c
 


   
 c  
 refers to a (generally IT based)
system for managing knowledge in organizations for supporting creation, capture,
storage and dissemination of information. It can comprise a part (neither necessary or
sufficient) of a Knowledge Management initiative.

Knowledge Management Systems ("KMS") exist to help businesses create and share
information. These are typically used in a business where employees create new
knowledge and expertise - which can then be shared by other people in the organisation
to create further commercial opportunities. Good examples include firms of lawyers,
accountants and management consultants.

KMS are built around systems which allow efficient categorisation and distribution of
knowledge. For example, the knowledge itself might be contained in word processing
documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations. internet pages or whatever. To
share the knowledge, a KMS would use group collaboration systems such as an
intranet.

The idea of a KM system is to enable employees to have ready access to the

organization's documented base of facts, sources of information, and solutions. For
example a typical claim justifying the creation of a KM system might run something like
this: an engineer could know the metallurgical composition of an alloy that reduces
sound in gear systems. Sharing this information organization wide can lead to more
effective engine design and it could also lead to ideas for new or improved equipment.

A KM system could be any of the following:

1. Document based i.e. any technology that permits creation/management/sharing

of formatted documents such as Lotus Notes, web, distributed databases etc.
2. Ontology/Taxonomy based: these are similar to document technologies in the
sense that a system of terminologies (i.e. ontology) are used to summarize the
document e.g. Author, Subj, Organization etc. as in DAML & other XML based
ontologies
3. Based on AI technologies which use a customized representation scheme to
represent the problem domain.
4. Provide network maps of the organization showing the flow of communication
between entities and individuals
 ß. Increasingly social computing tools are being deployed to provide a more organic
approach to creation of a KM system.
KMS systems deal with information (although Knowledge Management as a discipline
may extend beyond the information centric aspect of any system) so they are a class of
information system and may build on, or utilize other information sources. Distinguishing
features of a KMS can include:

1. Purpose: a KMS will have an explicit Knowledge Management objective of some

type such as collaboration, sharing good practice or the like.
2. Context: One perspective on KMS would see knowledge is information that is
meaningfully organized, accumulated and embedded in a context of creation and
application.
3. Processes: KMS are developed to support and enhance knowledge-intensive
processes, tasks or projects of e.g., creation, construction, identification,
capturing, acquisition, selection, valuation, organization, linking, structuring,
formalization, visualization, transfer, distribution, retention, maintenance,
refinement, revision, evolution, accessing, retrieval and last but not least the
application of knowledge, also called the knowledge life cycle.
4. Participants: Users can play the roles of active, involved participants in
knowledge networks and communities fostered by KMS, although this is not
necessarily the case. KMS designs are held to reflect that knowledge is
developed collectively and that the ³distribution´ of knowledge leads to its
continuous change, reconstruction and application in different contexts, by
different participants with differing backgrounds and experiences.
ß. Instruments: KMS support KM instruments, e.g., the capture, creation and
sharing of the codifiable aspects of experience, the creation of corporate
knowledge directories, taxonomies or ontologies, expertise locators, skill
management systems, collaborative filtering and handling of interests used to
connect people, the creation and fostering of communities or knowledge
networks.
A KMS offers integrated services to deploy KM instruments for networks of participants,
i.e. active knowledge workers, in knowledge-intensive business processes along the
entire knowledge life cycle. KMS can be used for a wide range of cooperative,
collaborative, adhocracy and hierarchy communities, virtual organizations, societies and
other virtual networks, to manage media contents; activities, interactions and work-flows
purposes; projects; works, networks, departments, privileges, roles, participants and
other active users in order to extract and generate new knowledge and to enhance,
leverage and transfer in new outcomes of knowledge providing new services using new
formats and interfaces and different communication channels.

The term KMS can be associated to Open Source Software, and Open Standards,
Open Protocols and Open Knowledge licenses, initiatives and policies.

An Ë   



  
(EIS) is a type of management information
system intended to facilitate and support the information and decision-making needs of
senior executives by providing easy access to both internal and
external information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of the organization. It is
commonly considered as a specialized form of a Decision Support System (DSS) [1]

The emphasis of EIS is on graphical displays and easy-to-use user interfaces. They
offer strong reporting and drill-down capabilities. In general, EIS are enterprise-wide
DSS that help top-level executives analyze, compare, and highlight trends in
important variables so that they can monitor performance and identify opportunities and
problems. EIS and data warehousing technologies are converging in the marketplace.

The components of an EIS can typically be classified as:

  

When talking about hardware for an EIS environment, we should focus on the hardware
that meet the executive¶s needs. The executive must be put first and the executive¶s
needs must be defined before the hardware can be selected. The basic computer
hardware needed for a typical EIS includes four components:

1. Input data-entry devices. These devices allow the executive to enter, verify, and
update data immediately;
 2. The central processing unit (CPU), which is the kernel because it controls the
other computer system components;

3. Data storage files. The executive can use this part to save useful business
information, and this part also help the executive to search historical business
information easily;

4. Output devices, which provide a visual or permanent record for the executive to
save or read. This device refers to the visual output device or printer.

In addition, with the advent of local area networks (LAN), several EIS products for
networked workstations became available. These systems require less support and less
expensive computer hardware. They also increase access of the EIS information to
many more users within a company.


 

Choosing the appropriate software is vital to design an effective EIS.[!


