Knowledge Management, Decision Support, and the TPA Case Brian Mennecke

How can IT be used to support decision makers? By supporting various individual and team activities and roles: Communication and team interaction The assimilation and filtering of data Assist with problem recognition Assist with problem solving Putting together the results into a cohesive package

Data is turned into information, but the decision maker also needs Knowledge to make decisions Types of knowledge: Descriptive Knowledge Procedural Knowledge Reasoning Knowledge Forms of Knowledge Tacit Knowledge Explicit Knowledge

Examples of technologies that can support or enhance the transformation of knowledge (IBM Systems Journal) Tacit to Tacit Tacit to Explicit E-meetings Answering questions Synchronous collaboration (chat) Annotation Explicit to Tacit Explicit to Explicit Visualization Text search Browsable video/audio of presentations Document categorization

Knowledge Management Tools Text and Forms management Database and Reporting management Spreadsheet, Solvers and Charts management Programming management. Rules management

Knowledge Management Processes Source: DENNIS, Alan R. and Iris VESSEY (2005). “Three Knowledge Management Strategies: Knowledge Hierarchies, Knowledge Markets, and Knowledge Communities,” MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 4, No. 4, p. 399-412.

Knowledge Management Strategies Source: DENNIS, Alan R. and Iris VESSEY (2005). “Three Knowledge Management Strategies: Knowledge Hierarchies, Knowledge Markets, and Knowledge Communities,” MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 4, No. 4, p. 399-412.

Knowledge Delivery Approaches Source: DENNIS, Alan R. and Iris VESSEY (2005). “Three Knowledge Management Strategies: Knowledge Hierarchies, Knowledge Markets, and Knowledge Communities,” MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 4, No. 4, p. 399-412.

Decision Support Systems (DSS) DSS can be classified as data-oriented provide tools for the manipulation and analysis of data model-based generally have some kind of mathematical model of the decision being supported

A model of a DSS

A model of a Spatial DSS

So, how does a DSS benefit decision makers Supplements the decision maker Allows improved intelligence, decision, and choice activities Facilitates problem solving Provides assistance with non-structures decisions Assists with knowledge management

Knowledge Management at TPA What are the general characteristics of… The organizational environment at TPA The SharePointProject system as a kind of knowledge management system The adoption process of SharePointProject

Knowledge Management at TPA Where is the initiative for knowledge management coming from? What impact does this have on the implementation of the initiative How was the initiative handled?

Knowledge Management at TPA Where is the initiative for knowledge management coming from? What impact does this have on the implementation of the initiative How was the initiative handled? How would you characterize this strategy? How well is IT aligned with this strategy?

Knowledge Management at TPA What is wrong with their initiative? They want to be sharing knowledge… why isn’t it working? How would you characterize the organization in terms of business processes and general IT structure?

Knowledge Management at TPA One way to understand their efforts is to think about the stages of IT implementation and architectures application silo architecture: a number of individual applications standardized technology architecture: enterprise wide TECH standards rationalized data architecture: enterprise wide DATA and PROCESS standards modular architecture: Global standards with loosely coupled applications, data, and technology, but enabling local customization

Ross’ Model of IT Implementation

Knowledge Management at TPA So, where is TPA? In the end, their IT implementation is misaligned with the organizations strategy. But, where is this misalignment coming from? IT? Processes? Incentives?

Aligning IT Henderson and Venkatraman’s Strategic Alignment Model

Aligning IT? The challenge for TPA is that processes are not aligned with IT The strategy is defined and feasible The IT strategy fits the organization’s strategy The IT implementation and processes are aligned with both strategies What about the organizational processes?

What to do? Activity! Break into your teams and discuss this problem Where/What is the problem? IT Elsewhere? How do you suggest TPA address this problem?