IMS 5027 Knowledge Management

Assignment 1: Research Paper

Chun Man Lam (18424783)

How to use portals as knowledge-sharing mechanism?

Abstract

Review of literature on portals, the conceptual view of portal is an software

solution sit on corporate infrastructure which including internet, intranet, and extranet,
act as a gateway to all unstructured, structured, and collaborative information within
organization so that user can easily work on this personalized platform. As Collins, H.
(2001) describe portal like a house which we can review what we need from the
“window” and launch an application from the “door”. At the beginning, I would like
to illustrate the functions and types of both portals and knowledge sharing.
Furthermore, I will also explain the role of portals in knowledge sharing process.
This essay will discuss some successful cases on how to use Enterprise Information
Portal (EIP) to achieve knowledge sharing. In conclusion, I will point out the critical
success factor on using portal as knowledge sharing tools.

Introduction

In the process of literature review, I found that there were many articles
describe the definitions, framework, business values and implementation issues of
portals. However, seldom of them review on the usage of it, especially achieving one

1
of the process in knowledge management – knowledge sharing (Alavi, M., 1997),
therefore the aim of this essay is to discuss the ways of using portals for knowledge
sharing.
In the part of literature review, I will describe the definition, framework, and
types of portal especially Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) from different
perspective. Furthermore, the definition of knowledge sharing will also be illustrated
in this part, after that, I will explain why we can use portals for knowledge sharing.
As the research done by Hall, C. in 2000 there were 30 percent of organization
built EIP for supporting general knowledge management issue and near 60 percent of
them implemented EIP because of aggressive growth and distributed personnel. This
result matched what Brent, J. B. (2002) said organizations face several challenges
such as rapid change of business environment, information overload, large scale and
distributed of both services and staff; managing knowledge within the large
organization is being recognized as an indicator to show how success of the
organization is so as to increase the innovativeness, responsiveness and
competitiveness of the organization (Hackbarth, G., 1998; Alavi, M. & Leidner, D. E.,
2001) and finally become an “information age organizations” (Applegate et al., 1999).

According to Brent, J. B. (2002), apart from intranet technology EIP is another

kind of technology that organization can make use of it as a platform in knowledge
management project. It was because EIP is designed to create and manage knowledge
pool and has many functions that can leverage knowledge assets within an
organization. This is the reason why EIP is being widely adopted by organizations as
a kind of knowledge management technologies and the marketplace is expected to
growth sharply (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2001). By this reason, in the detail
discussion section, I will base on several business cases that successful implemented
EIP in their organization and analysis their success factors so as to conclude some
ideas on how can we use EIP as knowledge sharing tools.

Literature review

2
What is Portal?

“Portal is the most abused term in IT” (Phifer, G., 2000). It is so difficult to
tell the definitive meaning of this word, because its meaning is varies in different time.
When the search engine was popular in the internet environment, we simply said that
this function that help us to get what we want from the internet is portal (Dias, C.,
2001). A few years later, when “My Yahoo!” - this next generation search engine
combined with the element of personalization and collaborative function launched, we
named as internet portal (Dias, C., 2001; Colin, W., 1999). According to the web site
searchCIO.com, the idea of portal is “is a term, generally synonymous with gateway,
for a World Wide Web site that is or proposes to be a major starting site for users
when they get connected to the Web or that users tend to visit as an anchor site.”
(searchCIO.com, 2002).
For EIP, Shilakes, C. C. & Tylman, J. (1998) defined them are “applications
that enable companies to unlock internally and externally stored information, and
provide users and single gateway to personalized information needed to make
informed business decisions” (Shilakes, C. C. & Tylman, J., 1998). In a conceptual
view, EIP is the integration of knowledge management and business intelligence
functions, which manage, organize, and distributed both structured and unstructured
data for business use (Hall, C., 2000).
No matter what definition of portals are, the primary objective for portal is
provide an environment or single interface that can facilitate user to navigate all those
necessary information easily so that they can make no matter operational and strategic
decision quickly (Collins, H., 2001; Ferguson, M., 1999)

