Knowledge Management as Foundation of Smart University

Functioning in an era of knowledge is forcing organizations to manage this valuable resource in exact way. Very frequently activities of organizations are dependent on the application of knowledge, sometimes even means "to be or not to be" for enterprise. Nowadays, to fulfill business goals of institutions it becomes fundamental for them to use intelligent systems supporting comprehensive management of the organization. Such support allows to increase efficiency and better effectiveness of the running businesses. As we are living in age of international integration, where world economy is tending to reach type of knowledge-based economy (KBE), universities are forced also to change way of their functioning. It is important for modern universities to be not only education centers but mainly the successfully prospering organizations-based-on-knowledge. Such approach is going to provide higher competitiveness of particular institution and will make its functioning more useful for economy of the region. Implementing a comprehensive and intelligent IT solution within a university and providing educational services, which are personalized to the needs of the market, will allow universities to reach a type of institution called "smart". The aim of the paper is explanation why university centers should evolve in a type of institution based on knowledge. The paper is managed as follows. After short introduction concerning research context the discussed concepts of Knowledge Management and Smart Universities are presented. In the main section real examples of Knowledge Management Systems implementation and examples of Smart Universities are investigated in order to identify and describe roles of Knowledge Management Systems in this area. It allows for formulation conclusions on intersection of two investigated approaches.