One interesting case of knowledge management implementation occurred for Cisco at a time when the company was trying to grow rapidly. With the goal of hiring 250 new service and support managers (SSMs) within 18 months, Cisco needed a solution that would provide new hires fast access to all the necessary information they needed to perform their duties. To accomplish this Cisco needed to capture and share the expertise of its experienced service and support managers. The problem that Cisco faced was providing knowledge and training to new hires and supporting their information needs with only a limited number of experienced staff. Cisco chose to use a knowledge management tool with the objective of minimizing time to proficiency of new SSMs. In addition Cisco wanted to maximize performance and sharing of knowledge and foster ongoing learning and communication. (Continue Reading)

Technology and non-technology based knowledge management solutions can increase profits and the efficiency of knowledge workers. Organizations must take several steps in order to make the best choice in selecting knowledge management solutions and using them effectively. First organizations must understand the different types of knowledge and knowledge transfer and how to best collect this knowledge. Secondly organizations must prepare and implement a plan for sharing of knowledge. This can be done by establishing policies and procedures that reward employees for or require them to use and contribute to the knowledge management system. In addition organizations must evaluate the different knowledge management tools available and select the proper ones for their knowledge problem. Without proper implementation and support the knowledge management system will not be a success, to accomplish this organizations must plan their system implementation, ensure business processes are changed, and support and evaluate the system long term. (Continue Reading)

Many large companies have corporate intranets. Corporate intranets are a private network used internally by a company for its employees and sometimes partnering businesses. Many corporate intranets are based upon web technologies and can use blogging, wiki, and knowledge portal technologies. The benefits of a corporate intranet are that employees can securely access private company information, forms can be handled electronically instead of with paper, and information can be shared more easily and quickly. Corporate intranets can be relatively expensive and few small businesses I have worked with use them. However, there are inexpensive intranet technologies that small businesses can leverage to increase productivity and reduce costs. (Continue Reading)

Knowledge management is quickly becoming an important factor for success in many organizations. In the 1990s Chevron set a priority for managing and sharing knowledge and has stated that it has been a key part of reducing operating costs by over $2 billion over seven years. By sharing best practices for managing energy use, Chevron has reduced energy costs by $200 million per year (Derr, 1999). In order to effectively use knowledge management, organizations must understand the knowledge management problem, the tools available, and the process of implementation. For a knowledge management solution to be successful it must solve the major problems of gathering and disseminating knowledge. To manage knowledge there are many different technology and non-technology based tools available. In order to use these tools effectively organizations must properly implement and support their knowledge management solutions. (Continue Reading)