Governments Worldwide Poised to Exploit Knowledge Management

Unlike many public and private organizations, federal, state and local government agencies worldwide were mandated by law and organizational directives during the 1990s to adopt electronic information systems. As a result, many were early adopters of the core technologies that will now enable them to implement advanced knowledge management practices and systems. Although these core technologies might sound somewhat archaic, they are the very foundation of enterprise information management systems and include document/records management integrated with search, archival and retrieval (IR) and also apply automated taxonomy, indexing and categorization capabilities. In many of these information systems in federal, state, local and municipal governments worldwide is Hummingbird’s DM/RM and IR technologies, which provide the platform for document and correspondence management, electronic records, forms processing and many other e-government initiatives.

Among the factors driving early adoption of electronic information systems in government:

• Organization mandates, funding and staffing cutbacks
• Global legislation: U.S. Government Paperwork Elimination Act, Archive Acts, National Heritage Acts, Freedom Of Access to Information Acts, Data Protection and Privacy Acts, Evidence Acts, Emergency Preparedness Acts, etc.
• E-government initiatives, such as EDM and ERM
• Information security
• Internet driven demand on information access
• Virtual employees and distributed organizations.

Hummingbird electronic records (eRM) and document management (eDM) initiatives have not only allowed government organizations to deliver fast ROI—for example, through reduced publishing costs and even postage savings—but they have provided a platform for new and innovative business models. Simply Web-enabling a DM/RM system is saving the European Court of Human Rights $1 million a year in postage alone, and the IRS over $1 million in publishing costs since 1999.

Governmental agencies are now poised to exploit and further leverage information and intellectual assets throughout their virtual organizations by deploying what may be the most powerful of all integration technologies to impact the industry in several years: the enterprise information portal. Many federal, state and local government agencies have been quick to exploit the power of Internet technologies to deploy B2E intranet portals and B2C (business-to-citizen) portals. Enterprise information portals are not only one of the most important enterprise integration technologies, they also provide a powerful knowledge management enabling technology that can greatly facilitate advanced KM processes, such as communities of interest, expert systems and forums for best practices.

Crossing the Cultural Barriers to Advanced KM

Perhaps the most famous knowledge management quote of all time came from Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence (HarperCollins, November 1982): “Knowledge management is 95% people politics, processes and culture and 5% technology.” This was precisely why many KM initiatives failed during the 1990s: organizations deployed technology and ignored the cultural and organizational development issues that are seminal to any successful KM project or system. The non-information sharing culture of many government agencies is perhaps one of the greatest barriers that many agency directors will face. In fact, implementing a DM system may sound trivial, but it significantly changes the way people interact daily with their information and requires buy-in from users and investment in behavioral change management. Although cultural barriers will challenge IT and management, many government organizations have the infrastructure in place that can enhance and facilitate advanced KM.

Some advanced knowledge management initiatives:

• Collaboration: Leads to innovation of business processes, ultimately increasing organizational productivity and competitiveness
• CRM: View of all information about the customer, structured and unstructured
• Communities of interest: Brings people together with similar jobs and tasks
• Best practices systems: Encourages business process excellence and innovation
• Expert systems: Leverages thought leaders and expert experience throughout the organization
• E-learning: Reduces travel and overall training costs and increases overall productivity
• E-mentoring: Leverages intellectual assets of the organization through knowledge transfer.

The First Content Management and GIS Integration

During the 1990s many government agencies invested heavily in computerized geographical information systems designed by Environmental Systems Research Institute of Redlands, CA. GIS systems have been essential in many disciplines, including environmental, residential and city planning and development, military planning, and geological research to name a few, and now most notably they will play an ever-important role in homeland defense. Although GIS systems present incredibly rich sets of spatial and temporal data, until now they have yet to be fully integrated with relevant unstructured content.

Hummingbird, Farragut Systems and ESRI have announced the first GIS-content management integration solution that leverages and extends the value of GIS implementations by linking documents and relevant content to map features. Hummingbird Enterprise™ for ESRI, a new Hummingbird solution, offers a Web-based mapping interface for document and records management and queries by linking ESRI’s ArcIMS™ software and Hummingbird DM™, an integral component of Hummingbird Enterprise.

Challenges For Government, Public and Private Business

Surprisingly, even in this digital age, the world still runs on paper. Banks still reference microfiche to check signatures, the majority of the world’s scientific information is microfiche-archived in libraries, the entire U.S. healthcare system runs on paper and faxes—and many government agencies are scrambling to implement information management systems. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated last year that it would be four years before a bioterrorism warning system would be operable because most hospital emergency room and testing labs still run on paper. Once in place the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System will enable analysts to search and map disease reports and lab records by scanning electronic documents provided by state and local health departments.

According to Gartner Group, less than 50% of organizations worldwide currently have an enterprise information management system and/or document management system in place. Outside of the heavily regulated industries such as legal, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and utilities, the majority of businesses are just now in the process of building their information systems. They, like some important government agencies, are in no way ready to exploit their knowledge and/or intellectual assets and will be hard-pressed to compete in the knowledge-based economy. In addition to competitive pressures within their industry, new state and federal laws that mandate document and record retention, such as the Federal Acquisition Regulation and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, are major legislative factors that will drive these laggards to implement electronic document and records management systems.

A good resource on the Web for knowledge management in government is http://www.km.gov. It is a resource on government-oriented KM initiatives, a list server and forum for interaction.

Hummingbird and Government DM/RM

Hummingbird’s track record in building governmental information management systems is unparalleled in the industry and many agencies worldwide rely on the robust mission-critical performance delivered with Hummingbird solutions. Many government organizations have found Hummingbird Enterprise the most cost effective and easiest to deploy of all information management systems, for many reasons:

• Superior integration with desktop applications, Windows and Notes
• Easy to integrate with existing enterprise applications
• Rapid deployment
• Open database architecture
• Web-enabled DM/RM/KM and collaboration addresses the virtual workforce
• Fully integrated DM/RM/KM solution
• Easy to customize for specific business processes
• Results in fast ROI and overall lower cost of ownership.

Along with superior desktop and legacy application integration, easy customization and rapid deployment capabilities, Hummingbird Enterprise is the choice of government today.

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Hummingbird Ltd. is a global enterprise software company employing 1300 people in nearly 40 offices around the world. Hummingbird Enterprise™ creates a 360° view of content with products that are both modular and interoperable, including Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Portal, and Document Management. Please visit: Hummingbird