Important reasons for implementing a knowledge management system within an organization are as follows:
We explored the evolution of computing and the various quality re-engineering methodologies, new business paradigms and their relationship with knowledge management.
This section explores the need and the tangible benefits to any organization resulting from the implementation of a KM system. The following are the eight important reasons for implementing a KM system within an Organization.
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1. Traditional capital-intensive companies are in the process of becoming knowledge intensive. Knowledge is rapidly displacing capital, monetary prowess, natural resources and labor as the basic economic resource.
Knowledge infuses quality into any company’s product and service offerings and ‘brings about unprecedented ways of accelerating product life cycles and service time-to-market. KM is the only method to reach and apply this knowledge in time.
2. Unstable markets necessitate, reshaping of product and project lines in tune with the market requirements, to avoid the organization being in a disastrous position of being with the wrong product, at the wrong time, and in the wrong place.
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The impact of these forces is witnessed most prominently in high-technology environments and financial markets, and increasingly in other markets as well. KM lets an organization maximize its growth potential by leveraging its intellectual capital to offer products and services in tune with the market requirements.
3. KM lets an individual or an organization lead change as opposed to the other way around. No industry or company would have a natural advantage or disadvantage; the only advantage it would possess is the ability to exploit the universally available knowledge and harness its own intellectual resources. Knowledge is “the window of opportunity” which every organization would have to capitalize on to ensure their survival.
4. Only the knowledgeable will survive. The survival of the fittest organization becomes an outmoded thought in the knowledge-based economy. The ability to survive and thrive comes only from the organization’s ability to create, acquire, process, maintain and retain old and new knowledge in the face of complexity, uncertainty and rapid change.
5. Knowledge is the key driver for decision support and enables effective decision by making knowledge about past projects; initiatives, failures, success, and efforts readily available and accessible. The four diagnostic tools for decision making that have to be focused on are: foundation, productivity, competence, and resource allocation.
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6. KM requires a strong culture of sharing, that information systems do notinherendy support.
7. Tacit knowledge is mobile. When an employee leaves an organization, the knowledge, skills, competencies, understanding and insight that the employee possessed also leaves the organization. KM can save an organization from losing critical capabilities.
8. The competitors are no longer limited to a particular location or region as markets are increasingly becoming global. Keeping up with developments and ensuring threats or opportunities in other countries is a tedious, time-consuming and difficult process. KM technology, when given the right source feeds, can deliver relevant and timely knowledge.