Preface for the Third Edition - Read

8 A. Introduction
Examples show the often substantial size of KMS. Already in 2000, Ernst &
Young managed more than a million documents in more than 5,000 networked
internal Lotus Notes data bases and a large number of external sources, such as online
data bases provided e.g., by Reuters, the Gartner Group, Forrester or One-
Source (Ezingeard et al. 2000, 810). In 2004, Siemens had more than 85,000 users
of the company’s KMS built on the basis of Open Text Livelink, more than 1,600
communities, more than a million documents accounting for more than 1,500 GB,
more than 13,000 attributed knowledge objects and 2-5% new documents or versions
per month 15 .
Knowledge management systems require a systematic knowledge management
initiative in order to be used effectively and efficiently. This includes a KM strategy
and the development of KM goals, an appropriate organizational design
describing KM instruments to be used, roles responsible for knowledge-related
tasks and processes that use KMS, a supportive organizational culture and a corresponding
KMS controlling that evaluates whether the goals of using these systems
have been achieved.
This book reviews the state of theory—concepts, approaches and theories from
a variety of contributing fields and disciplines—and the state of practice—initiatives,
projects and activities in organizations—of KMS to support knowledge management
initiatives. The focus is on KMS or, more generally, on information and
communication technology for KM initiatives. In order to get a more holistic picture
of how organizations deploy KMS, this focus is extended to include KM strategy,
organization and economics which are studied from the perspective of KMS.
In the following, the goals of this book will be discussed in detail.
15. These figures were presented during the years 2005 and 2006 at KM conferences and
workshops by Dr. Hofer-Alfeis, then Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, now Amontis.