Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2004

Customer Knowledge Management Improving Performance of Customer Relationship

Management with Knowledge Management
Adrian Bueren, Ragnar Schierholz, Lutz Kolbe, Walter Brenner
Institute of Information Management, University of St. Gallen
Mueller-Friedberg-Strasse 8, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Contact: [email protected] or [email protected]

Abstract

In this paper, we will illustrate the use of modern

information technology to provide knowledge support
to CRM processes. This knowledge support allows for
performance enhancement in customer oriented business processes. We will base our reasoning on an integrated Customer Knowledge Management process
model, which identifies six CRM sub-processes and
four aspects of Knowledge Management. This integrated model aims at achieving knowledge transparency, knowledge dissemination, knowledge development and knowledge efficiency. The application of the
four aspects content, competence, community and
composition in specific CRM sub-processes will be
demonstrated in several action research cases. These
cases were implemented in European companies in the
financial services sector and concern the support of
customer-facing processes across all channels. They
validate the proposed architecture while indicating
critical success factors for a successful implementation
of Customer Knowledge Management.

1
1.1

Introduction
Challenges for Businesses in the Information Age

Ever increasing demands of customers concerning

quality and innovativeness of products and services put
companies under pressure. In combination with global
competition, they change the rules of the market and
force companies to adapt swiftly [22]. This challenge
and rising pressure to reduce costs require enterprises
to redesign their business model. One possible solution
is to focus the value chain on the processes of the cus-

tomers. For example, a company could support the

customer process car ownership, which extends from
the purchase and financing of the vehicle and the usage
and maintenance all the way to the sale or scraping.
This process could be covered entirely with an innovative combination of products and services by a single
provider. Efficiently collaborating within dynamic
networks based on modern information technologies,
companies can provide these process oriented offerings
[8, p. 20]. The growing importance of customer oriented business models is emphasized by numerous
publications within the area of Customer Relationship
Management (CRM), for example [11], [36], [32]. A
comprehensive overview over the literature in the field
of CRM with a focus on e-commerce can be found in
[29]. CRM aims at leveraging investments in customer
relations to strengthen the competitive position and
maximize returns.
Focusing on customer processes requires knowledge of considerable extent. Customer-focused companies have to provide knowledge that customers demand, process the knowledge that customers pass to
the company and possess knowledge about customers.
As a consequence, knowledge is considered a critical
st
resource in the competition of the 21 century ([5], [3,
p. 13]). The cultivation of knowledge to support business processes is the task of Knowledge Management
(KM). Thus the application of KM concepts and technologies in the context of CRM is a relevant field of
research (see ([30, p. 239])).

1.2

Research Goals and Structure

Our research focuses on how concepts of KM can

be applied within the area of CRM. This approach
enables companies to improve knowledge support of
their customer oriented business processes, which in

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Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2004

turn aims at improving the overall performance of the

enterprise.
The resulting Customer Knowledge Management
(CKM) process model as introduced by [9] aims at
integrating the two concepts of CRM and KM. We
consider KM to be a toolset which cannot be applied
independently of business processes. Thus we focus on
the application within the area of CRM. The contribution of this article is to describe cases in which the
performance of CRM was improved by applying the
CKM process model.
In this paper, we will proceed as follows: Section 2
provides an overview of related research within the
areas of CRM and KM which form the foundation of
the CKM process model. Subsequently we will introduce the CKM process model based on a framework of
six CRM sub-processes. In section 3, three actionresearch cases with companies in the financial services
sector will then illustrate the application of the CKM
process model. Our cross-case analysis in section 4
will specifically focus on how the illustrated cases
managed to improve company performance through
the application of KM instruments within CRM. Finally, in section 5 we will conclude this article with an
outlook on further research opportunities.

