1. ¹Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece
2. ²Information Process Engineering, Forschungszentrum Informatik, Karlsruhe, Germany
3. ³School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Correspondence: Gregoris Mentzas, 9, Iroon Polytechniou str., Zografou Campus, Zografou, Athens 15780, Greece. Tel: +30 210 7723895; Fax: +30 210 7723550; E-mail: gmentzas@mail.ntua.gr

Received 28 February 2006; Revised 31 January 2007; Accepted 4 September 2007.

Abstract

Decision makers process and combine manifold types of data, information and knowledge, available in various forms in the organisation. The aim of knowledge management (KM) is to provide timely and contextual knowledge to decision makers. A comprehensive KM initiative should leverage the wealth of explicit and tacit knowledge residing in an organisation. In this paper, we advance an ontology-based knowledge handling method and tool that aim at harmonising the codification and socialisation approaches to KM. We present the software system that has been developed and then explain how it can be applied in a methodology-driven manner. This is illustrated using the real-world example of a KM initiative in a management consulting company.