized KM organization, others through an architecture that unites distributed activities. Successful implementation of KM is truly measured by its contribution to mission success. However, researches show that there are four primary success factors for KM: culture, an architecture, services, and a robust infrastructure.

Figure 2 (KM Success Factors)

Effron (2004), asserts that given the definition of knowledge as “the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association”, it is “impossible to acquire “knowledge” without either experiencing something yourself or interacting with someone else who has” (p. 40). Knowledge Management is not synonymous with IT systems and processes. Rather knowledge resides in the experiences of people in different contexts. With regard to Knowledge Management, the aim of an organization is to work within business processes that create, and transfer knowledge throughout the organization. If knowledge is created and transferred via human experiences then these business processes must encompass an understanding of how people learn and transfer their knowledge; that is the business processes must emphasize person-to-person contact (Effron, 2004).

Examples of business processes that will lead to effective knowledge management are:

The setting of goals and objective – be realistic and recognize the limitations of data mining and information gathering. Make the increase of organizational knowledge a stated and specific goal for the all.

Employee retention – HR processes should focus on what it takes to retain employees who hold key knowledge. Provide opportunities that are developmental, have purpose, and have a high impact on business performance. Compensate such employees above typical market rates.

Employee development processes – pairing experts (what some companies call “Oak Trees”) and apprentices provide opportunities for employees with differing levels of knowledge to work together and increase the organizational knowledge. These relationships allow for a true exchange of knowledge through a human relationship and experience.

Organized networking and annual conferences – these provide forums for face-to-face interaction and knowledge sharing and can lead to effective organizational knowledge management.

In the process of KM there must be significant steps taken to eliminate any barriers that may get in the way of becoming or increasing the ability to be a learning organization. Cummings challenged our intentionality for to effectively help the processes of KM within an organization there must be intentional efforts to remove barriers that would inhibit ideas, talent, and money from getting to the point of best use (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 2004).

Biggest difficulties to successfully managing knowledge in organizations: In Maximum performance: A practical to leading and managing people at work Nick Forster: Ruggles 1998, he has shown that the biggest difficulties to successfully manage knowledge in organizations are sorted as per below graph:

Figure 3 (biggest difficulties to successfully manage knowledge)

Knowledge storage

Knowledge sharing

Knowledge application

and use

Knowledge creation

Knowledge Identification and capture

e-Business Development and Knowledge ManagementFrom viewpoint of knowledge management, e-Business is an important process by which an enterprise wisely uses knowledge to create value. Many articles point out that the meaning of e-Business not only relates to the renewal and upgrading of information technology, but also to the renewal of industrial process design and the creation of operating value. For this reason, building e-Business not only involves the application of information technology, but also refers to the construction of business knowledge. Based on the knowledge management process perspective, it is believed that organizational knowledge is not something static or passive that is stored in the individual, but is rather something that, through appropriate management activities, like various processes such as knowledge identification, selection, acquisition, construction and learning can cause the effectiveness of the organization’s knowledge to shine forth (Wiig’s, 1997; Beckman,1997; Demarest 1997; Cohen,1998; Ruggles 1998). In discussing the development of e-Business from knowledge management process perspective, three stages need to be considered. The first is the system planning stage: The organization should, by means of “knowledge identification,” decide its core competitiveness, and confirm the scope of its related knowledge along with its core abilities. Second stage: is the implementation stage. By pooling this core knowledge together, the organization engages in translating the tacit knowledge into an information system. Finally, the third stage: is the use stage. By means of learning and management culture for knowledge, such as specialized training and learning by doing, the organization makes sure that end users will be able and willing to use the systems (as in figure1 below). For this reason, the effectiveness of developing e-Business not only arises from the application and renewal of enterprise’s information technology, but also, from the process that the organization how to identify, select, construct and apply organizational knowledge.Effective KM processes will contribute to the development of e-Business systems.

Figure 4 (Position KM Process Perspective within E-Business Development)

Figure 5 (Developing e-Business Systems based on Knowledge Management Process Perspective)

KM and real business application from your working environment. From my point of view and my interaction within the organization, I have found that the

e-business applications (ERP, Exchange servers, intranet, etc.. ) used within my organization doesn’t serve the knowledge management intended end results in a good manner, how much it increased the productivity and create the lessons learned that benefits the organization can’t be significantly seen. Nevertheless it has created the media that overcome some challenges that face the knowledge management, such as space and time, but it didn’t deal with one of the major obstacles which is the culture of the users, and the goals of the implementation wasn’t that clear. The identification of knowledge wasn’t that clear, what has to be shared and when wasn’t put in a specific plan to be followed.

ConclusionThe whole point of knowledge management process is to make sure that the knowledge in an organization is applied productively for the benefit of that organization. Based on KM processes perspective, the processes developing e-Business systems are the one that a business how to identify, select, acquire the tacit knowledge in an organization, how to translate the tacit knowledge into e-Business systems (constructing knowledge), and how to educate the users to use the systems well and learning the knowledge embodied in the systems out of habit (learning knowledge and management culture for knowledge). To discuss the development of e-Business from KM process perspective, its main meaning is to assist the enterprise’s management in answering the question to help systems implementation personnel in understanding “how to engage in building e-Business,” and to assist system users regarding “how to by means of the system operate and learn from it”, as a means of enabling the system to show forth its effectiveness. The traditional approach to systems development, such as the traditional life cycle

approach, has provided e-Business building with clear-cut planning and guidance, but today there are still many enterprises that have failed. From knowledge management perspective, the building of an e-Business system is truly the construction of the organization’s knowledge. “Knowledge” is the basic component of an information system, and e-Business systems development is also the process that a company how to identify, construct and apply organization’s knowledge.

REFERENCESDavenport, T.H. 1998 : Living with ERP, CIO Magazine, 12 (5): 30-32.Davenport, T. H., and Klahr. 1998: Managing Customer Support Knowledge”, California Management Review, 3(40): 193-208.Hesterbrink, C. 1999: Ringing two Paradigms Together, Price water house Coopers.Kalakota, R., and Whinston, A.B. 1997:Electronics Commerce: A Manager’s Guide, Addition-Wesley.Kalakota, R., and Robinson, M. 1995: E-Business Roadmap for Success, Reading, Mass.: Addition-Wesley.Luftman, J. and Brief, T. 1999 : Achieving and Sustaining Business-IT Alignment, California Management Review, 1 (42): 109-122.Ryan, S.D. , Harrison, D.A. and Schkade, L.L. 2002: Information-Technology Investment Decisions Social Subsystem Matter?The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge * March 2005NASA strategic plan for knowledge management 2002