What are the Benefits of Knowledge Management?
Strategically speaking, there are four kinds of benefits from managing knowledge:
- Create new value through new products or services (innovations);
- Enhance current value of existing products (knowledge about customers);
- Reduce/avoid costs/promote reuse (knowledge about processes);
- Reduce uncertainty/increase speed of response (knowledge about the environment).
Can we quantify the benefits?
I was involved in a discussion in an open forum where we talked about how can you quantify Organizations that have adopted KM approaches have applied the following metrics:
Speed of response
Time taken to respond to customer needs, requests or problems. Time taken to bring new products or services to market. Time taken to enter new markets.
Reuse of knowledge
Frequency of access and utilization of codified knowledge assets. Avoidance of re-work and "re-invention of the wheel."
Employee empowerment and satisfaction
Growth and ability to hire talented staff. Retention of experienced, knowledgeable employees. Span of influence of knowledgeable staff.
What methods and tools have been found to work?
Communities of Practice
Groups whose members regularly share knowledge and learn from each other. Communities of practice (1) share common work activities or interests, (2) recognize the collective value of sharing knowledge, and (3) have developed norms of trust, reciprocity, and cooperation. (Buckman Labs, Clarica, World Bank, Xerox)
Knowledge Repositories
Databases of codified knowledge assets that are systematically organized to facilitate searching, browsing, and retrieval. Knowledge repositories may contain lessons learned, best practices, planning documents, project proposals, marketing presentations, and so on. (Accenture, Ernst & Young)Expertise Directories
Profiles of employee expertise that are updated, allowing users to find individuals by expertise areas, and to make contact with or present questions to identified experts. (Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft)Action Reviews
Facilitated processes that occur before, during, and after significant and intensive work activities in which project members collectively analyze and reflect on lessons learned. (US Army, British Petroleum)Best Practice Replication
Structured processes that collect, codify, and 'push' innovative practices or solutions developed at a particular location to the rest of the organization for possible adoption. (Ford, Shell)Information Technology
IT plays a major enabling role in most of these applications. IT tools and infrastructure provide communications, database management, information access, and collaboration capabilities.
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