Once organisations have defined their knowledge management strategy, it is time to plan for the implementation. The best strategy is useless, if on the execution level stakeholders are not able to fully collaborate and express their knowledge.
It must be clear how knowledge assets are identified, created and then most importantly, stay up to date. Probably everyone of us has encountered the annoying situation of building a process on outdated documentation. This is where an enterprise knowledge management system comes into play.
Benefits of implementing enterprise knowledge management systems
Improved decision-making: an EKM can drastically reduce the time and increase the quality of decision making. Information is immediately available and most importantly, previous decisions and updates to workflows are documented. This can save valuable resources, as the decision maker can already build on previous successful or failed attempts to improve the process.
Enhanced collaboration and knowledge sharing: knowledge management is a team effort. Diverse perspectives improve the overall robustness of processes. By including relevant persons to contribute to the EKM, no matter their position in the workflow, managers can create a positive culture of knowledge sharing and transparency. Everyone can understand how tasks are executed and what their role as team member is.
Higher organisational efficiency: utilising an EKM improves the speed of how knowledge is accumulated and disseminated throughout the organisation. Real time access, real time updates and immediate availability of knowledge, create streamlined workflows. The EKM as a knowledge hub is the logical first place to search for process information. New team members can be onboarded and can work their way through relevant knowledge assets at their own pace, without blocking resources of other team members.
Challenges in Implementing enterprise knowledge management systems
Data security concerns: the implementation needs to consider and plan for the risks of storing valuable knowledge assets in one place. The efficiency gains need to be weighed against the negative impacts of data breaches, data loss and other vulnerabilities. A version control system, role based access control and backup solutions are examples for managing risks while benefiting from the upsides of an EKM.
Resistance to change: updating workflows will always meet some kind of resistance from the workforce. Fears of being replaced through technology and also, very human emotions like embarrassment about not being able to handle new technologies, all contribute to lack of momentum during the EKM implementation. If the upsides of an EKM are explained and the staff well trained in using it, many of the barriers can be broken down early on.
Integration with existing systems: depending on the technology stack in use, the integration of the EKM can be slowed down. Especially if information is stored in separate databases and manually compiled. The key here is to plan ahead and focus on automation and efficiency. Once the EKM is fully integrated, new workflows can be added in other systems and immediately exchange relevant information with the EKM.
Key Features of an Effective EKM System
1) Centralised knowledge repository:
knowledge has to be captured and stored through different types. Documents, policies, best practices and expertise all need to be centralised, so that undiscovered connections can be revealed over time.
A unique challenge is to capture explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. While explicit knowledge is quite easy to be documented, tacit knowledge develops over time through experience. Some call it the “gut feeling”, but it really is unconsciously doing the right thing. Especially for tacit knowledge, users can utilise storytelling to explain their thinking and logic of executing a workflow.
Depending on the richness and volume of data points, artificial intelligence can be utilised to uncover hidden connections between departments and workflows. Maybe 2 employees of different departments use the same policy document for very different workflows. Finding this connection may contribute to developing streamlined processes. If the policy can be simplified, what are the potential time savings in each department?
2) User-friendly interface:
the EKM needs to be intuitive. It can not be expected from employees to invest a lot of their resources into learning how to use the EKM. Marking actions with coloured buttons is a great way to clarify to users where actions are executed. A consistent design of text fields, upload areas for files and other input areas helps to quickly gain orientation.
A search function helps to quickly get answers on how to add content to the EKM. Visual cues like progress indicators keep users focused and give feedback on how far they have progressed in their steps. Tooltips that pop up when an area is visited the first time, or after a long time, are additional design elements that can contribute to speed up the onboarding or refresh the memory of users. Personalisation can further help users to optimise their workspace. Multilingual EKMs cater to global or international teams.
Easy and intuitive: in this EKM users can choose from different content types
3) Search and retrieval capabilities:
as important as getting knowledge into the EKM is the process of extracting and finding relevant information inside the EKM. Apart from text based search, natural language processing is a key feature that can help users. By communicating with databases like talking to another human, any lack of technical skills or knowledge of users are not limiting the user experience.
Content preview can further enhance and streamline the user experience. Instead of clicking through every search result, users can quickly skim through relevant search results and only take a deep dive into information where they expect the most value.
Searching across multiple repositories and working with tags, keywords and metadata helps users to solidify information from different sources and create comprehensive knowledge panels.
4) Collaboration tools:
creating and gathering knowledge is a team effort. Specialists and generalists within the organisation all contribute to the overall outcome. Therefore it is important to give EKM users the opportunity to work on knowledge topics together.
An EKM should therefore assign each user their own profile, equipped with tools that make teamwork easy. A messaging system can speed up internal communication, so users can point each other to the right EKM content.
Teamwork: users of this EKM can exchange messages
Discussions forums and commenting functions enable the exchange of information among team members. Threads can develop and conversations can stay organised.
Just like social media: users can share information to relevant groups
What does the future hold for enterprise knowledge management systems?
After touching on core features of a powerful EKM, we want to close with some thoughts about the future of knowledge management and how EKMs and their users will have to stay adaptable. Key trends that are shaping the work environments are mobile and remote access capabilities. Post covid, home office and hybrid workplaces are a part of every organisation. Even if some companies are trying to return to office only settings, the modern workplace is here to stay. And apart from accessing the EKM remotely, accessing it from mobile devices will become even more important. Good examples are workplaces that just do not have office settings, like construction sites or high security facilities with limited infrastructure regarding desktop devices.
