Knowledge goes to waste if no one can find it. Although a large part of an organizations knowledge is contained in its people (and usually not capturable in any straightforward way), a significant amount of valuable informaiton is contained in publications, reports, updates, and other documents.

In Getting the Most from Content Management, Sam Goldman talks about the importance of developing a taxonomy for any content management system so that it's possible to find the information that exists when it's needed:

In creating its taxonomy, a company might begin with a survey into what information exists and what is needed and of interest to people inside and outside the organization. It is also helpful to assess how vendors, partners and employees view the organization and how, in that context, they might seek information. Such a process must involve key stakeholders and knowledge professionals working in collaboration with IT.

Information exists in every part of an organization but often remains hidden to those outside a particular division. This is because there isn't a consistent contextual relationship between that information and the way it's captured. The description used by finance might be (and probably is -- remember Murphy's Law?) different from the term used in marketing. Establishing a common vocabulary and rules for applying terminology and labeling, for example, can make all the difference here.