InformationWeek

January 5, 1998

Knowledge Revolution

Getting employees to share what they know is no longer a technology challenge -- it's a corporate culture challenge

nterested in knowledge management? Put down your PalmPilot and get off the Web for a minute. This year, the biggest trends in knowledge management will have little to do with technology, and a lot to do with corporate culture.

Managers who are ready to take the plunge into knowledge management will find it's more about changing business processes than about upgrading software. "Knowl- edge management is a business practice more than a technology," says Hadley Reynolds, research director at Delphi Consulting Group Inc. in Boston. "In our research, users clearly identify cultural issues as the largest obstacle to implementing knowledge management."

Besides, most of the technologies that support knowledge management are already familiar to IT managers: groupware, data mining, document management, and search and retrieval. "This is not rocket-science technology," says Richard Hunter, an analyst at Gartner Group Inc. "We don't think the stuff that prevents knowledge management is technology."

So what are the obstacles? Collaboration problems, says Hunter. The cultural problems stem from old habits of hoarding knowledge, Delphi's Reynolds says. In particular, getting people to share their knowledge requires not only new processes, but also a new covenant between employer and employees. Workers must be reassured that they will still be valued after they give up their know-how. Also, companies must learn to look beyond their formal organizational chart to recognize "communi- ties of practice"-informal networks of people with common interests who share knowledge across departments, business units, and time zones. To further break habits that inhibit sharing, many companies will begin redesigning their business processes this year to include the capture and sharing of knowledge.

That's not to say technologies won't emerge this year to support knowledge management. On the contrary, team-based collaboration software and collaborative-filtering software will ride the coattails of communities of practice. Stream- ing media and real-time communications software will benefit from a new interest in learning technologies. Light document managers will appeal to companies that want to leverage their captured knowledge.

But this will also be the year when vendors promising knowledge management in a box will be expected to produce something tangible. "1998 will be a key year for identifying substance," says Delphi's Reynolds. "Even though software vendors have picked up on the trend of knowledge management and are trying to disguise themselves, corporations are not going to be fooled."

Knowledge management was a frequent topic of discussion among IS managers in 1997, but only a handful of companies actually put it into practice. In fact, most knowledge-management implementations are still off in the future. Delphi recently found that 70% of companies it surveyed plan to make their first investment in knowledge management either this year or in the next three years.

Step By Step
One company that is getting started with knowledge management is Maritime Telephone & Telegraph in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In December, the telecommunications provider began using a knowledge-oriented process for bringing products to market. Employees will use the system to store information-knowledge made tangible-in an intranet-based repository at every step in a product's launch. When, for example, they project a product's revenue, they'll use a Web-based form not only to enter the projections, but also to store notes about how they arrived at the figures. The information will be stored in a database that is part of iNet Developer, a Web development tool from Pictorius Inc. in Halifax. Managers will be able to look at projections early in the marketing process.

Some companies have not only changed their cultures, but also have hired chief knowledge officers. CKOs act as intermediaries between employees and incoming information. Shopping.com, an online consumer goods store in Newport Beach, Calif., appointed its first CKO last summer. The company says it needs someone to monitor high-quality data flowing in, identify the data, and know who in the company might need and be able to use the data. "With the right knowledge in the hands of the right people, we are able to move more quickly," says Ogden Forbes, CKO of Shopping.com.

Some pioneering companies have already beco me disenchanted with the practice of building knowledge repositories. Though there are benefits to capturing case studies, best practices, and lessons learned in an archive, the practice can also be costly and time-consuming. That's why many companies are instead trying to make better use of documents already in their networks. "The dream of getting everything in a repository for everyone to access is going away," says Arian Ward, leader of work ecology at Hughes Space and Communications Co. in Los Angeles, a division of aerospace company Hughes Electronics Corp. "Why build a new repository when you have so much stuff already out there?"