1.3

Research Methodology

To achieve our research goals and derive the CKM

process model, we employed the research approach
action research as defined by Gummesson: On the
basis of their paradigms and pre-understanding and
given access to empirical, real-world data through their
role as change agent, [] action scientists [] generate a specific (local) theory, which is then tested and
modified through action. The interaction between the
role of academic researcher and the role of management consultant, within a single project as well as
between projects, can also help the scientist to generate
a more general theory, which in turn becomes an instrument for increased theoretical sensitivity []. [14,
p. 208]. Apart from this foundation, we also used indepth case studies and desktop research to complement
our experiences and validate the conclusions derived
from the CKM process model. The CKM process
model is based on nearly 6 years of research in a special corporate-academic partnership. Research partners
were major European players in sectors such as financial services and insurance, telecommunications and
chemicals.
As a foundation of our research, we use the business engineering approach developed by [20, pp. 13 et
seqq.]. To describe the corporate reality, it separates
the three layers strategy, processes and information
systems. The strategy layer determines the business

model and proposes the goals that need to be achieved

for the success of the company. The process layer
creates the output needed to fulfill the goals of the
strategy. The information systems support the processes in creating the outputs, sometimes actually enabling the processes to fulfill the requirements of customers. The research described in this paper concentrates on the process and information systems level of
CRM and CKM.

2.1

A Model for Customer Knowledge

Management
Customer Relationship Management

The origins of CRM can be traced back to the management concept of Relationship Marketing (RM) [16].
Relationship Marketing is an integrated effort to identify, build up and maintain a network with individual
customers for the mutual benefit of both sides [35, p.
34]. RM is of largely strategic character and lacks a
holistic view on business processes, although they are
regarded as important [23].
Advances in information technology (IT) had a significant influence on CRM, focusing mainly on the
information systems layer in the past. The goal was to
support the existing isolated approach of dealing with
customer relationships. With the CRM philosophy
aiming at creating an integrated view of the customer
across the enterprise, these systems were connected
and today form the building blocks of comprehensive
integrated CRM systems.
We consider CRM to view the customer relationship as an investment, which is to contribute to the
bottom line of the enterprise. The design and management of the customer relationship is to strengthen the
competitive position of an enterprise by increasing the
loyalty of customers. While this extends beyond the
use of information technology, IT is an important enabler of modern CRM.
Apart from the strategy oriented concept of RM and
systems oriented concepts, there are several CRM
approaches with special focus on business processes
[33]. However, these approaches are based on the separation of the functional areas of marketing, sales and
service, which by itself does not provide a crossfunctional process view.
CRM processes typically require not only transactional data, which can be automatically collected and
stored in relational databases, but also a significant
amount of knowledge. Also, CRM processes are typically complex and only structured to a certain extent.
Hence, they can be considered knowledge-intensive

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Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2004

processes [7]. Besides developing an integrated view

of CRM processes, it is therefore critical for our framework to address the management of knowledge flows
from and to the customer across all communication
channels as well as to enable the use the knowledge
about the customers. This is why we will focus on KM
in the next section.

2.2

Knowledge Management

Up to now, there has been an abundance of publications to KM, which fall into two broad categories,
epistemological and ontology oriented KM models.
Within epistemology mainly the cognitivistic and the
autopoietic approaches have been of significance to the
area of KM [39]. The cognitivistic approach describes
knowledge as stored in distinct knowledge structures
which are created through rule based manipulation and
can exists independently of an individual. In contrast,
the autopoietic approach according to [39, p. 55f.]
states that knowledge is context sensitive and embodied in the individual.
According to the autopoietic epistemology, individuals acquire knowledge by observing and interpreting their environment [38]. They can actively transfer
knowledge between themselves through articulation
and different types of interaction [40]. The main differentiating characteristic of knowledge is the difficulty of
its articulation. Knowledge that can be easily articulated is labeled explicit knowledge. Knowledge, that
is difficult to articulate and therefore difficult to transfer is labeled tacit knowledge [25, pp. 3-25] which
was superseded by the term implicit knowledge.
With their SECI KM model Nonaka and Takeuchi
have formulated an encompassing
epistemological
autopoietic KM model [19, p.45]. Boisot [2] and
McLoughlin & Thorpe [18] also provide examples of
this approach.
Ontological KM models on the other hand view
knowledge as a black box. The characteristics of
knowledge are defined through its relationships with a
constructed universe of discourse. Modeling dimensions frequently used by ontological KM models include a process dimension and an agent dimension
(individual vs. group).
Process oriented KM models focus on the characteristics of knowledge during its lifecycle. They analyze the relationships and environmental variables that
influence the processes of knowledge development,
dissemination, modification and use. Examples for
process oriented KM models include Probst [27] and
Wiig [42]. Agent oriented KM models focus on the
characteristics of knowledge during the flow between
individuals. They analyze the variables that expedite or
hinder the flow of knowledge in social networks. Ex-

