CHAPTER SEVEN

K-CREATION
INTRODUCTION
§ KM has been with mankind for more than 8000 years
§ The question has now shifted to the subject of knowledge management, which
perhaps will bail out and justify additional trillions of dollars worth of spending
§ It entails a collective visioning as :
§ how sharing knowledge can enhance organizational performance
§ the reaching of a consensus among the senior management of the
organization

Implementing KM involves..
What knowledge to share?
: know-how
: best or good practices
: knowledge of clients or customers
: competitive intelligent
: knowledge processes

With whom to share knowledge

One of the major decision concerns the intended beneficiaries of the knowledge-
sharing system.
Knowledge sharing programs may aim at sharing either an internal or an external
audiences.

Internal knowledge sharing programs External knowledge sharing

- aim at making the existing business - poses greater risks than internal
work better, faster or cheaper, by arming sharing programs
the front-line staff of an organization with - raising complex issue of
higher quality, more up-to –date and confidentiality, copyright and in
easily accessible tools and inputs to do the case of the private sector, the
their jobs , and so add value for clients or protection of proprietary assets.
save costs. - but it may also offer greater
potential benefits.

How will knowledge be shared?

: face to face
: or by way of helps desks
: by telephone
: fax
: email
: collaborative tools or the web
: or some combination of above
 Why will knowledge be shared
- These motivation may relate to
§ decision making
§ provide framework to capture knowledge
§ promoting organizational learning
§ encouraging flows of ideas
§ Innovation
§ rewarding employee & retention
§ streamlining operation
§ lowering costs of operation
§ reduce cost
§ eliminating redundant or unnecessary process
§ improve customer service
§ increasing speed, improve response time
§ increasing service quality
§ product to market faster
§ boosting revenues
§ widening the client base
§ improving competitive advantage

Knowledge Management
The 10-Step Knowledge Management Road Map
Introduction
} KM is a complex activity
} Cannot deliver business impact without a concrete plan
} 10-step road map will guide you through:
◦ Strategizing
◦ Designing
◦ Developing, and
◦ Implementing KM initiative
} Roadmap is NOT a Methodology
} KM strategy will have to be unique to the company

The 10-Step KM road map

Divided into 4 phases
- Infrastructure evaluation
- KM system analysis, design, and development
- System deployment
- ROI and performance evaluation

10-Step Implementation Road Map

Amrit Tiwana KM Toolkit (2002)
 Phase 1: Infrastructural evaluation
Step 1: Analyzing existing infrastructure
Step 2: Aligning KM and business strategy
Phase 2: KM Systems analysis, design, and development
Step 3: Designing the KM architecture, and integrating existing infrastructure
Step 4: Auditing and analyzing existing knowledge
Step 5: Designing the KM team
Step 6: Creating the KM blueprint
Step 7:  Developing the KM system
Phase 3: Deployment
Step 8: Deploying with results-driven incremental (RDI) methodology
 Step 9: Leadership issues
Phase 4: Evaluation
Step 10: Real-options analysis of returns and performance

Phase 1 : Infrastructural Evaluation

1. Analyzing existing infrastructure
2. Aligning KM and business strategy

PHASE 1 INFRASTRUCTURE EVALUATION

1) ANALYSE THE EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE
- Role-who’s in charge of what?
- Understand the various components that constitute the KM strategy & technology
framework
-Result can identify the critical gaps in the existing infrastructure
-Option using knowledge servers
- Integration
- Understand the limitations
- Taking concrete steps

In this first step, you gain an understanding of various components that constitute the
knowledge management strategy and technology framework. By analyzing and accounting
for what is already in place in your company, you can identify critical gaps in the existing
infrastructure. Consequently, you will be able to build upon what already exists. The key lies
in accurately identifying and fixing what will work as a part of the knowledge management
system and what will not. There is no silver bullet for knowledge management: Anything
making that claim is fraught with immense risk. Instead of telling you what components to
build upon, I will guide you through the process of making those decisions specifically in the
context of your company. Although leveraging existing infrastructure is the logically,
scientifically, rationally, theoretically, common sensically, and financially right approach, it
also stands a better chance of generating stronger management support for your knowledge
management project because of the perception that you are not completely abandoning the
“old” existing investments.
Specifically, as a part of this first step, we focus on the following:

