Human Systems Management 21 (2002) 153–158 153

IOS Press

Development of Web-based knowledge

management systems
David C. Chou a and Binshan Lin b,∗
a Department of Computer Information Systems, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197, USA
b Department of Management & Marketing, College of Business Administration, Louisiana State University in
Shreveport, Shreveport, LA 71115, USA

Abstract. Knowledge management is a complex process that collects, stores, and distributes business intelligence for corporate
operation and management. This paper discusses the implication of knowledge management, its process, bottlenecks, information
technology integration, and development of a Web-based knowledge management system.
Keywords: Knowledge, knowledge management, knowledge process, knowledge management systems, Internet, information
technology

David C. Chou is professor of Computer Binshan Lin is Professor of Opera-

information Systems at Eastern Michi- tions and Information Management at
gan University. He received his MS and Louisiana State University in Shreveport.
PhD degrees from Georgia State Univer- He received his PhD from the Louisiana
sity. Professor Chou has published more State University in 1988. He is a five-
than 140 articles and papers in fields time recipient of the Outstanding Fac-
of software engineering, systems design, ulty Award at LSUS. Dr. Lin also re-
telecommunications and electronic com- ceived Best Paper Award in the Ameri-
merce. His articles appeared in journals can Marketing Association (AMA) 1994
such as Technology in Society, Com- Summer Conference, Distinguished Pa-
puter Standards and Interfaces, Informa- per Award in the Small Business Insti-
tion Systems Management, Total Quality tute Directors Association (SBIDA) 1990
Management, Internet Research, Indus- National Conference, Outstanding Paper
trial Management and Data Systems, In- Award in the IBSCA 1993 National Con-
ternational Journal of Technology Management, Interfaces, Infor- ference, the Best Paper Award in the 2000 Association for Chinese
mation Management and Computer Security, Journal of Education Management Educators (ACME) International Conference, the Al-
for Business, and others. pha Iota Delta Paper Award Winner in Southwest Decision Science
Institute 2001 Conference, and Best Paper Award in the Southwest-
ern Marketing Association 1995 Annual Conference.
Professor Lin has published over 100 articles in refereed journals
1. Introduction and over 90 articles in conference proceedings since 1988. He serves
as Editor of Industrial Management & Data Systems, North Ameri-
can Editor of International Journal of Mobile Communications, As-
Knowledge, defined as purposeful coordination of sociate Editor of Journal of International Technology and Infor-
action [12,13], is the whole set of insights, experi- mation Management, Editor of Special Issue on Knowledge Man-
ences, and procedures which are considered correct agement in e-Commerce, Journal of Computer Information Systems
(2002), Editor of Special Issue on Mobile Commerce, Journal of In-
and true and which therefore guide the thoughts, be- ternet Commerce (2002), Editor of Special Issue on e-Finance, Re-
havior, and communication of people. Knowledge is view of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (2002), Editor
of Special Issue on e-Healthcare, International Journal of Health-
always applicable in needed situations and over a rel- care Technology Management (2001, 2002), and Editor of Special
atively long period of time. Knowledge is increasingly Issue on e-Commerce, Human Systems Management (2000). Dr. Lin
also serves on Editorial Boards in seven academic journals. His re-
being considered as a commodity in organizations as search interests and past publications have addressed e-Commerce,
well as in society. The Internet has been recognized Information Technology Management, Quality Management, and
as the main device of communicating and distribut- Healthcare Management.
ing data, information, and knowledge in the economy.
The extraordinary changes introduced by a knowledge-
driven society have been artfully articulated by George
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 318-797-5025. E-mail: blin@ Bugliarello [1]. He views knowledge-based communi-
pilot.lsus.edu. ties as evolving into power structures where geograph-

0167-2533/02/$8.00  2002 – IOS Press. All rights reserved

154 D.C. Chou and B. Lin / Development of Web-based knowledge management systems

ical, economic, and political boundaries become trans- are confronted with the need to optimize the control
parent [11]. and management of their most crucial production fac-
Intellectual capital has previously been defined as tor. KM aims at preventing bottlenecks and cashing in
the patents and trade secrets held within the corporate on opportunities by determining from a strategic per-
entities [13]. More recently, knowledge includes all of spective which requirements will be set for the knowl-
those ideas, concepts, and business rules that employ- edge household in the future. KM will also focus on
ees have accumulated and applied over years of work solving existing bottlenecks and therefore is strongly
and study. Knowledge is viewed as the most important problem-oriented” [7].
commodity or core competency that organizations pos- The above descriptions express the implication and
sess, provided, and utilized. importance of knowledge management and its con-
Business processes form the core of a company or tribution to a successful business entity. This paper
organization. Companies project or observe real cus-
therefore studies the interior of KM systems, informa-
tomer demand and then produce and deliver a product
tion technology for KM process, KM applications, and
or service through a chain of process stages, including
Web-based KM systems. This study also indicates po-
supply chain processes. Within each business process,
tential challenges to developing a Web-based KM sys-
knowledge is used in the forms of electronic media,
computer systems, paper media, etc. The added value tem.
of the final product is determined by the quality of the
knowledge applied.
Knowledge can be classified into the following cat- 2. Knowledge process
egories [7]:
• Promising knowledge area: This knowledge is
still in its infancy but has demonstrated to have Knowledge cannot be separated from the process of
the potential to radically change the execution of knowing (established relationships) [13]. Knowledge
one or more tasks of an organization. can be viewed as a process [13,14]. Not all knowl-
• Key (or Core) knowledge area: This knowledge edge plays an equal role within organizations. A dis-
distinguishes the organization from other compa- tinction can be made between different knowledge ar-
nies. It has the greatest influence on the unique eas depending on the strategic importance to the or-
position of the organization. ganization, the growth potential, and the stage of de-
• Basic knowledge area: This knowledge is essen- velopment of knowledge areas. In the literature, four
tial/necessary for carrying out the activities of an processes are distinguished in which basic operations
organization. This knowledge is widely available for knowledge management is implemented [6,7,10].
in all similar organization. These knowledge processes include:
• Outdated knowledge area: This knowledge is
hardly applied any more in business processes. • Developing new knowledge: Companies survive
by developing new knowledge, based on creative
Basic, core, and promising knowledge areas can be ideas, the analysis of mistakes, and daily opera-
critical to the competitive capacity of an organiza- tions and experiences.
tion over a longer period of time. Therefore, searching • Securing new and existing knowledge: Knowl-
for a systematic and effective knowledge management edge that has an individual basis must be made as
mechanism is becoming a critical success factor to any
accessible as possible for the collective, and avail-
organization.
able in the right place at right time for the com-
Knowledge Management (KM) has been defined as
pany.
following:
• Distributing knowledge: Knowledge must be ac-
“I believe that the ‘core’ of KM involves the ac-
quisition, explication, and communication of mission- tively distributed to those who can make use of it.
specific professional expertise in a manner that is fo- The turn-around time of knowledge in a company
cused and relevant to an organizational participant who is increasingly crucial to business processes.
receives the communications” [5]. • Combining available knowledge: A company can
“Knowledge management aims to provide instru- perform at its best if all available knowledge areas
ments to employees of professional organizations who are combined and integrated.
 D.C. Chou and B. Lin / Development of Web-based knowledge management systems 155

3. Bottlenecks • Real-time business process software that imple-

ments cross-functional areas in a seamless fash-
Knowledge management is a complex process in ion, using common data and meanings, with ex-
organizations. Spek and Spijkervet [7] identified bot- pert modules attached to capture and reapply sys-
tlenecks that have been formulated in terms of the tematically rule-based knowledge.
processes that linked to the management of knowledge: • Intelligent document processing that captures, in-
terprets, classifies, organizes, stores, and circu-
• For developing new knowledge
lates ‘paper’ information.
Not enough is learned from the developments in
• Hypertext-based knowledge databases with meta-
the market. Knowledge about potential markets,
model foundations that are integrated with the
current markets, and existing or new competitors
business databases and are easily accessible to
are not structurally developed. everyone.
• For securing new and existing knowledge • Workflow management that tracks and routes in-
Implicit knowledge is not recorded and individual formation.
learning processes are not transferred to a collec- • Sophisticated communication systems include
tive learning process. Knowledge that is recorded electronic mail, groupware to support commu-
is often not traceable and accessible. nication, creative work and discussions between
• For distributing knowledge groups of persons; videoconferencing to facilitate
It takes too long before new knowledge is actually face-to-face distance meetings and exchanges;
applied to all the places where it is required. It and bridging to the Internet and to electronic in-
needs a long time to have new employees built up formation bases to access the expanding store of
enough knowledge at work place. world knowledge.
• For combining available knowledge • Workstation-based performance and learning sup-
Knowledge is not combined because people often port tools include systemic modeling and scenar-
do not know who has which knowledge. People io-building tools for exploring new ways of oper-
from different knowledge areas often do not com- ating.
municate well with each other at work place.
After reaching a fuller understanding of the use of
knowledge within a company, it is necessary to look
4. Information technology for knowledge at the technology that can collect, store, analyze, and
management distribute to a meeting room or to the desktop of the
worker, and in a form and manner that can readily be
Information technology (IT) is a powerful enabling used. The following are the technologies that have and
factor for capturing the organizational knowledge and are being used for knowledge management [4]:
sharing it internally and for accessing others” knowl- • Information Storage
edge externally. The literature on knowledge manage- It is the means to store the information that forms
ment and organizational learning covers very little of the knowledge base of the company. This will in-
IT and its enabling power for the knowledge organi- volve the development of a client/server type of
zation [2], which is an organization that values knowl- architecture, to maintain the data/information on
edge, protects and fully uses its available knowledge. a server or a group of servers. It needs to develop
However, the reality is that many organizations are some form of data warehouse for client use. Data
capitalizing on innovative and complex applications of quality is also a significant factor in these tools.
IT to gain a significant knowledge advantage, either for • Data Mining and Online Analytical Processing
competitive market positioning or for productivity and (OLAP)
service response gains. Data mining is the generic name for a series of
Continued developments in enterprise software, analytical techniques that can search collected
point-of-sale processing, database, networking, the In- masses of data transactions and do what might
ternet, Intranet and Extranet, knowledge-based sys- be called a cause-and-effect analysis. OLAP adds
tems, voice processing, groupware, imaging and opti- online to data mining, indicating that this software
cal character recognition have led to a powerful corpo- can answer inquiries rapidly over an electronic
rate IT capability. The following areas are some spe- network while data mining is normally confined
cific applications for the knowledge organization [2]: to batch-type response.
156 D.C. Chou and B. Lin / Development of Web-based knowledge management systems

• Intelligent Agents Knowledge Worker System (KWS) to help knowl-

Agents are software that accepts input in the form edge workers capture and organize activity informa-
of a user profile indicating the information that is tion, and to learn, prioritize, and execute knowledge
deemed significant in a particular job or in a spe- worker tasks more efficiently and effectively [8]. The
cific working environment and produces the infor- KWS will enable the Army to continue its mission crit-
mation in an easy-to-understand manner. Agents ical business process. KWS provides the following ma-
are rarely stand-alone programs; rather, they are jor benefits [8]:
embedded in other applications programs such as
e-mail, word processors, or scheduling programs. • Improvement in efficiency: The same work can be
A simple example of an agent is software that al- accomplished in less time.
lows users to develop rules for automatically han- • Improvements in effectiveness: An increase in in-
dling e-mail messages, based on subject matter, tellectual specialization within an organization.
source, or other characteristics. • Improvements in focus: More time is devoted to
• Groupware the primary mission/function of the organization.
Groupware is software that supports collabora- • Work elimination: Eliminates the need for some
tive work and sharing of information in the pur- tasks or accomplishes them automatically.
suit of company goals and objectives. Groupware, • Less rework: Reduces the amount of work that
of which the most popular is Lotus Notes, pro- must be done.
vide tools to enhance the communication between KWS is a performance-supported environment. It
work groups, keeping everyone current on what integrates new methods and technologies form the in-
has transpired. Groupware can provide an effec- formation management, workflow, work scheduling,
tive means to put the action into the definition of software agent, and work measurement disciplines into
knowledge, that is, turning information into ac- a performance support environment for knowledge
tionable information. workers. KWS enhances knowledge worker productiv-
• Electronic Networking ity by delivering task specific information as needed,
Knowledge management needs to produce the in- and by using all automated tools, software agents,
formation, capture data at the source, transmit it to and multimedia document references that a knowledge
the data warehouse, analyze it with data mining, worker needs to complete a specific task. Also, KWS
and then transmit the information to the needed is a groupware product. It is designed for use by col-
entities. These knowledge management processes laborative workgroups. A knowledge worker can as-
and activities are based on electronic networking
sign tasks to herself/himself, to other knowledge work-
architecture, including the Internet, intranet, and
ers, or to a group of knowledge workers, thus improves
extranet, etc.
workgroup coordination [8].
• Knowledge Mapping
KWS is an application of knowledge management
A knowledge map is the visual display of cap-
concept. KWS can assist organizations to facilitate col-
tured information and relationships, which en-
laboration among workgroups, reduce training require-
ables the communication and learning of knowl-
ments, promote business process perspective and im-
edge by observers with different backgrounds at
provement, and realize productivity potential of tech-
multiple levels of details. The individual items of
nology. General managers can use KWS to support
intellectual capital included in such a map can
intelligent work distribution, provide graphical status
be text, stories, graphics, models, or numbers.
of tasks, and help quantify, articulate and continually
Knowledge mapping provides the necessary ca-
pabilities for this sustainable organizational learn- improve the business process. Employees in organiza-
ing. tions use KWS to streamline job processes and proce-
dures, manage task schedules, automate repetitive and
labor-intensive tasks, and free workers to concentrate
5. Applications of knowledge management on challenging work and to be creative [9].

5.1. Knowledge work systems 5.2. Enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems

The US Army Construction Engineering Research ERP allows an organization to establish an inte-
Laboratories (USACERL) designed and developed the grated information system within its organization, in
 D.C. Chou and B. Lin / Development of Web-based knowledge management systems 157

which data is shared electronically by the organiza- pany, usually has a firewall protection to limit its ac-
tion through the use of corporate networks. Key busi- cess to internal corporate employees. The extranet fur-
ness processes can be unified with the use of ERP. ther extends the Intranet capability by allowing outside
ERP experts and users are able to put together what companies to gain access to selected internal corporate
they learn about processes into a knowledge base and data.
then have the ability to search for knowledge others As Web sites increasingly become the first point
have added. ERP technology combines all systems to- of contact between a company and its current cus-
gether, therefore making it possible to link system and tomers, the implication (or data mining) of this trans-
process knowledge so that users can do searches on all actional data will grow in importance. Therefore, Web-
of the business activities. The future of ERP vendors based data become an importance source for corpo-
depends on their ability to include knowledge manage- rate knowledge management. For example, Internet
ment functions in their systems [3]. data could be used to analyze the patterns of online
transactions and to extract knowledge about who is
5.3. Customer relationship management system buying what, when, and, most importantly, why from
this Web site. A Web-based knowledge management
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a system could be developed to collect, store, analyze,
strategy used to learn more about customers” needs and utilize Internet data and knowledge for corpo-
and behaviors in order to develop stronger relation- rate decision-making and business processes. This sys-
ship with them. CRM is a process that will help tem could be integrated with the existing enterprise
bring together lots of pieces of information about cus- system (such as legacy system) and client/server sys-
tomers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness tems (such as Internet server) through various informa-
and market trends. Therefore, CRM is a process to tion technologies for knowledge management process-
manage customer knowledge and information, includ- ing, including information storage technologies, data
ing responses to campaigns, shipping and fulfillment warehouse, data mining and OLAP, intelligent agents,
dates, sales and purchase data, account information, groupware, and ERP. Also, a Web-based knowledge
Web registration data, service and support records, de- management system could meet the following objec-
mographic data, Web sales data, etc. tives:
Using e-business based CRM solution can improve
customer retention by building loyalty, improve cus- • Developing new knowledge captured from the In-
tomer satisfaction, increase customer mind share and ternet
spend ware, establish a competitive advantage and gain A Web-based knowledge management system
market share and then increase profitability. ensures an effective and efficient development
of new knowledge and improvement of existing
knowledge with a view to the strategy of the orga-
6. Web-based knowledge management nization and the individual objectives of the em-
ployees.
The essence of knowledge management is not only • Securing new and existing knowledge
to produce the information, but to capture data at the Integrating the Web-based system with the ex-
source, transmit it to the data warehouse, analyze it, isting system ensures an effective securing of
and then communicate the information to those who knowledge base that is also easily accessible to
can act on it. The tool that can accomplish this goal is the whole organization.
the Internet. The Internet provides an excellent vehicle • Distributing web-based knowledge
for corporate data communications and collaborations. A Web-based knowledge management system en-
It also facilitates business transactions and marketing sures a specific distribution of new knowledge to
exploration. The Internet interface (Web browser) as- other departments and transfer of knowledge to
sures that the right knowledge gets to the right peo- new employees through this knowledge manage-
ple (those who can act) in the right time frame, with ment system.
a focus on the ease of use. In addition to the Internet, • Combining available Internet knowledge
the concepts of the Intranet and Extranet have devel- This system ensures the effective and efficient
oped. The Intranet means that a company uses the In- combination of the best knowledge available
ternet technology for communication within the com- within a company or network of companies.
158 D.C. Chou and B. Lin / Development of Web-based knowledge management systems

All of the above objectives can be achieved by im- 8. Conclusion

plementing a high quality web-based knowledge man-
agement system. Knowledge management becomes one of critical
success factors in organizations. A thorough under-
standing to KM processes and its challenges is the first
7. Challenges for a web-based knowledge step of gaining competitive advantages. Many informa-
management system tion technologies have been used to develop a powerful
KM system, including storage system, data mining, in-
telligent agents, groupware, electronic networking, and
Developing and implementing a successful Web knowledge mapping. KM concept has been used to de-
knowledge management system can improve a com- velop several applications, such as Knowledge Work,
pany”s competitive advantages and therefore increase ERP, and CRM systems. The most current develop in
its profits. However, this project needs to observe many KM is the development of Web-based KM systems. Al-
technical challenges. The main challenges to design a though Web-based KM systems deserve merits, there
high-quality Web-based knowledge management sys- are some challenges need to be resolved.
tem are the following:
1. Personalize each interaction, collaboration, or References
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