Simplifying knowledge management for SME's in Hungary

The current, well-known, IT based knowledge management systems are fulfilling the requirements of big enterprises more appropriately than SMEs. They provide numerous solutions for collecting, flowing, codifying, storing, sharing and measuring information through the organization. But the importance of knowledge management for SMEs is increasing. To keep themselves on the path of growing, SMEs have to manage and expand their knowledge capital. This need is even stronger in knowledge based industries and e-businesses. In the Southern European region these small and medium sized companies are often suffering from the lack of capital. The difficulties of being small often means that they can not afford buying huge IT-systems or software, and usually they do not really need all the functions that tools offer. The needs of SMEs are different. In our paper we discuss the main requirements of the SMEs' knowledge management systems. We present case studies describing simple knowledge management techniques, applied by SMEs. The case studies prove that when implementing knowledge management creativity is more important than capital. As we believe that KM is a essential supporting tool, we focus on an integrated view of KM, that merges KM with the main functions, planning, leading, controlling- of management. A local start-up financial consultant company uses a free web based tool for codifying the knowledge of the on-site consultants. Thus they are able to follow the efforts employees make, to codify the knowledge and information of the consulting process and measure the results of the projects. It is not only a KM system but also a monitoring and controlling tool. On the other hand we focus on the non-knowledge based industry. A unique software development at a small food delivery company enhanced the planning of the start-up, the codification of the internal and external information and the marketing efforts. It was started as a project management system, but through the codification and storing modules it soon became a common knowledge base of the company. And the whole price of the development was 200 Euros.