Knowledge Management Systems are the integration of technologies and mechanisms that are developed to support the four KM processes (discovery, capture, sharing, application).

Knowledge Management Systems can be classified into four:

• Knowledge Discovery Systems
• Knowledge Capture Systems
• Knowledge Sharing Systems
• Knowledge Application Systems.

Knowledge Discovery Systems support the process of developing new tacit or explicit knowledge from data and information or from the synthesis of prior knowledge. These systems support two KM subprocesses associated with knowledge discovery:

• combination, enabling the discovery of new explicit knowledge; and
• socialization, enabling the discovery of new tacit knowledge.

Knowledge Capture Systems support the process of retrieving either explicit or tacit knowledge that resides within people, artifacts, or organizational entities. These systems can help capture knowledge that resides within or outside organizational boundaries including within consultants, competitors, customers, suppliers, and prior employers of the organization's new employees.

Knowledge Sharing Systems support the process through which explicit or tacit knowledge is communicated to other individuals.

Knowledge Application Systems support the process through which some individuals utilize knowledge possessed by other individuals without actually acquiring, or learning, that knowledge.

You learned about some of these systems before watching the vidoclips provided in the previous sections.