A Simulation System for Evaluating Knowledge Management System (KMS)Implementation Strategies in Small to Mid-Size Enterprises (SME)

Companies create and use information and knowledge every day. The problem all companies have is figuring out how to efficiently discover that knowledge, capture it, share it, and use it to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. This article describes a simulation model designed to provide small to midsized enterprises (SME) with a means to understand the impact of barriers and value accelerators on the flow of organizational information. The simulation model reports the throughput of information (number of information packets received per day) and its timeliness (average duration until packet arrival) and provides for sensitivity analysis of the parameters describing a strategy. Comparisons among model instantiations allow an organization to determine the appropriate strategy for current and future KMS efforts.