Corporate Portals Require Complete KM Strategies, Ennov

Knowledge management (KM) can be defined as content management (CM) woven into business processes. KM is intended to provide people with easy and timely access to the right information, in a controlled and organized way. While corporate portals may seem like a simple way to achieve this objective, a portal implementation should be approached within the context of a comprehensive knowledge management strategy.

Such an approach requires an elucidation of your short and long-term goals and also an understanding of how the key elements of KM, such as information flows and content management, will fit into your corporate portal.

Optimizing Your Processes; Short Versus Long Term GoalsAlmost anything that happens in a company that may result in a financial loss has an associated business process: a customer complaint, a development project, or even a travel request. KM aims to make business processes easier and quicker, but also more traceable and controlled. Sometimes these goals can come into conflict and managers must decide whether the short-term or long-term goals are more important.Take an example of a bank whose asset managers have always responded to back-office errors by calling or e-mailing downstairs to request correction. This is a very simple process and accomplishes the task more quickly than entering the error into a workflow management application. However, when there is a problem in a large transaction, it is critical that the bank find the source of the error with speed and precision, and it is here that KM saves a company time and money.

Processes in Your PortalYour portal will normally include a To-Do list and a “My Projects” section. These can either be embedded together into one portal or separated, with the To-Do section on a general home Intranet page and the My Projects portal on its own. Avoid trying to stuff too many applications or too much information into one page, but also avoid cluttering your desktop with too many portals. In any portal, the employee’s tasks should be automatically updated with changes occurring in the workflow application.

Information FlowsAmong the psychological challenges associated with defining the rules and architecture of a KM solution is the need to think in terms of information flows rather than corporate hierarchy. This means that discussion groups, document access, and workflow participation must be organized in a way that reflect everyday business practices. An example of this principle is that the CEO’s assistant must have nearly equal access to company information as the CEO himself, which may give the assistant greater information access than others in higher positions.

Content Management in Your PortalWhen choosing a search solution, you should first write down exactly which search functions are critical or desired for your company. Some companies may want to search only by meta-data; others may want full-text search of their files, or even semantic search, which gives results that are related to your search query but not necessarily containing the keyword in the search. For instance, when one searches for “Knowledge Management” using a semantic navigator, one can find related documents on portals, workflows, etc. regardless of whether they contain the keywords “Knowledge” or “Management.”As for other aspects of content management, one should be notified in the portal whenever a document that concerns him/her has been changed, updated, or archived.

Communication Functions in Your PortalPutting one’s e-mail inbox on the home portal is standard. However, other communication tools such as chats and discussion groups require more anticipation and analysis. Some companies may choose to have companywide discussion groups and chats, whereas others may choose to designate individual chats and discussions for particular departments, projects, or offices. It is important to remember that the objective of KM is to capture and utilize information, not just create it, so organize your free communication forums in a way that is searchable and usable by your employees.

There are many ways to structure a portal, but the important themes that should run throughout the portal and the overall KM solution are integration, organization, searchability, and traceability. As a general rule, make sure that you prioritize and stay focused on achieving your objectives, without getting lost in the endless possibilities.