2.4. Driving and impeding forces
The forces driving KM result primarily from the evolution of the Internet-information age into what might be called a ‘knowledge-based economy.’ Easily accessed information via the Internet has created chaos for many businesses in their routine operations and has increased business complexity for many others. Easy access to information anytime, anywhere, on any device has significantly reduced business response time [3], and companies have an imperative to respond proactively.
Six major trends and the sub-factors that driving the deployment of KM strategies in e-commerce are [13]:
1.
Customer-oriented trends
•
Faster service; for the customer, time is money
•
Self-service; empowered customers
•
More product choices; more personalization
•
Integrated solutions; not piecemeal products
2.
E-service trends
•
Integrated sales and service; customization and integration
•
Seamless support; consistent and reliable customer service
•
Flexible fulfillment and convenient service delivery
•
Increased process visibility
3.
Organizational trends
•
Outsourcing management; flattening the organization
•
Contract manufacturing; become brand intensive
•
Virtual distribution; become customer-centric
•
Integrated solutions to the size and sophistication of the customer base
4.
Employee megatrends
•
Hiring the best and the brightest workers
•
Keeping talented employees
5.
Enterprise technology trends
•
Integrated enterprise applications; connect the corporation
•
Multi-channel integration; look at the big picture
•
Middleware; support the integration mandate
6.
General technology trends
•
Wireless web applications; mobile commerce
•
Handheld computing and information appliances
•
Infrastructure convergence; voice, data, and video
•
Application Service Providers (ASPs); software as rentable services
These forces drive the need for companies to integrate KM systems into their e-commerce processes in order to improve back-office efficiency, provide greater customer intimacy, become more flexible to adapt to market changes, and enhance knowledge-based decision making. This will increase the quality, reliability, and timeliness of the decisions made. All the trends have four common threads:
1.
Convenience: the forces that directly impact consumer self-service and ease of use;
2.
Effectiveness: they directly impact the relationship between the organization's customers and its environment;
3.
Efficiency: the trends impact the internal structure and operating activities of the enterprise; and
4.
Integration: they push for one-stop shopping consolidation.
Previously, KM has been viewed in association with information processing. This has led to rather elementary assumptions about storing the knowledge of individuals in the form of routine, programmable logic, rules-of-thumb, and accomplished best practices in databases so it is available to guide future decision making. Malhotra [4] identified three problems with this information-processing approach that hinder effective KM practices in e-commerce. The impeding forces are described as myths about KM as it applies to the new wave of e-business.
The first problem is based on the assumption that KM technologies can deliver the right information to the right people in a timely manner. Traditional information systems mirror the concept that businesses will change incrementally in an inherently stable environment, and that executives can foresee change by examining past data and taking advantage of the lessons learned from prior experiences. However, the new business model is labeled as a fundamental rather than incremental change. Businesses cannot plan/predict in a long-term horizon in today's dynamic environment; instead, they must shift to a more flexible model that anticipates uncertainty. Thus, it is nearly impossible to build systems that predict who the right people and the right time are, much less to determine what constitutes the right information [4].
The second impeding force is about the assumption that KM technologies can store human intelligence and experiences. Technologies such as databases, groupware, and other collaborative systems and applications codify bits and pixels of data, but they cannot store the accompanying schemas, semantics, and syntaxes that people use to make sense of the data. Moreover, today's information is very context-sensitive, and the same collection of data can trigger differing responses from different people. Furthermore, the same data when reviewed by the same person but at a different time or in a different context could evoke different decision-making and problem-solving responses. Thus, storing static representations of explicit knowledge-assuming the person has both a willingness and ability to explicate it-is not equivalent to storing human intelligence and experience [4].
The final obstacle is the notion that KM technologies can distribute human intelligence. This assumes that companies can forecast the right information to distribute and can ascertain which people need this information. Simply compiling a repository of data for people to access does not solve the problem either. The fact that information is archived in a database does not ensure that people will necessarily identify or access this information. Most KM technologies concentrate on efficient retrieval techniques; hence the focus is on creating consensus-oriented views of the data. Data archived in such technological knowledge repositories are thus based on rational viewpoints, and are static and without context in most cases. Accordingly such systems cannot renew existing knowledge nor create new knowledge [4].
3. Knowledge management in e-commerce: current integration developments
This section describes the features of two popular enterprise information portals that are currently used to integrate KM in e-commerce activities. The applications introduced here are Sun Microsystems's Portal Essentials and Verity's K2 Developer.
3.1. Portal essentials
Sun Microsystems launched Portal Essentials, a comprehensive Internet infrastructure solution set for launching e-business portals in February 2000 [14]. Portal Essentials enables an enterprise to build a portal infrastructure that is specially tailored to the company's unique needs, whether it be B2E portals to provide services to employees, B2B portals to deliver products and services to partners and suppliers, B2C portals to sell products and services to consumers or retailers, or media and entertainment portals to deliver news and interactive content. This product allows an enterprise to extend its most important relationships beyond the traditional channels and to strengthen these relationships by delivering an ‘anywhere, anytime’ experience through the use of its e-business portal.