Types of Portals

Start from internet portal, there are many kinds of portal in current market,
according to their function, we can group them into five primary categories (Brio
technology, 2002; Collins, H., 2001; Dias, C., 2001; Hall, C., 2000; Ferguson, M.,
1999; White, C., 1999). On the other hand, if we categorize them from the view of
handling different kinds of information – unstructured, structured, and collaborative

3
(Collins, H., 2001) or environment involved some portals are classified as more than
one category (see Table 1.).
There are several terms we use it variously to EIP category such as, “corporate
portal”, “corporate information portal”, “business portal” and “enterprise information
portal”(Finkelstein, C. & Aiken, P., 2000 p. 16). It was because when EIP was first
defined by Shilakes, C. C. and Tylman, J. in their Merril Lynch report, there were
many controversial views on the definition and taxonomy of this word. From
information gateway expanded to working platform (Murray, G., 1999), form user
centric to knowledge centric (Reynolds, H. and Koulopoulos, T., 1999), from
corporate level access to enterprise wide level access (Viador, 1999; Brio technology,
2002).

Primary Category Environment Sub-category Handle

Information
Type
Internet Portals Public Structured
Application Portals Corporate • Business Intelligence Portal Structured
• Database Vendor Portal
• ERP Vendor Portal
• Balanced Scorecard Portal
Enterprise Public/ • Collaborative Processing Structured/
Information Portals Corporate Portal Unstructured/
• Decision Processing Portal Collabrative
Information Corporate • Workgroup Server Unstructured/
Management Portals • Knowledge Portal Collaborative
• Intranet Unstructured Portal
Horizontal/Vertical Public/ • Corporate Interest Portal Structured/
Portals Corporate • Electronic Commerce Portal Unstructured/
• Employee Portal Collabrative

• Internet Hosting Portal

Table 1. Types of portal

What is knowledge sharing?

4
 Knowledge can be viewed from five perspectives “(1) state of mind, (2) object,
(3) process, (4) condition of access to information, (5) capability” (Alavi, M. &
Leidner, D. E., 2001, p. 109). Alavi, M. & Leidner, D. E. (2001) also state that if we
talking about knowledge sharing, then we view knowledge as a process. Perhaps this
can be supported by Tiwana, Amrit (2000) which explained in the view of basic
element of knowledge utilization. Knowledge sharing is one of the processes in
knowledge management framework apart from knowledge creation, knowledge
organization/storage, and knowledge application (Alavi, M., 1997). On the other
hand, it can also be view as one of the elements in knowledge utilization cycle when
combined with knowledge acquisition and knowledge utilization (Tiwana, Amrit,
2000).
Knowledge sharing is a kind of knowledge development cycle, in knowledge
sharing cycle (see Figure 1) there are eight processes: identify, collect, classify,
organize/store, share/disseminate, access, user/exploit, and generate (Skyrmie, D. J.,
1999, p. 61-62) which explain the process on how we absorb, filter and regenerate the
knowledge. However, Tiwan, Amrit (2000) says knowledge sharing is make use of
organization’s resources to collect and digest all existing knowledge, is much focus
on collaborative view.

Identify Collect

Generate Classify

Knowledge
repository
Use/
Exploit Organize/
Store

Share/
Access
Disseminate

Figure 1. Knowledge Sharing Cycle.

Source: Skyrmie, 1999

5
Detail discussion

As the component of KM framework state by Alavi, M. (1997) is included

both social-cultural and technology factor and this can be explained by Davenport &
Prusak (1998) that KM project usually focus on several purpose such as technology
infrastructure, knowledge culture, and knowledge visible. I will discuss on how we
can use EIP to perform knowledge sharing along with how to use EIP to achieve
knowledge sharing cycle.

In technology view:

Firstly I will analysis the functions of EIP from knowledge management

technology view and show how we can use EIP to perform knowledge sharing
process that I described above.
As EIP is the evolution of intranet from knowledge management system
perspective because intranet cannot collect information from different data source,
haven’t the ability to organize the information and display it in clear and concise, also
the user should know how to navigate the information before they can use it, all these
shortcoming made intranet cannot fulfill the needs for knowledge sharing across
organization and it will become a nightmare if the information is growing continually
(Collins, H., 2001).
After reviewed some literatures on the functions of EIP (Collins, H. 2001; Hall,
C., 2000; Fitzloff, E. & Gardner, D., 1999; Shilakes, C. C. & Tylman, J., 1998), here
come up a model of the architecture and functionality (see Figure 2.)

