Data accumulation, along with its appropriate management and distribution, has become and overwhelming task for companies of all sizes. What is needed is a solution to efficiently organize and share this information in a meaningful yet cost-effective way. For many organizations, web based knowledge management software can provide the exact solution that businesses need to harness the power of this data by turning it into manageable and consumable information.
What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge management (KM) refers to the systematic collection, storage, and dissemination of a Company’s knowledge assets. The goal of knowledge management is the creation of value in the organization’s efforts to meet strategic and tactical challenges. Knowledge management encompasses the processes, strategies, initiatives, and technologies that support these strategic and tactical corporate goals.
Some of the benefits companies can expect from effective knowledge management can include:
Faster and more informed decision making
Enhanced communication
Increased organizational agility
Rapid problem-solving
Support of employee development and growth
Streamlined business processes
Effective knowledge management makes accumulated company knowledge easily accessible while ensuring its accuracy. This is particularly important for businesses that deploy and utilize distributed teams across multiple branches with remote employees.
Types of Corporate Knowledge Management Solutions
Generally speaking, there are two approaches for implementing knowledge management systems: locally deployed solutions and web-based (SaaS-based) solutions. Local solutions, which call for the deployment and management of a local technology infrastructure to house the knowledge database of the organization, tend to be to expensive to deploy and maintain for most organizations. Web-based knowledge management, on the other hand, can provide companies of all sizes with a powerful, yet cost-effective means for successfully implementing a knowledge management solution.
The Benefits of Web-Based Knowledge Management Software
In recent years, as SaaS technologies have continued to evolve, web-based knowledge management has emerged as a popular approach for organizations that want to be up-and-running quickly and efficiently, while minimizing the costs to deploy and maintain their corporate knowledge management infrastructure.
Some of the specific benefits your organization can expect through the use of web-based knowledge management technologies can include:
Fast Deployment
Unlike locally deployed knowledge management systems, web-based solutions can be up-and-running very quickly, typically on a subscription basis.
Cost-Effective
Because web-based systems do not require a large up-front investment in such things as hardware, hosting space, web-based knowledge management tends to be much less expensive to deploy. And in a web-based approach, there is no need to allocate expensive labor to manage and maintain the system as the vendor takes care of this for you.
Secure
Web-based knowledge management vendors tend to offer a level of security that most companies cannot achieve on their own. This is because web-based vendors can invest heavily in security features and spread these costs across their entire client base.
Easy Access
Web-based technologies make corporate knowledge assets easily accessible from any location and at any time. All that is required is an Internet connection. And most web-based vendors allow you to control which employees have access to which knowledge assets.
Combining Knowledge Management with eLearning
Many organizations today are realizing the synergies between knowledge management and their corporate learning (eLearning) initiatives. By combining knowledge management with employee training initiatives, companies can leverage and re-purpose knowledge assets to support employee growth and productivity.
At LMS Portals we provide our corporate clients with a powerful and customizable platform that supports both web-based knowledge management and eLearning. Our clients are able to quickly and easily launch and manage their own branded, secure portal to support corporate knowledge management initiatives, as well as employee eLearning programs.
Contact us today to get started for free!