The enterprise portal – is it knowledge management?

Abstract

Currently we are in the middle of the information age, suffering from information overload on the one hand and a lack of knowledge on the other. Enterprise portals (EPs) are seen as the antidote to these problems by becoming more and more the ultimate knowledge management (KM) tool. The current hype about EPs is focused on their application as KM tools. Very little attention is given to other aspects of KM, namely the organisational, human and cultural aspects. The article will provide an overview of the technical and strategic relationship between EPs and KM and illustrate that EPs are only the technology component and should not be mistaken for the essence of KM. What is needed for successful KM in an organisation is not technology alone, but also a knowledge‐sharing culture, knowledge‐sharing policies, organisational processes, performance measurement and business strategies.