Knowledge Management for beginners
Knowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply as the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Knowledge assets are often grouped into two categories:
(1) Explicit Knowledge
Generally, everything and anything that can be documented, archived and codified. Examples include patents, trademarks, business plans, marketing research and customer lists.
(2) Tacit Knowledge
The rest. Tacit knowledge is the know-how contained in people's heads. The challenge inherent with tacit knowledge is figuring out how to recognize, generate, share and manage it.
Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to reach ? or go beyond - best practice.
Where Collaboration technologies can help? and hinder
For explicit knowledge, the focus can usefully be described as "connecting people to things", whilst for tacit knowledge, the focus is "connecting people to people".
As such, structured and unstructured search technologies are usually the core of strategies to encourage greater sharing of explicit knowledge; the user searches for a document either by typing some text into a search engine or by clicking through a document taxonomy.
Similarly, a well structured "yellow pages" directory, where one can search for people with particular skills or experience, forms the centrepiece of tacit strategies; where the aim is to connect people often for 10 minute telephone conversations / requests for help that could save a week's work.
Both explicit and tacit strategies are, however, much enhanced when combined with Collaboration or "work-group" technologies. By creating "communuities of interest" around cross-functional themes, individuals can share documents, plans and other material, find and discuss issues with subject-matter experts and even allocate tasks and calendar items to each other.
For example, a community for "customer insight" might have members drawn from call centre operations, marketing and IT teams (to name but a few) who share a common interest in better understanding the customer need. They could each contribute into the team space document repository materials that (once added together) create powerful new insights and possible future revenue enhancement. By sharing, they (a) gather a sense of belonging to a wider network of similarly minded people, (b) gain knowledge that helps each to better achieve their objectives and (c) gain recognition for being an expert in their particular area.
Benefits (for your business case) include: (a) better customer service through improved response times, (b) faster new product development and time to market, (c) enhanced employee retention through rewarding knowledge sharing, (d) reduced Opex through the streamlining of processes, (e) reduced IT network and storage cost growth through a reduction in email file attachments.
There are, however, risks to collaboration, where poorly implemented. For example, if individual community documents are not accessible through the overall portal search, then you risk creating information silos, where only a select few can access information that is of much wider use. Also, part of your portal benefits are likely to stem from people visiting all areas of the site and learning about other departments and teams. If people spend all their time in their own team rooms, the benefits of this wider perspective will be lost.
Typical Team Room Functionality
Most intranet portal offerings contain some collaboration functionality, either (a) as a standalone optional module, (b) as a partly integrated standard portlet or (c) as a fully integrated function, combined with email systems.
Typical elements include:
1) Shared Calendar:
The team can maintain a single calendar of notable team events or shared deadlines. Where not fully integrated to email systems, this functionality is sometimes only sparingly used.
2) Discussion Forums:
The team can set up and post to threaded discussions, where issues or opportunities can be fully explored. It can take time for people to really get used to using this functionality and taking such discussions off the email system. A key role is that of the moderator, who can (a) spark new discussions, (b) invite people to join them, (c) deal with any abuse of etiquette and (d) capture and structure the result (e.g. a key decision) before archiving the thread.
3) Shared Documents:
The team can workflow, version control, security protect and store / retrieve documents, including policies, reports, analysis and plans. This functionality is often the most heavily used and of particular value for project teams, where many hundreds of key documents may be created in the course of delivery.
4) Allocate Tasks:
The team can set-up tasks and allocate them to themlseves or other team members. Reminders appear in the team calendar and (where there is email integration) in the email inbox of the task owner. Again, it can take time to get people usign this functionality but ? once working well ? can be of immense value for teams driving at particular outcomes and deadlines.
Some final thoughts
Collaboration technologies can be a very powerful addition to your knowledge management strategy, complementing structured search and yellow pages functionality. It is important to get the implementation right. In particular, to really think about ways to move people from email to teamrooms (e.g link to files in a teamspace rather than attach them) and to ensure that documents in teamrooms can be accessible via the wider portal search functionality.
About the author:
David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.
Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.
In this surreal world of the internet, anyone, even you,... Read More
There are lots of ways to advertise for free but... Read More
Often times people to stop to realize the income potential... Read More
Have you ever gone grocery shopping just before a holiday?... Read More
The sad truth is, general Web users would love it... Read More
A year ago, I had big plans to re-vamp my... Read More
The development and expansion of the Internet has made business... Read More
What is an E-marketplace anyway?E-marketplace is a business to business... Read More
Some people do not understand the Internet idea of online... Read More
Paypal is one of the wonders of the web. Never... Read More
E-commerce offers customers the chance to eliminate many stages in... Read More
I spent a lifetime in retailing and I'm still at... Read More
This article will explain in depth the steps needed to... Read More
Have you ever gone to the store and thought you... Read More
One bright spot on the economic horizons around the world... Read More
This isn't the first time I have written about the... Read More
What does "helping your visitors" mean exactly?It means writing your... Read More
When it comes to e-commerce everything is a little bit... Read More
An internet business is by far the best way to... Read More
Inherent (or Business) RiskInherent Risk is the risk that exists... Read More
When your eCommerce business grows to the point where you... Read More
What a loaded question! Let's narrow that down a bit... Read More
This is a short article because in the constraints of... Read More
Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How... Read More
Yes, it's true, coupons are not just for newspapers anymore.... Read More
Global Insight, a leading economic and financial forecasting company, (formerly... Read More
In the last column we discussed the process of credit... Read More
There are many ways to make money online and the... Read More
Last time, we started to take a look at the... Read More
When most people think of a retirement gift, they think... Read More
Maybe no business requiring little or no capital pays as... Read More
A beginner's guide to setting up a successful online store... Read More
What would you do if you were sent an email... Read More
The Internet brought a great deal of benefits to our... Read More
Increase Company ProductivityAfter years of hard work, finally your business... Read More
Let's face it, there's just way too much information out... Read More
Businesses, which are still sitting on sidelines and not doing... Read More
You have probably heard many times how you should offer... Read More
What is an E-marketplace anyway?E-marketplace is a business to business... Read More
Merchant Account BasicsA Merchant Account is a commercial bank account... Read More
We all know that accepting credit cards is the key... Read More
What is a Stakeholder?Try "define: Stakeholder" in Google and you... Read More
The virtual corporation is the emerging organisational form, which best... Read More
Using an Address Verification System (AVS) when processing your online... Read More
China's IT industry is expected to see a sales revenue... Read More
In Part One we talked a little bit about what... Read More
....there's much more to Google than you thought:With the wealth... Read More
Anyone with an online business, whether for auctions, services, or... Read More
Online customer service is still one of the most frequently... Read More
Once your website has secured an order, you have to... Read More
Nowadays, shopping online is a very common thing. Making your... Read More
What a loaded question! Let's narrow that down a bit... Read More
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose... Read More
According to Internet.com, by the year 2008 nearly 30% of... Read More
How much holiday shopping did you do on-line this year?... Read More
Open Source applications can bring unique value to business owners.... Read More
The World As It Then WasThe dynamic economic growth of... Read More
So you want to start a business? Good for you.... Read More
Paypal is one of the wonders of the web. Never... Read More
Because of this encouraging surge in activity, many individuals are... Read More
This isn't the first time I have written about the... Read More
While getting less public handwringing than during holiday season, the... Read More
For whatever reason, when we get a new boost in... Read More
What is the Internet?In order to provide a discussion on... Read More
The fourth step of how to start an Internet business... Read More
Ten great tips to turn online holiday shoppers into eager... Read More
E-commerce |