Friday, April 24, 2009

Can Web 2.0 Really Help the Knowledge Management Cause?

PrimeObjects Web 2.0 team is working hard to achieve exactly same goal.

The article from Phil White on KMEdge.org.

What do we want out of knowledge management implementations?

    * We want organic growth of information, but we also want an "official version."
    * We want to promote innovation and open usage, but we cannot risk exposing proprietary intellectual property.
    * We want fast, intranet-based tools, but we don't want to spend money.
    * We want everything in beta, but the tools still need to be stable.
    * We want free-flowing information, but without negatively impacting legal, e-discovery, or litigation.
    * We want integration with large legacy systems, but we also want low implementation costs.
    * We want grassroots adoption, but with executive sponsorship.
    * We want to increase KM effectiveness, but with little or no additional funding.

Ok, I'm sure you get the point.  I think we've all faced these tradeoffs--and many more--when undertaking KM implementations. We've preached for many years, "Integrate everything and get it out at the right time to the right users." But solving this dilemma has been elusive at best.

At Rockwell Collins Inc. (where I am manager of knowledge and critical skills management), we've begun to experiment with Web 2.0 technologies to address some of these challenges. In an effort to make KM real to our engineering user base, we piloted two Web 2.0 applications: a wiki and a forum.

Using the wiki, we can create content that is both vetted and user-contributed at the speed of the intranet.  We put the information that people need in line with their daily activities and, by showing the productivity enhancement capabilities, we were able to secure executive sponsorship.  

However, a nagging question remains: Will people use the new tools?  Will they really achieve the value we are promoting?  These may appear to be strange questions since wikis are so viral outside the corporate setting.  But we must remember that these two environments are different and operate under different rules. What is acceptable in my social or leisure time is not necessarily acceptable during my professional time.  But my team has a gut feeling that Web 2.0 technologies can play a vital role in advancing KM at our organization.

Why has the corporate world been so slow to adopt these technologies? I believe the answer lies in the necessary paradigm shift related to how we process information. It's a shift from a lot of hierarchical order and paper to higher levels of comfort with user contribution, less inherent order, and a "please, no paper" attitude. All these trends can be seen in the changing mindsets of younger generations in the workplace. In order to gain acceptance for this more loosely connected information paradigm, we must provide the proper context and incentives to encourage people to participate.

In the engineering world--which is our primary focus at Rockwell Collins--I believe the key is to make Web 2.0 technologies easy and intuitive to use. For us, connecting a forum to a wiki appears to have provided an effective solution. People who prefer to ask questions instead of searching can enter the forum and post their queries. The forum searches the wiki for possible answers. If none are found, the question goes to a support person. As we build up the content in the wiki, we are seeing an increase in the percentage and volume of questions that can be resolved through wiki articles. People who prefer to perform their own searches can go directly to the wiki and find the answers they need.  If collaboration is required to formulate a solution, users can create a new wiki entry and engage others to help develop the answer. What started as a simple support system has grown into our engineering encyclopedia of knowledge, including information on people, processes, and tools. The wiki not only contains information on launching and running our engineering tools, but it also helps engineers understand and utilize our engineering standard processes.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Comments on "Technology and the Global Supply Chain mobile edition"

Original Article: Technology and the Global Supply Chain mobile edition

Put all docs on sharepoint is a good knowledge management? It is not! the way CRM integrating all customers' information in one central place encourage us to think more about whether we can do the same thing to other information such as a meeting, a project, competitor information, business process, sales life cycle and many more. We need redesign the target object by using meta data to cover all the interested attributes. Then we need to integrate and collect data from different sources into one single record of a predefined object. the final step is to discover knowledge from those information to gain knowledge and make smart decision. If a company is only doing doc storage, it is still at the infant stage of the knowledge management. People need to know where they are doing now from the famous 4 stage of infromation management? 1.Data->2.Information->3.Knowledge->4.Wisdom

Gary from PrimeObjects.com
Follow me on twitter.com/primeobjects

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Knowledge Management written by Patrick Stewart and commented by Gary Zhang

"I especially like the last paragragh of this article from Patrick Steward. It makes me to think about how to blur the knowledge inside the organization with the knowledge outside the organization, integrate the knowledge inside the mind of the employees and that of the customers, partners and even competitors, and organize the knowledge in various formats all in a well designed universal knowledge management system"

Original article is copied below for your reference.

Knowledge management is a technique of efficient assembly, alteration, safekeeping as well as management of information within organizations, alongside systems created to make the most from that knowledge. It references particularly to tools and methods made to protect data and information compiled by individuals who make up the company. It is at once a software bazaar as well as a area of consultancy work related tofields such as competitive intelligence. A huge area of knowledge management has to do with knowledge that is not elementary to digitally codify, including individual experiences.

The procedure of knowledge management additionally is known by a few other terms in its different developmental processes. One example is ‘corporate learning’ and it possesses these basic aims: distinguishing, collecting and systematizing current knowledge and allowing the creation of new information. Knowledge management has endured since civilization began, being in the guise of discussions, brainstorming meetings or in more formal methods including apprenticeships and qualified teaching training programs.

However, it’s only today that knowledge management is becoming integrated as a legitimate business practice, and because of that it has seen the invoking of certain knowledge and information technology methods, the establishment of intranets within corporate settings and so forth. This all are a part of a compulsion to enact knowledge management systems.

Knowledge management systems comprise of a heavily circulated hypermedia method for the categorizing of knowledge, encouragement of creativity and the seizure, storing and giving away of that expertise and awareness. The word hypermedia is utilized to name a medium through which audio, video and text collide to make a lateral mode of data storage in addition to broadcasting. In other words, the phrase “hypermedia” might be utilized extension of the term ‘hypertext’.

For instance, the Web is an case in point of hypermedia, but the same cannot be said for of a movie on a Digital Video Disc. The Internet is utilized as a place where which global data is held, used and sent through computers which are attached to the World Wide Web. The net is a area that can be efficiently used to implement knowledge management systems effectively, just as the office intranet system can in addition be used. On it’s own, it is not a knowledge management system. Although, it can be utilized to keep and retrieve a knowledge management system.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Accenture’s CRM recommendations for companies overall include

• Striking a balance in how they use resources to market to the most valuable consumer segments; 

• Distinguishing themselves through customer interactions that support a branded customer experience; 

• Pumping up sales productivity by mapping processes to new technologies;   

• Setting sales goals and establishing rewards for meeting them; compensating the sales team consistently;   

• Narrowing the gap between customer expectations and the actual service experience;

• Using analytics tools to gain a deeper understanding of the actual intentions of customers in their own words.   

"CIOs in particular need to understand business analytics and focus on what the business will need to take it to the next level," concludes Driggs.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Category Management & Auto-Tagging

1. Select a primary category.

2. Save the record. Click the “Tag” menu button. 3. A tag has been created automatically.