amples for agent oriented KM models include Wenger

[41] and Enkel [6].
Most KM models developed within the last decade
include characteristics of both views. Nonaka has integrated an agent ontology dimension in 1994 [15] and
he tries to fully bond both views in his concept of ba
[19]. The process oriented KM models of Demarest [4]
or Blessing [1] by definition focus on the processing of
explicated knowledge. However, a fully
balanced
model is yet to be created [17].
In the next section, we will introduce a CKM process model which, based on the findings in this section,
will connect the concepts of CRM and KM. It will also
integrate the different aspects of knowledge by combining elements of the epistemological and the ontological view of Knowledge Management.

2.3

Deriving an Integrated Customer Knowledge Management Process Model

2.3.1 CRM Process Model

Marketing, sales, and service are primary business
functions [26] with the characteristics of a high degree
of direct customer interaction and knowledge intensity.
We derive our process model by detailing these functions into relevant business processes, which may be
cross-functional. A CRM business process involves the
processing of customer knowledge to pursue the goals
of relationship marketing. Usually it also involves
direct customer contact and the exchange of information or services between enterprise and customer. Such
processes are either triggered by the customer with the
aim of receiving information or services or by the
enterprise with the aim of delivering information or
services to customers. Each process handles a specific
business object which distinguishes it from other processes. Based on [31, pp. 57 et seqq.] and our own action research experience we identified campaign management, lead management, offer management, contract management, complaint management, and service
management as the six relevant CRM business processes (cf. figure 1).
Campaign management is the core marketing process which fulfills the idea of interactive, individualized
contacts in contrast to traditional transaction marketing
[13, p.11]. It deals with the planning, realization, control and monitoring of marketing activities towards
known recipients. Marketing campaigns are individualized (one-to-one marketing [24]) or segment specific
and offer communication channels for feedback. The
objective of campaign management is to generate valuable opportunities or leads as the basis for lead management.

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Lead management is the consolidation, qualification, and prioritization of contacts with prospective
customers. The objective is to provide sales staff with a
qualified and prioritized list of presumably valuable
prospects to be precisely addressed within the offer
management process.
Offer management is the core sales process. Its objective is the corporation-wide consistent creation and
delivery of individualized, binding offers. An offer
management process may be triggered by a customer
inquiry, a qualified lead, or a discovered opportunity.
Contract management is the creation and maintenance of contracts for the supply of products and services. As such, it supports offer management or service
management processes. Contract management comprises the maintenance and adjustment of long-term
contracts, e.g. for outsourcing agreements or insurances.
Service management is the planning, realization and
control of measures for the provision of services. A
service is an intangible output of an enterprise generated with direct involvement of customers. Examples
include maintenance, repair, and support activities in
the after-sales phase as well as the provision of financial or telecommunication services after the conclusion
of contracts.
Within the scope of complaint management, articulated dissatisfaction of customers is received, processed, and communicated into the enterprise [37]. The
objectives are to improve customer satisfaction in the
short-run by directly addressing problems that led to
complaints and to design a continuous improvement
process in the long-run.
Operative CRM system components directly support the six CRM sub-processes described above. Analytical components primarily emphasize on the processes campaign management, lead management, and
offer management. To cover the collaborative aspects
on the process level, CRM requires activities to design
interfaces to customers at customer interaction points.
Interaction management is the design and selection of
media-based communication channels like interactive
voice response (IVR) or the world-wide-web (WWW)
to achieve an optimal channel mix [34]. The objective
is to increase the quality and value of interactions
while at the same time decreasing the cost of interactions by shifting customers to less costly channels, e.g.
web-self-service.
Closely connected to interaction management is
channel management which addresses the challenge of
configuration and synchronization of different communication channels [12, pp. 18-19]. Key objectives are to
define organizational responsibilities for each channel,
to avoid conflicts between channels, and to ensure
consistent knowledge flows across different channels.