6
 Application
Collaboration Team Work Knowledge Base Personalized web
page
Knowledge

Workflow Business Corporate Business

Application Information Intelligence

Communication Internet, Intranet, Extranet, Web Service

Media

Metadata
Information

y Search Engine
y Business Intelligence Engine
y Filter
y Information Pubsh
Middle Tier y Knowledge Management Repository
y
Application y Content Management Repository
Server y Data Mart
y Web Crawler/Spider
y Index/Category
y Taxonomy
Data

Structured Data Unstructured Data

OLAP database Documents

Data & Reports
Source Data Warehouses World
Wide Web
Other OLTP Real Time
ERP applications database Ideas News Multimedia

Figure 2. EIP architecture and functionality

7
 From the figure 2 we can see that there are four layers in the architecture, data
source layer, application layer, communication media, and application layer, by this
architecture EIP can be claimed as one of the knowledge management technology
framework, because its functions are matched with the architecture of enterprise
knowledge management network which explained by Tiwan, Amrit (2000).
Firstly, the data source layer, EIP need to collect data from multiple data
sources, this idea is supported by Tiwan, Amrit (2000) which a knowledge
management system should get both explicit and tacit knowledge source for the
people to start the identify and collect stage in knowledge sharing cycle.
Secondly, the middle tier application layer, this layer mainly convert raw data
into meaningful information and it is the main layer of EIP because it contains all the
functions and features that support knowledge sharing process. According to the
knowledge management spectrum of Binney, D. (2001), knowledge management
should mapped to one or more elements in the spectrum. EIP provide knowledge
repository with filtering function aim to store and disseminate relevant information,
this features is belongs to the element of asset management. Furthermore, it provide
business intelligence engine for analyzing structured data from legacy database or
data warehouse, this is the element of analytical. Moreover, its spider/crawler feature
can automatically gather and categorize information that can support the acquisition
stage of Tiwan’s (2000) knowledge utilization cycle. In addition, it has collaborative
function, discussion forum and push function that fit into the element of innovation
and creation.
Thirdly, the communication media layer, as information is being stored in
various formats within knowledge repository, EIP can tidy up those raw information
by filtered and converted to a common format such as XML (Finkelstein, C. & Aiken,
P., 2000; Hall, C., 2000), then present it to user in different application.
At last, the application layer, apart from the middle tier application layer, this
layer provides the richest functions for knowledge sharing. If we use Syrmie’s (1999)
knowledge value chain for knowledge sharing to analysis them, search engine,
information push technology which help user collect/codify knowledge within or
outside corporate. Alternatively, knowledge base and business intelligence function
offer the interface for user to identify, use and share knowledge. For personalized
view, it can create an customized environment for different user so they can share
their thinking easily (McDermott, R., 1999). Both teamwork and collaboration

8
functions provide a channel of informal communication with expertise (Collins, H.,
2001) so as to support share/disseminate process in Syrmie’s knowledge sharing cycle.
Finally, by integration EIP can also provide workflow and has the ability to
launch other business application to provide user a one-stop workbench in their
working environment, and these capability also fulfill the requirement of transactional
and process element of Binney’s (2001) knowledge management spectrum.
In summary, the functions of EIP that analysis in different view and how to
support knowledge sharing process are listed in Table 2 (see Table 2.)

Analysis Technology Support

Enterprise Knowledge Knowledge
KM Knowledge
EIP layer EIP functions KM sharing utilization
spectrum value chain
network cycle cycle
Data Source
Multiple data source Identify
Information
(unstructured and structured Analytical Acquisition
Mapping
data) Collect

Application
Server Search KM Repository
Engine
CM Repository Identify
BI Engine
Identify
Data Mart Analytical Intelligent Collect
Acquisition
Filter Agents and
Collect/
Web Asset Network Classify
Sharing Codify
Information Crawler/Spider Management Mining
Push Organize/
Index/Category Store

Taxonomy

Communication
Media Metadata
Information
Sharing
Mapping
Internet/intranet/extranet

