Knowledge management in virtual organizations

In order to increase competitiveness, companies need to be able to react to changing and increasing market demands. To become more flexible, companies make use of outsourcing with the purpose to focus on their core competencies. The consequence of this trend is an increasing number of company networks. In order to reach an efficient and effective cooperation within those networks, the development of support functions aiming at improved cooperational and communicational structures is essential. Within these structures the focus is on efficient knowledge and information exchange between the single network companies. Only by consequent implementation of knowledge management within those networks as well as the pooling of knowledge resources of each network company, it is possible to sustainably improve the quality of the industrial services which are based on the factor "knowledge". The goal of the project as represented is the development of an all-embracing and integrating approach for displaying, structuring and management of knowledge within company networks. This is achieved by the development of an Internet based knowledge platform and the standardization of the identified knowledge processes within the company networks. In order to reach this goal, an ontology based knowledge model is being created.