Knowledge Management Assignment

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. WHY IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT FOR ORGANIZATIONS................. 3 1.1. Intoduction ........................................................................................................... 3

1.2
1.3. 1.4. 1.5. 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.

What is Knowledge ?............................................................................................3

Where Corporate Knowledg Lies.4 Classification of knowledge . 5 Knowledge Management ....................................................................................... 7 Why are organizations investing in knowledge management initiatives? .8 Knowledge Management and Information Technologies .9 FIVE LAWS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT10 How Consulting Firms Manage Their Knowledge....11

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT INFOSYS. ................................................................... 13 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4. 2.4. CORPORATE PROFILE. ........................................................................................ 13 INTRODUCTION KM IN THE INFOSYS CONTEXT 14 INFOSYS KM STRATEGY 15 THE INFOSYS KM FRAMEWORK 17 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE AHEAD .18

3. Implications of Knowledge Management18 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES..20

1.1 INTRODUCTION

"A company that is not managing knowledge is not paying attention to business," observed Thomas Stewart, author of Intellectual Capital, in his keynote presentation at TRAINING 2000.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT revolves around the concept that one of the most valuable corporate assets is the experience and expertise floating around inside employees' heads. In order to manage this intellectual capital, executives must devise a way to capture and share that knowledge with co-workers. If done right, Knowledge Management is supposed to create a more collaborative environment, cut down on duplication of effort and encourage knowledge sharingsaving time and money in the process.

1.2 What is knowledge?

To define the knowledge it is necessary to differentiate between data, information and knowledge. There is direct relation between data, information and knowledge. Data are results of observations, measurements, or facts presented as numbers, words, sounds and/or images. They dont have a meaning, but they are the bases for information generation. Information is the meaningful arrangement of data which results from the analysis of the data and it is presented as report or charts or graphs appropriate for a particular use. Knowledge is the application and fruitful use of combination of information, thoughts, procedures, and insights. Knowledge incorporates experience, familiarity and learning.

Therefore, data is the raw material for information and knowledge. The starting point to generate the knowledge is the data, which can be arranged and analyzed for the creation of information. Information has more meaning than data and can be presented in various forms. Then, knowledge is the applied information and it is dependent on the people who are using the information. The personal experience and insights shape the final knowledge based on the same data and information.

According to Websters dictionary, knowledge is the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association. Knowledge has been classified as explicit or tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be codified it is recorded and available, and is held in databases, in corporate intranets and intellectual portfolios. It is digitized in books, documents, reports, white papers, lights tacit knowledge exists in peoples minds. It is difficult to articulate in writing and is acquired personal experience.

1.3 Where Corporate Knowledge Lies

A study of more than 700 US companies shows that only a small portion of corporate knowledge is in a shareable form. The majority is in the employees brains and documents not easily shared.

Where Corporate Knowledge Lies

Employee Brains
20% 26% 42%

Electronic Knowledge Bases Paper Documents Electronic Documents

12%

1.4 Classification of knowledge

Knowledge is in two different categories as explicit and tacit knowledge. The distinction between explicit and tacit knowledge is important. Explicit knowledge can be codified in a tangible form, whereas tacit knowledge is possessed by people and is inexpressible. Knowledge is codified when it is recorded or transmitted in the form of symbols or in a tangible form whereas tacit knowledge is non-codified which is acquired by informal learning. Tacit knowledge is rooted in a social and cultural milieu whereas codified knowledge is contextdependent.

Explicit Knowledge

Tacit Knowledge

Independent of people, free from personal bias, based on the

Dependent of people, associated with ideas, observations and practice,

rationalization of information

inexpressible

Objective

Subjective

Context-dependent

Rooted in a social and cultural milieu

Codified in a tangible form

Non-codified, intangible know-how

Recorded or transmitted in the form of symbols

Acquired

by

informal

learning,

learning by doing

Exists in different shapes such as formulas, designs, reports, documents and diagrams

Rooted in practice and is meaningful within specific circumstances, alive in the people, based on practice and experience

Easily transferred Relatively easy to acquire, convey, and store More difficult to acquire, convey and store More difficult to transfer

Summary of comparison for tacit and explicit knowledge

From my point of view explicit knowledge is the raw knowledge similar to information. I believe the definition of information is very close to explicit knowledge. Information and/or explicit knowledge is the basis of tacit knowledge.

1.5

Knowledge Management

Knowledge management can be described as the way organizations collect, increase and organize knowledge for their specific actions and within their specific cultures to increase organizational efficiency. It is the ability of an organization to retain or improve organizational performance with experience and knowledge.

KM is the systematic leveraging of information and expertise to improve organizational and operational innovation, responsiveness, productivity and competency.