According to Sun [14], Portal Essentials delivers industry-leading technologies that help to build, maintain, and improve online relationships. It includes tools to manage, enhance, and personalize the online experience and, at the same time, create a robust and secure e-business platform. As a result, the enterprise can offer a higher level of service that will eventually lead to increased customer retention and expanded revenue-generation opportunities. Since portal infrastructure requirements vary by enterprise, Portal Essentials offers the flexibility of customer choice where a customer can select only those solutions within the offering that meet the company's portal infrastructure needs.
Sun states that Portal Essentials incorporates best-of-breed solutions from the following vendors: Sun Microsystems’ SPARC™ architecture and Solaris™ Operating Environment, which provide the scalability, manageability, availability, security, and connectivity required for conducting e-business. iPlanet™ E-commerce Solutions, Sun-Netscape Alliance's application infrastructure products, enable fast prototyping of new applications; rapid and reliable delivery of web site services; streamlined and effective management of resources; enhanced security services; constant communication, consistent and integrated collaboration with partners, suppliers, customers and employees; and reliable authorized access behind the firewall [14].
Autonomy's Knowledge Suite offers intelligent and powerful KM tools that are central to the enterprise portal. It delivers the ability to provide information based on either concept or context. enCommerce getAccess™ is responsible for ensuring secure, convenient and personalized access to e-business portals and Internet applications via single sign-on over the Web. Inktomi's search engine is designed to provide the high-performance search infrastructure that enables customers to locate information across a wide range of sources. Lotus's™ Domino™ Server provides collaboration capabilities allow both individuals and businesses to share resources and work together over the Internet [14].
Net. Genesis’ net. analysis component provides additional customer profiling capabilities that enable the enterprise to market, sell, and support their products online based on customer purchasing behavior. Net Perceptions for E-commerce 5.0 offers a real-time personalized solution that allows the enterprise to conduct one-on-one focused marketing with its customers across multiple touch points online. OpenMarket's Internet Publishing System provides content management capabilities that enable the enterprise to deliver the proper content tailored to its customers’ needs. Resonate's Central Dispatch™ provides traffic management capabilities that ensure high availability, performance, supervision, and control of e-business applications. And finally, TimesTen's Front Tier™ adds real-time intelligence to e-commerce personalization to dynamic data caching on the application server tier [14].
2.4. Driving and impeding forces
The forces driving KM result primarily from the evolution of the Internet-information age into what might be called a ‘knowledge-based economy.’ Easily accessed information via the Internet has created chaos for many businesses in their routine operations and has increased business complexity for many others. Easy access to information anytime, anywhere, on any device has significantly reduced business response time [3], and companies have an imperative to respond proactively.
Six major trends and the sub-factors that driving the deployment of KM strategies in e-commerce are [13]:
1.
Customer-oriented trends
•
Faster service; for the customer, time is money
•
Self-service; empowered customers
•
More product choices; more personalization
•
Integrated solutions; not piecemeal products
2.
E-service trends
•
Integrated sales and service; customization and integration
•
Seamless support; consistent and reliable customer service
•
Flexible fulfillment and convenient service delivery
•
Increased process visibility
3.
Organizational trends
•
Outsourcing management; flattening the organization
•
Contract manufacturing; become brand intensive
•
Virtual distribution; become customer-centric
•
Integrated solutions to the size and sophistication of the customer base
4.
Employee megatrends
•
Hiring the best and the brightest workers
•
Keeping talented employees
5.
Enterprise technology trends
•
Integrated enterprise applications; connect the corporation
•
Multi-channel integration; look at the big picture
•
Middleware; support the integration mandate
6.
General technology trends
•
Wireless web applications; mobile commerce
•
Handheld computing and information appliances
•
Infrastructure convergence; voice, data, and video
•
Application Service Providers (ASPs); software as rentable services
These forces drive the need for companies to integrate KM systems into their e-commerce processes in order to improve back-office efficiency, provide greater customer intimacy, become more flexible to adapt to market changes, and enhance knowledge-based decision making. This will increase the quality, reliability, and timeliness of the decisions made. All the trends have four common threads:
1.
Convenience: the forces that directly impact consumer self-service and ease of use;
2.
Effectiveness: they directly impact the relationship between the organization's customers and its environment;
3.
Efficiency: the trends impact the internal structure and operating activities of the enterprise; and
4.
Integration: they push for one-stop shopping consolidation.
Previously, KM has been viewed in association with information processing. This has led to rather elementary assumptions about storing the knowledge of individuals in the form of routine, programmable logic, rules-of-thumb, and accomplished best practices in databases so it is available to guide future decision making. Malhotra [4] identified three problems with this information-processing approach that hinder effective KM practices in e-commerce. The impeding forces are described as myths about KM as it applies to the new wave of e-business.
