|
 Knowledge Management > Architecture & Technology
Architecture and Technology
Knowledge Management architecture is build upon an effective IT infrastructure — especially an enterprise-wide client-server network — that provides a platform for numerous software applications, and collaboration platform supporting social networking and communities of practice.
Amrit Tiwanta (2000) describes seven layers in a KM system architecture to provide technology enablers for key KM processes (p. 127):
1. Interface layer (browser) — Integration via the web
(internet and intranet)
2. Access & Authentication Layer — Authentication,
Recognition, Security, Firewall, Tunneling
3. Collaborative Intelligence & Filtering — Intelligent agent
tools, Content personalization, Search, Index & Metatagging
4. Application Layer — Skills directories, Yellow pages,
Collaborative work tools, Video conferences, Digital white
boards , Electronic forums, Rationale capture tools,
Decision Support System (DSS) tools, and Group Decision
Support System (GDSS) tools
5. Transport Layer — Web & TCP/IP deployment, Streaming
Audio, Document Exchange, Video transport, VPN Core,
Electronic Mail & POP / SMTP support
6. Middleware and Legacy Integration Layer — Wrapper
Tools such as TCL, TK or scripts to integrate legacy and
cross-platform data
7. Repositories — Legacy, Data warehouse, Discussion
Forums, Document bases, Knowledge bases, "others"
An enterprise's dynamic organizational intelligence, as well as its intellectual property assets, are a combination of explicit and tacit knowledge. They each depend upon people and business processes dedicated to storing, retrieving, and communicating information. They also depend upon the hardware and software IT infrastructure that makes this information processing possible.
Software structures — dealing with the explicit dimension of KM — include such structures as: intranet and extranet portal sites, document management repositories, content management systems (CMS), customer relationship management systems (CRMS), learning management systems (LMS — administrative and enrollment portal to the E-Learning functions), and curriculum repositories (LCMS — including learning object repositories).
Additional structures — particularly dealing with the tacit dimension of KM — have to do with collaboration environments: groupware tools, email, instant messaging, chat, threaded discussion, online live meetings, virtual classrooms, and online communities. All of these tools are means of accessing information on demand, and of initiating collaborative workflows.
KM fundamentally depends upon having an effective IT infrastructure — especially an enterprise-wide client-server network — that provides the platform for applications. The kind of software applications that support a KM infrastructure for knowledge-base creation and maintenance, and KM business processes are the following:
- Smart Business Suite of products
- Document management applications
- Content management applications (CMS)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRMS)
- Learning Management Systems (LMS)
- Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)
- Records management applications
- Expert systems
|
- Project management applications
- Workflow applications
- Search engines
- Knowledge portals
- Virtual meeting tools
- Groupware
- E-mail
- Instant Messaging (peer to peer)
- Communities of practice
- Online Communities (chat, threaded discussion, portals)
- Business analytics applications
- Data warehouses (automated report generation)
|
|
