Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques ... - Index of - Free

“Knowledge sharing can be hampered by lack of standardization. Standardization
is particularly important in ensuring that the knowledge network can be accessible to
new employees,” according to Bill Wallace, Senior VP at construction firm CH2M Hill.
CH2M Hill launched formal KM efforts in the early 1990s, but quickly found that
growth could outpace KM systems if governance of content, consistency of information,
and better integration with IT tools were not properly handled. CH2M Hill now
has a central office for the KM function and an advisory group for KM pilots like an
expertise locator and CoPs addressing transportation and computer-aided engineering.
Companies specializing in tagging solutions for unstructured business data include
Clear Forest, whose technology has been used for applications ranging from detecting
insider tracking on stock exchanges to competitive intelligence in the chemical industry.
Other vendors like The Brain and Inxight offer solutions for clustering and
visualization as well.
Groupware
Overview: The Social Life of KM Tools 9
Desirable features for collaborative tools in the context of KM include affinity
building, knowledge mapping, threading, polling, group document creation, rating,
anonymity, notification, and access management.
A notable trend in tools for collaboration between networked employees is the
convergence between asynchronous (e.g., collaborative document management) and
synchronous (e.g., instant messaging) services, according to Timothy Butler, CEO of
Sitescape.
Natural resources company Rio Tinto has set up 30 active communities of practice
for business improvement, of which 11 are open to all employees, covering topics like
environmental standards, underground safety, and dragline operation. The Rio Tinto
Collaborative Forum (RTCF) was set up in February 2002, and a teamware tool was
devised leveraging e-mail (particularly useful for people on the road) instead of direct
Web access.
IBM’s intellectual capital management (ICM) program, launched in 1994, marked a
shift in focus from “big iron to big intellects.” The framework is embedded in the policies,
processes, personnel, values, and technology of the company. Key tools used include
the ICM Asset Web (enterprise-wide infrastructure), Knowledge Café (for collaboration),
and Knowledge Cockpit (for business intelligence and knowledge discovery).
Siemens Medical Solutions has an intranet-based portal based on OpenText’s
Livelink to support collaboration, knowledge sharing (“ShareNet”), and document
management. The single-platform approach helps reduce the number of applications
for similar purposes (e.g., e-Room, Sitescape, Hyperwave, Lotus Notes).
McKinsey has a culture where its professionals seem averse to reusing codified expertise
of others and prefer unique solutions. Instead of searching for information on
intranet databases, they prefer to meet and think creatively. Thus, KM professionals are
part of the HR department and specialize in bringing people to people for collaboration.
In academic institutes like George Washington University, tools such as Entopia’s
Quantum solution are used to build content and collaboration platforms between
faculty and students, building social links to tacit knowledge and encouraging knowledge
sharing.
The challenge is moving through successful phases of integration of information,
application and business processes for increasingly large networks (at the level of
departments, enterprises and inter-organizational communities). Other trends to watch
include the proliferation of P2P collaboration tools like Groove.