Application Transactional
Knowledge
BI application Team Work Identify
Flows
Analytical Identify
Collaboration Workflow Share/
Information
Asset disseminate Sharing Collect/
Sources
Knowledge Business Management Codify
Base Applicaiton Use/ Utilization
Information
Process Exploit Diffuse/
and
Personalized Use
Knowledge
Web Page Innovation Generate
Exchange
and Creation

Table 2. The support role and analysis of EIP functions

9
In social-cultural factor:

After analysis the EIP from technology view, it seems EIP can support most of
the process in knowledge sharing cycle, however, there are still some case that people
not willing to use EIP for knowledge sharing (McDermott, R. and O’Dell, C., 2001)
by the excuse “I have no time to document and share what I know” or “My job is so
unique, it seems cannot learn from others”(Balaa, K., 2002).
Alavi, M. (1997) stated that knowledge management included both technology
and social-cultural factor, this view is supported by Tiwan, Amrit (2000) who
mentioned knowledge management should focus on the flow, is a management issue,
technology is only an enhancer drive by the right people in the right place to support
knowledge management. This approach is much clear when we talking about
knowledge sharing, because there are five elements need to concern when
implemented knowledge sharing. They are (1) the value of knowledge source, (2)
motivational disposition of the knowledge source, (3) knowledge transfer channel
much be richness and exist, (4) motivational disposition of the received knowledge, (5)
absorptive capacity of the received knowledge (Gupta, A. K. & Govindarajan, V.,
2000). I will base on several cases from McDermott, R. and O’Dell, C., (2001) to
analysis on how to use EIP for knowledge sharing.
For creating the value of knowledge source, we can see it from
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)’s brand, “People, knowledge, and worlds” and has a
very clear structure to support knowledge management, has global and business line
chief knowledge officer, each staff has to contribute in knowledge management
activities. AMS made a tight relationship between knowledge management and their
business strategy by announced in formal and informal way. Ford Motor Company
(Ford) link their production team with their R&D design team which use EIP to
communicate, aimed to promote knowledge sharing concept. Lotus people are
respected what they know rather than their position, they think that knowledge
sharing can identify themselves in the organization.
For the motivation of knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing contribution is
tightly related to AMS’s staff performance appraisal, if any staff has a good
performance, an award will be given. However, their award on knowledge sharing is
only want to show company is concern on the process.

10
 In term of the rich knowledge transfer channel, AMS has both formal and
informal network, staff who need help can find anybody within organization by
stopping their work and ask them. For instance, staff in AMS always share
knowledge both on coffeepot or through EIP. In Ford, they use EIP to share all the
design with the subsidiaries aim to avoid the reoccurred of mistake, people usually
make use of this network to discuss and consult the expert within company before
product design.

Conclusion

As the aim for implement knowledge management system are (1) make
knowledge visible and identifiable, (2) develop a knowledge-intensive culture, (3)
build knowledge infrastructure (Davenport, T. H. & Prusak, L., 1998), and EIP is a
kind of knowledge management project in organization. If we want to use EIP to
achieve knowledge sharing process, we not only focus on technology of EIP but also
need to create a “knowledge age organization” that can help people in thinking.
Cultural barrier is not a main problem if company got a clear objective and
policy with enough support before implementation, then implement EIP which fit into
organization culture, after that ongoing review and proper manage the content in EIP
is a must, Besides, give all the people enough motivation and reward, also need to
train up everyone in organization support and aware use EIP for knowledge sharing is
the vital factor to support business activities.

11
Reference

Alavi, M. (1997). Lecture notes of Knowledge Management and Knowledge

Management Systems. [On-line]. Accessed on September 2 2002 on World Wide
Web: http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/is/malavi/icis-97-KMS/index.htm.

Alavi, M. & Leidner, D. E. (2001). Review: Knowledge Management and

Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues.
MIS Quarterly, 25 (1), 107-136.

Alavi, M. & Leidner, D. E. (1999). Knowledge Management Systems: Issues,

Challenges, and Benefits. Communications of the Association for Information
Systems, 1 (7), pp 1-37.

