Knowledge Systems

Making Smart Businesses
Smart organizations and smart people are each really good at assimilating lots of information from diverse sources, sharing thoughts about that information, and then developing ideas and strategies that distinguish them from the pack. Smart organizations learn to share information to better serve all of their stakeholders.  The organization needs easy, seamless access to information to do problem solving and analysis and to generate new ideas.  Collaboration lets workers focus on the job rather than on processing information.

Collaborating For Customer Service
If employees and  team members spend less time trying to get their questions answered, they can spend more time leveraging their expertise with customers, which results in higher customer satisfaction. Through collaborating we can eliminate distractions that take away from customers and thus offer a better value proposition. Collaboration is being able to do more because we know more and that knowledge is what drives the top and bottom line.

"Knowledge is information that changes
something or somebody – either by becoming
grounds for actions, or by making an individual
capable of different or more effective action"
– Peter Drucker

Better, Faster Decision Making
Companies are catching on to the collaboration possibilities. According to the Meta Group, a research firm in Stamford, Conn., by 2004, 50% of Global 2000 enterprises will have a plan for uniting knowledge management activities; that number will grow to 80% by 2008 as companies begin to realize business benefits.

The Trust Culture
Collaboration is also a way to foster the kind of openness that breeds trust among employees and business partners.

"If my employer shares information, I’ll trust my employer. If I trust my employer, I’ll work harder and do better. Then the company will do better." In the same way, if you share information with external stakeholders, they will trust your business.

Satisfied Customers
Smart organizations learn to share information to better serve all of their stakeholders. Using technology as an enabler, both internally and externally translates into smarter solutions that reduce costs, cut turnaround times, and dramatically increases customer service.

Benefits of A Knowledge System

• It avoids the ‘e-mail-plus-attachment’ approach
   

• It’s quick and powerful and easy to learn because it’s a Web site and everything is standardized.
   

• Giving employees tools they recognize helps them buy into collaboration, most people know Microsoft Office. So if you give workers a tool that they understand, that integrates with what they’re already using, and that helps them do their job more effectively, they’re far more likely to embrace it.