A Conceptual Model of a Knowledge Warehouse

A firm's capability to transfer its existing knowledge to various stakeholders and translate knowledge into action determines its success in today's volatile global business environment. However, while many firms systematically manage data and information, managing knowledge remains a controversial issue. One of the reasons for this is inconclusiveness about what knowledge is and whether it can be managed. In order to more precisely define knowledge and its management, a knowledge warehouse conceptual model (KW-CM) is proposed for practically and systematically assimilating of knowledge within organizational business processes. This conceptual model integrates aspects of knowledge that encompass business processes, stakeholders and other organizational information systems within the existing data warehouse (DW) conceptual model. In addition, the paper presents a formal architecture, definitions and guidelines that describe the KW components and processes for leveraging data and information into knowledge. The proposed KW-CM is demonstrated with an example of a DW which handles information regarding customer product usage.