The first problem is based on the assumption that KM technologies can deliver the right information to the right people in a timely manner. Traditional information systems mirror the concept that businesses will change incrementally in an inherently stable environment, and that executives can foresee change by examining past data and taking advantage of the lessons learned from prior experiences. However, the new business model is labeled as a fundamental rather than incremental change. Businesses cannot plan/predict in a long-term horizon in today's dynamic environment; instead, they must shift to a more flexible model that anticipates uncertainty. Thus, it is nearly impossible to build systems that predict who the right people and the right time are, much less to determine what constitutes the right information [4].
The second impeding force is about the assumption that KM technologies can store human intelligence and experiences. Technologies such as databases, groupware, and other collaborative systems and applications codify bits and pixels of data, but they cannot store the accompanying schemas, semantics, and syntaxes that people use to make sense of the data. Moreover, today's information is very context-sensitive, and the same collection of data can trigger differing responses from different people. Furthermore, the same data when reviewed by the same person but at a different time or in a different context could evoke different decision-making and problem-solving responses. Thus, storing static representations of explicit knowledge-assuming the person has both a willingness and ability to explicate it-is not equivalent to storing human intelligence and experience [4].
The final obstacle is the notion that KM technologies can distribute human intelligence. This assumes that companies can forecast the right information to distribute and can ascertain which people need this information. Simply compiling a repository of data for people to access does not solve the problem either. The fact that information is archived in a database does not ensure that people will necessarily identify or access this information. Most KM technologies concentrate on efficient retrieval techniques; hence the focus is on creating consensus-oriented views of the data. Data archived in such technological knowledge repositories are thus based on rational viewpoints, and are static and without context in most cases. Accordingly such systems cannot renew existing knowledge nor create new knowledge [4].
3. Knowledge management in e-commerce: current integration developments
This section describes the features of two popular enterprise information portals that are currently used to integrate KM in e-commerce activities. The applications introduced here are Sun Microsystems's Portal Essentials and Verity's K2 Developer.
3.1. Portal essentials
Sun Microsystems launched Portal Essentials, a comprehensive Internet infrastructure solution set for launching e-business portals in February 2000 [14]. Portal Essentials enables an enterprise to build a portal infrastructure that is specially tailored to the company's unique needs, whether it be B2E portals to provide services to employees, B2B portals to deliver products and services to partners and suppliers, B2C portals to sell products and services to consumers or retailers, or media and entertainment portals to deliver news and interactive content. This product allows an enterprise to extend its most important relationships beyond the traditional channels and to strengthen these relationships by delivering an ‘anywhere, anytime’ experience through the use of its e-business portal.
According to Sun [14], Portal Essentials delivers industry-leading technologies that help to build, maintain, and improve online relationships. It includes tools to manage, enhance, and personalize the online experience and, at the same time, create a robust and secure e-business platform. As a result, the enterprise can offer a higher level of service that will eventually lead to increased customer retention and expanded revenue-generation opportunities. Since portal infrastructure requirements vary by enterprise, Portal Essentials offers the flexibility of customer choice where a customer can select only those solutions within the offering that meet the company's portal infrastructure needs.
Sun states that Portal Essentials incorporates best-of-breed solutions from the following vendors: Sun Microsystems’ SPARC™ architecture and Solaris™ Operating Environment, which provide the scalability, manageability, availability, security, and connectivity required for conducting e-business. iPlanet™ E-commerce Solutions, Sun-Netscape Alliance's application infrastructure products, enable fast prototyping of new applications; rapid and reliable delivery of web site services; streamlined and effective management of resources; enhanced security services; constant communication, consistent and integrated collaboration with partners, suppliers, customers and employees; and reliable authorized access behind the firewall [14].
Autonomy's Knowledge Suite offers intelligent and powerful KM tools that are central to the enterprise portal. It delivers the ability to provide information based on either concept or context. enCommerce getAccess™ is responsible for ensuring secure, convenient and personalized access to e-business portals and Internet applications via single sign-on over the Web. Inktomi's search engine is designed to provide the high-performance search infrastructure that enables customers to locate information across a wide range of sources. Lotus's™ Domino™ Server provides collaboration capabilities allow both individuals and businesses to share resources and work together over the Internet [14].
Net. Genesis’ net. analysis component provides additional customer profiling capabilities that enable the enterprise to market, sell, and support their products online based on customer purchasing behavior. Net Perceptions for E-commerce 5.0 offers a real-time personalized solution that allows the enterprise to conduct one-on-one focused marketing with its customers across multiple touch points online. OpenMarket's Internet Publishing System provides content management capabilities that enable the enterprise to deliver the proper content tailored to its customers’ needs. Resonate's Central Dispatch™ provides traffic management capabilities that ensure high availability, performance, supervision, and control of e-business applications. And finally, TimesTen's Front Tier™ adds real-time intelligence to e-commerce personalization to dynamic data caching on the application server tier [14].
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