2.3.2 Integrating Customer Relationship Management and Knowledge Management

To achieve their goal of providing a solution for the
process of the customers, enterprises need to focus on
three sorts of knowledge in CRM processes [21]. They
make up what we consider to be customer knowledge.
They need to understand the requirements of customers in order to address them. This is referred to
as knowledge about customers.
The information needs of the customers in their
interaction with the enterprise require knowledge
for customers.
Finally, customers possess knowledge about the
products and services they use as well as about
how they perceive the offerings they purchased.
This knowledge from customers is valuable as it
feeds into measures to improve products and services. Efforts need to be made to channel this
knowledge back into the enterprise.
We therefore consider CKM to include more than
just knowledge from the customers (in contrast to [10])
and perceive it as a comprehensive approach for customer knowledge. The CKM process model as introduced by Gebert et al. 2002 [9] was the result of a
collaborative research process in which the authors
were involved as well. It offers a process perspective to
illustrate which KM tools can be applied to the CRM
sub-processes to achieve effective CKM. It introduces
the four KM aspects content, competence, collaboration and composition. These aspects were derived by
analyzing existing KM models as well as numerous
case studies (for details, cf. [28], which is also based
on our collaborative research). They will be further
reinforced by the action research examples we introduce in the next section.
To comprehensively cover the Customer Knowledge Management approach, the model would also
have to encompass the layers of strategy and information system. We chose to omit these layers in the
graphical representation to avoid excessive complexity
but will explain them in this section.
On a strategy level, companies need to determine
how Customer Knowledge Management can support
business goals and processes and use these as guidelines for designing the Customer Knowledge Management processes and performance indicators. The process level, our main focus in this paper, is derived as
follows:Like the SECI model of Nonaka/Takeuchi
[19], the CKM process model is based on the fact that
there are two types of knowledge, implicit (or tacit)
and explicit. According to Polanyi, who introduced the
concept of tacit knowledge in 1968 [25], each indi-

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Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2004

Customer
Process

Campaign
Management

Marketing

Lead
Management

Product 1
Interaction
Management

Offer
Management

Sales

Contract
Management

Product 2
Multi-ChannelManagement

Complaint
Management

Service

Service
Management

ten
ont
C

ce
n
e
mpet
o
C

ion
it
os
mp
o
C

Service 1

Service 2
...

n
io
ta
or
b
a
ll
o
C

Figure 1: Customer Knowledge Management process model

vidual possesses an amount of implicit knowledge
competency information from creation to application in
which influences the ability to articulate and therefore
a lifecycle. The aspects of collaboration and composition provide an infrastructure that supports the proviexplicate and create knowledge. Implicit knowledge
includes past experiences and influences the perception
sion of knowledge to business processes while not
of the environment. However, explicit and implicit
being a process itself. Nevertheless, as proposed by the
knowledge as such are not separable from the particubusiness engineering approach (see section 1.3) all
lar individual possessing it. Therefore, we term it the
knowledge aspects need to be supported by informaknowledge aspect competence. As a consequence,
tion systems that deliver specific functions for each
aspect. The aspect content typically requires the use of
the organization can only directly manage explicated
knowledge in the form of media such as text or images
content management or document management systems. The aspect competence makes use of expertise
which we term the knowledge aspect content. Content is part of the business processes and exists indedirectories as well as skill management or e-learning
pendently of individuals.
systems. Email, group information tools, and instant
Similar to the revised SECI model of Nonaka and
messaging systems are typical functions that support
the aspect of collaboration. Finally, the aspect of comHedlund [15], the CKM process model also introduces
position which primarily deals with search and navigatwo aspects that take into account how knowledge is
created, disseminated and used within an organization.
tion uses systems such as knowledge mining systems,
As a consequence, the model contains elements of both
personalization, taxonomy management systems, and
the epistemological view and the ontological view with
knowledge maps. While it is beyond the scope of this
an agent dimension. The ontological view is reprepaper to illustrate the use of all these systems to supsented by the two aspects of collaboration and
port CRM sub-processes, we will focus on three cases
composition. Collaboration deals with the creation
which are part of our action research work and provide
and dissemination of knowledge among few individuinsights on how to improve performance by employing
als, e.g. in project teams. The knowledge aspect comthe four aspects of knowledge and supporting informaposition, on the other hand, deals with the dissemination systems.
tion and usage of knowledge among a large number of
individuals. Composition deals mainly with helping
people find explicated knowledge, for example in enterprise portals.
The four knowledge aspects deliver services that
support the CRM sub-processes. That sometimes requires support processes such as managing content or

