^{Ans. Knowledge management (KM) is the management of knowledge within organisations. A widely accepted ‘working definition’ of knowledge management applied in worldwide organisations is “Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organisational adaptation, survival, and competence in the face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change.... Essentially, it embodies organisational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings.”}

^{This definition not only gives an indication of what Knowledge Management is, but of how its advocates often treat the English language. In simpler terms, Knowledge Management seeks to make the best use of the knowledge that is available to an organisation, creating new knowledge in the process.}

^{It is helpful to make a clear distinction between knowledge on the one hand, and information and data on the other.}

^{By the early nineties, it was clear that there were two distinct branches of Knowledge Management.}

^{First Generation Knowledge Management involves the capture of information and experience so that it is easily accessible in a corporate environment. An alternate term is “knowledge capture”. Managing this capture allows the system to grow into a powerful information asset.}

^{This first branch had its roots firmly in the use of technology. In this view Knowledge Management is an issue of information storage and retrieval.  from systems analysis and management theory. This approach led to a boom in consultancies and in the development of so-called knowledge technologies. Typically first-generation Knowledge Management involved developing sophisticated data analysis and retrieval systems with little thought as to how the information they contained would be developed or used. This led to organisations investing heavily in technological fixes that had either little impact or a negative impact on the way in which knowledge was used.}

^{A typical scenario might have seen an organisation install a sophisticated intranet in order to categorise and disseminate information, only to find that the extra work involved in setting up the metadata meant that few within the organisation actually used the intranet. This occasionally led to management mandating the use of the intranet, resulting in resentment amongst staff, and undermining their trust in the organisation. Thus first generation solutions are often counterproductive.}

^{Second Generation Knowledge Management: Faced with the theoretical and practical failure of first generation techniques to live up to its promise, theorists began to look more closely at the ways in which knowledge is created and shared.}

^{Along with this realisation came a change in metaphor. Organisations came to be seen as capable of learning, and so a link grew between learning theory and management.}

^{Approach for Successful Implementation of Knowledge Management}

^{Point 1: Knowledge Management is a discipline}

^{A lot of people think knowledge management is a technology or software solution but it is much more than that; knowledge management is a discipline. Obviously, you have to have a good piece of software or a good system to capture knowledge – but that’s not the whole equation. Underestimating what it takes just to capture the knowledge correctly is a big risk, as is underestimating the integration task into your already complex environment.}

^{There are some providers of pre-packaged knowledge out there, but our experience is that while they can be useful to the help desk they are not relevant to customer service centers which have business-specific content needs. In either case, you must ensure you have the adequate resources to create and maintain the content you promise. Creating content is not a one-time project. Also, over time the content must be updated and supplemented as new products or services are supported as shown in Figure 1. Empowering agents to add new content as resolutions are discovered is the key to maintaining a robust system.}

^{Point 2: One champion is not enough}

^{To be successful, your project must have several champions within the organisation. These are individuals that believe in the project, enthusiastically advocate it and have the clout to “make things happen.” Projects that lack a champion generally don’t get off the ground. Those with only one champion are also at serious risk.}

^{Losing your champion can spell disaster for your project. This is a real problem for knowledge management projects, due to their continuous duration. If the project champion transfers, retires or leaves the company, the project often loses its momentum and the project may falter as someone else takes it over.}

^{What we like to see when we work with clients is a dual-sponsorship: one at the operational level and one at the executive level. So if an operations manager decides the company really needs knowledge management, that manager should find somebody on the executive staff who will agree to support the vision. By having that dual track of vision the project is more likely to succeed.}

^{Point 3: Cultural change isn’t automatic}

^{Buy-in is needed at all levels, and this may require cultural change. The people that are going to use the tools have to be part of the design unless you plan on strong-arming them (and that doesn’t work very well). Don’t make this management decision in a vacuum. Include some people from the various groups that would directly or indirectly use the system.}

^{Sometimes there is a fear that knowledge management will be used to replace people. If your staff thinks that is what you are trying to do, then you really need to address that head-on. If that is not your intention, you should convince your team that current head count reduction is not the goal. Therefore, you need to look for and plan the motivation for each party. After all, you are asking people to shift from a system where being a tower of knowledge is rewarded, to a system where they share their expertise with everybody on the team.}

^{Each party will have a unique motivation to embrace knowledge management. For example, in a technical support environment, a frontline tech will have a different motivational schema than a 3rd level technician. The frontline tech is not going to have to ask the 2nd line tech as many questions, and can resolve more problems faster. The 2nd level tech is not going to get as many of the common questions. Level 3 researchers won’t have to start at ground zero when handed a problem by level 2, because they know that all the intermediate steps have been covered.}

