知识管理
18 March 1999A business caseKnowledge ManagementInformation Risk Management |Information Risk Management | |Knowledge Management | |A business case | [pic] | | |18 March 1999 | |This report contains 1 pages | |Appendices contain 8 pages | |NIRM_KM.doc | Contents 1 Background 1 1.1 Why has knowledge become a strategic business issue? 1 1.2 The KPMG global vision and strategy 1 2 Knowledge management defined 4 2.1 Knowledge 4 2.2 Knowledge management 4 2.3 The knowledge system 5 3 Knowledge management in IRM 6 3.1 The United Kingdom 6 3.1.1 KM structures 7 3.2 The United States 8 3.3 International Headquarters (IHQ) 8 3.4 South Africa 9 4 Benefits 10 4.1 Key benefits 10 4.1.1 Tangible benefits 10 4.1.2 Intangible benefits 11 5 Costs 12 6 Challenges 15 6.1 Where to start? 15 6.2 Cultural change 16 6.3 Knowledge management strategy 17 7 Technology 18 8 Content and maintenance 19 8.1 Generic knowledge 19 8.2 Layout 19 8.3 Client confidentiality 20 8.4 Maintenance and sanitation 21 8.5 A complete process 21 9 The next steps 23 Appendix A - Suggested IRM South Africa knowledge repository structure 24 Appendix B - Draft job descriptions for staffing of a Knowledge Centre 26 1 Background 1 Why has knowledge become a strategic business issue? Recently there has been a shift away from a “capital asset” based economy to one where the strategic assets of any organisation are its knowledge assets. This change in paradigm is as great as the shift in the past from an agricultural to an industrial-based economy at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The use of knowledge, and its subsequent management, as a strategic tool to enable firms to gain an edge over their competitors has been enabled through: n technological advancements allowing the capture, management and dissemination of vast quantities of information within organisations; n the emergence of “virtual organisations” in which traditional boundaries separating business units are blurring; and n knowledge being utilised to change organisations and open new markets. In addition, the risks of not managing one’s knowledge assets includes: n loss of productivity and opportunities through wasted time finding information and data within an organisation; n information overload as a result of no tools or processes being in place to manage and organise data and information; n the loss of knowledge due to staff attrition (it is estimated that 50% of knowledge not actively stored and managed is lost every 5 years assuming a 10% turnover in staff per annum); and n continual re-inventing of the wheel as lessons learned in the past are not stored and passed on to others in the organisation. 2 The KPMG global vision and strategy “KPMG is the global advisory firm whose aim is to turn knowledge into value for the benefit of its clients, its people and its communities.” KPMG is a knowledge-based organisation. While that implies that we recruit and retain the highest calibre of person, it is not so much the pool of knowledge that is KPMG that counts, but rather how we turn that knowledge into value. Our knowledge can be seen as part of our competitive edge, something that sets us apart from our competitors. The KPMG value set allows us to maximise our advantage by maintaining these values in all dealings with staff and clients. In order to achieve this these values must be embedded into our processes and activities. The values focus on three areas: n Clients; n People; and n Knowledge. It is the latter that this business case addresses. The valus as expressed under Knowledge state that, “We will continuously extend the frontiers of our shared knowledge by treating knowledge as a highly-valued asset which everyone in the firm has a right and obligation to use and a responsibility to contribute towards.” This is the essence of Knowledge Management (KM): the process of turning a pool of diverse knowledge and expertise into a shared resource that better allows the firm to meet its goals and objectives. This proposal will address the issue of KM within the Information Risk Management (IRM) practice by: n explaining what KM actually is; n examining the processes followed by other practices around the world, specifically the United Kingdom and the United States; n setting out the benefits to be derived from an effective KM process; n forecasting the challenges that lie ahead, should a KM structure be implemented in anticipation of the South African firm as a whole migrating to KWorld; n investigating the technological resources available to enable a successful implementation of KM; and n setting out what the next steps should be. The proposal is based on the underlying assumption that the South African firm will be implementing and migrating to the KWorld platform in the near future; in all likelihood by June 2000. Any initiatives, recommendations and decisions arising from this document should take that into account, and should be in line with what is planned. To these ends there would need to be close collaboration and co-operation between IRM and Technology Support (TS) in any ventures. However, KM is not dependent on the technological tools that are to be used. Rather it is a process, mind-set and culture change that will need to be introduced and embedded within IRM. This process will ultimately feed into the KWorld migration at the appropriate time. 2 Knowledge management defined 1 Knowledge Knowledge can be seen as: n Experience, facts, rules, assertions and concepts about subjects crucial to the business; n A key resource used throughout an organisation to support: - decision-making; - forecasting; - planning; and - assessment of projects, staff, etc.; - design of products and services; - analysis and benchmarking; and n Being formal, systematic and recorded, or alternately as informal, or even as something held in a person’s mind. 2 Knowledge management Knowledge management seeks to capture knowledge, as defined above, into sources of data and information that are easy to find and re-use. These sources make up the “knowledge system”, discussed further below. Knowledge management can be seen as consisting of two separate processes: n the gathering, capturing and formalising of knowledge; and n the storing, organising, searching and harnessing of this knowledge. A useful analogy is that of a fruit tree. The planting of the seed, tending and watering of the tree can be seen as the initial process of setting up the Knowledge Repositories or databases. The fruit that the tree ultimately bears is the actual usage, sharing and continual learning that the organisation’s people experience through utilisation of the stored expertise. A crucial factor in the success of any KM process is the creation and encouragement of a culture of sharing of insights and experiences between co-workers. Ultimately there needs to be collaboration, sharing and continual learning by persons within an organisation. 3 The knowledge system A knowledge system is a system in the broadest sense of the word in that it includes people, processes, technology and finally content. Culture plays a central role in the success of any knowledge system implementation , since it is only within a culture of knowledge sharing that the intellectual assets of a company can be harnessed. Should employees feel that the only way for them to advance and be successful is for them to hoard their skills within themselves, then knowledge sharing and management cannot take place. Employees should be encouraged, or even forced, to contribute to the knowledge base and should be actively rewarded for doing so. This may be achieved through the explicit setting of personal objectives in the KM sphere upon which appraisals, and ultimately remuneration will be based. It is accepted that currently there is an implicit expectation of staff to provide mentoring and knowledge sharing to other staff as part of their day-to-day activities. However, for KM to be successful, there needs to be explicit recognition of active knowledge sharing. It is recognised that this form of reward, and ultimately the embedding of knowledge sharing into the day-to-day culture of the firm can only come about with full and continual backing from top management. The processes put in place to ensure knowledge sharing actually happens in an organisation provide the link between practice, or what has taken place, and learning from past mistakes and successes. The technology is simply an enabler to the knowledge management process. It is only with recent developments, and the availability of vast storage spaces and document management systems that knowledge management has been possible in any commercially viable form. The content of the knowledge system is a function of what it is to be utilised for. This is a key decision that needs to be taken prior to the implementation of any management system. 3 Knowledge management in IRM 1 The United Kingdom Currently the UK practice is leading the way in rolling forward the KM initiative. A Knowledge Repository (KR) was established in January 1999, and has received upwards of 200 submissions. Access to the repository is through the UK intranet, UKnow, and provides a comprehensive search facility to quickly and accurately identify and locate documents. A monthly newsletter is published on the IRM intranet site, accessible through OpenAccess from South Africa on MACR...
知识管理