ARCHIVE: THE INFORMATION ARCHITECT
The quest for knowledge, power and ROI
E Parizo
10.11.2001
Rating: --- (out of 5)
The quest for knowledge, power and ROI
Harnessing your enterprise data into a knowledge management system
can be challenging, but promises long-term rewards if done carefully.
by Eric B. Parizo, TechTarget
"Knowledge is power," English philosopher Francis Bacon once wrote.
Yet in today's information age, enterprises still struggle to turn
their distributed data into useful and powerful knowledge bases.
Several years ago a few opportunistic software companies took notice
of this, and the knowledge management (KM) industry was born. In
theory, enterprise KM systems track resources, documents and people
skills, creating a company-wide, long-term memory independent of
employees.
-------------------------------------------
SPONSORED BY: EMC
NEW EMC PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGIES ENABLE "HYPER-CONSOLIDATION," COST
REDUCTION
On September 10, EMC CEO Joe Tucci announced the expansion of the
company's industry-leading Symmetrix product line, as well as
significant new technologies enabling customers to consolidate more
information than ever before.
Learn how EMC's new products and technologies provide increased
capacity, functionality, connectivity, and performance -- while
sharply reducing the total cost of information storage ownership.
See the complete EMC News story -- with links to the announcement
webcast, specific product and technology information, press releases,
and more:
http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;3440887;5058249;s?http://www.emc.com/techtarget/v13/index.html
---------------------------------------------
In reality, a multitude of KM definitions and product offerings have
flooded the IT world, confusing vendors and customers alike. The
industry's identity crisis may force some to write off investing in
KM, but experts believe its return on investment (ROI) potential may
be high if implemented correctly.
The knowledge
Jonathan Spira, chairman and chief analyst of New York-based analyst
firm Basex Inc., said that before an implementation, it is important
to realize that there is no such thing as KM in a box.
"KM isn't really a tool or set of tools; it's a discipline. If you
imagine a database containing millions of entries...even if you look
at some (information) that makes sense, it might be out of context
with data in other systems," said Spira. "You need some way to bring
this information together contextually."
Spira said KM can do that, but it is difficult to find a starting
place. A number of preexisting technologies often fall under the KM
umbrella, such as document management, content management,
communities, portals, search engines, user profiling and customer
relationship management (CRM).
The variety of vendor offerings is also confusing. In July, Basex
surveyed the marketing efforts of 36 major KM vendors -- including
Lotus Software, IT Factory, Interwoven and Siebel -- and found only
25% considered themselves to be KM vendors.
Another cornerstone of knowledge management involves capturing what
Delphi Group senior advisor Larry Hawes calls tacit knowledge --
information that exists solely in peoples' minds.
"What KM software needs to do is facilitate that (process) by making
it easier to capture and share tacit knowledge in document form, or
by making it easier to find an individual that has that knowledge and
collaborate with them, potentially online," said Hawes.
The power
Director of business intelligence Tony Souza recently oversaw a J.D.
Edwards-based KM implementation at his company, Ontario Store
Fixtures Inc. (OSF) in Toronto. The retail store interiors
manufacturer was using several complex reporting tools to compile
data on sales order management, enterprise resource planning (ERP)
and financials.
Since none of the company's systems were linked, every basic data
mining project required heavy in-house development. Last year, the
company decided to undertake a KM implementation based on its J.D.
Edwards ERP system.
Souza said customizing communications between separate systems is
usually the sticky point in an implementation, but leveraging his
preexisting ERP system saved OSF the trouble of staring from scratch.
After installing a new data warehouse and integrating its financial
systems, the company added sales order, manufacturing and document
management software. Today, Souza said his company has a powerful
end-to-end view of its workflow processes.
OSF's goal is to increase workflow efficiency by 95% through the
combination of distributed data and tacit knowledge. Better message
management is one example. "When messages sat in somebody's inbox,
tasks didn't get pushed through the system. Now we've put gates at
each end of the processes, so messages aren't allowed to sit there
for longer than a given period," he said.
The ROI
Today, a year after it began, Souza's company considers its KM
implementation a success. However, he said the project could have
quickly gone awry with expensive customization if he had chosen
systems that did not complement his existing platforms and back-end
systems.
Souza said that even though it is difficult to measure ROI on a KM
implementation, OSF gained an advantage over competitors because its
information is readily available in many ways.
"If you're able to either integrate your information with suppliers
or provide customers better information about what's going on with
the status of their transactions, that makes your business more
competitive. It's hard to put an exact dollar figure on that, but
that doesn't mean it's not important," said Souza.
Hawes said that the best KM ROI metric might be measuring a company's
internal awareness and market responsiveness before and after an
implementation.
Regardless, Spira cautions that expecting an immediate ROI is unwise,
especially because it takes time and effort before employees will
embrace a philosophy that centralizes the data and knowledge that
once solidified their corporate worth.
"There's no company that doesn't bring its own culture and baggage"
to a KM implementation, Spira said. "Approach the decision to adopt a
KM mentality as you would any other strategic change. Don't let the
optimism of the dot-com era make you expect a three-month return."
More on this topic:
SearchCRM offers best practices for enterprise knowledge
management.
SearchDatabase has information on knowledge management and database applications.
|
|
Rate this Tip
|
To rate tips, you must be a member of SearchWinDevelopment.com.
Register now
to start rating these tips. Log in if you are already a member.
|
DISCLAIMER: Our Tips Exchange is a forum for you to share technical advice and expertise with your peers and to learn from other enterprise IT professionals. TechTarget provides the infrastructure to facilitate this sharing of information. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of the material submitted. You agree that your use of the Ask The Expert services and your reliance on any questions, answers, information or other materials received through this Web site is at your own risk.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