1. Understanding the role of your company’s existing networks, intranet, and extranets
in knowledge management. You will analyze, leverage, and build upon data mining,
data warehousing, project management, and decision support system (DSS) tools
that might already be in place.
2. Understanding the knowledge management technology framework and its
components.
3. Considering the option of using knowledge servers for enterprise integration, and
per- forming a preliminary analysis of business needs that match up with relevant
knowledge server choices.
4. Integrating existing intranets, extranets, and GroupWare into your knowledge
manage- ment system.
5. Understanding the limitations of implemented tools and identifying existing gaps in
your company’s existing technology infrastructure.
6. Taking concrete steps to leverage and build upon existing infrastructural
investments.

2) ALIGN KM & BUSINESS STRATEGY

- Shift from strategic programming to strategic planning
- Analyze the gaps
- Determine whether a codification or personalization focus (Refer to Chapter 4)
- Diagnose & validate

Codification: Personalization:
- More focused on technology - Focused on connecting
that enables storage, indexing, knowledge workers through
retrieval, and reuse. networks.
- Suited companies that - Better suited to companies that
repeatedly deal with similar face “one-off” problems and
problem and decision. depend more on tacit
knowledge and expertise than
on codified knowledge

Knowledge drives strategy, and strategy drives knowledge management. Without a clearly
articulated link between knowledge management and business strategy, even the world’s
best knowledge management system will deliver zilch. Business strategy is usually at a high
level, and, dare I say, with lofty goals. Developing systems is always at a low level:
Specifications and features are needed, not abstractions, visions, or business ideas. The
second step in the 10-step road map allows you to make the connection between these
two: Raise knowledge management system design to the level of business strategy and pull
strategy down to the level of systems design. As a part of the process of creating this
alignment between knowledge management and business strategy, Chapter 6 describes
what you must do:

1. Shift your company from strategic programming to strategic planning.

2. Move your systems design practices and business decisions away from the seemingly
rigorous, fallacious notion of making predictions using extrapolations from past data.
You must shift this critical decision-making dependency on knowledge that is both
within and outside your company.
3. Perform a knowledge-based SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats) analysis and create knowledge maps for your own company, your main
competitors, and your industry as a whole.
4. Analyze knowledge gaps and identify how knowledge management can fill those
gaps. Do a cost-benefit analysis to prioritize filling such gaps.
5. Determine whether a codification or personalization focus is better suited for your
company
6. Balance exploitation, exploration, and just-in-time (JIT) and just-in-case (JIC)
delivery supported by your KM system.
7. Before you can design your knowledge management system, determine the right
diagnostic questions to ask.
8. Translate your strategy-KM link to KM system design characteristics. You must
articulate a clear strategy-KM link and incorporate the 24 critical success factors in
KM design that we have learned from some exemplary knowledge management
projects worldwide.
9. Mobilize initiatives to help you “sell” your KM project internally. Chapter 6 also
describes how such initiatives can be selected.
10. Diagnose and validate your strategy-KM link, and use it to drive the rest of the design
process.

When such alignment between your knowledge management and business strategy is
clearly established from the outset, you can be sure that your knowledge management
system is moving in a direction that holds promise for long-lasting competitive advantage
and that it will actually benefit both your company’s employees and its bottom line.

Phase 2: KM System Analysis, Design, and Development

- Designing the KM architecture, and integrating existing infrastructure
- Auditing and analyzing existing knowledge
- Designing the KM team
- Creating the KM blueprint
- Developing the KM system

3) DESIGN THE KM INFRASTUCTURE

- Comprehend various components Infrastructure
- Identify internal & external knowledge source feeds that must be integrated
- Choose IT components
- Identify elements of the interface layer
As the third step toward deploying knowledge management, you must select the
infrastructural components that constitute the knowledge management system
architecture. Knowledge management systems use a seven-layer architecture, and the
technology required to build each layer is readily available. Integrating these components to
create the knowledge management system model requires thinking in terms of an
infostructure rather than an infrastructure.