Knowledge management is based on the transfer or exchange of knowledge. Knowledge transfer as the diffusion of knowledge from one individual to others. Knowledge transfer occurs as a result of socialization, education and learning.

1.6 Why are organizations investing in knowledge management initiatives?

In the current competitive environment, creation, management and utilization of knowledge to generate business intelligence is a crucial differentiator.

The Knowledge Management Consulting initiative offers customers to collect , organize and utilize the enterprise knowledge base to achieve shared intelligence, improved performance, competitive advantage and higher levels of innovation in their business operations.

Enterprise executives understand that timely, accurate knowledge can mean improved business performance Knowledge management is based on the idea that an organizations most valuable resource is the knowledge of its people. This is not a new idea organizations have been managing human resources for years. What is new is the focus on knowledge. This focus is being driven by the accelerated rate of change in todays organizations and in society as a whole. Knowledge management recognizes that today nearly all jobs involve knowledge work and so all staff are knowledge workers to some degree or another meaning that their job depends more on their knowledge than their manual skills. This means that creating, sharing and using knowledge are among the most important activities of nearly every person in every organization.

Benefits of Knowledge Management (KM) to organization:

KM can offer the following: KM can offer competitive advantage May help to reduce cost and increase organizational efficiency Enables organizations to be flexible enough to react and adapt to changing business and customer requirements

 Enhancement of innovation and creativity Ensuring of sustainable excellence Improves working on the go by implementing knowledge repositories. Increases employee productivity, and makes management decisions more efficient.

1.7

Knowledge Management and Information Technologies

IT systems format, filter and summarize data to convert them into appropriate information, playing an important role for knowledge exchange. IT facilitates the rapid collection, collation, storage, and distribution of data, which assists knowledge creation and transmission. IT facilitates knowledge transfer by data exchange

IT has positive effects on knowledge management by facilitating the transfer of data, information and explicit knowledge. However it is more effective when knowledge exchanging participants have similar backgrounds. The characteristics of tacit knowledge make it difficult to share it via IT. IT alone cannot provide all the necessary conditions for the successful sharing of tacit knowledge. Therefore for an effective knowledge sharing IT should be supported by other means. Confidence and trust between the participants and willingness to share the knowledge is necessary.

As a result IT is only effective when there is a high degree of common knowledge, trust and willingness to share the knowledge between participants of the knowledge sharing process. The most important factor is the degree of tacitness of the knowledge. When knowledge has highly explicit components, the use of IT will likely to be more successful for knowledge sharing. IT is less suitable for the transfer of tacit knowledge.

However, for organizations it is the effective management of tacit knowledge which determines the degree of competitive advantage. Therefore, IT investments should have an emphasize on tacit knowledge. Since IT transfers effectively only explicit knowledge, it is important to understand the relationship between IT and tacit knowledge therefore IT should be supported by other mechanisms for an effective knowledge management.

1.8

FIVE LAWS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge sharing is becoming the central driver of the new millennium economy. More and more companies are now recognizing human capital as the major asset to business success, access to knowledge and just-in-time learning. The continuous changes and innovations in information technology and telecommunications will make knowledge even more accessible. As the unit costs of computing, communications and transactions decline towards zero, all economic sectors are going through major and rapid transformations. Economic success in this fast pace environment requires considerable agility and adaptability. Those countries, sectors and organizations that can adapt will flourish in the new millennium.

The five laws of KM are: 1 Knowledge is key to business survival 2 Communities are the heart and soul of knowledge sharing 3 Virtual communities need physical interaction 4 Passion drives communities of practice 5 Knowledge sharing has an inside-out and an outside-in dimension

1.9 How Consulting Firms (like Infosys) Manage Their Knowledge

CODIFICATION

PERSONALISATION

Provide high-quality, reliable and fast information-systems implementation by reusing codified knowledge. REUSE ECONOMICS: Invest once in a knowledge asset; reuse it many times. Use large teams with a high ratio of associates to partners. Focus on generating large overall revenues. PEOPLE TO DOCUMENTS: Develop an electronic document system that codifies, stores, disseminates, and allows reuse of knowledge. Knowledge Management Strategy Economic Model

Provide creative, analytically rigorous advice on high-level problems by channelling individual expertise.

EXPERT ECONOMICS: Charge high fees for highly customized solutions to unique problems. Use small teams with a low ration of associates to partners. Focus on maintaining high profit margins. PERSON TO PERSON: Develop networks for linking people so that tacit knowledge can be shared.

Invest highly in IT; the goal is to connect people with reusable codified knowledge. Hire new college graduates who are well suited to the reuse of knowledge and the implementation of solutions. Train people in groups and through computer-based distance learning. Reward people for using and contributing to document databases. Human Resources Information Technology

Invest moderately in IT; the goal is to facilitate conversations and the exchange tacit knowledge. Hire MBAs who like problem solving and can tolerate ambiguity. Train people through one to one mentoring. Reward people for directly sharing knowledge with others.

