Tap Into The
Power Of Knowledge Collaboration
By Warren Karlenzig, Dimension Data
It's no longer news that the 'new economy' bubble has burst, but it's
also clear that the Internet has irreversibly altered the world's
competitive landscape. Whether you call it the 'knowledge economy' or
attach some other label to it, this new environment is defined by the way
the Internet liberates knowledge in organizations by reducing the costs of
storing and distributing data. This 'new economics of information'
places increasing emphasis on the ways that companies employ information and
is a fundamental tool in their struggles to compete and create value. For
example, if you compare the valuation and balance sheets of the Fortune 500
today with 10 years ago, you will find that intangible assets (often another
term for knowledge) play a significantly more important role than they ever
did before.
To take full advantage of their intangible assets, companies are
increasingly seeking out knowledge collaboration solutions that combine
customer knowledge and widespread innovation in products and markets with
sustained improvement of core capabilities and associated business
processes, leading to the ultimate competitive advantage.
Knowledge collaboration is a strategic organizational approach that
dynamically builds upon internal and external systems, business processes,
technology and relationships (communities, customers, partners, suppliers)
to maximize business performance. Knowledge collaboration demonstrates the
extent to which a corporation has institutionalized processes for knowledge
creation, capture, sharing and reuse as a fundamental means of creating
value. These capabilities produce the greatest value when they are embedded
in the fabric of an organization's culture, values, processes and reward
systems. Corporations that want to succeed in the networked economy need to
master knowledge collaboration.
Unfortunately, most knowledge workers engage in daily work processes that
have not yet changed to reflect the imperatives and opportunities of the new
environment. To remain competitive, organizations are turning to knowledge
collaboration systems to develop new roles, structures, processes and
systems for knowledge creation, capture and reuse. Large organizations have
the most to gain from instituting knowledge collaboration programs, as they
share best practices and competitive skill sets across previously siloed
lines of business and departments. However, knowledge collaboration should
not be confined within the walls of a single corporation. At its most
effective, knowledge collaboration reaches out across the extended
enterprise's web, maximizing partner channel revenues and supply chain
efficiencies. Companies that successfully maximize their extended enterprise
value webs follow an approach that dynamically builds upon internal and
external communities, business processes, technology and customer
relationships.
Like any new technology endeavor, strong leadership is crucial to the
success of knowledge collaboration initiatives. The leadership ' both at
the executive and in-the-trenches levels ' creates the organizational
structures and professionals that are necessary in developing companywide
and departmental initiatives. Only when senior executives become and remain
champions of knowledge collaboration can it spread quickly and continue to
provide the enterprise with the greatest returns.
While buy-in and support from senior executives is key, knowledge sharing
also needs to be nurtured by small internal groups led by people who have
direct access to senior management. These small groups provide strategic
direction, are detail-driven and regularly interact with all departments.
Employees may be initially suspicious of knowledge collaboration
initiatives, but as they begin to see internal innovators and leaders
tapping into the power of knowledge management (KM) tools, they will be
drawn to the system, and momentum for the system's use will build.
One of the key responsibilities of any KM team is to support the work of
both internal and external communities of practice. Informal but powerful,
internal communities of practice form the connective tissue of the
internetworked company by gathering together experts and enthusiasts based
on particular themes, functions or experience. Extra-corporate communities
of practice can include partners, buyers, suppliers, customers and other
members of the value web. Online communities, which were originally
established as a means to make Web sites stickier, have emerged as informal
communities of practice and are now considered important strategic feedback
tools.
Knowledge collaboration programs can prevent costly duplication of
effort. While 'knowing what you know' is not a new corporate priority,
today's Web-based applications better enable companies to capture and
share best practices by aggregating documents in various digital formats,
funneling them to a single repository and categorizing them according to
appropriate taxonomies. Best practices programs can yield significant
returns.
Today's knowledge collaboration systems combine the latest Internet
technologies with search and customization tools to aggregate qualitative
and quantitative information. The most effective of these active systems
take into consideration the likelihood or necessity of users interacting
with and building upon knowledge bases. The most common categories of tools
for knowledge collaboration are:
- Online knowledge databases,
- Portals,
- Web-based conferencing,
- Collaborative project spaces,
- Private exchanges, and
- Expertise profiling tools.
An online knowledge database provides the backbone for most knowledge
sharing initiatives. Serving as the most readily accessible form of the 'corporate
memory,' a company's knowledge database provides global employees with
around-the-clock access to a wide range of information and experiences. This
shared access to material ' which is best facilitated through secure
Internet access from any computer or handheld device ' breaks down the
walls between people who are working on related projects, issues or
customers in different time zones and countries. Knowledge databases also
help make it possible to reconstruct intellectual capital that has been lost
as a result of employee turnover.
In general, a portal ' be it corporate, customer or b-to-b trading
community ' provides a single entry point to all necessary disparate
systems, applications and databases. Its interface presents a common
experience for all users regardless of their activities and is highly
customizable to each user's needs. For example, highly mobile sales
employees often require anytime, anywhere access capabilities, whereas
research and development professionals usually require tools that provide
fast access to large quantities of detailed information.
Another tool for knowledge collaboration is Web-based conferencing.
Web-based conferencing services enable employees to share documents and
applications, to participate in video and teleconferences, to conduct live
polls and surveys and to send instant messages and work on virtual
whiteboards. These tools are most commonly used to work through
presentations and to plan and forecast. Web-based conferencing is
particularly useful for supply chain collaboration.
If not properly connected, geographically dispersed workforces impede
time-to-market efforts. Collaborative project spaces cut through geographic
discontinuity by providing shared access to documents, blueprints and
threaded discussions for product and project development. Collaborative
project space typically includes synchronous (real-time) functions such as
real-time chat, instant messaging and screen sharing, as well as
asynchronous functions such as threaded discussion and document sharing.
Private exchanges are one-to-many marketplaces that connect a single
company to its supply chain. Originally designed for commerce, private
exchanges today serve as platforms for robust collaboration among all
members of the supply chain. Private exchanges maximize efficiencies, from
planning to fulfillment, by enhancing the transactional layer with
personalization, Web conferencing and decision support.
In many companies it is difficult to find out who knows what. Employees
waste time re-researching topics or making decisions that are not based on
the company's best thinking. Expertise profiling tools catalog each
employee's skills and experiences and enable other users to quickly
identify the most knowledgeable person via a subject query. Users are also
able to ask the system a specific question that is routed to those users who
are most likely to know the answer. The question is sent via a Web browser
and individuals reply directly.
Today there exists an array of tools and technologies that both use and
amplify people's expertise, experience and judgment. While these tools are
part of the foundation for knowledge collaboration, it should be stressed
that knowledge collaboration is a dynamic process directly dependent on the
company's culture, leadership and incentives. Our experience suggests that
after complaining about the need for better tools for knowledge
collaboration, many employee bases are often initially suspicious of
knowledge collaboration efforts. However, as internal innovators and leaders
start tapping into the power of their new set of tools, the 'sneakernet,'
or word of mouth among employees, will make the success of your knowledge
collaboration efforts gain an unstoppable momentum.
Warren Karlenzig leads the Knowledge Services Practice for Dimension
Data. He is responsible for the company's strategy on knowledge management
and collaboration-related engagements, including corporate/enterprise
portals, Intranets, Extranets, communities and collaboration systems. He was
formerly the editor-in-chief and a founding editor of Knowledge Management
magazine.
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