Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence

How does Business Intelligence participate in Knowledge Mangement? It does but as one source of information and therefore corporate knowledge. Figure Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence shows participations of differnet participants in information flow and their contributions in (graph at the bottom) knowledge management and in support to different types of decisions.

Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence

Information are collected from different parts of reporting infromation flow (decision infromation flow). All systems are contributors conatin certain portion of data or information that can serve in generating knowledge in company. 

Production systems create knowledge about transactions: sales, customer care, costs, revenues and similar. This are mostly (narrow) information that create initial knowledge. Knowledge from production systems is important for operational decisions and participates in knowledge management with reports created within production systems. Knowledge is usually managed by security access through web access (easier way) or through document management systems. This is a kind of knowledge that is initial for business analysts and that needs to be enriched with integrative knowledge. For Integrative information serve Master Data Management systems. They make connectivity and ease administration for analytical purpose.

Joined information from Production systems and from Master Data Management are shaped in business logic units – reporting islands within data warehouse. Such logical information units that can function as standalone information entities are called data marts. Knowledge are here relational data models and views. This is raw IT knowledge and expertise. Such knowledge IT does not like to share within standard knowledge management system despite the fact that business users are more and more skilled to make different views and to understand how content is created in schemes.

Upon each data marts are build business intelligence solutions in form of universes, OLAP cubes, web reports and similar. Depending on technical limits and custom functionalities users will have one or many customized business solutions. Separated breed within Business Intelligence solutions are definitively Business Performance Management Applications.  

To be continued…