Knowledge Management Systems - Research Paper Example

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS By Student’s name Course code and name Professor’s name University name City, State Date of submission Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1 Objectives 3 a)List of Objectives 3 b)Considerations Taken Into Account While Determining Objectives 3 A.2 Resources 4 a)List of Requirements 4 b)Workability of Available Resources 5 c)Additional Resources 5 d)How Additional Resources Shall be Sourced and Used 6 e)Factors Considered When Determining the Resources 6 A.3 Promotion and Support 7 a)Promotion and Support Requirements 7 b)Departments Involved 7 c)Promoting the System Internally and Externally 8 B.Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement 8 a)Processes Required for Monitoring and Evaluation 8 b)Ensuring Compliance Effectiveness and Efficiency 9 c)Continuous Improvement Processes 9 C.Managing Use of System 10 a)Templates and Procedures 10 b)Contingency Plan to Assess Potential Risk 10 D.System Review 10 1 Objectives a) List of Objectives The objectives of a procurement knowledge management system are inclined towards task organisation from the time a requisition is put in place up to the moment that services or goods are received. The major objective is therefore to ensure that the tasks are properly managed from the inception period to execution and delivery. The second objective is to ensure that the employees to whom the output is mandated take up the task of instilling this process without fail. This is to ensure interdepartmental integration for activity harmonization purposes especially based on the fact that procurement is a support department. It is also the objective of this system to ensure that the delegated processes are compatible to employees of the lowest stature within the organisation. A good example is a procurement management system that can use a barcode scanner to record information from a real work process. The knowledge management system on the other side should be able to centralize all the geographically dispersed resources for the sake of cost minimization. This system should link all parallel activities carried out by multiple employees for the sake of integrated results. The decision point of this knowledge management system should be centred on the areas where physical activities take place. Information should be captured at the source and this should be done once in order to reduce probability of coming up with errors. b) Considerations Taken Into Account While Determining Objectives The considerations of focus when coming up with the above objectives were based on elimination of reducing information collection activities, formatting of information in the right format required for review and repeat procedures that are incurred by information technology. The decision making process that is related to this procedure is guided by the design efforts that are meant for increasing productivity levels. This re-engineering process is also based on manpower reduction possibilities as a way of dealing with the wage bills especially in large organisations. A. 2 Resources a) List of Requirements Apart from monetary resources, the greatest resources available for development and implementation of this system are social frameworks such as training workshops, mentoring, cross-functional focus groups and case study sharing. To begin with, the cross-functional focus groups shall assemble all project teams in order to acquaint everybody with the suggested organisational knowledge management changes. The benefit of this resource is that the creation of new knowledge shall be entirely dependent on the efforts from the people to see that the enactment of this system goes through. Management training workshops also come in handy as there are several online and offline courses for those who shall be engaged with the data retrieval and analysis. Books and journals may also be availed to these workshops in case members develop a difficulty in understanding the type of content being delivered. Case studies are available all over the internet and the business journals for dissemination of failure and success cases of the past. Mentoring on the other side can be used as a readily available tool for the initiation of this procurement management system into the organisation. This ensures that whatever is being enacted at organisational level is understood by the mentors who then impart this knowledge to the entire team. b) Workability of Available Resources The resources above are characterised by ready availability of depending on the environment that this knowledge management system is being designed for. In the engineering sector, mentoring and group focus are important tools when coming up with a new system that is likely to affect the procedures that each and every organisational member is used to. The available resources shall be used collectively with a goal of rolling out this new system in that 95% shall be full involvement of the organisation in coming up with a consensus of what is expected from everybody. Education at the initial rollout stage serves as an important tool for knowledge imparting thus the percentage of success with this tool is likely to be high. As much as the information dissemination tools may seem informal, they have been tested with other organisations and found to be working. c) Additional Resources Additional resources that are required for this exercise are the technical class of resources which include the intranet and extranet, data warehouse or host, decision support systems, groupware such as procurement software for documentation, artificial intelligence tools, semantic networks and finally the simulation tools. The usefulness of these tools is that they shall be responsible of information handling, communication and collaborative management. These tools shall however not pose difficulties in sourcing since the hardware is readily available within the organisation and the only cross-section that requires extra sourcing is the software. According to the nature and size of the engineering organisation for which this plan is being carried out, Web 2.0 or KM 2.0 are enough. d) How Additional Resources Shall be Sourced and Used Additional resources shall be sourced through competitive bidding and again based on the rate of success of the tool in question. As much as there is a boom in technology systems, the criterion on how to settle for the best still remains the same. Technology resources shall have to be technology focussed meaning that they should be dynamic, customizable, process-focussed and people-focussed. Sourcing should be strategic in that the intelligent market is captured and or the (e)-procurement which shall be done through competitive bidding. The usage shall entirely depend on the type of tool in consideration for example hardware or software. Hardware shall be responsible of hosting the knowledge management system and also offer a user interface that for input and output. Software shall be responsible of processing and rendering data for usage including strategic sourcing, global trade, compliance management, inventory management, and sustainable corporate and social responsibility. e) Factors Considered When Determining the Resources The factors considered when coming up the requirements above are the technological impact that these tools pose to the organisation, the process focus and finally compatibility with the people. Technology is a very important organisational development tool especially considering the fact that the organisation in consideration is with respect to engineering. Despite the technological propensity of these tools, they should be customizable to fit the organisational needs with an ability to capture the requirements of a procurement department. Secondly, organisational processes should be considered in order to avoid a knowledge management