A book review The book that was reviewed: Applehans, W., Globe, A., Laugero, G., Managing Knowledge – A Practical Web-Based Approach. Addison-Wesley Information Technology Series. Addison-Wesley, Additional source: El Sawy, O. A., Redesigning Enterprise Processes for e-Business. Pre- print. McGraw-Hill, The work group: Hannu Kilpeläinen, Tommi Meriläinen, Marjut Sibenberg

Basic assumptions & concepts Five assumptions: Knowledge management does not have to be "profound". You have a champion and are figuring out how to get started. Document management concepts, technologies, and procedures provide the basic discipline to kick off a successful effort. Your is a mid- to large-size company with an Intranet and Extranet, as well as an Internet presence. Your business is consciously preparing for the information economy. Two conflicting trends: Ongoing increase of data and information Need for knowledge  InfoSmog

Basic assumptions & concepts Competitive demands to master with KM: Partnering Expertise turnover management De-centralization of decision making Knowledge is the ability to turn information and data into effective action El Sawy: Knowledge as object (what an organization knows). Knowledge is seen as patterned information that produces insight Knowledge as process (how an organization learns something new). A view which centers on the process of knowledge creation and knowledge sharing as learning. Knowledge as capability (how well an organization uses what it knows). Knowledge is seen as a core competence that is connected to know- how and intellectual capital.

Basic assumptions & concepts Knowledge management: finding and translating different sources of knowledge into knowledge documents that can be delivered throughout the supply chain  Key components of KM: People: those who produce and those who use knowledge that will be the basis for action. Content: the flow of data, information, and knowledge important to the success of the business. Technology: the technical infrastructure that enables the capture, storage, and delivery of content to those who need it when they need it.

The ninety-day action plan Basic phases: First 30 days: Choose a single business cycle that you can improve Begin the knowledge audit Days 30 to 60: Begin building your core team Choose your technology Last 30 days: Market your efforts Maintain your content

From day 1 to day 30 Choose a single business cycle that you can improve Business objectives  key business cycles  important information Information Leverage Points (ILPs): points of business cycles, where data, information and knowledge must be delivered to meet the business objectives Begin the knowledge audit Break the chosen business cycle down to every event where people need to act How the business cycle works  What is important -interviews  Inefficiencies in the cycle (success/fails) Identify people who use information at each point Interview people being responsible of the cycle  Interview performers of the cycle  Identify relevant job titles to the map Select the content necessary to act at each ILP Set up focus groups  Determine what information is necessary for them to act  Fill in the specific pieces of content needed at each ILP

From day 1 to day 30 Begin the knowledge audit (continued) Mapping the knowledge network Identify Content Centers  Adding Content Satellites  Staffing and assigning ownership Employ ee Center Product Center Sales & Marketin g Center

From day 31 to day 60 Begin building your core team Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) Knowledge Analyst Knowledge Author Technology Support Consultant The Interface Design Director Multimedia Producer Choose your technology Technical architecture as six layers: access layer interface layer intelligence layer authoring layer transport layer repository layer

From day 61 to day 90 Market your efforts how your solution can help the employees Maintain your content how to keep the content updated? does the knowledge architecture work?

Comparing to El Sawy's redesign principles Analyze & synthesize. Improving the interactive analysis and synthesis capabilities around a process to create added value Connect, collect & create. Growing intelligently reusable knowledge around the process through all who touch it Personalize. Making the process intimate with the preferences and habits of participants  Applehans, Globe and Laugero seem to mostly support the first principle

Last words about the book Taking Knowledge Management from theory to practice If you already have basic knowledge about KM, this book helps to start implementing the ideas Very simplified view taking the right information to the right people  information = knowledge? How about learning and knowledge creation? The writers do recognize the deficiencies in the beginning of the book, and those should be kept in mind when reading it