The realisation of potential
Someone just asked me what the benefits of my consulting are, I liked my answer so much I had to put it someplace where other people would see it (okay, I’m patting myself on the back).
The benefits of the consulting that I do is the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge workers through the alignment of supporting technology to their business processes.
The Knoco May newsletter on business focused KM is out, https://lnkd.in/9rwyPS.
Lots of practical information on implementing KM, there’s an archive of previous newsletters here https://www.knoco.com/knowledge-management-news.htm
Ark Group has published my report, Aligning People, Process and Technology in KM. The Executive Summary and a sample chapter are on their website https://www.ark-group.com/product/aligning-people-process-and-technology-knowledge-management#.VnpHtpMrLq0
As those of you who have spoken to me in the last 6 months will know, I have been busy writing a report for Ark Group, it will be published later in the spring, here’s a sneak-peak of what I’ve been working on and why I haven’t posted anything on this blog for so many months.
Navigating the Knowledge Management Technology Maze
Knowledge Management may be a familiar term to many, but how many individuals actually understand the technology side of KM? What do all the platforms do, why one is better suited to particular business needs and objectives than another? The vendors aren’t going to tell you, they want you to buy their platform and customize it.
What are the benefits that choosing the right KM technology platform can bring to a business? Many will think of the selection process as strictly technology focused, but there are a plethora of human, organisational, leadership and process elements that must also be taken into account. Selecting the right technology and implementing it successfully are key to realising the true benefits of KM. In a climate of severe competition, limited resources and pressure on performance and profitability, organisations would do well to examine how choosing the right KM technology can help an organisation to counter these challenges.
This report is intended to help organisations understand KM technology and its benefits and will provide a ‘roadmap’ for organisations to follow to implement and maximise KM technology investments. Crucial aspects such as achieving executive sponsorship, nurturing the necessary conversations between business leaders and IT managers, and ensuring the project remains business-driven, will all be covered.
Target readership
Strategists, IT directors/managers, information architects, business analysts and project managers charged with exploring or implementing a KM strategy for their organisation. The report will also be of interest to chief executives, COOs, finance directors, CIOs and other senior managers wanting to find out more about KM technology and the logistics of its implementation.
Contents
What is Knowledge Management? Discussion of various aspects and facets of KM from tacit to explicit from Information Management to CRM and BI and the technologies that support them.
Recent trends: how the role of KM is evolving to include not just an organisation’s IT department but a broader range of key decision-makers. Shift in focus from either Technology or People and Process to Technology and People and Process.
Benefits for performance measurement/management, competitiveness, identifying new opportunities, improving efficiency, boosting productivity, resource planning, reducing risk, etc.
Risks and costs associated with KM technology and how to mitigate them.
The KM roadmap: from identifying aims to leveraging the output
Technology
Communication
Aligning KM initiatives with the business is vital.
Evaluating return on investment. How soon can you expect the investment to start paying off, and how can you maximise ongoing ROI?
Case studies
The report will include practical material in the form of case studies from a range of organisations who have successfully implemented KM technologies and reaped the benefits as well as tales of lessons learned from ineffectual implementations that have not brought the expected outcomes.
Okay, so this isn’t a post about Knowledge Management, but it’s an issue that reared it’s ugly head recently in a KM context, so I’m going to blog about it.
What happens when IT loses sight of the user? You might hear comments like, “it’s only one more click,” or “your configuration isn’t supported, and we won’t give you one that is (so suck it up and live with it).” Two things I have heard that have made my blood boil, because I was being asked to do something and IT, in my opinion, was making it as difficult as possible for me to do that.
IT, in my opinion, is supposed to support the business, enable users to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively, not make it so difficult that users don’t do what’s been asked of them.
This is why there is often such a combative relationship between business and IT. Business wants quick, efficient, effective ways of meeting the organization’s objectives, and IT wants to maximize standardization? reduce cost? do what’s easiest for them?
There has to be a middle ground where business needs are met and standards and costs are not disregarded, it just might take some effort and communication on both sides to make that happen.
Just a quick blog post to let everyone know that I am now the Canadian Franchisee for Knoco Ltd., www.knoco.com. Knoco is a Knowledge Management consultancy based in the U.K. and with franchises in South Africa, USA, India, and Indonesia, as well as training partners in Spain. They offer KM people and process consulting, and training. I am excited by the opportunities that this expansion in my network and services will bring. You will see some changes to my website over the next while, although my Missing Puzzle Piece Consulting branding will remain unchanged and I will continue to do the business-IT alignment work in the KM domain that I have always done.
I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week (June 8-9) at Canada 3.0 www.canada30.uwaterloo.ca, which was an amazing experience. Sitting in a room with 1000 people who want to see Canada move forward and be a leader in the digital media space was energizing and motivating and if you’ve spoken to me in the last few days you know that I can’t say enough good things about my experience there and that I want to get involved and help move this forward.
I was part of a group listening to a case study presentation on the evolution of a Knowledge Management technology this week. I listened not so much for the lessons learned, but to hear about the particular experience of this individual at a company I was once familiar with. Continue reading “Can you Manage Knowledge?”
I did an interview on ThatChannel.com back in March, it was a great experience. We talked about Knowledge Management, Business-IT Alignment and the consulting work that I do, here is that interview! 🙂
The interview is posted in three parts on YouTube, here are the links:
Part 1: https://youtu.be/tWSb5QWIet8
Part 2: https://youtu.be/0uI3MSXZE9o
Part 3: https://youtu.be/6R4jO4rNaTo
The following discussion of lessons learnt is taken from my experience implementing knowledge management activities in the outsourcing business unit of a large technology company and from projects that I have completed in my consulting practice. The consulting projects have included the implementation of knowledge management enabled processes, including ITIL processes. Continue reading “Key Success Factors in implementing KM in an ITIL (or any other) Environment”