Hughes Space and Communications is harnessing its existing documents by using a light document manager called LiveLink Intranet from Open Text Corp. in Toronto. LiveLink indexes documents on Hughes' Novell NetWare and Windows NT servers, then lets users perform searches and workflow through a browser interface.

Light, Action
Other light document man agers include Domino.Doc from Lotus Development and GroupWise WebPublisher from Novell. Unlike traditional document managers designed for specialists, light products such as LiveLink have a Web browser interface aimed at general users. Also, the light products provide basic functions such as tracking versions and checking in documents without the heavy-duty security found in traditional document managers. Because these server-based products are accessible through browsers and groupware clients, the average user can search or add documents to knowledge bases using familiar applications. "Knowledge management becomes part of your day-to-day process," says Marc Cecere, an analyst at Giga Information Group in Norwell, Mass.

While Hughes and others benefit from leveraging existing information, industry experts warn against going after existing assets without knowing whether they will pay off. "I would resist the temptation to categorize and catalog information just because you have it captured," says Richard Huseman, editor of the University of Southern California's Corporate Knowledge Center Web site. "Instead, ask: What's the potential value of that information?"

Companies also have to consider the value of employees after they have shared everything they know. To make sure employees remain prized sources of knowledge, many companies will begin investing heavily in learning technologies this year. Companies practicing knowledge management are also more likely to use computer-based training, according to a study by USC. It found that among companies where knowledge management has taken hold, more than 20% of training is available through computers. Among companies less invested in knowledge management, only 12% of training is computer-based. "At the turn of the century, the companies we talked to think they'll be doing twice as much training via computer than they are now," says Huseman.

Yearning To Learn
One organization that's using computer-based training for knowledge management is chemi cals company Buckman Laboratories International Inc., which recently added Learning Center Online to its intranet. "Once people have given out their knowledge, we have to support them in learning new things so they can share more information," says Tim Meek, Buckman's VP of knowledge transfer in Memphis, Tenn. The Learning Center includes lessons presented through Web pages, streaming animation, and courseware, as well as links to courses offered by universities via the Internet.

Professional services firm Coopers & Lybrand will soon start using real-time communication on its intranet to better share knowledge during training. "When you go to a seminar, the best part is when the students ask a lot of hard questions," says Susan O'Neill, partner for the knowledge strategies group at Coopers & Lybrand in New York. "The knowledge sharing comes from the debate and interaction. We need to think about how we can emulate that online."

Initially, Coopers & Lybrand will hold real-time question-and-answer sessi ons on its intranet using chat applications that let users query experts. The firm has already held chat sessions on its Tax News Network, an extranet application that lets clients interact with some of the firm's tax consultants. Coopers & Lybrand plans to add bandwidth to its network so it can try desktop videoconferencing for real-time instruction, O'Neill adds.

Another technology likely to make it easier for disparate groups with similar needs and interests to access one another's knowledge base is collaborative filtering. Makers of collaborative-filtering software, including Firefly Network Inc. and Net Perceptions Inc., have positioned their products for personalizing consumer-oriented Web sites. But in 1998, these vendors will begin promoting their technologies as tools for knowledge management on corporate intranets.

Collaborative filtering works by first building a profile of a user's interests, then tracking the information each user requests from servers. Next, the software compares the u ser's interests with those of others and displays the information one user has accessed to other users with similar interests. Web-based retailers such as Amazon.com use collaborative filtering to recommend products to customers.

Collaborative-filtering vendors will form partnerships with search- and push-technology vendors, predicts James Bair, an analyst with Gartner Group. Search and push technologies deliver information, but collaborative filtering lets people see whether others found that information useful. "Search and push companies are missing a key ingredient for knowledge management," Bair says. "You need people."

While collaborative filtering may prove useful on intranets, no technology can singlehandedly deliver knowledge management. "What's important is not just a set of technologies, but a concept that's deployed in an organization," says Jeetu Patel, VP of research at Chicago consulting firm Doculabs Inc.

These days, it's not who you know, but what you know -- and who you share it with.

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