^{Failing to see how knowledge management is going to fit into the rest of the organisation is a mistake. You must invest the time and energy to understand the culture, identify motivations and ensure change happens where needed.}

^{Point 4: Create a change management plan}

^{If your employees are not already sharing information, you will need a change management plan because you are asking people to do their jobs differently. The change management plan specifies how you will gain acceptance of knowledge management within the organisation. Let’s say you are a call center manager and you measure your employees’ performance by call handle time and number of cases closed. Now you are going to be asking them to use a knowledge base on every call or email interaction – thus asking them to change the way they perform their job on a daily basis. Also, if you don’t make changes to their performance reviews and compensation, there may be friction because you’re asking them to do one thing but you are judging them by another set of rules. As part of the overall change management plan you need to update job descriptions, feedback sessions and performance reviews to reflect the new workflow. Neglecting to make these changes may foster acceptance issues with your team members.}

^{Point 5: Stay strategic}

^{Knowledge management is a strategic endeavour, not just a project. I prefer to call it a strategic initiative as opposed to a project because a project implies a finite timeline. With KM you are never really done; you initiate it and you build it and then it is online and you maintain it.}

^{In our practice we look for our clients to have a strategic goal for the project rather than a tactical goal. If you are looking to shorten handle time that’s a tactical motivation and you’re not as likely to be willing to go through the steps that a successful enterprise rollout would take. But if it is a strategic initiative, especially something that is top-down motivated (for instance improving customer service or improving employee satisfaction) then there is a better value statement involved and you are not relying on changing one metric. So you might see improvement in individual metrics like handle time and resolution rates but their value is limited compared to the return from becoming a collaborative knowledge sharing organisation.}

^{To get going, decide what goals you are trying to accomplish and why. Then try to identify a solution and methodology that will help you attain those goals in your environment. Sometimes people within an organisation may say that a KM initiative is nice-to-have, but an economic downturn might slow the process down or defer it — thus, being counterproductive when resources are scarce. But I think it’s counterproductive to consider KM a nice-to-have because the rewards are equally beneficial during both a downturn and the inevitable upturn. If you wait until the upturn then you will be forced to play catch up as your call volumes increase and your email volume doubles; that’s not the time to introduce a knowledge-powered system or build a knowledge base. It’s not necessary to hire more employees if you have resources that are not 100% utilized or if you encourage your agents to contribute knowledge during their daily workflow.}

^{Point 6: Pick a topic, go in-depth, and keep it current}

^{We advise that you pick one area that needs improvement or has limited resources, and then build a robust knowledge base for that subject matter.}

^{Point 7: Don’t get hung up on the limitations}

^{Certain types of knowledge are very well suited to quickly harvesting into a knowledge base. Company processes or technical procedures are well suited for knowledge management. By populating a knowledge base with this type of information and making it available to employees and customers, an organisation can shorten or even avoid many calls. Organisations can also use a KM system to access existing unstructured sources of information that may already exist on a corporate network, intranet or within an existing call center or help desk system. It’s important to note that experienced agents can certainly benefit from access to both structured knowledge and unstructured information because they’re more likely to be able to pinpoint a solution within an unstructured document.}

^{Point 8: Set expectations or risk extinction}

^{A big pitfall is the failure of knowledge management proponents in helping executive management set appropriate expectations. Customers, employees and management alike must know what they are going to get out of knowledge management, what it will take to get those results and how success will be measured. Measurement is where most organisations fail because they are doing things that were not measured before. So a year from now, you’ve built this thing, it’s up and running and everyone loves it and your boss says “where’s my return?” If you don’t have a measurement system in place then you will have a hard time answering his or her question – especially for the new metrics that didn’t exist before. You probably measured handle time, abandon rates, and similar operational metrics. But you may not be measuring call avoidance or knowledge usage, which affects ultimately the ability to measure resolution rates.}

^{In addition to setting management expectations you have to set customer and end-user expectations. For example, if you are going to provide customers with Web self-service for one specific product then you must include the known problems that they are going to encounter in the knowledge base. In that situation you are better off to set their expectations that the knowledge base covers only that product and no other. Customers pose the same extinction risk that your employees do. If they visit the site a few times and they can’t find an accurate or appropriate answer they will probably not return again.}

^{Point 9: Integrate KM into existing systems}

^{Typically, organisations that are implementing knowledge management already have an established data center, so they are not only building a knowledge base – they must also integrate it into their existing environment – their call tracking system, IVR system, email, remote diagnostics and other support systems.}

