Paradigm Systems Berhad

What is Knowledge Management (KM) and Why. One KM Guru says knowledge is “Information combined with experience, context, interpretation and reflection”; another exhorts “Knowledge is the capacity for effective action” the dictionary says “Knowledge is understanding gained through experience” and a myriad of other KM gurus have come up with their own definition of Knowledge. The next question is; What is Knowledge Management? The various definitions that have been thrown around would leave one utterly confused. Some KM gurus have added to the confusion by saying that Knowledge cannot be managed and contend that the term Knowledge Management is not appropriate. The jury is still out on this. In the meantime what do we do? Is KM as we tacitly accept and understand, necessary?

History

The early years of civilization witnessed humans hunting for food. Then, came the Agrarian Age, when we learnt to till the soil and engage in meaningful crop cultivation to improve our lot. This was followed by the Industrial Age that saw people generate wealth by engaging land, labour and capital as factors of production. This went on for close to 400 years. The last 30 years or so saw the gradual introduction of the Information Age, with the advent of computers and the Internet. The world became smaller, almost a global village. Traditional barriers and boundaries collapsed. Established production and service models were threatened. Competition sprouted from totally unexpected sources.

Something had to be done. We realized that people have learnt to master management of the 3 factors of production, i.e. land, labour and capital. What we needed to continue generating wealth and improving the lot of mankind was the introduction of a 4th factor of production, that is, Knowledge Management. This has become the key differentiator and the Knowledge Economy or K-Economy manifested itself.

One top management thinker says ;
“ Ignore Knowledge Management at your own peril”.

Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Sharing have been around since the beginning of civilization. Knowledge has been passed down from one generation to the other. However, what we have lacked is conscious and sustained effort to, gather, organize, store and share Knowledge anytime, anywhere. With the growing sophistication and use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) almost all the barriers in effective Knowledge Management have been broken down. ICT has become the single most significant factor in the phenomenal growth of the K-Economy.

Conscious and sustained effort in Managing Knowledge is inevitable. KM is not to be feared. It requires understanding and affirmative action. Everyone in the organization must understand or must be made to understand the importance of KM. KM initiatives must be organized, coordinated, monitored, reviewed and harmonized.

KM is a journey and NOT a destination. Knowledge creation should be perpetual and so should Knowledge Management.

The key elements in KM are People, Process, Content and the KM enablers. Paradigm Systems Berhad (“Paradigm”) has been in the Information and Knowledge Management solutions business since 1994. We at Paradigm have gradually built our expertise and today can proudly say that we have one of the most effective KM solutions team in the country.

Paradigm understands the role and importance of Technology in KM. However, we have great respect for the other KM elements and enablers and have a dedicated consulting team that has spent a great amount of time building Paradigm’s KM Implementation services and methodology. We understand the importance of getting things right the 1st time. We have refined the various products and services to near perfection. In addition to KM software products, we bring with us invaluable ‘Know-How” in Information and Knowledge Management. Some of our services include :-