Knowledge management: Leverage enterprise resource

As the saying goes, 'knowledge is power', enterprises off late have realized

how important is the information that are scattered randomly in the organization

and be able to make maximum use of that knowledge. Often, one part of an

enterprise repeats work of another part simply because it is impossible to keep

track of, and make use of, information existing in other parts. Precisely for

this reason, enterprises need to know:

• what their knowledge assets are;
• how to manage and make use of these assets to get maximum return.

This knowledge could be existing in many different places such as: databases,

knowledge bases, filing cabinets and the employees themselves could be power

house of knowledge and are distributed right across the enterprise. Most

traditional companies focus only on some of the tangible assets of the company

and ignore their important knowledge assets.

According to a white paper, knowledge management essentially involves the

identification and analysis of available and required information called as

knowledge assets and their related processes. Knowledge assets are the info or

knowledge regarding markets, products, technologies and organizations that a

business owns or needs to own and which enable its business processes to

generate profits, add value, etc.

Knowledge management is not only about managing these knowledge assets but

managing the processes that act upon the assets. These processes include:

developing knowledge; preserving knowledge; using and sharing knowledge.

Need for knowledge management

Success in an increasingly competitive marketplace depends critically on the

quality of knowledge that organizations apply to their key business processes.

For instance, the supply chain depends on knowledge of diverse areas including

raw materials, planning, manufacturing and distribution.

According to the industry experts, some of the key drivers for adopting

knowledge management are:

• The marketplace is increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is
  
  rising, so that knowledge must evolve and be assimilated at a faster rate.
• Corporations are organizing their businesses to be focused on creating
  
  customer value. Staff functions are being reduced as are management
  
  structures. There is a need to replace the informal knowledge management of
  
  the staff function with formal methods in customer aligned business
  
  processes.
• Competitive pressures are reducing the size of the workforce that holds
  
  this knowledge.
• Knowledge takes time to experience and acquire. Employees have less and
  
  less time for this.
• There are trends for employees to retire earlier and for increasing
  
  mobility, leading to loss of knowledge.
• There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating
  
  companies are transnational sourcing operations.
• A change in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a
  
  specific area. A subsequent reversal in policy may then lead to a renewed
  
  requirement for this knowledge, but the employees with that knowledge may no
  
  longer be there.

What to look for?

Easier said than done, there are many problems and challenges associated with

identifying what these knowledge assets constitute of and being able to use and

manage them in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Enterprises need:

• to have an enterprise-wide vocabulary to ensure that the knowledge is
  
  correctly understood;
• to be able to identify, model and explicitly represent their knowledge;
• to share and re-use their knowledge among differing applications for
  
  various types of users; this implies being able to share existing knowledge
  
  sources and also future ones;
• to create a culture that encourages knowledge sharing.