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