知识管理综合概述(英文版).docx

18 March 1999A business caseKnowledge ManagementInformation Risk ManagementInformation Risk ManagementKnowledge ManagementA business case18 March 1999This report contains 37 pagesAppendices contain 8 pagesNIRM_KM.docContents1Background1.1Why has knowledge become a strategic business issue?1.2The KPMG global vision and strategy2Knowledge management defined2.1Knowledge2.2Knowledge management2.3The knowledge system3Knowledge management in IRM3.1The United Kingdom3.1.1KM structures3.2The United States3.3International Headquarters (IHQ)3.4South Africa4Benefits4.1Key benefits4.1.1Tangible benefits4.1.2Intangible benefits5Costs6Challenges6.1Where to start?6.2Cultural change6.3Knowledge management strategy7Technology8Content and maintenance8.1Generic knowledge8.2Layout8.3Client confidentiality8.4Maintenance and sanitation8.5A complete process9The next stepsAppendix A - Suggested IRM South Africa knowledge repository structureAppendix B - Draft job descriptions for staffing of a Knowledge Centre1 Background1.1 Why has knowledge become a strategic business issue?Recently there has been a shift away from a 揷apital asset” based economy to one where the strategic assets of any organisation are its knowledge assets. This change in paradigm is as great as the shift in the past from an agricultural to an industrial-based economy at the start of the Industrial Revolution.The use of knowledge, and its subsequent management, as a strategic tool to enable firms to gain an edge over their competitors has been enabled through:n technological advancements allowing the capture, management and dissemination of vast quantities of information within organisations;n the emergence of 搗irtual organisations” in which traditional boundaries separating business units are blurring; andn knowledge being utilised to change organisations and open new markets.In addition, the risks of not managing one抯 knowledge assets includes:n loss of productivity and opportunities through wasted time finding information and data within an organisation;n information overload as a result of no tools or processes being in place to manage and organise data and information;n the loss of knowledge due to staff attrition (it is estimated that 50% of knowledge not actively stored and managed is lost every 5 years assuming a 10% turnover in staff per annum); andn continual re-inventing of the wheel as lessons learned in the past are not stored and passed on to others in the organisation.1.2 The KPMG global vision and strategy揔PMG is the global advisory firm whose aim is to turn knowledge into value for the benefit of its clients, its people and its communities.”KPMG is a knowledge-based organisation. While that implies that we recruit and retain the highest calibre of person, it is not so much the pool of knowledge that is KPMG that counts, but rather how we turn that knowledge into value.Our knowledge can be seen as part of our competitive edge, something that sets us apart from our competitors. The KPMG value set allows us to maximise our advantage by maintaining these values in all dealings with staff and clients. In order to achieve this these values must be embedded into our processes and activities.The values focus on three areas:n Clients;n People; andn Knowledge.It is the latter that this business case addresses.The valus as expressed under Knowledge state that, 揥e will continuously extend the frontiers of our shared knowledge by treating knowledge as a highly-valued asset which everyone in the firm has a right and obligation to use and a responsibility to contribute towards.”This is the essence of Knowledge Management (KM): the process of turning a pool of diverse knowledge and expertise into a shared resource that better allows the firm to meet its goals and objectives.This proposal will address the issue of KM within the Information Risk Management (IRM) practice by:n explaining what KM actually is;n examining the processes followed by other practices around the world, specifically the United Kingdom and the United States;n setting out the benefits to be derived from an effective KM process;n forecasting the challenges that lie ahead, should a KM structure be implemented in anticipation of the South African firm as a whole migrating to KWorld;n investigating the technological resources available to enable a successful implementation of KM; andn setting out what the next steps should be.The proposal is based on the underlying assumption that the South African firm will be implementing and migrating to the KWorld platform in the near future; in all likelihood by June 2000. Any initiatives, recommendations and decisions arising from this document should take that into account, and should be in line with what is planned. To these ends there would need to be close collaboration and co-operation between IRM and Technology Support (TS) in any ventures.However, KM is not dependent on the technological tools that are to be used. Rather it is a process, mind-set and culture change that will need to be introduced and embedded within IRM. This process will ultimately feed into the KWorld migration at the appropriate time.2 Knowledge management defined2.1 KnowledgeKnowledge can be seen as:n Experience, facts, rules, assertions and concepts about subjects crucial to the business;n A key resource used throughout an organisation to support:- decision-making;- forecasting;- planning; and- assessment of projects, staff, etc.;- design of products and services;- analysis and benchmarking; andn Being formal, systematic and recorded, or alternately as informal, or even as something held in a person抯 mind.2.2 