Knowledge Management Overview

Knowledge management at K-solutions focuses on providing the means for organisations to mobilise knowledge. The K-solutions suite of knowledge management products provide an unique front to back process from the development, to the use of knowledge driven by a continual value analysis to increase performance within the enterprise. The K-solutions knowledge management product portfolio consists of the K-forum, K-web, K-master, K-project and K-team along with the K-match, K-SendTo and K-desk products. All these products are supported by consulting services. K-solutions Knowledge Management Products

Establishing Knowledge Management in the Enterprise

By the provision of a knowledge infrastructure, knowledge may be developed, synthesised and provided to all or just a chosen area of an enterprise. Knowledge is linked to the strategic objectives and the primary value chain and thus may be measured for contribution to the overall wealth of the enterprise.

To establish knowledge management in any enterprise is defined as a journey, a journey to establish relationships between people and to gain an understanding of how they must behave and work together in a knowledge sharing enterprise. This is manifestly different to running a task-oriented project where the goal is to achieve the deliverables rather than to gain the relationships. A focus then, in any strategic programme is to establish a knowledge sharing enterprise must be on motivating the individuals in the businesses to learn new techniques and methodologies, to work more closely together, understanding the core knowledge that supports and gives value as a business. The questions to answer may include:

How to engage the people in the business and the techniques and methodologies required to motivate the people of the importance of shared knowledge.

How to create a knowledge management infrastructure that supports this, including the knowledge architecture and framework.

How to manage, champion and lead to establish the people requirements in the knowledge management programme.

What technology is needed to support knowledge management?

How the knowledge supports the strategic objectives of the group.

The Requirements for Establishing Knowledge Management

The need to constantly change to react to the market and the environment demand a pace of learning that requires a disciplined organisation supported by Information Technology in order to survive. To perform to participate nee keep ahead of the competition demands an understanding of what the "learning agenda" is in order to support performance improvement. Leadership companies have some of the following characteristics as part of their fabric:

Their leadership promotes the continuous identification of skill and knowledge requirements and promotes knowledge activities that lead to enhanced learning that add value to the business
They have a co-ordinated approach to closing skill gaps and creating, organising and sharing knowledge
They foster a culture where knowledge is created and shared through formal and informal networks of people organised around a common business purpose
They have a technology infrastructure that supports the interactions required by their knowledge shared networks

In the current situation, with the current approach, the challenge will be to understand:

How to provide access to the wealth of information that already exists
How to provide best practice and case studies on specific topics
How to share knowledge with subject experts and the expertise they have
How to provide best practice checklists
How to be able to note and share observations and insights on subjects and contacts
How to be able to increase the level of skill in negotiating, communicating, analysing etc.
How to be able to monitor the actions done and the outcomes they achieve
How to replenish the knowledge and information continuously to a required level
How to share this with everybody in and across the enterprise or their audience

K-solutions define an approach to establishthe analysis of the changes that will be evaluated to lead to a program of change by providing the following:

Vision for Knowledge Management
Process and Map for Knowledge Management
Work Frame Analysis to feed into Organisational change
Support Resources Analysis
Design and plan for an infrastructure that supports Knowledge Management using K-solutions
Requirements Definition specification
Release 1.0 of the Knowledge Management Domino System
Training plan and train the trainer
Acceptance Criteria on how the infrastructure could be implemented
Recommended future releases
Recommended support
Schedule of future work
Change Management Plan

Project and Service benefits of Knowledge Management

The benefits for mobilising knowledge are seen to be as follows:

Quantifiable

Measured increase in performance by reducing duplication and repetition
Measured predictability of turnaround time of processes, shortened by not continually having to research the information required
Up-skilling individuals to levels of knowledge shared with each other that provides consensus and less debating time more easily
Relating reward to contribution of work in terms of increased process performance and providing the effects the business requires based on understanding the causes in the least amount of time
Increased consistency of information would reduce the number of reviews required thus the reduction in manpower and cost
Clarity of Information to a defined decision model would speed up decision making and lead to more effective decisions being made

Qualitative