Applegate, L. et al. (1999). Corporate Information Systems Management: Text and

Case, Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Balaa, K. (2002). Sharing makes it better. Businessline. Retrieved September 1,

2002 from World Wide Web:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?TS=1030809741&RQT=309&CC=2&Dtp=1&D
id=000000109670346

Brent, J. B. (2002). Building Knowledge Management Systems. Information Systems

Management Journal, Summer, 32-40.

Brio technology. (2002). Scalable Security for the Enterprise and Beyond. Great
America Parkway Santa Clara, CA. Retrieved September 1, 2002 from World
Wide Web: http://www.brio.com/pdfs/scalable_security.pdf.

Collins, H. (2001). Corporate portals: revolutionizing information access to increase

productivity and drive the bottom line, AMACOM, American Management
Association.

12
Dias, C. (2001). Corporate portals: a literature review of a new concept in
Information Management. International Journal of Information Management, pp.
269-287.

Fahey, L. & Prusak, L. (1998). The Eleven Deadliest Sins of Knowledge

Management. California Management Review, 40 (3), 265-280.

Ferguson, M. (1999). Distribution business. Information Age, April, pp. 49-50.

Finkelstein, C. & Aiken, P. (2000). Building Corporate Portals with XML, USA:
McGraw-Hill.

Fitzloff, E. & Gardner, D. (1999). Web opens enterprise portals. InfoWorld.

Retrieved September 1, 2002 from World Wide Web:
http://ww1.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/features/990125eip.htm

Hansen, M.T. & Nohira, N. and Tierney, T. (1999). What’s Your Strategy for
Managing Knowledge? Harvard Business Review, March-April, 106-116.

McDermott, R. & O’Dell, C. (2001). Overcoming cultural barriers to sharing

knowledge, Journal of Knowledge Management, pp. 76-85.

McDermott, R. (1999). Why information technology inspired but cannot deliver

knowledge management, California Management Review, pp. 103-117.

Murry, G. (1999). The portal is the desktop. e-promag.com. Retrieved September 1,

20002 from World Wide Web http://www.e-
promag.com/eparchive/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewarticle&ContentID=166&webs
iteid=.

Phifer, G. (1999). Enterprise portal trends emerge among confusion, Gartner Inc.

13
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2001). Technology Forecast: 2001-2003,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Technology Center, Menlo Park, CA.

Reynolds, H. & Koulopoulos, T. (1999). Enterprise knowledge has a face. Intelligent

Enterprise. Retrieved September 1, 2002 from World Wide Web:
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/db_area/archives/1999/993003/feat1.shtml.

Shilakes, C. C. & Tylman, J. (1998). Enterprise information portals. New York:

Merril Lynch. Retrieved September 5 2002 from World Wide Web:
http://www.sagemaker.com/hom.asp?id=500&file=Company/WhitePapers/lynch.
htm.

Skyrmie, D. J. (1999). Knowledge Networking: creating the collaborative enterprise,

Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Tiwan, Amrit (2000). The Knowledge Management toolkit: practical techniques for
building and knowledge management system, Prentice-Hall International.

Viador. (1999). Enterprise information portals: Realizing the vision of ‘information

at your fingertips. Benecia Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA. Retrieved September 1,
2002 from World Wide Web
http://www.viador.com/pdfs/EIP_white_paper_1_99.pdf.

White, C. (1999). Using Information Portals in the Enterprise. DM Review.

Retrieved September 3 2002 from World Wide Web:
http://www.dmreview.com/master.cfm?NavID=55&EdID=61.

14
Appendix A. Result from Plagiserve.

AGISERVE? Papers for Course - Knowledge Management01

Student Student Plagiarism
LE REPORT Class
# Name Possibility (%)

