Knowledge management software (KM Software) is a subset of Enterprise content management software and which contains a range of software that specializes in the way information is collected, stored and/or accessed. The concept of knowledge management is based on a range of practices used by an individual, a business, or a large corporation to identify, create, represent and redistribute information for a range of purposes. Software that enables an information practice or range of practices at any part of the processes of information management can be deemed to be called information management software. A subset of information management software that emphasizes an approach to build knowledge out of information that is managed or contained is often called knowledge management software.
KM Software in most cases provides a means for individuals, small groups or mid-sized businesses to innovate, build new knowledge in the group, and/or improve customer experience. Knowledge management tools (software) includes a range of about 1,500 or more different approaches[1] to collect and contain information to then build knowledge that can be searched through specialised search tools including concept building tools and or visual search tools that present information in a connected manager not originally conceptualised by those collecting or maintaining the information database.
Contents |
KM Software ranges from small software packages for an individual to use, such as brainstorming software, to highly specialised enterprise software suitable for use by hundreds of employees. Often KM Software provides a key resource for employees working in customer service or telephone support industries, or sectors of large corporations.
KM software, in general, enables the combination of unstructured information sources, such as individual word processed documents and/or .pdf formats, email, graphic illustrations, unstructured notes, website links, invoices, and other information bearing collections, such as a simple thought, through to a combination of millions of interactions from a website, and through that combination enables the seeker to obtain knowledge that otherwise would not have been discovered.
In Europe through the 1990s,[2] KM Software was almost synonymous with groupware and groupware in this context is most popularly IBM's Lotus Notes. However, as Internet connections deliver faster Internet, such as through broadband, many On-demand or Software as a Service products have evolved and are now leading suppliers of KM software (such as PHPKB).
One of the departures from the almost standard keyword search approach are those group of companies developing visual search techniques. A common visual search approach is the tree traversal where a folder is opened and inside the display of that folder are further sub-folders. This tree traversal approach relies on the naming of folders to provide a rich enough indication as to what is contained in the next folder or level of folders.
|
|||||||||||||||||