Power Your Portal with Real Brains, Tacit Knowledge Systems
Enterprise information portals (EIPs) can do a good job of consolidating access to an organization’s existing data and published documents. But, what happens when the answers you’re looking for aren’t in the portal? Can you still find what you’re looking for, and find it in a timely way? Or, do you revert to inefficient, ad-hoc processes like e-mail spam to find the information you need?
Most organizations are using EIPs to increase access to information and to improve organizational efficiency. However, the Delphi Group estimates that 42% of corporate knowledge remains locked inside of employees’ heads. Paper documents comprise another 24% of corporate knowledge. To circumvent these limitations, companies are pushing their employees toward publishing more of their information. This path only leads to another roadblock—convincing employees to find time for creating documents.
Easy Access to Documents and Data Isn’t EnoughThe process of authoring documents is not only time-consuming and laborious, but meritocratic organizations send the wrong message, preventing employees from actively contributing their knowledge. Even when incentive systems are in place to motivate users to create and share content, the information tends to be less than complete for several fundamental reasons:
- It is impossible to capture the complete context and details of any project or business issue into a document. Omitted information may not have seemed important to the author, but could be critically important to someone else.;
- There is a delay between the time business activities occur and the time a person can summarize those activities or ideas into a document. Therefore, the very latest development breakthrough or the most current project status will never appear.;
- Not all information can be shared publicly. The sharing of sensitive information is limited to the right set of circumstances and a certain set of people. This type of information usually never gets published, and the opportunity to gain further value from the information is completely lost.;
- Tacit knowledge is very difficult to capture. Properties such as instinct, feel, taste, and smell enable people to solve problems or make decisions, but codifying this knowledge is nearly impossible.;
Unlock New Wealth From Your Company’s ExpertiseComplex problems with urgent deadlines are solved most effectively and quickly when the right information and the right people can be accessed. While an EIP can make information more accessible, equally important is making people’s expertise available. People are necessary to transform information into results. Until now, organizational fluidity, geographical barriers, and complex management structures prevented people from effectively finding and connecting with each other.
An EIP with integrated access to corporate expertise dramatically increases user productivity and effectivness. However, automation is the key to successfully harnessing employee intelligence—the tracking process for "who-knows-who" and "who-knows-what" must be automatic, non-invasive, and continuous. Automation ensures the most current information is always captured, without burdening users.
One rich and untapped source of corporate knowledge is e-mail and the documents sent through e-mail. E-mail is already the backbone for corporate communications—an Accenture study shows that the average U.S. manager sends and receives 220 e-mail messages per day. The use of e-mail as a source for systematically cataloguing employee expertise eliminates the need for people to specifically create documents about what they know.
Harvest Private Knowledge and Maintain PrivacyThe notion of mining knowledge in e-mail often raises a privacy concern with users. These concerns are eased only when users see that they have complete control of their information and choices over what is shared. At the same time, an employee’s private knowledge remains critically valuable. How can the organization tap this resource without breaching privacy?
Tacit uses a contact-brokering model, balancing access to private information with privacy. The system matches requests from information-seekers with subject-matter experts based on encrypted, private information. The system then forwards the request to the knowledge-provider. Until he/she contacts the information-seeker, the identities of matched experts remain anonymous.
Achieve Success More QuicklyThe installation of an EIP is a large undertaking. On average, EIP launches require six to 12 months of detailed planning and integration work. However, Tacit can help you deploy Expertise Automation in just a few short weeks, with full expertise searching capabilities available at launch. As a result, you can implement expertise technology while preparing your full EIP implementation, without waiting for full project completion.
With expertise-location technology in place, your EIP expands into a unified gateway to all of your organization’s information resources, including people. Thus, you can instantly find answers wherever they exist in the organization for better decision-making, enhanced service to customers, and increased competitive advantage.
About Tacit Knowledge Systems, Inc.
Tacit is the pioneer and leader in providing Expertise Automation solutions. Tacit’s products—KnowledgeMail® and Tacit ESP for Portals—automatically and continuously inventory the skills and talents of your entire organization. With Tacit, people can instantly find and connect with the expertise they need to make decisions, solve problems, and serve customers. Customers such as HP, JP Morgan, Texaco, and Morrison & Foerster are using Tacit to gain efficiency, profit, and competitive advantage. For more information, visit Tacit