Knowledge Chun Man

REGISTER 18424783 5 % possibility
Management01 Lam

IT PAPERS

W REPORTS

DGE BASE

FAQ

ABOUT US

15
Overall Score: 5 %

How to use portals as knowledge sharing mechanism? Abstract Review of literature

on portals, the conceptual view of portal is an software solution sit on corporate
infrastructure which including internet, intranet, and extranet, act as a gateway to all
unstructured, structured, and collaborative information within organization so that
user can easily work on this personalized platform. As Collins, H. (2001) describe
portal like a house which we can review what we need from the “window” and launch
an application from the “door”. At the beginning, I would like to illustrate the
functions and types of both portals and knowledge sharing. Furthermore, I will also
explain the role of portals in knowledge sharing process. This essay will discuss some
successful cases on how to use Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) to achieve
knowledge sharing. In conclusion, I will point out the critical success factor on using
portal as knowledge sharing tools and some future improvement of portal.
Introduction In the process of literature review, I found that there were many articles
describe the definitions, framework, business values and implementation issues of
portals. However, seldom of them review on the usage of it, especially achieving one
of the process in knowledge management – knowledge sharing (Alavi, M. 1997),
therefore the aim of this essay is to discuss the ways of using portals for knowledge
sharing. In the part of literature review, I will describe the definition, framework, and
types of portal especially Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) from different
perspective. Furthermore, the definition of knowledge sharing will also be illustrated
in this part, after that, I will explain why we can use portals for knowledge sharing.
As the research done by Hall, C. in 2000 there were 30 percent of organization built
EIP for supporting general knowledge management issue and near 60 percent of them
implemented EIP because of aggressive growth and distributed personnel. This result
matched what Brent, J. B. (2002) said organizations face several challenges such as
rapid change of business environment, information overload, large scale and
distributed of both services and staff; managing knowledge within the large
organization is being recognized as an indicator to show how success of the
organization is so as to increase the innovativeness, responsiveness and
competitiveness of the organization (Hackbarth, G. 1998; Alavi, M. and Leidner, D. E.
2001) and finally become an “information age organizations” (Applegate et al. 1999).
According to Brent, J. B. (2002), apart from intranet technology EIP is another kind

16
of technology that organization can make use of it as a platform in knowledge
management project. It was because EIP is designed to create and manage knowledge
pool and has many functions that can leverage knowledge assets within an
organization. This is the reason why EIP is being widely adopted by organizations as
a kind of knowledge management technologies and the marketplace is expected to
growth sharply (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2001). By this reason, in the detail
discussion section, I will base on several business cases that successful implemented
EIP in their organization and analysis their success factors so as to conclude some
ideas on how can we use EIP as knowledge sharing tools. Literature review What is
Portal? “Portal is the most abused term in IT” (Phifer, G. 2000). It is so difficult to tell
the definitive meaning of this word, because its meaning is varies in different time.
When the search engine was popular in the internet environment, we simply said that
this function that help us to get what we want from the internet is portal (Dias, C.
2001). A few years later, when “My Yahoo! ” this next generation search engine
combined with the element of personalization and collaborative function launched, we
named as internet portal (Dias, C. 2001; Colin, W. 1999). According to the web site
searchCIO. com, the idea of portal is “is a term, generally synonymous with gateway,
for a World Wide Web site that is or proposes to be a major starting site for users
when they get connected to the Web or that users tend to visit as an anchor site. ”
(searchCIO. com, 2002). For EIP, Shilakes, C. C. and Tylman, J. (1998) defined them
are “applications that enable companies to unlock internally and externally stored
information, and provide users and single gateway to personalized information needed
to make informed business decisions” (Shilakes, C. C. and Tylman, J. 1998). In a
conceptual view, EIP is the integration of knowledge management and business
intelligence functions, which manage, organize, and distributed both structured and
unstructured data for business use (Hall, C. 2000). No matter what definition of
portals are, the primary objective for portal is provide an environment or single
interface that can facilitate user to navigate all those necessary information easily so
that they can make no matter operational and strategic decision quickly (Collins, H.
2001; Ferguson, M. 1999) Types of Portals Starting from internet portal, there are
many kinds of portal in current market, according to their function, we can group
them into five primary categories (Brio technology, 2002 ; Collins, H. 2001; Dias, C.
2001; Hall, C. 2000; Ferguson, M 1999; White, C. 1999). On the other hand, if we
categorize them from the view of handling different kinds of information –