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3.1

Action Research Cases of Customer

Knowledge Management
Case One Knowledge Support for the
Customer Communication Center of a
Mutual Fund Company

The following action research case of a large mutual fund company in central Europe shows the importance of explicated knowledge for the CRM subprocess service management and the KM aspects of
content and composition. The case focuses on a major
element within modern service management, the customer communication center (CCC), which integrates
the communication channels phone, fax and (e)mail to
serve customers via multiple channels.
In this case, the CCC serves bank employees and
retail customers alike. It consists of 120 employees
who offer support on two levels, depending on expertise required to resolve inquiries about a wide array of
topics connected to complex financial products.
3.1.1 CKM Challenges
In order to address the needs of their customers,
CCC agents utilize different information sources provided by an internal unit named Information Support.
The content was mostly disseminated via email. While
this was possible without further investments in the
technical infrastructure, each CCC employee had to
organize his or her content individually and new employees did not have access to older information.
Therefore, a knowledge platform was created using
basic web technology which offered the same information as email with a certain time delay. Yet, with an
increasing amount of content, the navigational structure eventually became more and more cluttered. Since
no search function was available, the CCC agents
tended to still primarily use email for information retrieval and not the central knowledge platform.
The existing solution also caused significant costs
for creating, formatting and publishing content. The
complicated process with only very basic support in
converting documents to a
web-based format also
delayed timely publication, which is critical to supporting the CCC agents.

major shortcoming was in the current design of knowledge composition. The navigational structure was
unwieldy and searching for content was not possible.
This also applied to Information Support since the
editors had no adequate tool to help them structure the
knowledge and get an overview of existing documents.
The major content challenge, requiring up to 50%
percent of the time to supply information to the CCC
was the conversion of documents from office application formats delivered by other departments into content displayable in a web browser. Up to the project,
editors had to convert content manually with specialized HTML-editors.
To overcome the challenges, a new content management system was selected. It includes a conversion
tool which is based on newly created templates in
office applications and creates content in HTML format automatically. The application for the editors enables them to publish new content directly from the
Office application and provides an overview of existing documents. They can be directly accessed and
edited from within the tool. On the part of the CCC
agents, the content management system offers a search
function in addition to a redesigned consistent navigational structure.
3.1.3 Results
Based on a detailed analysis of the processes of
CCC agents and editors, knowledge dissemination was
significantly improved. The new structure and improved timeliness of information available on the
knowledge platform is an important factor in supporting CCC agents. It enables them to provide faster answers with higher quality. By saving time, customers
are served faster. An individual agent can serve more
customers, thereby increasing service levels and reducing waiting time.
For the Information Support department, the costs
and time needed to maintain the new platform was
greatly reduced by mostly eliminating efforts to convert existing content. The structure is now maintained
much more easily. The focus on just one information
source makes it easier for agents to find what they
need, reduces operational costs of publication for editors and strain on the network infrastructure caused by
large email attachments.

3.2
3.1.2 Relevant Knowledge Aspects
The relevant knowledge aspects in this case were
content as well as composition. The focus of the project was to provide the CCC employee with knowledge
for the customer, thereby concentrating on explicated
knowledge that can be rather easily transferred. One

Case Two Skill Management as a Customer oriented Human Resource Management Instrument at a Health Insurance Company

