A semantic framework for enterprise knowledge management

Abstract

This paper presents a semantic enterprise model-ling approach that allows the representation of enterprise knowledge by means of ontologies. The approach supports the analysis and design of KMSs and KM strategies by enabling the representation of Semantic Enterprise Models (SEM). A SEM expresses the enterprise knowledge by means of two interconnected ontologies: The Top Level Ontology (TLO) and the Core Enterprise Entities Ontology (CEKEO). The TLO contains concepts related to the different topics characterizing business activities, the CEEO describes organizational, business, technical, knowledge resources. The paper presents also a semantic annotation approach that allows to annotate Core Enterprise Entities (CEE) with respect to one or more TLO concepts. This way SEMs allow both to formally represent enterprise knowledge and to semi-automatically annotate CEE whit respect to relevant enterprise concepts. SEM can be used as kernel of a new family of Enterprise Knowledge Management Systems providing capabilities for semantically manage all the relevant enterprise knowledge resources. © 2008 Physica-Verlag Heidelberg.