1 Leveraging Technology to Build Knowledge Sharing Systems Mauro Cardarelli May 18, 2007.

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Leveraging Technology to Build Knowledge Sharing

Systems

Mauro CardarelliMay 18, 2007

Property of Jornata, LLC NEECOM Presentation

Agenda

►Module 1 – Introduction►Module 2 – Architecture►Module 3 – Structured Content►Module 4 – Unstructured Content►Module 5 – Search►Module 6 – Business Intelligence

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Disclaimers

►This presentation is not an endorsement of any product or suite of products related to knowledge management.

►The views expressed are those of the presenter and are based on personal expertise and experiences

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If you learn one thing today…

►If you want to build a knowledge management system, DON’T start with the knowledge!

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Module 1 - Introduction

►Knowledge Management “comprises a range of practices used by

organizations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning” – Wikipedia

►Information Management “collection and management of information from

one or more sources and distribution to one or more audiences who have a stake in that information or a right to that information” – Wikipedia

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Knowledge Management System

►Knowledge Management Systems “enable employees to have access to the

organization's knowledge of facts, sources of information, and solutions” – Wikipedia

Benefits include (Executive sales pitch): Sharing of valuable organizational knowledge Avoids re-inventing the wheel, reduces redundant work Reduces training time for new employees Frees the experts Retention of Intellectual Property even after the

employee leaves

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When?

►When do you need a KM system? # of employees? # of documents? # of systems?

►Reality is that you know you need a KM system when it is too late…

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Why do KM Systems Fail?

► Technology is too complicated Training requirements too large Tools are not intuitive

► Effort for input is too great Deviation from current process too large

► Benefits for end users too small Gains in efficiencies too small

► Everyone wants to find the experts; the experts don’t want to be found KM is considered overhead

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The Future

►Knowledge Management 2.0 “New, focused, lightweight applications

rewrite the rules about KM. The best part? People will actually use them.” – CIO Magazine

http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;810554589

Buzzwords: collaborating, sharing, do-it-yourself KM

Employees are consumers AND producers of corporate knowledge

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Module 2 - Architecture

► What is corporate knowledge? Documents Emails Images Concepts, ideas, thoughts

► Where is it stored? Network file drives Your desktop Your Inbox Your head

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What does a KM System Look Like?

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Clients

Employees

Projects


How Do You Connect the Data?

►Employee data is in an employee source How do you think about employee

attributes (title, skills, tenure, project role)

►Customer data is in other sources What about customers (revenue, industry,

size, executives)?

►Project data is in others What about projects (budget, team,

deliverables)?

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Technology Considerations

►Current Investment Servers Disk Space Tools/Applications

►Future Investment Hardware/Software Integrations

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Big Picture/Little Picture

►Integration is the killer application; not the applications themselves

►Users want a single interface into corporate knowledge… one company, one KMS

►Tools must deliver on their advertised features AND fit well into the overall architecture (and vision)

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KMS Requirements

►Single interface into corporate knowledge

►Secure►Fast, easy to use►Easy to support and extend►Complete and accurate

Without these, KM systems fail…

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Security

►Just because you put all the information in one place doesn’t mean everyone should see it! You need an authentication model to

know the user’s profile General access as well as navigation and

search results should be “security trimmed”

Getting this right is the hardest part

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Module 3 – Structured Content

►Structured content Files Well-organized Highly focused Polished Published The core of corporate knowledge… it is

what you do…

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Challenges

► Single version of the truth? Multiple copies on network drives, email

attachments; which one is the “right” one?► What is this thing?

“031299_KeyIdeas_JKS.doc”… what?► Is this still useful or relevant?

What is the expiration process?► Where is it?

How can I find what I am looking for?

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Answers

►Consolidation Store in one place; reference many times

►Metadata Tag it early; tag it often

►Expiration Dates/Auto-Archiving Have an archiving plan

►Taxonomy/Search Make it easy to find things

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Picking the “Right” System

►Structured content should be managed by a system that has Easy means of allowing end users to manage

their own content (uploads, edits, deletes) Governance capabilities around setting

metadata and associated rules Expiration and archiving features Taxonomy management Enterprise search

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Old Way…

►Project teams makes request to IT for new network folder

►Team dumps content in over project lifecycle (files named with dates for version control)

►IT manages permissions and general access

►Files live forever and fill server after server

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New Way

►Users are empowered to create collaborative areas, upload content, and invite contributors and readers

