Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it symbolizes organizational processes that seek interactive combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings. An effective Knowledge Management System (KMS) is the key to future success. Such a system would empower the employees to access documents, course materials and external knowledge sources. In addition, it would connect corporate subject matter experts to the projects that can best benefit from their skill sets and provide them with the collaborative tools needed for effective project management.

Knowledge Management before used to be simply the transfer of knowledge from one person to another, the result of which enabled the recipient to benefit from the collected wisdom of the more experienced members of an organization or group. Knowledge Management today, is a system of technologies focused upon the delivery of deliberately useful knowledge and expertise, which employee can use to up-to-date their knowledge, delivered in a timely manner, as a result of which any organization can get more satisfied customers, increased success and corporate value.

We must not confuse Knowledge with information. These two are distinct concepts that functions in completely different way. Information is tangible, hard numbers, facts. Knowledge is intangible, mental awareness, a part of the process of learning. Information represents the working and monitoring of physical objects. Knowledge represents mental objects, intellectual units that have a practical component. Information is independent of context. With Knowledge the context affects the meaning and value of the Knowledge. Information is easily transferable by means of recording and recitation. Knowledge requires learning and habituation for effective transfer. Information is easily reproducible by means of copying. Knowledge is seldom reproduced in a consistent fashion because it is filtered according to the perspective of each individual, his context and understanding.

The consequence is that everything outside the mind that can be manipulated in anyway, can be defined as 'Data'. Collections of messages, composed in various ways, may be considered as 'Information'. Collections of papers in a journal, e-mail messages in an electronic 'folder', and manuscript letters in an archive and so on are termed as information resources. Thus, data and information may be managed, and information resources may be managed, but knowledge can never be managed. The fact is that we often do not know what we know: that we know something may only emerge when we need to employ the knowledge to accomplish something.

Knowledge Management is important for enterprises whose principal currency is knowledge, rather than physical or financial resources. These are enterprises who have always been wholly devoted to knowledge work, such as consultancies; a growing number of enterprises who discover that knowledge of how to produce products is as salable as the products themselves; and any enterprise who realizes that its knowledge is an asset to be managed.

The ability of enterprises to manage knowledge as an asset (and provide a return on investment and potentially revenue) is seen by strategies such as Agility as the key to survival in a global business environment in which the efficiencies of mass production of commodity goods have been successfully exported to low-wage economies. The core issue of Knowledge Management is to place knowledge under management remit to get value from it - to realize intellectual capital. That intellectual capital can be regarded as a major determiner of the difference between a company's book price and the total value of its stock.

The trends that are making Knowledge Management especially significant today:

By identifying these challenges, then appreciating the capabilities of available technologies, and then knowing how to build virtual teaming skills and create Knowledge Management strategies, organization can grab the moment and significantly increase their ability to compete.

The challenge of deploying the knowledge assets of an organization to create competitive advantage becomes more crucial as:

Identifying the knowledge assets and to use and manage them in an efficient and cost effective manner is also a problem associated along with the challenges. Organizations need:

At the strategic level the organization needs to be able to analyze and plan its business in terms of the current knowledge and the knowledge for future business processes. At the tactical level the organization is concerned with identifying and formalizing existing knowledge, acquiring new knowledge for future use, archiving it in organizational memories and creating systems that enable effective and efficient application of the knowledge within the organization. At the operational level knowledge is used in everyday practice by professional personnel who need access to the right knowledge, at the right time, in the right location.

The Knowledge Management framework originally based on work by Van Der Spek and De Hoog covers

Ideally the Knowledge Management process involves –

Traditional Approach of Knowledge Management: Enterprises have always been wished to capture and document processes, for quality purposes, automation, or to create documented methodologies. While routine work may be sufficiently captured for the purposes of quality or automation, enterprises often set out to capture non-routine work processes in documented methodologies. However major problems re there with documented methodologies -

Computer Mediated Approach of Knowledge Management : In this approach, the knowledge is captured as it is created using the same tools as used in the process. Knowledge about the work can be used as soon as it is shared in the work and instantly applicable to any other work where it fits. The communications capability in this approach is also known as online conferencing, Bulletin boards, discussion forums, and threaded discussions. Computer conferencing has special significance for Knowledge Management because when a team uses computer conferencing to collaborate, a permanent, shareable, record of what they write and send to each other is created. That record captures the knowledge that the team created and applied to its work, and is the basis for managing the team's knowledge.

The aspects of computer conferencing as a Knowledge Management tool: