Case Studies in Knowledge Management

Know-CoM 197

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can access only the protected knowledge space B in SME 1. Additionally, the company
server forwards the request to other connected servers. Also, only protected knowledge
spaces accessible for the employee are scanned as well as public knowledge spaces that
are not limited to a certain user group. In the example, user X has access to the public
knowledge spaces of SME 2, SME 3, and to the cooperative shared-knowledge server as
well as to the protected knowledge spaces A and C of SME 2 and the protected knowledge
space B of SME 3. Private knowledge spaces of other SMEs are generally not accessible.
After scanning the knowledge spaces, the company server of SME 1 presents the results
of the search inquiry to user X. Depending on the privileges, the user can also insert,
update, comment, or delete knowledge elements in the workspaces of participating
companies.
After describing the knowledge structure and the network of the Know-CoM
solution, including the different kinds of workspaces, the next section focuses on
capturing experiences from business processes.

Capturing Experiences

The analysis of DMCs (see section, “Setting the Stage”) showed that most
experiences are collected in an unstructured way via paper-based or individual electronic
notes (e.g., commented test results, etc.) or remain in people’s heads. Therefore, the
systematic and collective reuse of previously gained experiences is at the actual stage
of nearly impossible and the same problems or failures occur over and over again. Thus,
the KM solution aims at a technically supported and structured gathering of experiences
as well as at providing these experiences in an appropriate format in relevant process steps.
The systematic documentation of experiences enables a company to solve recurring
problems more effectively and can lead to sustainable competitive advantages. However,

Figure 4. Processing of search inquiries

Client User X SME 1

Public Lotus database

Co-operative shared knowledge server

Public Lotus databases SME 1

Protected

A

Protected

C

Protected

B

Protected

...

Public Lotus databases SME 2

Protected

A

Protected

C

Protected

B

Protected

...

Private

User X

Private

User ...

Public Lotus databases SME 3

Protected

A

Protected

C

Protected

B

Protected

...

Search

inquiry

Presentation

of search

results