Businesses everywhere are integrating knowledge management systems into their core practices. Knowledge Management is essentially when a company collects all of the Knowledge that it can from the company to hold in a place that any employee can have access to it, it is “the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge” [1] This is helpful with new employees or whenever one employee needs to do something new or find a better way of doing something. The company is essentially pooling and organizing its knowledge as much as it possibly can.
Knowledge Management Systems or KMS, include three main types of knowledge: explicit, implicit and tacit. KMworld.com explains the three types of knowledge in depth, “Explicit: information or knowledge that is set out in tangible form. Implicit: information or knowledge that is not set out in tangible form but could be made explicit. Tacit: information or knowledge that one would have extreme difficulty operationally setting out in tangible form” [1] It is highly beneficial to a company to incorporate this type of system. These three types of knowledge incorporate virtually all there is to know about a company. Some of the information is difficult to clearly state, but the company can greatly benefit by pooling all of this information together where it can be logged, and retrieved as people need it. Techrepublic.com stated that the main advantage of using a KMS is that “everyone in an organization has access to corporate knowledge” [2]. No one person in an organization could possibly know everything there is to know about the organization or the best ways to do each task, by pooling the knowledge together into a system where it can be stored, retrieved and shared at will, the company can greatly increase its productivity level [2].
Forbes.com stated that knowledge management is highly beneficial to companies everywhere. According to Forbes, KMS “…Facilitates decision-making capabilities…Builds learning organizations by making learning routine…[and] Stimulates cultural change and innovation” [4]. A huge amount of knowledge and information circulates our companies and society. If we can reel in the information so that it is contained in a way that anyone can access it, we will be able to be more informed about specific items as we need to know about them. We can search the information and find what we need, instead of having to figure out the task on our own.
The reality of KMS is that not having one can greatly hurt your organization. Not having a system like this can handicap your company into not being as knowledgeable or as innovative as other companies. Forbes points out that, “Fortune 500 companies lose roughly “$31.5 billion a year by failing to share knowledge” [4]. That is a staggering statistic, and not one that you should risk becoming a part of. Instituting a KMS system can help put your company back on top, regardless of the industry you are competing in.
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