KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES The Problem Infosys Technalogies, a global software services company based in India, is a worldwide leader in technology outsourcing and consulting, With over 23,000 employees and Globally distributed operations, Infosys develops 17 solutions for some of the largest corporations inthe world. During the past 12 years, Infosys has experienced annual growth of 50 percent. Infosys faced a challenge of keeping its (arge temployee base up-to-date, staying ahead of both its Competitors and clients, and ensuring that the lessons learned in one part of the organization were available to its, consultants so they could reuse the knowledge accumulated in the company. The company’s motto is “Learn once, use “anywhere.” The companys vision is that every instance of learning within Infosys should be available to every ‘employee at any place and any time. But how does an ‘organization turn such a vision into a reality? The Solution Infosys Technologies’ effort to convert each employee's knowledge into an organizational asset started in the early 1990s and it is still going on today. In the early 1990s, Infosys launched its bodies of knowledge (BOK) initiative, ‘wich involved encouraging employees to provide writen accounts of their experiences across various topics, such as technologies, sofware development, and tiving abroad. These ‘experiences were then shared in hard-copy form with all ‘other employees. This early effort ballooned into a full-Redged KM effort supported by e-mail, bulletin boards. nd various knowledge repositories. In 1996, a corporate intranet was developed to make BOKs, in HTML format, easly accessible to all, In 1999, Infosys began an organization ‘wide program ta integrate the various knowledge initiatives. ‘A central knowledge portal was created, called KShop, and. ‘the KM group developed the technology infrastructure, while ‘te local groups were encouraged to maintain their own content on KShop. ‘The composition of KShop consisted of different content types—BOKs, case studies, reusable artifacts, and downloadable software—each with its own homepage. Content was carefully categorized by the KM group to ensure that as the amount of content increased, it would still be possible for people to quickly find what they needed. Tn early 2000, Infosys had a very functional KM system; however, patronage by employees remained low. The KM ‘10up therefore initiated a reward program to increase both the and knowledge contribution, The program gave employees who contributed to KShop knowledge currency tits (KCUs) that could be accumulated and exchanged for monetary rewards or prizes. ‘As you can see, KM initiatives are much more than the {implementation of technology tools to allow employees to create or document knowledge. Infosys’s KM initiatives ‘involved processes to organize knowledge, to categorize knowledge, and to rate knowledge usefulness, as well as strategies to encourage knowledge contribution sharing and The Results Within a year of the introduction of the incentive KCU program, 2,400 new knowledge assets had been contributed to KShop by some 20 percent of Infosys's employees. (By 2010, there were 75,000 knowledge assets in the corporate central knowledge repository.) However, as the volume of content increased, s0, too, did problems relating to finding the needed information. Moreovet, the sizable growth in contributions taxed the limited number of volunteer reviewers, who served an important quality-control function. ‘The KM group therefore modified the KCU's incentive pro- gram, The group developed a new KCU program that rated the tsefulness of knowledge from the perspective of the users of the knowledge, rather than the reviewers. And, to increase accountability, the KM group requested tangible proof to justify any high ratings. Finally, the KM group raised the bar for cashing in KCU points for monetary awards. “The KM project enabled the company to sustain its com- petitiveness and market leadership (Suresh and Mehesh 2008). Sources: Compile from nfosys.com (accesses April 2012), Mat, SL (2007), Suresh and Mehesh (2008), and Garud an Kumaraswamy (2005) Questions 41. Why are consulting organizations such as Infosys interested in KM? 2. dently the benefits of the system to the company. 3. Identify the KM cyele in this case 4 Why isa reward system beneficial? Compare the old and new reward systems.