►IT has a plan for managing the growth and organization of collaborative sites

►Organization has a policy on document expiration and content archiving

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Advantages

►This really scales!►Less disk space; smaller email inboxes►Irrelevant content “disappears”►Content is tagged; more is known

about each file►Associations are made to people and

projects based on location

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Module 4 – Unstructured Content

►“What’s in your head?” Blogs Wikis Discussion Forums

Subjective presentation of useful information; data usually associated with subject matter experts

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Blogs

►Great for capturing in-place expertise►Free form; brand builder►Completely unstructured; no rules

(mostly)►Blogs help find “enablers”

Remember, experts don’t want to be found

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Blog Rules

►Blog article in BizTech Magazine► http://biztechmagazine.com/article.asp?item_id=206► Sample Blog policy (Sun Microsystems)► Do not disclose or speculate on nonpublic financial or operational information. ► Do not disclose nonpublic technical information (for example, code) without

approval. ► Do not disclose personal information about other individuals. ► Do not disclose confidential information, Sun’s or anyone else’s. ► Do not discuss work-related legal proceedings or controversies.► Always refer to Sun’s trademarked names properly. ► Do not post other people’s material without permission. ► Ensure that your comments about companies and products are truthful,

accurate, fair and can be substantiated. Avoid disparaging comments about individuals.

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Wiki

►Wiki “website that allows visitors to add,

remove, and edit content” - Wikipedia

►Blog “provide commentary or news on a

particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries”

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Wikis

►Community driven►Think of it like writing a book with a

bunch of teammates►Also freeform; self-policing►Maps nicely to functional teams or

departments►Precursor to published content

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Challenges

►“How do we allow employees to take advantage of the power of blogs and wikis… but still manage and control it?”

►“What do you mean I have to commit to writing a blog entry twice a week?”

►“When do we use a blog versus wiki versus discussion forum?”

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Module 5 - Search

►Hottest topic in knowledge management today

►Remember, single interface into corporate knowledge… how can you bring together all that information?

►Has Google raised the bar too high for enterprise search?

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Search Basics

►John Battelle’s Search Recovery

The ability to find something you know exists

Discovery The ability to find something you didn’t knew

existed

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What Do They Do?

►Enterprise search engines Crawl content, index results, and present

matches in an organized and logical format Features include: strong relevancy

algorithms, duplicates consolidation, best bets, auto-complete, clustering

Combine structured and unstructured content into a single presentation of results

Fast and accurate

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News from the Street

►Search is hot… search product companies are offering internet-facing, intranet-facing, and desktop facing search tools

►Organizations must decide on search strategy where are the sources What is the optimal user experience Who is responsible for monitoring the quality

of the search experience

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KM and Search

►Quality search engine definitely takes advantage of strong KM principles

►The best search engine cannot make up for lousy KM practices (remember, complete and accurate)

►It’s a Google world… users expect the right results in the top five (and quickly)

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Module 6 – Business Intelligence

►Does BI really fit into a KM strategy? Yes! “applications and technologies which are

used to gather, provide access to, and analyze data and information about company operations. Business intelligence systems can help companies have a more comprehensive knowledge of the factors affecting their business” - Wikipedia

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Key Terms

►Dashboard Visual charts that measure performance

►Scorecard Visual graphs that chart progress

►KPI Key Performance Indicator

Metric used to measure how something is doing against a pre-defined benchmark

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BI and KM

►BI applications can take advantage of data collected in KM initiatives

►Both rely on previous experience to create efficiencies in future repeat activity

►More importantly, BI applications can provide the data necessary to influence or alter business process (which, in turn, affect KM practices) Circular relationship

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Putting it All Together

►KM systems leverage technology investments to: Make it easier for knowledge workers to

access, contribute, and share knowledge Allow for consolidation of corporate content Allow for the proper tagging of corporate

content Facilitate access to content via navigation

and/or search

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Getting Started

►Develop a strategy (business and technology)

►Set goals (incremental change)►Develop a governance plan►Gather an advisory team►Take action►Monitor►Repeat!

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More Thoughts

►KM needs to be managed in-house►It is a business AND technology issue►Beware of the “Band of Interested

Observers”… these are folks that come to all the meetings, listen, but don’t walk away with any actionable tasks. Build a big enough band and your KM initiative gets stuck.

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Contact Information

►Mauro Cardarelli [email protected]

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Technology Considerations

►Current hardware/software investment►Application integration►Security►Scalability►Education on new tools

Search, BI, Blogs, Wikis, etc.

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1 Leveraging Technology to Build Knowledge Sharing Systems Mauro Cardarelli May 18, 2007.

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