Anderson Consulting, Ernst & Young

Examples

McKinsey & Company Bain & Company

KNOWLEDGE MANGEMENT AT INFOSYS

2.1

CORPORATE PROFILE

Infosys is the leader in providing IT consulting and software services to the world's finest organizations. Infosys Technologies Limited was established in India in the year 1981. Infosys specialises in offering a complete range of software and consulting services such as businesstechnology consulting, Internet and e-business consulting, system integration, custom application development, re-engineering and sustenance amply supported by the companys execution methodologies and delivery models. Over the years, Infosys has grown into one of the major IT companies in the world and now has offices in different parts of the world such as the U.S., Japan, Canada, U.K., Germany, Belgium, Australia, France, Scandinavia and Hong Kong. Infosys business model focuses on having a long-term strategic relationship with clients and a significant portion of their revenue comes from repeat business. Their solutions include building next generation communication, networking and e-infrastructure products for their clients. Their global delivery model leverages cost-competitive development centres in different parts of the world to provide high quality, rapid time-to-market solutions on time and within budget.

Various Fortune 1000 companies leverage on the expertise of Infosys to align their business and IT strategies and successfully transform themselves for the new economy. Infosys also partners leading-edge technology companies looking to be the architects of the Internet infrastructure. The sustained growth of Infosys as a technology company delivering business advantage comes from their presence at the top of the technology evolution and maturity curve. In a world where excellence in execution is the key to success, Infosys has an enviable record of completing 85% of its projects on schedule. Infosys' well-defined processes and a strong Body of Knowledge enables the company to capture effectively the best practices of every project implemented.

2.2

INTRODUCTION KM IN THE INFOSYS CONTEXT

The primary driver for Infosys Knowledge Management (KM) strategy is that, as the company climbs the value curve, it increasingly needs effective mechanisms for speedy and efficient consolidation of expertise. The large consulting organizations are the most enthusiastic users of KM, and as Infosys business profile evolves to more closely mirror the profile of these organizations, KM becomes an imperative. The turbulent scenario of the e-business era, with its premium on speed, agility and competitive intensity, has given a further fillip to this need.

The goal of Knowledge Management (KM) in the Infosys context is that all organizational learning must be leveraged in delivering business advantage to the customer. The objectives are to minimize effort dissipated in redoing learning that has already happened elsewhere, and ensuring that Infoscions (as employees at Infosys are called) in contact with the customer have the collective knowledge of the organization behind them. The company thus aims to move towards a "Learn Once, Use Anywhere" paradigm.

The conception and implementation of the KM strategy is anchored by a Central KM group, which forms a part of the E&R department. The group currently consists of four fulltime staff, and has a sanctioned strength of eight. When ramped up to its full strength, the group will have three sub-groups one each to oversee KM research and content management, technology architecture development and maintenance, and internal publicity and brand management. Efforts are also on to identify Practice Champions - members of the practice units who will devote time to facilitation for content generation

2.3

INFOSYS KM STRATEGY

The Infosys KM strategy can be described under the following headings: Existing Initiatives

1 The company maintains an organization-wide Body of Knowledge (BoK), which enshrines experiential learning gained by past projects. Entries are contributed by Infoscions, and a review mechanism screens their content, applicability and presentation aspects. Each contributor must declare that the work is experiential, and that it does not violate third-party IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) in case the IPR belongs to a third party such as the customer, clearance from that party must be obtained. This system is available on the intranet, via an easy-to-use interface that incorporates search utilities. Incentives for contribution exist, as do mechanisms to publicize contributions periodically; prizes are given for meritorious contributions. Several project- and PU (Practice Unit)-specific BoKs also exist.

2 Since only a small proportion of employees will distill and write up their experiences, "as-is" project deliverables must be captured too. Hence a "Process Assets" system has been developed to capture these assets into an intranet-based repository. As part of project closure, a Project Leader fills in a brief description of the project, the target audience and others details while uploading into the system. This helps in classification and focused search. 3 Given the knowledge-intensive nature of Infosys business, a key determinant of success in the global marketplace is the ability to leverage the know-how, innovation and reputation of the company as well as its employees. A clear understanding of this knowledge capital is hence essential, but cannot be obtained via traditional financial statements represented by the balance sheet and the income statement. The company believes that a representation of its knowledge assets would provide a tool to its investors for evaluating the market-worthiness of the company.

4 A Knowledge Directory providing pointers to expertise available within the organization has been developed and deployed. It is called the People-Knowledge Map (PKM). It provides an intranet-based interface via which people can register or locate expertise. The system is designed to be driven off a proprietary knowledge hierarchy that the company has created, which consists of a multi-level taxonomy of topics that represent knowledge in the Infosys context. The hierarchy consists of about 800 nodes, with the top level being technology, process, project management, application domain and culture and deeper levels representing a finer grain of topics.