^{Point 10: Educate your self-service users}

^{You’ve created your KM plan, determined the critical knowledge to include, initiated a plan to garner cultural acceptance, trained your agents and pinpointed key sources of knowledge – finally you need to educate your self-service users on how to find and access support information online to ensure a satisfying experience.}

^{There are many ways to “push” your self-service capabilities out to your end-user audience. Traditional marketing techniques should be employed to promote this valuable service, such as email, online newsletters or direct mail. Encourage users to visit your online support site by making it easy to find and access the knowledge base. Be sure to include the site URL and directions for obtaining a login, if needed, in your marketing communications.}

^{Point 11: Become a knowledge-enabled organisation}

^{We think it is inevitable that knowledge management will have a high adoption rate in the next few years. Over time to remain competitive it will be essential to be “knowledge-enabled.” Just a few years ago email was not a common method for seeking customer service; now customers demand the ability to contact you through channels other than the phone.}

^{In computing, a data warehouse (DW or DWH), also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for reporting and data analysis, and is considered a core component of business intelligence. DWs are central repositories of integrated data from one or more disparate sources. They store current and historical data in one single place  that are used for creating analytical reports for workers throughout the enterprise.}

^{3.The data stored in the warehouse is uploaded from the operational systems (such as marketing or sales). The data may pass through an operational data store and may require data cleansing for additional operations to ensure data quality before it is used in the DW for reporting.}

^{The typical Extract, transform, load (ETL)-based data warehouse}

^{4. uses staging, data integration, and access layers to house its key functions. The staging layer or staging database stores raw data extracted from each of the disparate source data systems. The integration layer integrates the disparate data sets by transforming the data from the staging layer often storing this transformed data in an operational data store (ODS) database. The integrated data are then moved to yet another database, often called the data warehouse database, where the data is arranged into hierarchical groups, often called dimensions, and into facts and aggregate facts. The combination of facts and dimensions is sometimes called a star schema. The access layer helps users retrieve data.}

^{The main source of the data is cleansed, transformed, catalogued, and made available for use by managers and other business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research and decision support.}

^{Need of datawarehose in modem business…}

^{·          Better decision-making – Corporate decision makers will no longer have to make important business decisions based on limited data and hunches. Data warehouses store credible facts and statistics, and decision makers will be able to retrieve that information from the data warehouse based on their personal needs. In addition to making strategic decisions, a data warehouse can also assist in marketing segmentation, inventory management, financial management, and sales.}

^{·          Quick and easy access to data – Speed is an important factor that sets you above your competitors. Business users can quickly access data from multiple sources from a data warehouse, meaning that precious time won’t be wasted on retrieving data from multiple sources. This allows you to make quick and accurate decisions, with little or no support from your IT department.}

^{·          Data quality and consistency – Since data warehouses gather information from different sources and convert it into a single and widely used format, departments will produce results that are in line and consistent with each other. When data is standardized, you can have confidence in its accuracy, and accurate data is what makes for strong business decisions.}

^{A data warehouse is essential for any business that wants to profit from sound business decisions. If you’re looking to implement a data warehouse into your business, give us a call today.}

^{Ans. A copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to authors of "original works of authorship." This includes literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other creative works. Material not protected by copyright (or otherwise protected) is available for use by anyone without the author's consent. A copyright holder can prevent others from copying, performing or otherwise using the work without his or her consent.}

^{Copyright is a legal right, existing globally in many countries, that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to determine and decide whether, and under what conditions, this original work may be used by others.}

^{Most jurisdictions recognize copyright limitations, allowing "fair" exceptions to the creator's exclusivity of copyright and giving users certain rights. The development of digital media and computer network technologies have prompted reinterpretation of these exceptions, introduced new difficulties in enforcing copyright, and inspired additional challenges to the philosophical basis of copyright law. Simultaneously, businesses with great economic dependence upon copyright, such as those in the music business, have advocated the extension and expansion of copyright and sought additional legal and technological enforcement.}

^{Copyrights can also be granted by private companies. Services of internet platform providers like YouTube, Facebook, GitHub, Hotmail, DropBox, Instagram, WhatsApp or Twitter only can be used when users grant the platform provider beforehand the right to co-use all uploaded content, including all material exchanged per email, chat or cloud-storage. These copyrights only apply for the firm that operates such a platform, no matter in what jurisdiction the platform-services are being offered.}

^{Relevance of copyright in Computer Aplication}

^{E-mail is protected by copyright. Information received in e-mail may be discussed, but the specific contents of e-mail have copyright protection.}