Your first big choice is the collaborative platform. You can choose to use an open standard,
such as the Web, or opt for a packaged solution such as Lotus Notes or a similar proprietary
group support platform. We will reason through the choice of the preferred collaborative
platform to decide whether the Web or Notes is better suited for your company. You must
also create profiling mechanisms for push- and pull-based knowledge delivery while
balancing cost versus value-added for each additional enabling component. Specifically, as a
part of this third step, you must:

1. Comprehend various components of the knowledge infostructure

2. Identify internal and external knowledge source feeds that must be integrated
3. Choose IT components to find, create, assemble, and apply knowledge
4. Identify elements of the interface layer: clients, server, gateways, and the platform
5. Decide on the collaborative platform: Web or Notes?
6. Identify and understand components of the collaborative intelligence layer: artificial
intelligence, data warehouses, genetic algorithms, neural networks, expert reasoning
systems, rule bases, and case-based reasoning
7. Optimize knowledge object molecularity with your own company in mind
8. Balance cost against value-added for each enabling component
9. Balance push- and pull-based mechanisms for knowledge delivery
10. Identify the right mix of components for searching, indexing, and retrieval
11. Create knowledge tags and attributes: domain, form, type, product/service, time,
and location tags
12. Create profiling mechanisms for knowledge delivery
13. Retrofit IT on the SECI knowledge management model to validate your choices

You do this after considering the ways in which work is done in your own company. The
choice of these components will vary according to the different corporate cultures and work
norms that exist in different companies.

4) AUDIT EXISTING KNOWLEDGE ASSETS & SYSTEMS

- Assemble a preliminary knowledge audit
- Identify your company’s existing knowledge
- Identify your company’s K-spot
- Choose strategic position for your KM system that is in line with the strategic gaps
identified in step 2

A knowledge management project must begin with what your company already knows. In
the fourth step, you audit and analyze knowledge, but first you must understand why a
knowledge audit is needed. Then you assemble an audit team representing various
organizational units as described in Chapter 8. This team performs a preliminary assessment
of knowledge assets within your company to identify those that are both critical and the
weakest. As a part of this step you will:

1. Use Bohn’s Stages of Knowledge Growth framework to measure process knowledge.

2. Identify, evaluate, and rate critical process knowledge on an 8-point scale.
3. Select an audit method out of several possible options.
4. Assemble a preliminary knowledge audit team.
5. Audit and analyze your company’s existing knowledge.
6. Identify your company’s K-spot.
7. Choose a strategic position for your knowledge management system that is in line
with the strategic gaps identified in step 2.

Identify your company’s existing knowledge

1. Classification of knowledge; core, advanced, innovative (Refer to Chapter 4)
§ Core knowledge
§ Required to “play the game”
§ Creates barrier to entry
§ Must have knowledge
§ Advanced knowledge
§ Competitively viable
§ Differentiate its product from the competitor
§ Innovative knowledge
§ Allows a company to lead its entire industry
§ Clearly differentiates it from competitor
2. Levels of Professional Knowledge (see Chapter 2)

Identify your company’s K-spot

K- SPOT

Strategic Position A
internally safe, externally vulnerable (because all
K is explicit/codified), low TK, competitors don’t
have more K, best case scenario, very few
companies fall here, a spot for companies
pursuing KM effectively, K is already well
Strategic Position B
 high EK, high TK, EK also
explicated by competitors, excellent
scenario for an efficacious KM
initiative & support, a well funded
KM, technology is major &
important, externally safe but there
is a risk of key employee leaving the
company and join competitor.

Strategic Position C

Weak, no strategic advantage, a

lot of issues must be addressed
(not just KM)
 Strategic Position D

Most companies considering KM, presently

successful but only with temporary
advantage, need to gain more from KM
(examples: consulting companies with high
TK (in bulk) that need formalization, capture
and externalization), KM is most needed

5) DESIGN THE KM TEAM

- Identify key stakeholder: IT, management, and end users; mange their expectations
- Identify sources of requisite expertise
- Identify critical points of failure in terms or unmet requirements, control ,
management buy in,& end user buy-in
- Balance the KM team’s constitution- organizationally, strategically,& technologically
- Balance technical & managerial expertise that forms a part of this team
- resolve team-sizing issues

In the fifth step on the KM road map, you design the knowledge management team that will
design, build, implement, and deploy your company’s knowledge management system. To
design an effective knowledge management team, you must identify key stakeholders both
within and outside your company and identify sources of expertise that are needed to
successfully design, build, and deploy the system while balancing the technical and
managerial requirements.