system that shall be a burden to the entire organisation in terms of time and enactment. Focus should be directed to the people since they are the most important part of the organisation. The system and means of imparting knowledge should ensure that the interaction is increased or taken to the next level for qualitative purposes. A. 3 Promotion and Support a) Promotion and Support Requirements In the first place, it should be noted that human is adamant to change especially when it comes to embracing a globalised system for competitive advantage. The approach to be applied in promoting and supporting this system should therefore appeal to the users so as to increase the success chances. When introducing this system, proper communication should be done to the entire organisation as to why the suggested system upgrade or even overhaul is being carried out. To champion for the new knowledge management system, advisories should be placed on the notice boards so as to create awareness to every stakeholder. This should come as a management plan change letter from the senior management to the juniors indicating the benefits. Media releases have also worked effectively for many organisations thus this shall work effectively in the rollout phase. Collaborative planning should also be embraced as a matter of promotion with a backup from specific meetings. Presentations and enactment of the identified tools such as focus groups, mentoring and workshop trainings shall aid in promoting this knowledge management system to the end users. b) Departments Involved The departments involved in the enactment of this knowledge management system include the information technology (IT) department, the production department, accounts department, procurement department and the entire top management. The main department is identified as procurement while the others are considered as support with IT departments as the leading support since it shall be the one hosting the hardware and software for implementation in the long run. c) Promoting the System Internally and Externally Internal and external system implementation and promotion shall entirely depend on lobbying and campaigning for it to be a success. Internal lobbying translates to mentorship programmes that shall be introduced right from the inception to coach the members of the organisation on the importance of the knowledge management system. As suggested in the resources section, teamwork shall be embraced as a tool for knowledge propagation at the shop level. Workshops shall also be encouraged with a major prequalification of the suppliers as the external stakeholders. Further communication through the internet media such as e-mail is encouraged for quick dissemination of knowledge. Strict adherence to the knowledge management systems set in place shall be ensured once everything starts running smoothly without embracing any shortcuts. B. Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement a) Processes Required for Monitoring and Evaluation First and foremost, it is important to review and revise the objectives that were set initially before the rollout of the knowledge management system. Therefore, documents and reports that are meant for monitoring and evaluation should be revisited from time to time in order to give a proper breakdown of the problems being faced by the enactment of this system. The purpose of the monitoring and evaluation exercise should be defined by the members who are entrusted to this audit under the custodianship of the top management. This shall then be followed by an external audit meant to verify the findings of an external audit. The data collection methodologies to be applied should also be compatible for the sake of objectivity. Pretesting and analysis of the collected data should then follow by the decision making panel in readiness of the follow-up actions. These actions shall then be forwarded to all levels of operation for suggested changes and weak points to be strengthened. b) Ensuring Compliance Effectiveness and Efficiency In order to ensure compliance and effectiveness of policies and procedures, objectivity is the key point indicator. It is mandatory that effective approaches be identified in making a follow-up for weak points. The organisation should further be interested in refining the approaches that are used in selecting and setting the priorities. This may only be aided by investigations and audits that are used for beta systems testing for feedback purposes. c) Continuous Improvement Processes It should be noted that learning in humans is not an accidental by-product especially in an organisation that is objective driven. In order to ensure compliance, the process of learning should be accelerated as a means of achieving effectiveness of policies and procedures. The simplest approach to be used in continuous improvement is to encourage learning before, during and after the enactment of the procedures. This shall ensure that all organisational stakeholders are not caught off guard once the ball is set rolling thus effectiveness is achieved in the long run. C. Managing Use of System a) Templates and Procedures The sample templates and procedures shall be availed at all levels of organisational interaction. b) Contingency Plan to Assess Potential Risk Contingency planning for risk assessment is a very important point especially when rolling out the new system in an organisation. The individuals spearheading the enactment of this system should focus on reducing the threats through periodical high-level assessment. Appraisal should be incorporated for detailed risk analysis and such activities as determining the actions that might be used for risk reduction. This process is further broken down into risk identification, assessment, risk response, risk monitoring and finally documentation. D. System Review One of the strength of this system is that it shall improve the productivity of the organisation with an extreme margin. In other words knowledge sharing ensures that information is available at a single point for enhancement of quick decision making. Other than this, the delivery efficiency to the clients is increased since the databases store information for as long as the organisation exists. Sourcing of good and services is also made easier since the database maintains the qualified suppliers i.e. for purposes of procurement. The weakness is purely attached to intranet and extranet dependency which in case of any failures may disable business activity in the organisation. The information management systems also cause an overload of organisational network facilities posing a threat to other users. Information security cannot be assured in such a case as a knowledge management system whose users are driven by various motives. The organisation needs shall be met effectively by this system since it shall focus on all the requirements of workflow analysis through network models and processes that shall be incorporated for operations optimization. This system shall offer qualitative reasoning to the entire organisation thus addressing the main organisation agenda which is to make profits. Case based reasoning shall offer managers a new approach to the problems facing the corporate circle during these advanced technological times. The recommended improvement methods include follow-up and feedback from the stakeholders. This shall be done by introducing suggestion boxes that are meant specifically for this process and focus groups for managers to learn the difficulties facing their subordinates on the enactment of the system. The management setup should also come up with an ionternal and external audit of the system as a way of tracking the progress and shortcomings before situations get awry. Workshops meant to air the situations and their respective solutions should also be arranged from time to time as a means of counterchecking with the set schedule of achievements. Read More