 | | Abstract | Every company has expertise: skills and knowledge in particular areas. But most expertise walks out the door every day at 6pm, and some of it never returns. Some of it no one even knows about. But what if there were a way to collect, organize, classify and distribute this expertise throughout the organization to those who need it, whenever they need it? Expertise software promises to do just that. But is this tool the killer knowledge management application? Will expertise software prove to be that elusive key application that propels knowledge management towards its as-of-yet unfulfilled promise of "allowing a company to know what it knows?" And, ultimately, will people invest more into knowledge management systems because expertise software exists?
To answer these questions, Basex looked at the major expertise software products and the uses to which those systems are being put. Our analysis shows that expertise software offers a vast improvement over traditional practices for locating enterprise expertise. Traditional methods, such as skill directories and data repositories are quickly outdated. Expertise software addresses these weaknesses, since the more it is used, the more accurate its results become. In addition, by focusing on a people-centric approach, as opposed to a data-centric one, both the tacit and explicit knowledge of the enterprise can be tapped! KM vendors and managers searching for a competitive edge will find this report invaluable.
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