^{Usenet  postings may also be protected. These may be read and discussed by however, many people have access to the Usenet, but they cannot be reproduced and distributed in any way that may diminish the author's ability to profit from the original work  however farfetched such profit may seem. There is an interesting question concerning network postings, does the fact that anything you say in an on-line system can be downloaded and printed out by anyone who happens to read it create a different class of reproduction than quoting without permission from a commercial publication? If a journalist quotes something from an on-line system and does not obtain permission, did s/he steal it, or overhear it in a conversation? In such cases it can be concluded that whatever seems like fair use probably is, but that actual control of such use is impossible and that good manners are critically important.}

 ^{Computer programs, which might appear to be ideas, procedures, systems, or devices, may be registered as literary works under the law, and therefore, receive copyright.}

^{Ans. Executive information system}

<sup>An executive information system (EIS) is a decision support system (DSS) used to assist senior executives in the decision-making process. It does this by providing easy access to important data needed to achieve strategic goals in an organization. An EIS normally features graphical displays on an easy-to-use interface.

Executive information systems can be used in many different types of organizations to monitor enterprise performance as well as to identify opportunities and problems.</sup>

^{EIS helps executives find data according to user-defined criteria and promote information-based insight and understanding. Unlike a traditional management information system presentation, EIS can distinguish between vital and seldom-used data, and track different key critical activities for executives, both which are helpful in evaluating if the company is meeting its corporate objectives. After realizing its advantages, people have applied EIS in many areas, especially, in manufacturing, marketing, and finance areas.}

^{Executive support system}

^{An Executive Support System (ESS) is software that allows users to transform enterprise data into quickly accessible and executive-level reports, such as those used by billing, accounting and staffing departments. An ESS enhances decision making for executives.}

^{ESS is also known as Executive Information System (EIS).}

^{An ESS facilitates access to organized enterprise and departmental data while providing analysis utilities and performance assessment predictors. An ESS provides potential outcomes and quick statistical data that are applied to decision making processes.}

^{Ultimately, ESS reporting tools and results are contingent on developer and industry application. For example, Cambridge Systematics, Inc. built an ESS that is integrated with the investment plan for the Ministry of Transportation in Canada.}

^{Difference between MIS and  EIS}

^{MIS (MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS) :}

 ^{MIS is generally more sophisticated reporting systems built on existing transaction processing systems}

^{-    Often used to support structured decision making (decisions that can be described in detail before the decision is made)}

^{-    Typically will also support tactical level management, but sometimes are used at other levels}

^{-   Examples of structured decisions supported by MIS might include deciding on stock levels or the pricing of products.}

^{EIS (EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM) :}

^{-      EIS support a range of decision making, but more often than not, this tends to be unstructured}

^{-     EIS support the executive level of management, often used to formulate high level strategic decisions impacting on the direction of the organization}

^{-     These systems will usually have the ability to extract summary data from internal systems, along with external data that provides intelligence on the environment of the organization}

^{-   Generally these systems work by providing a user friendly interface into other systems, both internal and external to the organization}

DIMENSION	MIS	EIS
Focus	Information processing	Status Access
Typical Users Served	Middle, lower levels, sometime senior executives	Senior Executives Expediency
Impetus	Efficiency
Application	Production control, sales forecasts, financial analysis, human resource management	Environmental scanning, performance evaluation, identifying problems and opportunities
Database(s)	Corporate	Special
Decision Support Capabilities	Direct or indirect support, mainly structured routine problems, using standard operations, research and other models	Indirect support, mainly high level and unstructured decisions and policies
Type of Information	Scheduled and demand reports; structured flow, exception reporting mainly internal operations	News items, external information on customers, competitors and the environment
Principal Use	Control	Tracking and control
Adaptability to Individual User	Usually none, standardized	Tailored to the decision making style of each individual executive, offers several options of outputs
Graphics	Desirable	A must
User Friendliness	Desirable	A must
Treatment of Information	Information is provided to a diversified group of users who then manipulate it or summarize it as needed	Filters and compresses the information, tracks critical data and information
Supporting Detailed Information	Inflexibility of reports, cannot get the supporting details quickly	Instant access to the supporting details of any summary
Model Base	Standard Models are available but are not managed	Can be added, usually not included or limited in nature
Construction	By vendors or IS specialists	By Vendors or IS Specialists
Hardware	Mainframes, Micros or distributed	Distributed system
Nature of Computing Packages	Application oriented, performance reports, strong reporting capabilities, standard statistical, financial, accounting and management science models	Interactive, easy to access multiple databases, on-line access, sophisticated DBMS capabilities and complex linkages