The following action research case of a European

health insurance provider shows the business impact of

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Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2004

the knowledge aspect of competence for all CRM subprocesses. The case focuses on strategic skill management as a means to support complex customer processes, improve the corporate ability to react quickly to
changing market requirements and to manage and
improve the corporate skill set.
3.2.1 CKM Challenges
Customers typically demand individual, affordable
insurance services. This requires employees in the
customer oriented units that are organized along marketing, sales, and services to have complex, comprehensive and flexible knowledge for and about the customers. Without a management tool for managing and
making visible the required knowledge and skills on a
corporate level, the organization could suffer competency shortages with a negative impact on business
performance.
3.2.2 Relevant Knowledge Aspects
This case focuses on the knowledge aspect of competency and therefore concentrates on the management
of implicit knowledge which cannot be transferred
between persons solely by using information technology. The project aimed at establishing an IT solution to
support corporate skill management which would create transparency as to where in the organization what
knowledge resides. The main services to be delivered
by the new system were derived from the requirements
by the business units. These were competency profiles
of employees combined with search functionality to
locate employees with certain skills. Also, the system
was to create competency maps of the organization
based on individual competency profiles. In addition,
Human resources (HR) demanded that the competency
profiles can be used for individual goal definition,
human resource planning, and to derive training measures.
To develop the competency profile, a skill tree
was used, which included professional competence as
well as information about education, language skills,
and experience. The identification of competencies
critical for the success of the company was based on
criteria such as relevance to strategic goals, relative
steadiness (i.e. how much effort it takes to acquire a
skill that lasts), and relative scarceness.
The project team used these criteria to develop a hierarchical ordering with relative steadiness being the
top hierarchy level. This ensured that the skill tree
could be aggregated into a skill map reflecting the skill
development costs in an appropriate manner. For each
qualification in the skill tree the competency profile
states whether it is present or not. A multi-level grad-

ing scheme is used for measuring professional competency and soft skills.
3.2.3 Results
The prototype for the skill management system was
developed based on standard software. The skill profiles and the skill history enable managers and HR
personnel to efficiently plan training measures for each
individual employee. On a corporate level, the aggregation of data within the skill profiles allows for analysis of the existing skill set and for deduction of required strategically relevant skills. With this information, a gap between the required skill set and the existing skill set can be identified and addressed via corporate training measures or new hiring policies.
Also, the skill profiles allow for quick and easy location of required expertise within the company during
any step of any process. Thus the resource allocation
can be optimized since long searches for an expert are
avoided. Additionally, project team members with the
required skills can be located and recruited more easily.
The prototype has been field tested and the results
were very good. All participants assessed the systems
potential on their daily work as essential and ranked
the systems benefit as good or very good. Therefore, it will be rolled out to further parts of the organization in the near future.

3.3

Case Three Global Collaboration at an

Insurance Company

The third case concerns an insurance company

which is one of the major players in Europe and
worldwide. The company
had experienced strong
growth, especially with acquisitions. As a result, in the
area of life insurance products, there was an abundance
of information systems in use to manage contracts. To
enable a more efficient contract management especially for closed blocks (contracts that were still running but no longer offered to new customers), the
company decided to standardize processes and systems
in this area on a global scale as far as possible. Thus
this case focuses on the CRM sub-process contract
management and the KM aspects of collaboration,
composition and content.
3.3.1 CKM Challenges
In order to standardize the management of closed
blocks, projects were initiated worldwide on a countrylevel. The teams consisted of members of the global
core team as well as of local experts who reengineered
the processes, calculation
models and information

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systems involved in the management of closed blocks.

As a consequence, there were a number of globally
dispersed teams working on similar problems. To communicate within and between the teams and with headquarters, email was the primary medium. In some
countries, access to a fileserver, which stored relevant
content, was also available. However, communication
and knowledge exchange, which were based primarily
on documents, were not entirely satisfactory. As a
result of the use of email, team members could never
be sure to have the most up-to-date version of a document. As in the first case, new members had to start
from scratch since they had missed past communication. The file server was not globally accessible. Email
communication also made it virtually impossible for
the core team to get an overview of the progress and
lessons learned of the different projects.
3.3.2 Relevant Knowledge Aspects
To improve the knowledge dissemination across the
different projects, the insurance company implemented
a new knowledge portal based on a standard software
product. The portal was to be globally available and
enhance the dissemination of knowledge across all
projects within the management of closed blocks. Because the transfer is based on documents, this case
deals with explicated knowledge similar to case one.
The portal includes elements of three aspects with
composition being the most prominent. It now provides
a standardized process oriented navigational structure
to be used by all projects. This goes hand in hand with
the introduction of a common terminology which defines the most relevant terms. Besides the navigational
structure, a comprehensive search function also allows
the retrieval of relevant documents. With the new access rights management, individual team members only
see content relevant for them.
Concerning content, documents are now available
on a web-based platform. The system includes version
control, making sure that documents are only available
in their most recent version. It also provides templates
to standardize content creation processes and therefore
facilitate a review of relevant documentation across
multiple projects. The templates also provide means to
record feedback and lessons learned from the project
teams.
The aspect of collaboration is based on the features
already described and primarily concerns the organizational setting in which the portal is used. It enables the
dispersed project teams to store and retrieve documents
from virtually anywhere and work together on common
documents. By linking to other projects, it is possible
to easier work on common problems across projects.
On the other hand, version control helps team members

