3fifteen's SA customers are very risk-averse when it comes to KM solutions, but it's time to take a risk if you want that competitive edge, it says COST-CUTTING is one of the primary focuses for companies today, which in many instances means retrenchments, freezes in headcount or job cuts. Often those employees left behind are expected to take on the workload of those who have left. Employers should be asking themselves: How do I make those people that I do have more productive, without burning them out?, says Philippe Morin, business unit manager at 3fifteen.
"Nurturing employees, and providing them with tools to reduce the time spent on mundane initiatives, is one of the primary areas that a proper knowledge management (KM) approach deals with," he says.
Morin doesn't foresee the economic downturn having a sizeable impact on 3fifteen's KM business.
3fifteen is the Microsoft application software development arm within the Britehouse group. 3fifteen is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and its competencies include information worker (collaboration, portals and enterprise content management), business intelligence, service-oriented architecture and business process management, customised application development and Microsoft Business Solutions, specialising in customer relationship management.
GETTING IN ON THE EVOLUTION
"As with many organisations, knowledge management and the practise thereof was an evolutionary process for 3fifteen. This would have started off in early 2003. Customers seldom specifically requested a knowledge management system; it was through implementation-learning and a thorough understanding of what we were doing that we became involved in knowledge management," Morin elaborates.
However, 3fifteen recently completed a project for a global brewery, where the UK head office had a specific KM requirement. For example, the brewery required the ability for users to submit a question, and have an answer returned from a global knowledge base. This was coined The Global Q&A Forum.
"The solution takes into account not only the written knowledge base that has been categorised and stored appropriately, but also the user community knowledge base. In this, specific knowledge specialists on a subject also receive the question asked, and have the chance to respond. In that way, not only does the user have a documented and structured response, but also an expert response sharing experience and knowledge in another way. This has been hugely valuable because it allows us to convince other customers of the importance not only of categorisation, but also the people factor in KM," explains Morin.
These customers are, more than likely, medium to large-sized enterprises, he adds. "Small companies, in general, have less content. How they manage this content, and thereafter find it, is far easier than in a larger enterprise, therefore medium to large enterprises are far more inclined to invest in the discipline," he maintains.
NOT BREAKING GROUND JUST YET
Moreover, the maturity of the discipline varies greatly from customer to customer, and from vendor to vendor, says Morin. "Generally [in South Africa], I would say that the knowledge management discipline is relatively mature, but not groundbreaking. Having consulted extensively with Microsoft and other partners in the US and UK, I have come to realise that many of the customers abroad are far more mature in their approach simply because they are more willing to take the risk in embarking on new ideas. More often than not, the customers are keen to bring new ideas to the fore to gain a competitive edge. In South Africa, although some partners may propose fantastic ideas for knowledge management, these are seldom implemented because they fall outside the comfort zone of the customer," he indicates.
"Organisations need to start thinking about how they glean tacit knowledge from their employees in a way that matches the organisational culture. This culture will affect your 'knowledge gathering' strategy. Knowledge management is never a 'stick only' approach; there must always be a large carrot somewhere'," he points out.
As for the future of 3fifteen within the KM discipline, Morin says that it has, and still is, investing heavily in the area of information access, also known as enterprise search. This includes Microsoft's recent high-profile acquisition of FAST, he notes.
"A decent knowledge management solution and search are inextricably linked, our investments in understanding what is happening in this space, and where things are moving towards is providing 3fifteen with some incredibly innovative ideas on knowledge management implementations. This is already being met by good feedback by some of our clients and current prospects," Morin concludes
By Laura Franz-Kamissoko (iWeek)
6 April 2009