Over a number of years the role of knowledge in an organization has emerged to that of an essential corporate asset. Globalization, downsizing, decreasing cycle times, and rising competitive pressure have contributed to an increase in the meaning of knowledge for organizations. Since products and services become more complex and consequently more knowledge intensive, companies are more and more likely to position themselves on basis of their expertise. As a result, knowledge becomes an organization’s main source of a sustainable competitive advantage allowing companies to be more successful than the competitors.
Information technologies are widely used in companies to support the frequent processes ofknowledge management and thus facilitate generation of new knowledge and enable capture, retention and re-use of best practices as well as know-how within the company. Success of technologies supporting knowledge management depends, however, on the complex interplay of numerous factors. Within the scope of this thesis, knowledge management initiatives at a selected department of an integrated circuits supplier are evaluated with particular focus on document-centric collaboration. Thus, the status quo of collaboration support, including usage intensity of the available platforms and systems as well as their acceptance, is evaluated based on the empirical data gathered via an online-questionnaire. The concept of the survey questionnaire developed in the context of this thesis is substantiated by the analysis of various approaches to estimation of knowledge management success. In conclusion, core obstacles for the existing collaboration support concept are identified and potential resolution strategies are discussed.
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