KMS Internal/External

Knowledge management systems, a concept becoming prominent around 1990’s[1], refers to a multi-disciplined approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.[2] The ultimate goal of business based use of KMS (knowledge management systems) is to increase profits or reduce costs.[3] Current consistent use of KMS can bring new employees up to speed with company information through tacit knowledge which can double as training through prior subjective experience. Explicit knowledge can be used objectively as specific findings and[3]. KMS for any company can help establish greater consistency of information to customers, improve response time, reduce training time, ultimately resulting in more effective feedback.[4] The role of KMS in modern business or technological environments is vital to the growth and establishment phase. Without available reference materials, some scenarios would be slowed to a crawl leaving the employee to fend for themselves and the client to lose faith or interest in the product and or its representative. Apple Computers is one of the many companies that uses KMS systems. There are different levels to their “Knowledge Base”[5] as they refer to it. In some cases certain documents can be access by inquisitive customers and most any can be accessed at a moments notice by employees. Their training software also keeps employees up to speed with the latest business practices and information on product release information.[6] Though mainly applicable and usually referenced as being a part of internal infrastructure of business instating KMS publicly has the benefit of freeing certain resources to be focused within the company elsewhere. For example if more people have access to user manuals and basic troubleshooting they will ultimately free up employee time to focus on more dire or complex user issues. Though the ultimate goals of Apple Computers are a closely guarded secret, it is no secret that their approach can be unorthodox in many ways when it comes to certain business practices. Not having a physical user manual accompany a product, for example, can be a strange proposition when each one of their devices have so many different uses and features. This approach is a simple but conducive example of how you can save money in one area, appease people in another, and still have the information available when someone needs it. Not printing saves money, it’s also more efficient (nature-friendly), and thanks to google most any one can navigate to the user manual page of apples website. [1] http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/What-Is-.../What-is-KM-Knowledge-Management-Explained-82405.aspx [2] http://www.unc.edu/~sunnyliu/inls258/Introduction_to_Knowledge_Management.html [3] Fundamentals of Information Systems by Ralph Stair and George Reynolds (pg.315) 6th Edition. [4]http://www.howto.gov/contact-centers/technologies/knowledge-management-systems [5] http://kbase.info.apple.com (public knowledge base database) [6] http://asw.apple.com (apple sales web employee training)