“Do we have a KMS (Knowledge Management System) in our
company?” asked my accountant while completing a survey form mandated by the government.
When I told her that we do, she seemed surprise. “I thought we only implemented
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)?” she stressed. Nonchalantly, I challenged her, “How do
you define Knowledge Management System then?” She replied, “According to the form, KMS is a system that
manages information/knowledge in organizations.”
“That exactly defines what our system is doing now,” I told
her.
When we built a website for FingerTec many years ago, we
already equipped it with all the KMS features. The knowledge accumulates over
the years, allowing renewals of some outdated materials, covering almost every
aspect of the business; constant sharing among the staff and customers
according to the level of accessibility, and it is indeed the hub for our daily
operations. Our sales, technical support, brand building, admin & accounts,
and R&D teams are constantly contributing their knowledge towards the
system besides their daily duty whether they realize it or not.
In fact, knowledge is derived from processed information
that originated from analytical data. Every organization produces knowledge,
along with the products and services that they market to customers. Knowledge
helps organizations to invent products or deliver services. Even in a trading
company, product is a matter of transferring the goods from a supplier to a customer.
Still, there must be some valuable knowledge in the supply-chain from the mere transfer
process of goods. To remain competitive, it depends on how well you manage knowledge,
and maintain a system that encourages renewable knowledge, and sharing of
information.
Without knowledge management, the wastage of knowledge is
high. For example, if a technical solution is not documented and shared, it
needs to be repeated, and the answers would be most likely inconsistent the
next time it’s presented.
Knowledge flow in organizations can be described using
APQC’s Knowledge Flow Process that shown below. And now, since we are living in the age of
digital technology, with reduce usage of papers, the knowledge flow cycle has
been smoothened ever since, but in an invisible way.
Knowledge now, is easier to transfer and share. And the knowledge sharing is always
associated with informal learning. Our website, as a digital hub, also
serves as a self-service library, as a means to develop social networking,
nurture new knowledge, stimulate innovation, or share tacit knowledge within
and between individuals or organizations. And knowledge, in general, produces
wiser individuals and organizations.
Dr. Hewig Rollett, the knowledge management guru said, the
increasing complexity of both the environment in which companies operate and of
their internal workings, combined with the speed demanded from them, the
pressure for innovation, and the scarcity of attention as the ultimate limited
resource, make knowledge central to business success today. Knowledge is now
seen as a factor of production not only at par with land, labor, and capital,
but surpassing them in importance.
To us, knowledge management has always been an integral part
of what we do.
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