White Papers

Abstract: In most enterprises, the effective selection and deployment of knowledge management software tools is a critical success factor in a knowledge management initiative. However, there is a deluge of tools claiming to provide a KM solution. It can be a daunting task to analyze these tools and select the best one for a given job.
This paper proposes a framework called KSS (Knowledge Structure and Services) that can be used to analyze and compare knowledge management tools. The framework is centered on the concepts of knowledge structure and knowledge services. These two dimensions can be used to form a matrix in which specific KM tools are positioned. This helps to visualize the coverage of a specific tool, and is therefore a convenient way to quickly compare and distinguish different tools. Further, it can be used to evaluate specific needs and match them to the services provided by available tools.