KMS in the Organization

Building Knowledge Management (KM) Systems in Organizations

“KM is more of a strategy supported by Information Technology (IT) that can show a quantifiable and sometimes substantial return on investment” (MacSweeney, 2002). Knowledge needs to be at the fingertips of people within an organization i.e. readily available and accessible. Ease of use and availability to internal users is also very important. In addition, the company culture needs to reflect knowledge use either by IT or collaboration.

The use of communities of practice (CoP) may be adopted within a company to enable ‘tacit’ knowledge becoming ‘explicit’. This can be in the form of people meeting weekly to discuss issues common to the organisations goals and objectives. For the CoP to be effective, a Chief Knowledge officer should be appointed to ensure knowledge is captured, stored and disseminated appropriately within the organisation. In addition, staff may be more encouraged and willing to participate in knowledge sharing, if an incentive scheme is in place. For example, a reward scheme of flexible working hours for participants of CoPs or free lunches during meetings.

An example of CoP in an organisation is the Acquisition Community Connection (ACC) of the US Department of Defence (DoD) and administered by Defence Acquisition University (DAU). The Acquisition Technology and Logistic staff are encouraged to share knowledge using CoP, which implements lessons learnt as part of their practice within the CoP. Under this culture of knowledge sharing, the CoP website harbours KM resources such as ‘Acquisition encyclopaedia’, ‘Ask a professor’ etc. Ask a professor serves as a Frequently Asked Questions database, which has a vast number of questions answered as briefly as possible. These questions vary from logistical questions to policy issues. The acquisition encyclopaedia, known as ‘ACQuipedia, a customized Wiki’, provides knowledge access i.e. an encyclopedia to acquisition related topics.

Considering the form of CoP implemented in the DoD, MacSweeney’s (2002) proposes that staff in an organisation and its customers need to be educated with the use of the internet, where products and services are described online, as well as coverage type, liability, background process for rating etc. Applying this concept to AFL (organization for group coursework), the use of the internet for buyers, garment technologists and customers may prove to be a beneficial KM strategy in the organization (MacSweeney, 2002).


Role of IT in Supporting Knowledge Management (KM)

Case Study by Laudon and Laudon (2006) where IT supports KM

Content Management Systems as an IT support for KM: Southern Company is an organization that generates electricity for over 4 million people in the United States of America.

The introduction of documentum system (IT content management system) cut down search time for essential documents and processes to 10 minutes from 2 hours and also increased the success in locating current content to 90% from 50%.

The IT supported knowledge management system also provided better resource availability to Southern Company in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Compared against other organizations, Southern Company were able to copy to disk, critical drawings/plans and other information allowing field based workers using laptops to access information needed, enabling quicker restoration of energy to their users.

Southern Company’s energy restoration to their users was accomplished in one day and twenty hours compared to their competitor’s restoration time that averaged three days and five hours.

The above benefits show how efficient and effective an organization can be if KM is supported by IT. It also demonstrates Southern Company’s competitive advantage of being able to deliver faster than their competitors.

Problems Faced by Southern Company:
Document intensive i.e. piles of documents to go through before identification/locating of required document(s)
Fragmented information in legacy system i.e. multiple legacy systems holding different forms of information
Manual processes: so many paper based forms to fill and manual processes to follow.

Ideal situation:
Reduced paper based documentation
Consolidated information in one accessible system
Automated processes

Results:
Cost reduction: Saving are made in the long-run on man hours regarding searching for information, designs, processes etc.
Reduced processing time: Time to process information, forms and business processes (e.g. energy restoration) is reduced.
Competitive advantage gained through cost and time reduction, increased staff morale, better customer service perception, etc

References:
Laudon, K., Laudon, J. (2006). Management Information Systems: Manging the Digital Firm (10th Edition) p434
MacSweeney G., (2002). The Knowledge Management Payback. Insurance and Technology May 6, 2002

Defense Acquisition University: [accessed on 02/04/2009] https://acc.dau.mil/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=170879&lang=en-US