How To Set Up A Knowledge Management System

A winning knowledge management program increases staff productivity, product and service quality, and deliverable consistency by capitalizing on intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Withal, implementation can be a challenge.

Eager to reap the benefits, many organizations jump into a knowledge direction solution (east.g. document management, information mining, blogging, and community forums) without first considering the objectives they wish to fulfill or how the organization will adopt and follow best practices for managing its knowledge assets long term.

The key to long-term success is a more measured and phased approach.

5 Core Considerations for a Noesis Management Plan

A successful knowledge direction program will consider these five areas:

• People. Your plan should increase the power of individuals inside the organization to influence others with their cognition.

• Processes. The processes y'all institute should include all-time practices and governance for the efficient and accurate identification, management and broadcasting of knowledge.

• Technology. The technology you lot choose should raise how you lot configure and use tools and automation to enable knowledge management.

• Construction. Organizational structures should transform to facilitate and encourage cross-subject area awareness and expertise.

• Culture. Your system should plant and cultivate a noesis-sharing, knowledge-driven culture for long-term success.

Gear up for Implementation Challenges

Implementing a noesis management programme is no easy feat. Even with the best planning, fix to encounter and work effectually obstacles.

Some common challenges yous may want to prepare for include:

• Disability to recognize or clear knowledge; turning tacit noesis into explicit knowledge
• Geographical distance and/or linguistic communication barriers in an international company
• Limitations of information and communication technologies
• Loosely divers areas of expertise
• Constantly irresolute business
• Internal conflicts (eastward.g. professional territoriality)
• Lack of incentives or performance management goals
• Poor training or mentoring programs
• Cultural barriers (e.grand. "this is how we've always done it" mentality)

eight Steps to Cognition Management Implementation

This eight-step approach will assistance you program for common challenges, minimize the risks, and maximize the rewards.

This approach was developed based on tried-and-true activities for implementing any new organizational program. The early steps emphasize strategy, planning and requirements gathering; the subsequently steps focus on execution and continual improvement.

Step 1: Found Knowledge Management Program Objectives

Before selecting a tool, defining a procedure, and developing workflows, envision and articulate the ideal end state. To constitute the appropriate program objectives, place and certificate the business problems that need resolution and the business drivers that will provide momentum and justification for the implementation.

Document both short-term and long-term objectives that address the business problems and support the business drivers. Brusk-term objectives should seek to provide validation that the program is on the right path while long-term objectives volition aid to create and communicate the big picture.

Step 2: Prepare for Change

Cognition management is more than but an application of technology — it'due south a culture modify. Employees will likely have to rethink the fashion they share the knowledge they develop and possess.

One common hurdle to increasing cognition sharing is that companies primarily reward individual performance. This exercise promotes a "knowledge is power" behavior that contradicts a knowledge-sharing, knowledge-driven culture.

Successfully implementing a new noesis management program may require changes within the organization'southward norms and shared values; changes that some people might resist or even endeavor to quash. To minimize the negative impact, fix to manage cultural change.

Recruit knowledge-direction champions throughout the organization who volition encourage knowledge sharing behaviors within their departments and provide valuable feedback to the implementation squad.

Step 3: Define a Loftier-Level Process as a Foundation

Laying out a high-level knowledge management procedure is a key step for constructive implementation. Beginning with a high-level process will help you lot progressively develop and hone detailed procedures throughout steps four, five, and half dozen. Keep in mind: the people who will exist the users and contributors of noesis should be function of this chat. The fully developed process should exist finalized and canonical prior to stride seven (implementation).

Organizations that overlook or loosely ascertain the knowledge direction process will non realize the full potential of their knowledge management objectives. How knowledge is identified, captured, categorized and disseminated volition be advertizement hoc at best. Mutual knowledge management all-time practices to consider in your plan include: knowledge strategy, creation, identification, classification, capture, validation, transfer, maintenance, archival, measurement and reporting.

Step four: Make up one's mind and Prioritize Applied science Needs

Information technology'south time to assess what kind of applied science volition enhance and automate your knowledge direction related activities. You can determine and prioritize your knowledge management technology needs based on your program objectives established in step one and the process controls and criteria you defined in step three.

