New Roles For Information Technology: Managing Internal Knowledge & External Relationships

Abstract

The evolution of the application of information technology in business reveals two major trends: helping firms more systematically manage both internal knowledge and external relationships.  These two roles are supported by information technologies that: (a) provide centralized access to integrated, coordinated information; (b) sift through voluminous data for patterns, relationships and knowledge; (c) support group decision making, virtual teams, and knowledge management across the organization; and (d) facilitate broad-based communication, external relationship building, and supply chain management. Applied examples of information technologies supporting these new roles are described, including enterprise resource planning systems and data warehouses, data mining and artificial intelligence, groupware and Internet based technologies.