5 The company-wide intranet, christened Sparsh, acts as a central information portal. The intranet consists of about 5000 nodes, spread throughout the various India-based development centers (DCs) and the US-based marketing offices. Official policies and documentation, press releases and articles, and web-based in-house information systems are available from the home page. Sparsh has a knowledge shop that provides access to several of the intranet-based knowledge systems. It also links project, PU, department and personal web pages. Access is governed by IPR guidelines. Security and protection from external intrusion are provided by means of firewalls. 6 The companys e-mailing system, which every Infoscion has access to, supports bulletin boards for official announcements as well as technical and personal queries. An e-mail protocol has been defined and is adhered to.

7 A web-based virtual classroom has been developed and deployed on the intranet, and allows access to various courses whose content has also been developed internally. This system incorporates a discussion forum where participants can post and respond to course-related queries. In addition, several online tutorials have also been purchased and deployed over the intranet. Systems for supporting training management course announcements, nomination and reporting - and participant evaluation have also been internally developed and are in use.

8 Practices that have worked are also propagated through regular seminars and bestpractice sessions, held both within units and organization-wide.

A few other such systems also exist. One such system is Odyssey, a system that

provides an umbrella for websites maintained by individual projects and a marketing intranet, which provides information and reusable artifacts useful at the sales and project initiation stage.

2.4

THE INFOSYS KM FRAMEWORK

Infosys Knowledge Management Service offering is designed to assist clients in: 1 Formulating a knowledge strategy for sustaining the knowledge creation and reuse in the organization 2 Aligning the knowledge strategy towards business goals and priorities to maximize value creation 3 Designing a collaborative process-framework, to organize, capture and share knowledge 4 Designing content taxonomy and technical architecture for the knowledge management program 5 Developing and deploying the appropriate technology tools for organization wide implementation of the program 6 Instituting a balanced - scorecard based system for continually measuring the strategic impact of knowledge management efforts

2.5

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE AHEAD

The Infosys KM effort has come out of infancy, but is hardly past adolescence. Major

inroads are being made on the "hard" front of putting systems in place. However, there is still a long way to go on the "soft" front - that of ensuring large-scale awareness and usage of the systems by all quarters within the organization for business leverage. An important objective for the future includes giving the customer direct benefit from the KM effort - plans to make this

happen include an extranet that will expose internal knowledge, suitably screened for Intellectual Property Rights issues, to select Infosys customers. The criticality of Knowledge Management will increase in the future, given the current revenue and people growth rates, geographical expansion, diversification into new markets and more sophisticated services.

Implications of Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management (KM) at Infosys has truly come a long way from the time when

employees only shared information through Body of Knowledge documents. Infosys strongly believes that having a culture of knowledge sharing and reuse is more critical than building a technology infrastructure. Infosys has therefore embarked on a number of initiatives aimed at taking the prevailing knowledge sharing culture to even greater heights. Demonstrating the business value of knowledge re-use and creating a system demand for knowledge sharing / re-use are other means designed to accelerate this culture-change. Today Infosys has a comprehensive Knowledge Management infrastructure complete with a dedicated team, a fully functional technical infrastructure and, most importantly, increasing awareness of the criticality of knowledge sharing amongst all employees.

Infosys envisions itself as a knowledge organization:

1 2 3 4

Where every action is fully enabled by the power of knowledge; Which truly believes in leveraging knowledge for innovation; Where every employee is empowered by the knowledge of every other employee; Which is a globally respected knowledge leader.

The Infosys Approach focuses on linking knowledge management to overall business strategy and is holistic in character; it addresses people and processes, with technology tools playing the role of key enablers.

Any new effort needs top management push in the early stages and the full cooperation of the top executives of the company is of utmost importance. The top management of Infosys ably supported its KM initiatives, which is making it a success, as the top brass was quiet early in recognizing that

Knowledge is the currency of the millennium, and knowledge management is a key survival imperative. Hence organisations from all sectors should adopt KM measures with a view to increase their competency, be more agile and be in a better position to respond to changes. Knowledge Management is the Holy Grail of the modern company and is a
mission critical for all managers of today and tomorrow.

BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES

BIBLIOGRAHY:

1 The Knowledge Management Yearbook 2000-01 - James H. Cortada, John A. Woods.

REFERENCES

1 www.cio.com 2 www.infy.com 3 www.indiainfoline.com

SECONDARY SOURCE: Sections 2.3 and 2.4 have been formulated on the basis of input provided by my seniors working in Infosys:

Seniors @ Infosys: 1 Jatin Trivedi 2 Tina Rathi