We examine the issues of correctly sizing the knowledge management team, managing
diverse and often divergent stakeholder expectations, and applying techniques for both
identifying and avoiding critical failure points in such teams. Specifically, you must take the
following steps to design an effective team for implementing knowledge management:

1. Identify key stakeholders: IT, management, and end users; manage their expectations.
2. Identify sources of requisite expertise.
3. Identify critical points of failure in terms or unmet requirements, control, management
buy-in, and end user buy-in.
4. Balance the knowledge management team’s constitution—organizationally, strategical-
ly, and technologically.
5. Balance technical and managerial expertise that forms a part of this team.
6. Resolve team-sizing issues.

6) CREATE THE KM BLUEPRINT

- Customize the details of the seven layers of the KM architecture to your company
- Understand & incorporate the seven key user interface (UI) considerations
- Position & scope the KM system to a feasible/practicable level where benefits exceed
costs
- Make the build or buy decision & understand the tradeoffs

The knowledge management team identified in step 5 builds upon a knowledge

management system blueprint that provides a plan for building and incrementally improving
a knowledge management system. As you work toward designing a knowledge management
architecture, you must understand its seven layers specifically in the context of your
company and deter- mine how each of these can be optimized for performance and
scalability as well as high levels of interoperability.
Specifically, you will address the following issues in this step:

1. Customize the details of the seven layers of the knowledge management

architecture to your own company.
2. Understand and select the components required by your company: integrative
repositories, content centers, knowledge aggregation and mining tools, the
collaborative plat- form, knowledge directories, the user interface options, push
delivery mechanisms, and integrative elements.
3. Design the system for high levels of interoperability with existing IT investments;
optimize for performance and scalability.
4. Understand and execute repository life-cycle management.
5. Understand and incorporate the seven key user interface (UI) considerations.
6. Position and scope the knowledge management system to a feasible level where
benefits exceed costs.
7. Make the build-or-buy decision and understand the trade-offs.
8. Future proof the knowledge management system so that it does not “run out of gas”
when the next wave of fancy technology hits the market.

This step integrates work from all preceding steps so that it culminates in a strategically
oriented knowledge management system design.

7) DEVELOP KM SYSTEM
1. Develop the interface layer. Create platform independence, leverage the
intranet, enable universal authorship , & optimise video & audio streaming
2. Develop the access & authentication layer. Secure data, control access, &
distribute control
 3. Develop the collaborative filtering & intelligence layer , using intelligent
agents & collaborative filtering systems. Looking options to buy intelligent
agents versus easy & free tools that can be used to build your own
4. Develop & integrate the application layer with the intelligence layer & the
transport layer.
5. Leverage the extant transport layer to take advantage of existing networks
that already in place in your company
6. Develop the middleware & legacy integration layer to connect the KM
system both to true legacy data & “recent” inconsistent legacy data
repositories & databases left behind by custom systems that your company
needs to retire for reasons of cost or lack of functionality
7. integrate & enhance the repository (storage) layer

Once you have created a blueprint for your knowledge management system (step 6), the
next step is that of actually putting together a working system.
If you choose the Internet rather than depend on a proprietary collaborative platform, you
can convert your company intranet to a front end for your system.

Web-friendly document standards such as DMA (Document Management Alliance) and

WebDMA provide a great opportunity to build collaborative document systems to industry
standards. Even though users will see a familiar intranet interface that they are probably
already used to, the fundamental shift caused by the knowledge management system at the
back end is the reorientation from a client/server architecture to an agent-computing
architecture.

