Acquiring the KM System

Building In-house from Scratch

• Requires ready professionals.

• Development cost is high.

• Risk is high.

• Main benefit is the customization.

Buying

• Quick installation.

• Low cost.

• Customization may not be quite right.

Outsourcing

• It is a trend that allows organizations to concentrate on their strengths while technological design and other specialized areas are releases to outsiders.

Present trend exists towards ready-to-use, generalized software packages. Advantages of a reliable KM software package:

• Implementation time is shorter.

• Development cost is comparatively low.

• There exists reduced need of resources.

• Offer greater flexibility.

• Shorter track record.

• Lack of competition.

• Application incompatibility.

Crucial components in case of knowledge management systems development:

• Reliability

• Market pressure.

• Usability.

• Modularity.

• Performance.

• Serviceability.

• Portability.

Buying or outsourcing a KM system raises the important question of ownership. The issues to consider in case of ownership:

• What is the user paying for?

• What restrictions exist in case of copying the software for organizational subdivisions?

• Who can modify the software and what are the associated costs?

• How the modifications can be made if at some stage the vendor happens to be out of business?