Chapter Extension 3 Knowledge Management and Expert Systems © 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke

CE 3-2 Study Questions What are the benefits of knowledge management? What are content management systems? What are the challenges of content management? How do humans share knowledge via collaboration? What are expert systems?

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-3 Knowledge Management Knowledge management is: – A process: Creates value from intellectual capital Shares with others – Supported by: IS technology Five components of an information system

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-4 What Are the Benefits of Knowledge Management? Organization can leverage knowledge to work smarter – Fosters innovation – Improves customer service – Boosts revenue – Enhances employee retention rates – Streamlines operations Preserves organizational memory – Lessons learned – Best practices

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-5 What Are Content Management Systems? Information systems that track documents, Web pages, graphics Do not directly support business operations Not part of operational system Used to create, manage, or deliver documents

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-6 Organizational Information Systems Content management systems – Store, manage, deliver documents Collaborative knowledge management systems – Share knowledge through communications technology Expert systems – Codify human knowledge into rules – Process rules to give advice

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-7 What Are the Challenges of Content Management? Functions are complex – Databases are huge – New and changed content daily Documents do not exist in isolation – Refer to other documents – When one changes, others must change Document contents are perishable – Become obsolete – Need to be altered or removed Documents must be translated into all languages before publishing

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-8 How Do Humans Share Knowledge Via Collaboration? Team portals – Publish information about team activities Discussion groups – Post questions and queries online – Organizations can organize them into FAQs s – Lists Blogs – Web logs Podcasts – Audio and video digital files uploaded to Web

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-9 Resistance to Knowledge Sharing Inhibiting human factors: – Employees reluctant to exhibit ignorance – Fear appearing incompetent – Employee competition – Shyness – Fear of ridicule – Inertia

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-10 What Are Expert Systems? Expert systems – Rule-based systems IF/THEN – Encode human knowledge Expert systems shells – Process IF side of rules until no value returned – Reports values of all variables – Knowledge gathered from human experts in domain of interest

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-11 Expert Systems Drawbacks – Difficult and expensive to develop Labor intensive Ties up domain experts – Difficult to maintain Changes cause unpredictable outcomes – Didn’t live up to expectations Can’t duplicate diagnostic abilities of humans Constantly needing expensive changes to programs to reflect new knowledge

© 2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Experiencing MIS, David Kroenke CE 3-12 Active Review What are the benefits of knowledge management? What are content management systems? What are the challenges of content management? How do humans share knowledge via collaboration? What are expert systems?