We will look at occasionally feasible approaches to integrate an array of hardware (including

copiers, printers, and scanners) built around these standards into the knowledge
management system itself. In this step, you will specifically:

1. Develop the interface layer. Create platform independence, leverage the intranet,
enable universal authorship, and optimize video and audio streaming.
2. Develop the access and authentication layer. Secure data, control access, and
distribute control.
3. Develop the collaborative filtering and intelligence layer, using intelligent agents and
collaborative filtering systems. We look at options to buy intelligent agents versus
easy and free tools that can be used to build your own.
4. Develop and integrate the application layer with the intelligence layer and the
transport layer.
5. Leverage the extant transport layer to take advantage of existing networks that are
already in place in your company.
6. Develop the middleware and legacy integration layer to connect the knowledge
management system both to true legacy data and “recent,” inconsistent legacy data
repositories and databases left behind by custom systems that your company needs
to retire for reasons of cost or lack of functionality.
7. Integrate and enhance the repository layer.
The seven layer of the KM system architecture-pg.127 of Tiwana

Phase 3 Deployment
8. Deploying with result-driven incrementalism (RDI) methodology
9. Leadership issues

8) DEPLOY, USING THE RESULTS- DRIVEN INCREMENTAL METHODOLOGY

- Understand the need for a pilot KM
- Identify & isolate failure
- Understand the KM life cycle
- Understand the scope
- Decide when to use prototypes & when not
- Convert factors to processes
- Create cumulative results- driven
- Identify & avoid traps
A large-scale project such as a typical knowledge management system must take into
account the actual needs of its users. Although a cross-functional KM team can help uncover
many of these needs, a pilot deployment is the ultimate reality check. In the eighth step on
the knowledge management road map, you must decide how you can select KM releases
with the highest payoffs first.
Specifically, the deployment step requires you to:

1. Understand the need for a pilot knowledge management system deployment, and
evaluate the need to run one; if it is needed, select the right, nontrivial, and
representative pilot project
2. Identify and isolate failure points in pilot projects
3. Understand the knowledge management system life cycle and its implications for
knowledge management system deployment.
4. Eliminate the “big-bang” information packaging methodology, the waterfall
methodology, and systems development life cycle (SDLC) orientation
5. Understand the scope of knowledge management system deployment
6. Use the RDI methodology to deploy the system, using cumulative results-driven
business releases
7. Decide when to use prototypes, and when not to use them
8. Convert factors to processes
9. Create cumulative results-driven business releases by selecting releases with the
highest payoffs first
10. Identify and avoid the traps in the RDI methodology
Well-executed deployment will ensure that the knowledge management system is
well received by the users for whom it is built.

9) MANAGE CHANGE , CULTURE AND REWARD STRUCTURE

- understand the role of CKO, whether there is need or not
- Enable process triggers
- Plan KM using the knowledge evangelist
- Manage & implement cultural & process changes to make your knowledge
management system as well as your management strategy succeed

The most erroneous assumption that many companies make is that the intrinsic value of an
innovation such as a knowledge management system will lead to its enthusiastic adoption
and use by their employees. Knowledge sharing cannot be mandated: Your employees are
not like troops; they are like volunteers. Encouraging use and gaining employee support
require integration of business processes with knowledge management system use, and
new reward structures that motivate employees to use the system and contribute to its
infusion, championing, and training. Above all, it requires enthusiastic leadership that sets
an example to follow.
As part of this one but last step on the knowledge management road map, you need to:

1. Understand the role of a chief knowledge officer and decide whether your company
—big or small—needs to formally have a CKO at all. This decision further requires an
 understanding of how a CKO relates to the CIO, CFO, and CEO. If you decide not to
appoint a CKO, who else can best play that evangelist’s role?
2. Organize the four broad categories of the CKO’s or knowledge manager’s
responsibilities. To do so, you must understand the CKO’s technological and
organizational functions. We examine the backgrounds most successful CKOs come
from.
3. Enable process triggers for knowledge management system success.
4. Plan for knowledge management success using the knowledge evangelist as an agent
for selling foresight. Selling foresight is as hard as selling oxygen, but not as hard as
selling the Brooklyn Bridge: It is difficult, but it can be done.
5. Manage and implement cultural and process changes to make your knowledge
management system as well as your knowledge management strategy succeed.

