WivU - Knowledge Management in virtual organizations to improve the efficiency of service provision

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 which engineering services are exchanged. But 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. In practise, company cooperations often fail because of the nonexistence of an uniform understanding of the terms used in practice. This can lead to costly misunderstandings. Problems eventually arise because of the non existence of a general understanding in the project settlement. This again leads to friction losses in coordination and scheduling. In order to achieve an efficient cooperation within a company network an unitary, standardized terminology as well as a common understanding of the project processes and activities is required. The WivU-Project: "Knowledge Management in virtual organizations to improve the efficiency of service provision", is launched by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour, and deals with the question of how the knowledge exchange in virtual company networks can be improved when a standardized knowledge language with respect to the industrial engineering service sector is introduced. The following article drafts the current state of knowledge concerning the development of a knowledge language as well as the required course of action.