Master’s Thesis: Information Technology in Knowledge Management

Author: Grazyna Wykowska

Professor: Dr Michal Golinski
University: Warsaw School of Economics
Language: Polish
Pages: 148
Grade: Excellent
Date: 29 May 2008

The aim of the paper is to present the role information technology (IT) plays in knowledge
management and to help companies that intend to implement knowledge management to find
the right solution both in terms of strategy and IT tools.
In the course of this paper the author tried to answer two main questions:
- Which of the given open source systems can best serve as the basis upon which one
can build an integrated knowledge management system?
- Which of the given commercial proprietary systems is the best candidate to support
knowledge management within a company?

The paper comprises four chapters.

The first chapter introduces the discipline of knowledge management itself: outlines
its goals, stages of development and presents main definitions and trends that occurred
in the course of its development. Further, it describes two different knowledge management
strategies that determine the choice of IT solutions for specific companies: the strategies of
personalisation and codification.
The second chapter is thoroughly devoted to single IT tools that support knowledge
management or its chosen aspects. It shows their basic classification and characterization.
The third chapter concentrates on the so-called integrated knowledge management
systems. It illustrates their architecture and elaborates on the individual applications that
a typical knowledge management system consists of, such as: Document Management
System, Content Management System, Groupware System, Community Management System,
Information Retrieval System, Skills Management System, Workflow Management System,
E-learning System.
In the last chapter the author analyses specific IT solutions available in the market,
dividing them into two separate groups of systems: open source systems and commercial
proprietary systems. Both groups are scrutinised in terms of their complexity, user
friendliness and price.
For each group the author created a separate model of a hypothetical, ‘ideal’ knowledge
management system, which was used as a point of reference when comparing the chosen
products.
The open source group comprised nine systems that belonged to three categories:
- Groupware Systems: Open Xchange Express Edition, Kolab, PhpGroupWare
- Content Management Systems: Plone, Typo3, PHP-Nuke
- Document Management Systems: OWL Intranet Knowledgebase, KnowledgeTree,
jLibrary.
It was assumed that the best candidate to become a basis for an integrated knowledge
management system should be characterised by both high complexity (i.e. number of
functions) and high user friendliness. The price was considered to be a negligible factor,
since the given open source systems were distributed either free of charge or the licence prices
were very low.
Findings: None of the given open source systems met the criterion of both high complexity
and high user friendliness. Most of them can fulfil the tasks of only one system category.
The group of commercial proprietary systems comprised four systems: ZyIMAGE,
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007, InfoAsset Broker and Hyperwave eKnowledge Suite.
The complexity of the given systems was analysed in terms of how many and what kind of
subsystems (i.e. applications from the chapter 3) they include. Since the author did not have
the possibility to use the above systems personally (no demo versions available) the user
friendliness analysis was reduced to either stating the opinions of the outside experts
or presenting the achieved awards and listing the most important clients.
Findings: The research proved there is no single answer to the question: Which of the given
commercial proprietary systems is the best candidate to support knowledge management
within a company? The choice is determined by inter alia the size of a company and its
knowledge management strategy.
In the last part of the paper, the author presented general conclusions regarding inter
alia: the discipline of knowledge management, the market for knowledge management
software and the competition between producers of commercial proprietary and open source
systems.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

Introduction ...................................................... FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.

Chapter 1
THE CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENTFEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT
DEFINIERT.

1.1. Introduction .............................................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

1.2. Basic Definitions ....................................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

1.3. Stages of Development ............................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

1.4. Knowledge Management Models ............................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

1.4.1. Resource Model ............................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
1.4.2. Japanese Model ............................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
1.4.3. Process Model ................................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
1.5. Knowledge Management Strategy. Personalisation vs. Codification ............ Fehler!
Textmarke nicht definiert.

Chapter 2
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES SUPPORTING
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ......... FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.

2.1. Introduction .............................................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

2.2. Information Technology as One of Critical Success FactorsFehler! Textmarke nicht

definiert.

2.3. Organising Knowledge ............................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

2.3.1. Flat Taxonomy ................................................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.3.2. Hierarchical Taxonomy ................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.3.3. Faceted Taxonomy .......................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.3.4. Network Taxonomy......................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.4. Tools for Capturing Knowledge.............................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.4.1. Cognitive Mapping Tools................................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.4.2. Information Retrieval Tools ............................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.4.3. Search Engines ................................................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
 2.4.4. Agent Technology ........................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.4.5. Personalisation Technology ............................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.5. Tools for Discovering Knowledge ........................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

2.6. Tools for Knowledge Distribution/Knowledge Sharing Fehler! Textmarke nicht

definiert.
2.6.1. Electronic Collaboration Tools for Dispersed TeamsFehler! Textmarke nicht
definiert.
2.6.1.1. Tools for Asynchronous Electronic CollaborationFehler! Textmarke nicht
definiert.
2.6.1.2. Tools for Synchronous Electronic CollaborationFehler! Textmarke nicht
definiert.
2.6.1.3. Mobile Technology for Work and CollaborationFehler! Textmarke nicht
definiert.
2.6.2. Technologies Supporting Localisation and Codification of Tacit KnowledgeFehler!
Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.6.3. Learning Support Tools ................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
2.7. Tools for Storing and Presenting Knowledge ........ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

Chapter 3
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMSFEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT
DEFINIERT.

3.1. Introduction .............................................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

3.2. Architecture of Knowledge Management Systems Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

3.2.1. Document Management Systems .................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
3.2.2. Content Management Systems ........................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
3.2.3. Workflow Management System ...................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
3.2.4. Groupware and Community Management SystemsFehler! Textmarke nicht
definiert.
3.2.5. Skills Management Systems ............................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
3.2.6. E-learning Systems .......................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
3.2.7. Information Retrieval Systems ........................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

Chapter 4
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN PRACTICEFEHLER! TEXTMARKE
NICHT DEFINIERT.

4.1. Introduction .............................................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

4.2. Research Methodology ............................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

4.2.1. Research Methodology for Open Source SystemsFehler! Textmarke nicht
definiert.
4.2.2. Research Methodology for Commercial Proprietary SystemsFehler! Textmarke
nicht definiert.
4.3. Open Source Systems ............................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.1. Groupware Systems......................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.1.1. Open-Xchange Express Edition ............... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.1.2. Kolab ........................................................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.1.3. PhpGroupWare ......................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.2. Content Management Systems ........................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.2.1. Plone ......................................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.2.2. Typo3 ....................................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.2.3. PHP-Nuke................................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.3. Document Management Systems .................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.3.1. OWL Intranet Knowledgebase ................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.3.2. jLibrary ..................................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.3.3. KnowledgeTree ........................................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.3.4. Summary ......................................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.4. Commercial Proprietary Systems ........................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.4.1. ZyIMAGE ....................................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.4.2. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 .................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.4.3. InfoAsset Broker ............................................. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.4.4. Hyperwave eKnowledge Suite ........................ Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.
4.4.5. Summary ......................................................... Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

Conclusions .............................................. FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.

Bibliography ............................................ FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.

Internet Resources ................................... FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.

Appendix .................................................. FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.

List of Figures ......................................... FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.

List of Tables............................................ FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.

List of Abbreviations ............................... FEHLER! TEXTMARKE NICHT DEFINIERT.