Many companies hastily appointed CKOs out of a fear of being left behind, only to realize
later that they did not really need one. You do not always need a CKO, per se, and Chapter
13 guides you through that choice.

PHASE 4 EVALUATION
10. EVALUATE PERFORMANCE, MEASURE ROI,& INCREMENTAL REFINE THE KMS
- Understand how to measure
- Calculate ROI for KM investments
- Decide when to use benchmarking as a comparative knowledge metric
- Use quality function deployment for creating strategic knowledge metric
- Real-options analysis of returns and performance
- Metric for Performance Evaluation

The tenth step—measuring return on knowledge investment (RoKI)—must account for both
financial and competitive impacts of knowledge management on your business. This step
guides you through the process of selecting an appropriate set of metrics and arriving at a
lean but powerful composite.
In this last iterative step on the 10-step knowledge management road map, you will do the
following:

1. Understand how to measure the business impact of knowledge management, using

a set of lean metrics
2. Calculate returns-on-investment (ROI) for knowledge management investments
3. Decide when to use benchmarking as a comparative knowledge metric
4. Evaluate knowledge management ROI using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) method
5. Use quality function deployment for creating strategic knowledge metrics
6. Identify and stay clear of the seven common measurement pitfalls, and identify what
not to measure
7. Review and select software tools for tracking complex metrics, QFDs, and BSCs

We also look at ways to classify and evaluate processes using The APQC Process
Classification Framework. We also see how successful companies have approached metrics,
what errors they have made in the past, and how you can learn from their mistakes.
Being able to measure returns serves two purposes: It arms you with hard data and dol- lar
figures that you can use to prove the impact of effective knowledge management, and it lets
you refine knowledge management design through subsequent iterations.

METRICS
Metrics, also known as ‘measures’ or ‘key performance indicators’ (KPIs), are simply a tool
for assessing the impact of a particular project or activity.
Using Metrics Allows:
} Targets to be set
◦ Metrics provide clearly defined goals and scope for projects, allowing for
more concrete design, planning and implementation. Metrics state “this is
what we plan to do, and this is the benefit it will have”.
} Success to be assessed
◦ Metrics provide very specific ’success criteria’ for projects, allowing the
outcomes to be assessed at the end of implementation.
} ROI to be estimated
◦ In the current times of tight IT budgets, there is an expectation that projects
will deliver quantifiable benefits. This is often defined in terms of ‘return on
investment’ (ROI). Without strong metrics, estimating ROI is little more than
guesswork.
} Ongoing viability to be tracked
◦ Metrics continue to provide value beyond initial implementation.
Appropriate measures will quickly highlight issues, allowing them to be
resolved before they grow or spread.
} Lessons to be learnt
◦ By providing a concrete way of assessing the success (or lack of) various
approaches, a greater understanding can be gained. This can then be applied
when establishing new initiatives.

EFFECTIVE KM METRICS BY GRAHAM BROWN

An effective metric or gauge for Knowledge Management might be an
index that is comprised of the following four types of measures:

1. Awareness – knowledge of what to document, how to document it,

how to access KM data bases, etc.

2. Behavior – participation in KM activities such as committees/teams,

making presentations, etc.

3. Outputs – creation of data bases, white papers, lessons learned

reports, best practice documentation, etc.

4. Outcomes – impact of new knowledge on key measures of

organizational performance such as new product sales, productivity,
cost reduction, or quality improvement.
BENCHMARKING
1. Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and
performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries.
2. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. Improvements from
learning mean doing things better, faster, and cheaper.
3. Related article :
http://www.allbusiness.com/management/benchmarking/10578956-1.html

Benchmarking is defined as the process of measuring products, services, and processes

against those of organizations known to be leaders in one or more aspects of their
operations. Benchmarking provides necessary insights to help you understand how your
organization compares with similar organizations, even if they are in a different business or
have a different group of customers.

Benchmarking can also help organizations identify areas, systems, or processes for
improvements—either incremental (continuous) improvements or dramatic (business
process re-engineering) improvements.

Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to

industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are
quality, time and cost.

