Research On The Application Of Knowledge Management In Consulting Service

Since 1990s, with the fast development of high-technology industry, especially the information technology oriented industry, every country, especially developed country, relies more on the production, distribution and application of knowledge than ever before. World economy is transferring to knowledge-based and the society is entering knowledge economy era. In academic area, many scholars began to do research on knowledge management so as to apply relevant theory into practice, to help enterprises earn more in knowledge economy era. In practice area, with the globalization as well as the knowledge economy era's coming, enterprises are realizing the importance of knowledge management. More and more enterprises started implementing knowledge management, for instance, calling for organize culture of knowledge sharing, establishing knowledge-organization, applying data warehouse and so forth. However, the effect of the implementation of knowledge management within enterprise is not very satisfied. Although it is a bit difficult to transfer the theory into practice, however, we also cannot ignore the innovation of knowledge management theory. Or we can draw lessons from those successful cases and create general and new knowledge management application theories. So, 20 years after the introduction of knowledge management, it's very meaningful for us to review the theory and practice of knowledge management. It's not only the need of the new time, but also the need of the development of enterprises.Although consulting service is not a product of knowledge economy, however, its coverage, no matter from geography or business, is expanding at a high speed in the new century. Narrowly speaking, consulting service includes not only the traditional management consulting firm, but also financial service company, IT consulting firm and so on. Broadly speaking, consulting service covers nearly all the professional service in all different industries. The service line is from a multination corporation's strategy making to a small company's operation suggestion. And the common point of all these consulting service providers is they are typical knowledge-based firm, which they provide to their clients are knowledge. Specifically, consulting firm provides service for decision making and knowledge is consulting firm's baseline and profit earning machine. So it is extremely critical for consulting firm to research and practice knowledge management. The core capability of consulting firm is developed from the practice of knowledge management. In a word, Applying knowledge management is very important for consulting firm to create sustainable competitive strengths.However, traditional knowledge management theory just focuses on improving enterprise's organization culture, creating learning organization or applying IT, the purpose of implementing knowledge management is help enterprise share their internal knowledge better and transfer tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. On the other hand, current literature of knowledge management is mainly about the knowledge management's application in manufacturing industry and few literatures about the knowledge management's application in consulting service. The difference of knowledge management's application between manufacturing industry and consulting service is very obvious, so the author would like to start from process side, to create a new method for the application of knowledge management in consulting service. In fact, many consulting firms have implemented knowledge management, so the author try to apply the new method to review firms' current knowledge management's tool, technology and method and ensure the practicality of the new method.In this article, the author will do the research on the application of knowledge management based on process view in consulting service, to find a feasible solution combine the knowledge with business process, information technology, organization culture and so forth in order to better implement knowledge management in consulting service and finally heighten consulting firms' competitive edge. The author try to establish a totally new knowledge management application solution based on process, through the review of consulting service's strategy, core assets, available resource, business process, knowledge structure and knowledge process, and at the same time, apply knowledge audit, to get a typical consulting firm's core knowledge, depict consulting firm's knowledge management map and finally make a detailed knowledge management implementation solution for consulting firm. In the end, the author proves the feasibility of the solution via a real case of knowledge management application in a consulting firm.