In an increasingly competitive global business environment, the fast pace of technological change, widely dispersed expertise and strong competition demands proactive decision-making by today’s corporations. Global information management has become increasingly important, as businesses strive to leverage their information resources for competitive advantage. Innovative expert systems that enhance and speed up the decision-making process are one avenue for improving an organization’s competitive position. However, most expert systems are designed as stand-alone products and, as such, they do not reflect actual decision-making within an organization. This paper discusses a design that extends the concept of a hierarchical expert system management system into a network of expert systems from multiple domains. This model is designed to bring the best source of knowledge to the decision-making process. Further, it is intended to use these resources to quickly make adjustments to the rapidly changing business environment. The model is less restrictive, thus making it suitable for use in self-directed team environments. Furthermore, these concepts also provide support for dynamic organizational change. An illustration is provided to show how such a network of expert systems can assist a manager attempting to identify principal labour needs within an organization.
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