What is Knowledge Management? Knowledge management (KM) –“Is a practice concerned with increasing awareness, fostering learning, speeding collaboration and innovation, and exchanging insights” Create value from an organization’s intellectual assets Housed in Information Technology or Human Resource Management departments Knowledge asset classification –Either explicit or tacit Information Technology for Managers1

What is Knowledge Management? (continued) Information Technology for Managers2

What is Knowledge Management? (continued) Capture and document work-related tacit knowledge of others –Turn it into explicit knowledge that can be shared with others Frequently used processes exist for capturing explicit knowledge –Shadowing and joint-problem solving Information Technology for Managers3

Knowledge Management Applications and Associated Benefits Deliver benefits by: –Fostering innovation –Leveraging the expertise of people across the organization –Capturing the expertise of key individuals before they retire Information Technology for Managers4

Foster Innovation by Encouraging the Free Flow of Ideas Organizations must continuously innovate –To evolve, grow, prosper, and stay fit Encouraging the free flow of ideas among employees, contractors, suppliers, and other business partners –Can lead to the discovery of a wealth of new opportunities to be evaluated and tested Information Technology for Managers5

Leverage the Expertise of People Across the Organization Enable employees to share and build on one another’s experience and expertise –New employees or employees moving into new positions are able to get up to speed more quickly Workers can share thoughts and experiences about what works well and what does not –Avoid a costly and time-consuming “reinvention of the wheel” Information Technology for Managers6

Capture the Expertise of Key Individuals as They Retire Three to four million employees will retire each year for the next 20 years Many organizations are using knowledge management to capture valuable expertise before it simply walks out the door Information Technology for Managers7

Best Practices for Selling and Implementing a KM Project Challenges exist in trying to establish a successful KM program Associated with human nature and the manner in which people are accustomed to working together Information Technology for Managers8

Connect the KM Effort to Organizational Goals and Objectives Clearly define how effort will support specific organizational goals and objectives Sell the project to others and elicit their support and enthusiasm Determine if the project is worthwhile Information Technology for Managers9

Identify Valuable Tacit Knowledge Not all tacit knowledge is equally valuable “Point of a KM program is to identify and disseminate knowledge gems from a sea of information” Information Technology for Managers10

Start with a Small Pilot Involving Enthusiasts Less risky than trying to take on a project very large in scope More control over the outcome –If the outcome is not successful, the organization is not seriously impacted Address the business needs of a group of people who are somewhat informed about KM and are enthusiastic about its potential Information Technology for Managers11

Get Employees to Buy In Create a work culture that places a high value on tacit knowledge Especially difficult to get workers to surrender their knowledge and experience in a highly competitive work environment Most powerful incentive for experts to share their knowledge is to receive public recognition from senior managers Information Technology for Managers12

Technologies That Support KM Increasing need for knowledge to be quality filtered and distributed in task-relevant and timely manner Be aware of the wide range of technologies that can support KM efforts Information Technology for Managers13

Communities of Practice Group whose members share a common set of goals and interests –Regularly engage in sharing and learning Develop around topics that are important to its members Origins and structures of CoPs vary widely Software from Socialcast Information Technology for Managers14

Social Network Analysis (SNA) Technique to document and measure flows of information –Between individuals, workgroups, organizations, computers, Web sites, and other information sources Many software tools support social network analysis –NetMiner, UCINET, and NetDraw Many knowledge management applications Information Technology for Managers15

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Web 2.0 Technologies Web 2.0 –Changes in technology and Web site design to enhance information sharing, collaboration, and functionality on the Web Many organizations are using Web 2.0 technologies to capture the knowledge of longtime employees Information Technology for Managers17

A Manager Takes Charge: JetBlue PilotsWeb 2.0 Technologies JetBlue University –Corporate university responsible for the orientation and training of all the airline’s employees Murry Christensen –Director of Learning Technologies at JetBlue University –Initiated a pilot project to evaluate a social network portal –Portal enables university to use Web 2.0 technologies to share best practices Information Technology for Managers18

A Manager Takes Charge: JetBlue PilotsWeb 2.0 Technologies (continued) If pilot project proves successful: –JetBlue plans to expand the use of the portal across the entire enterprise Information Technology for Managers19

Business Rules Management Systems Decision logic –Also called business rules –Includes policies, requirements, and conditional statements that govern how the systems work Traditional method of modifying the decision logic Business rule management system (BRMS) –Software used to define, execute, monitor, and maintain the decision –Enables business users to make changes and updates to the decision logic without requiring involvement from IT resources Information Technology for Managers20

Business Rules Management Systems (continued) BRMS components include: –Business rule engine –Enterprise rules repository –Software to manage the various versions of rules as they are modified –Additional software for reporting and multi-platform deployment Use of BRMS leads to faster and more accurate implementation of necessary system changes Information Technology for Managers21

Enterprise Search Software Enterprise search –Application of search technology to find information within an organization –Indexes documents from a variety of sources Uses the index to present a list of relevance-ranked documents Software vendors –Autonomy, Endeca, Google, IBM, Kazeon, Microsoft, Oracle, Recommind, and StoredIQ Information Technology for Managers22

Enterprise Search Software (continued) Compliance enterprise search software –Used by: IT and Human Resources organizations to enforce corporate guidelines Legal counsel to gather up all s and documents related to upcoming litigation Governance officials to ensure that all guidelines for the storage of information are being followed Information Technology for Managers23

Enterprise Search Software (continued) “Electronic discovery (e-discovery) refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case” –“We can’t find it” is no longer an acceptable excuse for not producing information relevant to a lawsuit Information Technology for Managers24

Enterprise Search Software (continued) Information Technology for Managers25

Summary KM –Increasing awareness, fostering learning, speeding collaboration and innovation, and exchanging insights –Used to encourage the free flow of ideas, leverage the expertise of people across the organization, and capture the expertise of key individuals before they retire Recommendations to help sell and implement a KM project Technologies that support knowledge management Information Technology for Managers26