]
Therefore, the software components and how they integrate the data into one
system are very important. The basic software needed for a typical EIS includes four
components:

1. Text base software. The most common form of text are probably documents;

2. Database. Heterogeneous databases residing on a range of vendor-specific and

open computer platforms help executives access both internal and external data;

3. Graphic base. Graphics can turn volumes of text and statistics into visual
information for executives. Typical graphic types are: time series charts, scatter
diagrams, maps, motion graphics, sequence charts, and comparison-oriented
graphs (i.e., bar charts);

4. Model base. The EIS models contain routine and special statistical, financial, and
other quantitative analysis.

Perhaps a more difficult problem for executives is choosing from a range of highly
technical software packages. Ease of use, responsiveness to executives' requests, and
price are all reasonable considerations. Further, it should be considered whether the
package can run on existing hardware.

]  

An EIS needs to be efficient to retrieve relevant data for decision makers, so the user
interface is very important. Several types of interfaces can be available to the EIS
structure, such as scheduled reports, questions/answers, menu driven, command
language, natural language, and input/output. It is crucial that the interface must fit the
decision maker¶s decision-making style. If the executive is not comfortable with the
information questions/answers style, the EIS will not be fully utilized. The ideal interface
for an EIS would be simple to use and highly flexible, providing consistent performance,
reflecting the executive¶s world, and containing help information.

`

  


As decentralizing is becoming the current trend in companies, telecommunications will

play a pivotal role in networked information systems. Transmitting data from one place
to another has become crucial for establishing a reliable network. In addition,
telecommunications within an EIS can accelerate the need for access to distributed
data.

Applications

EIS enables executives to find those data according to user-defined criteria and
promote information-based insight and understanding. Unlike a traditional management
information system presentation, EIS can distinguish between vital and seldom-used
data, and track different key critical activities for executives, both which are helpful in
evaluating if the company is meeting its corporate objectives. After realizing its
advantages, people have applied EIS in many areas, especially, in manufacturing,
marketing, and finance areas.

   

Basically, manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for
sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-
manufactures. It is a large branch of industry and of secondary production.
Manufacturing operational control focuses on day-to-day operations, and the central
idea of this process is effectiveness and efficiency. To produce meaningful managerial
and operational information for controlling manufacturing operations, the executive has
to make changes in the decision processes. EIS provides the evaluation of vendors and
buyers, the evaluation of purchased materials and parts, and analysis of critical
purchasing areas. Therefore, the executive can oversee and review purchasing
operations effectively with EIS. In addition, because production planning and control
depends heavily on the plant¶s data base and its communications with all manufacturing
work centers, EIS also provides an approach to improve production planning and
control.

  

In an organization, marketing executives¶ role is to create the future. Their main duty is
managing available marketing resources to create a more effective future. For this, they
need make judgments about risk and uncertainty of a project and its impact on the
company in short term and long term. To assist marketing executives in making
effective marketing decisions, an EIS can be applied. EIS provides an approach to sales
forecasting, which can allow the market executive to compare sales forecast with past
sales. EIS also offers an approach to product price, which is found in venture analysis.
The market executive can evaluate pricing as related to competition along with the
relationship of product quality with price charged. In summary, EIS software package
enables marketing executives to manipulate the data by looking for trends, performing
audits of the sales data, and calculating totals, averages, changes, variances, or ratios.
All of these sales analysis functions help marketing executives to make final decisions.

  

A financial analysis is one of the most important steps to companies today. The
executive needs to use financial ratios and cash flow analysis to estimate the trends
and make capital investment decisions. An EIS is a responsibility-oriented approach
that integrates planning or budgeting with control of performance reporting, and it can
be extremely helpful to finance executives. Basically, EIS focuses on accountability of
financial performance and it recognizes the importance of cost standards and flexible
budgeting in developing the quality of information provided for all executive levels. EIS
enables executives to focus more on the long-term basis of current year and beyond,
which means that the executive not only can manage a sufficient flow to maintain
current operations but also can figure out how to expand operations that are
contemplated over the coming years. Also, the combination of EIS and EDI environment
can help cash managers to review the company¶s financial structure so that the best
method of financing for an accepted capital project can be concluded. In addition, the
EIS is a good tool to help the executive to review financial ratios, highlight financial
trends and analyze a company¶s performance and its competitors

  
Ë

X Easy for upper-level executives to use, extensive computer experience is not

required in operations

X Provides timely delivery of company summary information

 X Information that is provided is better understood

X Filters data for management

X Improves to tracking information

X Offers efficiency to decision makers

4   
Ë

X System dependent

X Limited functionality, by design

X Information overload for some managers

X Benefits hard to quantify

X High implementation costs

X System may become slow, large, and hard to manage

X Need good internal processes for data management

X May lead to less reliable and less secure data

Office Automation Systems are systems that try to improve the productivity of
employees who need to process data and information. Perhaps the best example is the
wide range of software systems that exist to improve the productivity of employees
working in an office (e.g. Microsoft Office XP) or systems that allow employees to work
from home or whilst on the move.

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As the name implies, Transaction Processing Systems ("TPS") are designed to process
routine transactions efficiently and accurately. A business will have several (sometimes
many) TPS; for example:

- Billing systems to send invoices to customers

- Systems to calculate the weekly and monthly payroll and tax payments
- Production and purchasing systems to calculate raw material requirements
- Stock control systems to process all movements into, within and out of the
business