Knowledge Management

Leveraging intellectual property without loosing control

Five fundamental issues organisations face regarding knowledge;

1. How to leverage your organisations knowledge

2. Eliminating the difficulty capturing knowledge

3. Overcoming the difficulty in sharing knowledge

4. Reducing the risk of knowledge loss and theft

How to leverage your organisations knowledge

Controlled knowledge management systems enable you to share the right knowledge with the right people at the right time and provide high levels of protection for your knowledge assets. Many organisations fail to realise the true value of their knowledge assets. It is reasonably well understood that people need fast access to knowledge without wasting other peoples time, but how do you get the information, protect it, share it and improve it?

To answer these questions we must first understand that knowledge applies to many aspects of the organisation and in fact knowledge can be related to, but not limited to;

• Managing service delivery to your customers (and resellers if applicable)

• Managing services from your suppliers

• Managing your internal, external and outsourced service providers

• Managing your policies and procedures

• Managing your internal equipment or systems

Knowledge is very valuable, because it enables people without the knowledge to tap into knowledge without taking up others peoples time unnecessarily. It is essential for removing unnecessary time waste from all parties concerned. It also helps increase the predictability of positive outcomes, knowing that everyone has access to pertinent, tried and tested information. Information accuracy is a hidden key benefit.

Eliminating the difficulty capturing knowledge

Collecting knowledge can be a daunting but essential task. How many times have your heard of or witnessed the loss of an individual worker that resulted in the loss of valuable knowledge. This very issue enables some staff to demand a salary premium purely because they know that you cant quickly replace them without pain. The trick to the whole situation is to;

• Collect information on a daily basis

• Have structured systems that formalise data collection

• Have systems that make collection fast and efficient

• Deliver system based incentives to inspire people to complete the data input

• Segment the information in logical ways to simplify input and retrieval

• Have fast and simple approval processes for data entry into the main repository

Overcoming the difficulty in sharing knowledge

The process of simplifying sharing of collected knowledge means a range of requirement must be taken care of in such a ways as to enhance the systems capabilities and not hinder it. Attributes of a good system include;

• Segmenting knowledge into logical subject matter

• Allowing descriptive information be added to simplify later searching

• Having easy to use but powerful search capabilities to find what you want when you want it

• Controlled access rights

• Allowing a wide range of information type storage such as;

  - Web pages or web sites

  - Intranet web page links

  - Stored record of previous solutions found

  - Various stored document types

  • Microsoft documents,

  • Text files

  • PDF files

Powerful search capabilities are a fundamental requirement, and searching must;

1. Enable the use of key words or partial words

2. Allow segregation of search by multiple criteria

3. Present all results even for partial matches to the criteria

4. Display rating of percentage match and present the 100% matches first

Reducing the risk of knowledge loss and theft

The main types risks of knowledge loss are;

• The loss of key staff or trading partners that have the information in their head.

• Theft of knowledge leaving no trace of it for the organisation to use

• Theft by copying knowledge, often undetected

• Having so much unsearchable information that no one can find what they need

Knowledge systems must employ effective means for reducing or eliminating all of these issues but must at all times deliver effective business productivity in a user friendly manner.

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