Knowledge management is one of those concepts that emerged with the aim to collect and share expertise across an organization. In theory, this is a great concept as it enables employees to fill out profiles to be placed in a database. These profiles capture information about their skills and knowledge and then colleagues can easily query the system to find the most qualified person to help with a specific project.

According to a Network World (News - Alert) report, knowledge management enables organizations to pool employee brainpower. This process helps to speed up and refine how the organization operates by drawing on collaboration. While this approach makes sense on paper, knowledge management never actually swept the nation on the corporate front.

One of the challenges to integrating knowledge management across the enterprise is that it is a time-intensive exercise and unless employees remember to keep their knowledge management activities constant, the value of the information is quickly depleted. Employees need to update their profiles, but they forget to do so, or find the process too cumbersome. As a result, the database becomes less useful.

The idea of knowledge management is still a good one, but advanced tools and improved processes are necessary to facilitate its use. The good news is that advanced collaboration tools and a fresh mindset regarding sharing information through social networking are breathing new life into knowledge management.

One real-world example is that of design firm WPP, which recently deployed software from PBworks to enable employees in 15 countries to collaborate on client accounts. Users chat and share documents all while the system archives the information and conversations. This innovative system takes care of the drudgery of knowledge management database updating by implementing automated processes.

John Poulin, director and principal solution architect at Huron Consulting Group, suggests that while this approach to knowledge management offers promise, it also presents challenges. He highlights that if the collaboration purpose is to improve decision making, CIOs need to integrate collaboration tools with e-mail, business process management and analytics applications to truly derive value from their knowledge management platforms. Integration with social networking platforms is simply not enough.

Poulin stresses that collaboration works best when employees can tap into a number of different information sources. As a result, like-minded groups of people can gather online to exchange data and then disband when the project is done. And, the better the integration of the knowledge management solution with other platforms within the enterprise, the greater the benefit and value for the organization.