Objectives of knowledge management

Augmented reality 
(AR)
Blends real- world 
digital data captured 
typically with a digital 
camera in a webcam 
or mobile phone to 
create a browser- based 
digital representation or 
experience mimicking 
that of the real world.
Mini Case Study 3.2
In South Korea, Tesco Home plus has significantly fewer stores than the market leader E-mart. Based on 
research which showed that many Koreans tend to shop in stores near their homes for convenience, Tesco 
trialled a virtual store to reach these shoppers.
Virtual displays were implemented in a similar way to actual stores – from the display to merchandise, 
but with smartphone QR code readers used to shop and after checkout the goods are delivered to the cus-
tomer’s home (Figure 3.2).
Tesco Homeplus opens subway virtual store in South Korea
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Part 1
Introduction
Digital business infrastructure components 
Figure 3.3 summarises how the different components of digital business architecture relate 
to each other. The different components can be conceived of as layers with defined inter-
faces between each layer. The different layers can best be understood in relation to a typical 
task performed by a user of a digital business system. For example, an employee who needs 
to book a holiday will access a specific human resources application or program that has 
been created to enable the holiday to be booked (Level I in Figure 3.3 ). This application will 
enable a holiday request to be entered and will forward the application to the employee’s 
manager and the human resources department for approval. To access the application, the 
employee will use a web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or 
Google Chrome using an operating system such as Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X 
(Level II). This systems software will then request transfer of the information about the 
holiday request across a network or transport layer (Level III). The information will then 
be stored in computer memory (RAM) or in long- term magnetic storage on a web server 
(Level IV). The information itself, which makes up the web pages or content viewed by the 
employee, and the data about their holiday request are shown as a separate layer (Level V in 
Figure 3.3 ), although it could be argued that this is the first or second level in an e-business 
architecture.
Digital business infrastructure components
Figure 3.2 
Tesco virtual store
Source 
: adapted from South Korea subway virtual store, http://www.tescoplc.com/index.
asp?pageid=69&mediacategory=27, Tesco PLC. 
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Chapter 3
Managing digital business infrastructure
Kampas (2000) describes an alternative five- level infrastructure model of what he refers to 
as ‘the information system function chain’: