by Peter Hann

Created on: September 01, 2010   Last Updated: October 06, 2010

A knowledge management information system is put in place with a particular objective, to capture knowledge where it is being created within the organisation. The system should be designed to ensure that the relevant knowledge whether created internally or externally is made available to the relevant people in the organisation at the right time.

There are two main elements to the knowledge management information system. These are firstly the people, who create the knowledge and use it in their projects, and secondly the information technology system used as a tool to receive, classify, store and distribute the information.

Where a knowledge management system fails, it is likely to be a consequence of a failure either of the people who are involved in the process, or of the information technology system that is being used. Failure is particularly likely at those points where the human users of the system interact with the information technology – the interfaces between people and software.

For example, when a particular project is about to be completed and a final report has been produced, there may be a step in the procedure that requires knowledge to be filed and classified in a certain way, in a particular form, for future use. This procedure may just be a matter of clicking on a certain icon in the system or delivering a particular file to a central location.

However at that point in time the employee’s most urgent priority is to deliver the required information to the client and complete the remaining tasks to ensure that a fee can be charged. A task that relates to a knowledge management system is likely to take second place in the order of priorities unless the employee has been trained to think ahead to future projects and respect the importance of knowledge capture.

The knowledge created in an organisation is increasingly one of the most important assets, and in the case of knowledge-intensive organisations such as consultancies the people and the knowledge they have at their disposal are by far the most important asset. Knowledge is captured and stored so that it can be made available to people who will need to use it, to prevent them wasting resources by repeatedly performing the same research.

In addition to ensuring that knowledge is captured at the correct point, the employees must also be alert to accessing relevant information from the knowledge management system before they begin a new project. If they do not do so, they may reach

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