Benchmarking is used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of
measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects
per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is then compared to others.

Also referred to as "best practice benchmarking" or "process benchmarking", this process is

used in management in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in
relation to best-practice companies' processes, usually within a peer group defined for the
purposes of comparison. This then allows organizations to develop plans on how to make
improvements or adapt specific best practices, usually with the aim of increasing some
aspect of performance. Benchmarking may be a one-off event, but is often treated as a
continuous process in which organizations continually seek to improve their practices.

In project management benchmarking can also support the selection, planning and delivery
of projects.

Leveraging Knowledge
LEVERAGING (improve) WHAT EXISTS
§ Enhancing organizational intelligence by creating a system that enable
people/workers to improve their work processes in order to expand their quality of
work life.
§ Technology’s most valuable role in KM is broadening the reach and enhancing the
speed of knowledge transfer.
§ Even the formal notion of KM is relatively new but the concepts and
facilitating technologies have existed for years.
 § Primary role that computing has to play in knowledge management is therefore that
of storing, which includes searching, retrieval, and networking
§ Most of the technologies that support KM processes and activities have been around
for many years.

10 ideas that need to be applied when looking at what can be leveraged :

§ From machine to the mind
- Innovation, generation of ideas

§ Collaborative synergy
- Successful KM-collaboration and collaborative success, If KM system cannot support
collaboration, knowledge sharing, learning, and continuous improvement, it's not
worth the bother

§ Real knowledge, not artificial intelligence

- Count out technology investments that solely focus on codification of tacit
knowledge.

§ Conversation as a medium of thought

Free, unrestricted, and easy conversation must be supported.
§ Sources and originators, not just information
reuse what exists either in a tangible form, or in someone's head

§ Decision support
§ Flexibility and scalability
§ KMS has and needs room to grow and change with the business that it
supports

§ Pragmatism not perfection

§ Begin with what you have, and then incrementally improve it.

§ The user is king

§ A key success factor in a knowledge management system is the ability of end
users to define and control interaction with numerous sources of
information, and decide how information is classified, organized, and
prioritized to suit perceived business needs and strategy.

§ Ease of use
§ KMS has to be easy to use

Internet implication (Group discussion)

- A cost-effective global network backbone
- Ubiquity
- Distributed connectivity
- Robust global data path
- Open and global competitive intelligence
KM TOOLS (refer to chapter 5)
KM TOOLS
This five-step KM process is concerned with five key steps:
1. Identifying the knowledge
2. Creating knowledge
3. Storing knowledge
4. Sharing knowledge
5. Applying knowledge
v In the application of KM, certain tools are essential
v Tools enables integration and sharing of knowledge.
v Tools must be able to support interactive discussions, brainstorming sessions,
strategy planning meetings
v Tools must facilitate multiple individuals across boundaries

Knowledge Processes and Technology Enablers-pg 128

Objective Technology Enablers
Find knowledge Knowledge bases in consulting firms; search and retrieval
tools that scan both formal and informal sources of
knowledge; employee skills yellow pages.
Create new knowledge Capture collaborative decision-making processes;
decision support system DSS tools; rationale capture
tools; Notes databases; decision repositories;
externalization tools
Package and assemble Customized publishing tools; information refinery tools;
knowledge push technology; customized discussion groups.
Apply knowledge Search, retrieval, and storage tools to help organize and
 classify both formal and informal knowledge.
Reuse and revalidate Customer support knowledge bases; consulting firm
knowledge discussion databases; past project record databases, and
communities of practice.
KM Platform-the application layer

Tools for Identifying knowledge

Identifying
8. APO Knowledge Management Assessment Tool
knowledge
9. Knowledge Cafés
10. Communities of Practice
17. Advanced Search Tools
18. Knowledge Clusters
19. Expert Locator
20. Collaborative Virtual Workspaces
22. Knowledge Mapping
23. KM Maturity Model
24. Mentor/Mentee
Tools for Creating knowledge
1. Brainstorming
2. Learning and Idea Capture
4. Learning Reviews
5. After Action Reviews
7. Collaborative Physical Workspaces
9. Knowledge Cafés
10. Communities of Practice
13. Knowledge Bases (Wikis, etc.)