17
unstructured, structured, and collaborative (Collins, H. 2001) or environment involved
some portals are classified as more than one category (see Table 1. ). There are
several terms we use it variously to EIP category such as, “corporate portal”,
“corporate information portal”, “business portal” and “enterprise information
portal”(Finkelstein, C. and Aiken, P. 2000 page 16). It was because when EIP was
first defined by Shilakes, C. C. and Tylman, J. in their Merril Lynch report, there were
many controversial views on the definition and taxonomy of this word. From
information gateway expanded to working platform (Murray, G. 1999), form user
centric to knowledge centric (Reynolds, H. and Koulopoulos, T. 1999), from
corporate level access to enterprise wide level access (Viador, 1999; Brio technology,
2002) What is knowledge sharing? Knowledge can be viewed from five perspectives
“(1) state of mind, (2) object, (3) process, (4) condition of access to information, (5)
capability” (Alavi, M. and Leidner, D. E. 2001, page 109). Alavi, M. and Leidner, D.
E. (2001) also state that if we talking about knowledge sharing, then we view
knowledge as a process. Perhaps this can be supported by Tiwana, Amrit (2000)
which explained in the view of basic element of knowledge utilization. Knowledge
sharing is one of the processes in knowledge management framework apart from
knowledge creation, knowledge organization/storage, and knowledge application
(Alavi, M. 1997). On the other hand, it can also be view as one of the elements in
knowledge utilization cycle when combined with knowledge acquisition and
knowledge utilization (Tiwana, Amrit 2000). Knowledge sharing is a kind of
knowledge development cycle, in knowledge sharing cycle (see Figure 1) there are
eight processes: identify, collect, classify, organize/store, share/disseminate, access,
user/exploit, and generate (Skyrmie, D. J. 1999, page 61 62) which explain the
process on how we absorb, filter and regenerate the knowledge. However, Tiwan,
Amrit (2000) says knowledge sharing is make use of organization’s resources to
collect and digest all existing knowledge, is much focus on collaborative view. Detail
discussion As the component of KM framework state by Alavi, M (1997) is included
both social cultural and technology factor and this can be explained by Davenport and
Prusak (1998) that KM project usually focus on several purpose such as technology
infrastructure, knowledge culture, and knowledge visible. I will discuss on how we
can use EIP to perform knowledge sharing along with how to use EIP to achieve
knowledge sharing cycle. In technology view: Firstly I will analysis the functions of
EIP from knowledge management technology view and show how we can use EIP to

18
perform knowledge sharing process that I described above. As EIP is the evolution of
intranet from knowledge management system perspective because intranet cannot
collect information from different data source, haven’t the ability to organize the
information and display it in clear and concise, also the user should know how to
navigate the information before they can use it, all these shortcoming made intranet
cannot fulfill the needs for knowledge sharing across organization and it will become
a nightmare if the information is growing continually (Collins, H. 2001). After
reviewed some literatures on the functions of EIP (Collins, H. 2001; Hall, C. 2000;
Fitzloff, E. and Gardner, D. 1999; Shilakes, C. C. and Tylman, J. 1998), here come up
a model of the architecture and functionality (see Figure 2. ) From the figure we can
see that there are four layers in the architecture, data source layer, application layer,
communication media, and application layer, by this architecture EIP can be claimed
as one of the knowledge management technology framework, because its functions
are matched with the architecture of enterprise knowledge management network
which explained by Tiwan, Amrit (2000). Firstly, the data source layer, EIP need to
collect data from multiple data sources, this idea is supported by Tiwan, Amrit (2000)
which a knowledge management system should get both explicit and tacit knowledge
source for the people to start the identify and collect stage in knowledge sharing cycle.
Secondly, the middle tier application layer, this layer mainly convert raw data into
meaningful information and it is the main layer of EIP because it contains all the
functions and features that support knowledge sharing process. According to the
knowledge management spectrum of Binney, D. (2001), knowledge management
should mapped to one or more elements in the spectrum. EIP provide knowledge
repository with filtering function aim to store and disseminate relevant information,
this features is belongs to the element of asset management. Furthermore, it provide
business intelligence engine for analyzing structured data from legacy database or
data warehouse, this is the element of analytical. Moreover, its spider/crawler feature
can automatically gather and categorize information that can support the acquisition
stage of Tiwan’s knowledge utilization cycle. In addition, it has collaborative function,
discussion forum and push function that fit into the element of innovation and
creation. Thirdly, the communication media layer, as information is being stored in
various formats within knowledge repository, EIP can tidy up those raw information
by filtered and converted to a common format such as XML (Finkelstein, C. and
Aiken, P. 2000; Hall, C. 2000), then present it to user in different application. At last,

