Get the Facts Right

Knowledge Management is the systematic process of organizing, distilling and

disseminating unstructured data and information about your enterprise's best

practices in a way that leads to greater internal productivity and better

utilization of the knowledge assets. For instance, if you're a financial

services company, a Knowledge Management initiative can help you use your

existing knowledge about your customers (such as the stocks in a customer's

portfolio, the risks she is willing to take, analyst's opinions etc) to

provide personalized products. Such knowledge-based service leads to greater

customer satisfaction and better coordination among internal teams in the short

term. While in the long run, it leads to a reduction in overhead costs,

competitive advantage and revenue growth.

The growing popularity of Knowledge Management in India is indicated by an

IDC survey that estimates that the Knowledge Management market will touch Rs

152.7 crore in 2004-05, from Rs 27.7 crore in 2001-02.

The focus of Knowledge Management solutions is now on employee empowerment,

corporate culture, business analytics and intelligence and information

technology.

The emphasis on Knowledge Management has now changed to implementing specific

ways of using knowledge to obtain added value. For example, Knowledge Management

is being used extensively in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) modules for

maximum return on investment. Analytics and business intelligence tools allow

enterprises to realize ongoing and future business value from their current

technology investments. Analytical models, when applied to Knowledge Management

for CRM, help companies better understand customer needs and preferences in

identifying recurring patterns and thereby allowing companies to deepen their

existing relationships through personalized communication; identify profitable

customers, optimize cross-selling and upselling possibilities and maximize

customer loyalty.

A computer software firm can use analytics to determine the likelihood of a

customer buying additional products and software upgrades, professional

services, etc. and therefore provide an agent with the opportunity to turn a

service call into a profitable interaction. In effect, analytics boosts the

efficiency of knowledge management and provides enterprises with a powerful tool

that uses customer information to extend and deepen their relationships with

customers.

Given the technologies involved in Knowledge Management data mining, content

management systems, intranets and extranets, portals, search engines and

information retrieval mechanisms, directories, concept mapping and standards-a

Web-based system has to be the backbone of a Knowledge Management solution. A

Knowledge Management solution should be fully incorporated into the enterprise's

ERP system, enabling the seamless integration of information with various

modules. The latest Knowledge Management offerings include libraries with

searchable records, online encyclopedias, document indexing, intelligent search,

web-based content authoring, automatic and query-based document classification,

content feedback, online polling, ratings and threaded discussions. Knowledge

Management capabilities are therefore integrated with ERP solution platforms and

have open and extensible interfaces and predefined access to leading information

solutions from major vendors.

With contributions from editorial advisors -Ashok Anand, VP—Technology,

Bahwan CyberTek, and R Ramakrishnan, Director, Solutions Architect Team,

SAP India