A framework of knowledge management platform for middle and small business

Abstract

"Ruled by orders instead of rules" is a severe problem that restricts the development of the most middle and small businesses in China. It overemphasizes the influence of some key employee's ability ("able person") and ignores the rule system. Based on the study of knowledge management and its implementations, we analyzed the reasons of the "able person" problem, and found that the key factor is lacking of an effective knowledge management system to share skills and experiences in the company. Referred from the current research on knowledge management and a consulting company's solutions, a simple and effective knowledge management platform has been constructed, it consists of knowledge collection, transformation and accumulation and runs together with business operation systems. It can collect knowledge both from employees and from open data, the Web or information systems by data mining. Its application in a Chinese company shows that the framework of knowledge management platform can be applied efficiently and can solve "able person" problem well. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.