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the application layer, apart from the middle tier application layer, this layer provides
the richest functions for knowledge sharing. If we use Syrmie’s (1999) knowledge
value chain for knowledge sharing to analysis them, search engine, information push
technology which help user collect/codify knowledge within or outside corporate.
Alternatively, knowledge base and business intelligence function offer the interface
for user to identify, use and share knowledge. For personalized view, it can create an
customized environment for different user so they can share their thinking easily
(McDermott, R. 1999). Both teamwork and collaboration functions provide a channel
of informal communication with expertise (Collins, H. 2001) so as to support
share/disseminate process in Syrmie’s knowledge sharing cycle. Finally, by
integration EIP can also provide workflow and has the ability to launch other business
application to provide user a one stop workbench in their working environment, and
these capability also fulfill the requirement of transactional and process element of
Binney’s (2001) knowledge management spectrum. In summary, the functions of EIP
that analysis in different view and how to support knowledge sharing process are
listed in Table 2 (see Table 2. ) In social cultural factor: After analysis the EIP from
technology view, it seems EIP can support most of the process in knowledge sharing
cycle, however, there are still some case that people not willing to use EIP for
knowledge sharing (McDermott, R. and O’Dell, C. 2001) by the excuse “I have no
time to document and share what I know” or “My job is so unique, it seems cannot
learn from others”(Balaa, K. 2002). Alavi, M. (1997) stated that knowledge
management included both technology and social cultural factor, this view is
supported by Tiwan, Amrit (2000) who mentioned knowledge management should
focus on the flow, is a management issue, technology is only an enhancer drive by the
right people in the right place to support knowledge management. This approach is
much clear when we talking about knowledge sharing, because there are five elements
need to concern when implemented knowledge sharing. They are (1) the value of
knowledge source, (2) motivational disposition of the knowledge source, (3)
knowledge transfer channel much be richness and exist, (4) motivational disposition
of the received knowledge, (5) absorptive capacity of the received knowledge (Gupta,
A. K. and Govindarajan, V. 2000). I will base on several cases from McDermott, R.
and O’Dell, C. (2001) to analysis on how to use EIP for knowledge sharing. For
creating the value of knowledge source, we can see it from PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC)’s brand, “People, knowledge, and worlds” and has a very clear structure to

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support knowledge management, has global and business line chief knowledge officer,
each staff has to contribute in knowledge management activities. AMS made a tight
relationship between knowledge management and their business strategy by
announced in formal and informal way. Ford Motor Company (Ford) link their
production team with their R&D design team which use EIP to communicate, aimed
to promote knowledge sharing concept. Lotus people are respected what they know
rather than their position, they think that knowledge sharing can identify themselves
in the organization. For the motivation of knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing
contribution is tightly related to AMS’s staff performance appraisal, if any staff has a
good performance, an award will be given. However, their award on knowledge
sharing is only want to show company is concern on the process. In term of the rich
knowledge transfer channel, AMS has both formal and informal network, staff who
need help can find anybody within organization by stopping their work and ask them.
For instance, staff in AMS always share knowledge both on coffeepot or through EIP.
In Ford, they use EIP to share all the design with the subsidiaries aim to avoid the
reoccurred of mistake, people usually make use of this network to discuss and consult
the expert within company before product design. Conclusion As the aim for
implement knowledge management system are (1) make knowledge visible and
identifiable, (2) develop a knowledge intensive culture, (3) build knowledge
infrastructure (Davenport, T. H. and Prusak, L. 1998), and EIP is a kind of knowledge
management project in organization. If we want to use EIP to achieve knowledge
sharing process, we not only focus on technology of EIP but also need to create a
“knowledge age organization” that can help people in thinking. Cultural barrier is not
a main problem if company got a clear objective and policy with enough support
before implementation, then implement EIP which fit into organization culture, after
that ongoing review and proper manage the content in EIP is a must, Besides, give all
the people enough motivation and reward, also need to train up everyone in
organization support and aware use EIP for knowledge sharing is the vital factor to
support business activities.

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