Creating 14. Blogs

knowledge 16. Voice and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VOIP)
17. Advanced Search
18. Knowledge Clusters
19. Expert Locator
20. Collaborative Virtual Workspaces
24. Mentor/Mentee
25. Knowledge Portal
26. Video Sharing

Tools for Storing knowledge

Storing 4. Learning Reviews
knowledge
5. After Action Reviews
9. Knowledge Cafés
10. Communities of Practice
11. Taxonomy
12. Document Libraries
13. Knowledge Bases (Wikis, etc.)
14. Blogs
16. Voice and VOIP
18. Knowledge Clusters
 19. Expert Locator
20. Collaborative Virtual Workspaces
25. Knowledge Portal
26. Video Sharing

Tools for knowledge sharing

. Peer Assist
4. Learning Reviews
5. After Action Reviews
6. Storytelling
SHARING 10. Communities of Practice
KNOWLEDG 7. Collaborative Physical
E Workspaces
9. Knowledge Cafés
10. Communities of Practice
11. Taxonomy
12. Document Libraries

Tools for knowledge sharing

SHARING 13. Knowledge Bases (Wikis, etc.)

KNOWLEDG
14. Blogs
E
15. Social Networking Services
16. Voice and VOIP
18. Knowledge Clusters
19. Expert Locator
20. Collaborative Virtual Workspaces
25. Knowledge Portal
26. Video Sharing
24. Mentor/Mentee

Tools for applying knowledge

 3. Peer Assist
7. Collaborative Physical Workspaces
9. Knowledge Cafés
10. Communities of Practice
11. Taxonomy
12. Document Libraries
13. Knowledge Bases (Wikis, etc.)
APPLYING 14. Blogs
KNOWLEDG
E 17. Advanced Search
18. Knowledge Clusters
19. Expert Locator
20. Collaborative Virtual Workspaces
21. Knowledge Worker Competency Plan
24. Mentor/Mentee
25. Knowledge Portal

Non–IT Methods and Tools IT Methods and Tools

1. Brainstorming 12. Document Libraries leading to

2. Learning and Idea Capture a Document Management System
3. Peer Assist 13. Knowledge Bases (Wikis, etc.)
4. Learning Reviews 14. Blogs
 5. After Action Review 15. Social Network Services
6. Storytelling 16. Voice and Voice-over-Internet
7. Collaborative Physical Protocol (VOIP)
Workspace 17. Advanced Search Tools
8. APO Knowledge Management 18. Building Knowledge Clusters
Assessment Tool 9. Knowledge 19. Expert Locator
Café 20. Collaborative Virtual
10. Community of Practice Workspaces
11. Taxonomy

KM TOOLS
(1) Asset Management
Many organizations own vast numbers of patents and do not necessarily leverage the costs
of ownership as well as they could with the potential of their use for further innovation. 
- doing the proper analysis of the portfolio's worth can bring one of the strongest
immediate returns on investment as a knowledge management project. 

(2) Extranets
An extranet is…….
a centralized electronic repository of information (typically accessed via computer
from a company's web site). 

The users are specific clients who want an immediate tie to the company, the
information it has, and their work with the company. 
 There is unlimited potential for the uses of extranets including access to static
information like advertising, newsletters, client specific work product, and online
resources. 
There are also applications for interactive tools for collaborating and more. 
An extranet is frequently a portion of a company's web site that is password
protected for use by authorized clients.

(4) Intranet
An intranet is a centralized electronic repository of information (typically accessed
via computer on a company's network with a browser based for interface.  
There is unlimited potential for the uses of intranets including access to static
information like HR forms, work product, and online resources
-as well as interactive tools for learning, collaborating and more.  
There are solutions for small businesses who want to build an intranet solution without
tremendous expense either in infrastructure (technology or staff) and time. 

(3)Distance Learning
There are a variety of ways to educate members of your organization virtually rather than
relying on travel into "in person" seminars. 

Save time and money by considering technology that can simulate a physical classroom,
electronic modules, and real-time lectures and synchronous sessions.