recognize if they are using the most recent version in

their work.
3.3.3 Results
The new portal improved the efficiency of the projects in a variety of ways, thus enabling the standardization of contract management for closed blocks.
The primary goal was to facilitate knowledge dissemination for collaboration. Since all projects will
place their documentation into the portal, the status of
the different projects can now easily be analyzed and
compared. A special reporting function further extends
this aspect. When a certain step in a project is concluded, lessons learned are reviewed and can now
immediately be incorporated into the process oriented
structure and the templates. This makes them available
to every project that has not reached the relevant step
yet. As a result, many potential problems are eliminated before they actually come up.
On the individual project level, documents are now
kept centrally. In contrast to email, all project members
now have access to all documents. It is not possible
anymore to be faced with outdated versions and personalization reduces information overload. For the
infrastructure, the portal brought significant relief as
not every document needs to be sent to every project
member anymore. After one year of use, the portal
includes over 10,000 documents and is employed in 21
projects in nine countries worldwide.

Cross-Case Analysis - Performance

with Customer Knowledge Management

The contribution of this paper lies in illustrating the

successful application of the CKM process model in
different companies in an operational setting. In each
case critical customer processes were identified, KM
instruments suitable for those processes selected according to the CKM process model and then implemented. This resulted in significant performance improvements in those processes eventually enabling
higher revenues and/or lower costs.
Case one identified content creation and knowledge
navigation as crucial elements within the CCC and
service management. The CKM process model suggests content management systems with an easily
maintainable content structure and search functionality
as appropriate KM instruments for these elements.
With the implemented system the duration of service calls and the quality of the provided service could
be improved, enhancing knowledge transfer to the
customer, resulting in higher customer satisfaction,

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Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2004

higher loyalty and thus, higher revenue. Also, more

efficient content creation was facilitated, resulting in
lower costs.
Case two identified skill management and staffing
and planning as crucial elements. The CKM process
model suggests skill management systems and expertise directories to be suitable KM instruments for these
elements.
Case two demonstrated how a skill management
system allows to record skills of employees according
to a corporate skill tree. This lead to increased transparency of existing and required skills and competencies. Hence location of expertise was accelerated, resulting in better and faster service to customers, and a
more efficient staffing and planning of individual and
corporate training measures. This causes higher customer satisfaction as well as more efficient resource
allocation, eventually enabling higher revenue.
Case three focused on communication support,
community management, knowledge navigation and
knowledge discovery as elements of CKM. The CKM
process model suggests portals, personalization and
discussion boards as suitable KM instruments for these
elements.
The insurance company implemented a portal facilitating global collaboration across members of multiple project teams. This made project management
more efficient and lowered the costs of implementation
for the standardized contract management. The contract management in turn became more efficient due to
this standardization, enabling the insurance company to
save significant cost in managing customers and their
contracts.

Suggestions for further Research

Even though the application of KM instruments in

customer processes can lead to increased process performance, as experienced in the cases we described,
there still is no comprehensive, proven system of
measuring process performance in knowledge intensive
processes. No generally applicable metrics along with
key performance indicators (KPI) have been defined.
No common tools exist to provide the aggregated data
necessary for measuring those KPI or allow for automatic measuring.
The definition of such metrics and KPIs for the different processes mentioned in the CKM architecture is
a research goal currently targeted by our research.
Furthermore, although the projects described could
have been extended to include all knowledge aspects, it
hasnt been done yet in practice. Further research is
required to determine how all knowledge aspects together affect the performance of enterprises and what

challenges come up with the integration of all four

knowledge aspects.

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