KM matriculates
A knowledge project at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom will be powered with collaboration software from Symularirty
The University of Leeds’ KiMERA (Knowledge Management for Enterprise and Reachout Activity) project needed a solution that would automate the knowledge management life cycle, including team formation, internal and external organization collaboration and knowledge management facilities.
KiMERA is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to develop best practices in knowledge management. Through use of the new software, KiMERA will deliver a universitywide intelligence and knowledge service that will be the first point of entry for staff developing relationships with companies. That goal will be achieved by implementing dynamic knowledgebases that will be shared across the university's outreach and partnership activities. Capabilities will be codified and matched against customer/partnership requirements.
The project will identify major areas where knowledge sharing will be most beneficial, such as knowledge: about customers, partners and donors; about practices, processes and skills; about the university's own competencies and capabilities; and about its educational, research, consultancy and service offerings.
The project will:
- identify members of staff who have experience of and/or willingness to participate in outreach activities (supply-side intranet);
- develop an equivalent for intelligence about industrial, business and public sector partners;
- create an opportunities database; and
- assemble a directory of internal and external facilitators who can be contacted to provide advice.
“KiMERA is breaking new ground in universitywide knowledge management,” says Amy Russell, project manager of KiMERA. “Symularity’s vision in creating a collaborative environment that supports the sharing of explicit and tacit knowledge and their experience with the higher education sector made their knowledge management platform the preferred choice of the University of Leeds.”
In addition to the core software, the university will implement a contact management system, additional reporting tools and integration with existing in-house databases.
Symularity was actually developed within the University of Leeds in the mid-1990s to create Web-based technology for the university’s Virtual Science Park initiative. It’s now backed by a venture capital company and develops software for commercial sectors as well as for higher education and government clients.