The marketplace for knowledge management solutions is vast and diverse; it is imperative to know the chief providers, sympathize the cost and do good of each blazon of engineering science, and figure out how each solution could help—or hinder—you from reaching your objectives.

Gain an understanding of what employees employ today and what is working and not working for them. Don't be too quick to buy a new technology without first determining if your existing technologies are already meeting your needs. You tin too wait to make costly applied science decisions after the noesis management programme is well underway if there is wide support and a demand for enhanced calculating and automation.

Step v: Assess Current Land

After you have established your program objectives, prepared for cultural changes, defined a high-level procedure, and determined and prioritized your engineering needs, you can appraise the current country of knowledge management within your organization.

The cess should cover the five cadre cognition management components: people, processes, technology, structure and culture. A typical cess should provide an overview of the current state, the gaps betwixt the current and desired states, and the recommendations for closing those gaps.

These recommendations will be the foundation for the roadmap in step vi.

Step 6: Build a Knowledge Management Implementation Roadmap

With the current-state cess in hand, it is time to build the implementation roadmap for your cognition management programme. But before going too far, you should re-confirm senior leadership's back up and commitment, as well as the funding to implement and maintain the cognition management program. Without these prerequisites, your efforts will be futile. Having solid show of your arrangement'southward shortcomings, via the assessment, should drive the urgency charge per unit up.

Having a strategy on how to overcome the shortcomings will exist critical in gaining leadership's support and getting the funding you volition demand. This strategy can be presented as a roadmap of related projects, each addressing specific gaps identified by the assessment. The roadmap can span months and years and illustrate key milestones and dependencies. A proficient roadmap will yield some short-term wins in the first step of projects, which will bolster support for subsequent steps.

As time progresses, go along to review and evolve the roadmap based upon the irresolute economic conditions and business organization drivers. You will undoubtedly proceeds boosted insight through the lessons learned from earlier projects that tin exist applied to future projects likewise.

Step seven: Implementation

Implementing a knowledge direction plan and maturing the overall effectiveness of your organization volition require significant personnel resource and funding.  Exist prepared for the long haul, but make certain that you're making incremental advances and celebrate them.  As long equally there the value and benefits of the developing program are recognized, in that location should be little resistance to continue investing in knowledge management.

With that said, it's fourth dimension for the rubber to run into the road. Yous know what the objectives are. Y'all have properly mitigated cultural problems. You've got the processes and technologies that will enable and launch your cognition direction program. You know what the gaps are and have a roadmap to tell you how to accost them.

As you advance through each step of the roadmap, make sure you are realizing your brusk-term wins. Without them, your program may lose momentum and the support of key stakeholders.

Stride viii: Measure and Meliorate the Knowledge Management Program

How will you know your knowledge management investments are working? You will need a manner to mensurate your effectiveness and compare to predictable results. If possible, establish some baseline measurements in social club to capture the before shot of the organisation's functioning prior to implementing the noesis direction program. Then, after implementation, trend and compare the new results to the old results to see how operation has improved.

Don't be discouraged if the benefits are not as obvious as you would have anticipated. Information technology will accept time for the system to become proficient with the new processes and improvements. Over fourth dimension, the results should follow adapt.

When deciding upon the advisable metrics to measure your organization'south progress, establish a counterbalanced scorecard that provides metrics in the areas of performance, quality, compliance and value. The cardinal point behind establishing a knowledge direction balanced scorecard is that it provides valuable insight into what's working and what'due south non. You can then take the necessary actions to mitigate compliance, performance, quality, and value gaps, thus improving the overall efficacy of the cognition management program.

The Ability of Cognition Management

Implementing a complete knowledge direction plan takes time and resources, still, the results can be impressive. Y'all can also minimize risk past taking a phased approach that gives beneficial returns at each step.

Organizations that have made this kind of investment in noesis management realize tangible results quickly. They add to their superlative and bottom lines through faster cycle times, enhanced efficiency, better decision making and greater apply of tested solutions across the enterprise.

An earlier version of this article was published in CIO Update .

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Source: https://edge.siriuscom.com/strategy/8-steps-to-implementing-a-knowledge-management-program-at-your-organization

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