nowledge is not the same thing as data," says Carla O'Dell, president of American Productivity & Quality Center, an industry research consortium in Houston. American Productivity will release a study of the "knowledge management" practices of 23 companies later this year. Its conclusion: Companies manage the knowledge in their organizations best by using information technology as a platform to sup- port a combination of IT and non-IT-based information-sharing practices.
"Knowledge is a combinati
on of the best practices, the sharing of people's experiences, and the data that is stored in data warehouse, or elsewhere in a company," O'Dell says. "That information can be found in databases, but also in forums and discussion groups of people.
An example of effective knowledge management techniques in the study's findings is Buckman Laboratories Inc., a Memphis, Tenn., maker of specialty chemicals. Since 1992, Buckman has encouraged employees to electronically exchange information on activities such as how they solve customers' business problems. Buckman Labs created a CompuServe forum on a corporate intranet from which all E-mail threads are stored, creating a repository of best practices and customer solutions.
John Burrows, Buckman Labs' assistant to the chairman, says the knowledge practice has helped gain new business for the company. One client was impressed with how quickly a salesperson was able to answer a complex product inquiry related to a contract bid. The salesperson used the collect
ion of E-mail threads to access the data, says Burrows. "The people on the front line are the experts-their knowledge needs to be shared and captured."
To effectively use IT as the facilitator for this knowledge pool, IT professionals must work closely with end users to identify what infor- mation needs to be captured, then develop easy ways of capturing, storing, finding and retrieving it, O'Dell says. "The rule of thumb," she adds, "is to make IT solutions support the way people work."
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nowledge is not the same thing as data," says Carla O'Dell, president of American Productivity & Quality Center, an industry research consortium in Houston. American Productivity will release a study of the "knowledge management" practices of 23 companies later this year. Its conclusion: Companies manage the knowledge in their organizations best by using information technology as a platform to sup- port a combination of IT and non-IT-based information-sharing practices.