Knowledge managementKnowledge management seeks to capture knowledge, as defined above, into sources of data and information that are easy to find and re-use. These sources make up the 搆nowledge system”, discussed further below.Knowledge management can be seen as consisting of two separate processes:n the gathering, capturing and formalising of knowledge; andn the storing, organising, searching and harnessing of this knowledge.A useful analogy is that of a fruit tree. The planting of the seed, tending and watering of the tree can be seen as the initial process of setting up the Knowledge Repositories or databases. The fruit that the tree ultimately bears is the actual usage, sharing and continual learning that the organisation抯 people experience through utilisation of the stored expertise.A crucial factor in the success of any KM process is the creation and encouragement of a culture of sharing of insights and experiences between co-workers. Ultimately there needs to be collaboration, sharing and continual learning by persons within an organisation.2.3 The knowledge systemA knowledge system is a system in the broadest sense of the word in that it includes people, processes, technology and finally content.Culture plays a central role in the success of any knowledge system implementation , since it is only within a culture of knowledge sharing that the intellectual assets of a company can be harnessed. Should employees feel that the only way for them to advance and be successful is for them to hoard their skills within themselves, then knowledge sharing and management cannot take place. Employees should be encouraged, or even forced, to contribute to the knowledge base and should be actively rewarded for doing so. This may be achieved through the explicit setting of personal objectives in the KM sphere upon which appraisals, and ultimately remuneration will be based. It is accepted that currently there is an implicit expectation of staff to provide mentoring and knowledge sharing to other staff as part of their day-to-day activities. However, for KM to be successful, there needs to be explicit recognition of active knowledge sharing.It is recognised that this form of reward, and ultimately the embedding of knowledge sharing into the day-to-day culture of the firm can only come about with full and continual backing from top management.The processes put in place to ensure knowledge sharing actually happens in an organisation provide the link between practice, or what has taken place, and learning from past mistakes and successes.The technology is simply an enabler to the knowledge management process. It is only with recent developments, and the availability of vast storage spaces and document management systems that knowledge management has been possible in any commercially viable form.The content of the knowledge system is a function of what it is to be utilised for. This is a key decision that needs to be taken prior to the implementation of any management system.3 Knowledge management in IRM3.1 The United KingdomCurrently the UK practice is leading the way in rolling forward the KM initiative. A Knowledge Repository (KR) was established in January 1999, and has received upwards of 200 submissions. Access to the repository is through the UK intranet, UKnow, and provides a comprehensive search facility to quickly and accurately identify and locate documents.A monthly newsletter is published on the IRM intranet site, accessible through OpenAccess from South Africa on detailing new knowledge submitted, lessons learned, most popular documents, and useful hints and tips.IRM have been requested to chair fortnightly 揅ommunity of interest” groups for all UK Knowledge Managers. This is due to the entire IRM team having maintained a high pro the UK KM group, and through IRM as a whole having embraced the idea and culture of knowledge sharing.In addition, the UK KM group is investigating the production of an internal case study document detailing IRM抯 KM programme. The process undertaken by IRM is acknowledged as best practice in the development of a KM programme and may well form the basis for an international IRM, if not firm-wide, model for the development and roll out of the KM initiative.The KM Manager within the Financial Sector group, Walter Palk, is an ex-KPMG Johannesburg employee, and will be returning to the Johannesburg office for a period of six months starting September 1999. He has been particularly active in the KM development process in the UK and is keen for South Africa to lever off his skills in this area, rather than re-inventing the wheel.3.1.1 KM structuresFigure 13.1.1.1 Knowledge centresKnowledge centres have been set up to act as 揷learing houses” for information and knowledge, acting as focal points and playing a key role in encouraging knowledge sharing. As can be seen from the graphic above, knowledge centres have been set up in each Business Unit and Specialist Unit within KPMG UK.Their roles include:n the facilitation, capture and dissemination of knowledge;n a quality assurance and filtering role to ensure that only quality, or best practice, material finds its way into the Knowledge Repositories;n identification of supporting information sources both internal and external to the firm;n providing signposts to appropriate person/s or sources of information, and acting as a communicator of where knowledge can be found;n ensuring that staff are rewarded for sharing qualitative knowledge through recognition and other means;n development of awareness of what knowledge is available and where to find it; andn the upkeep and maintenance of the content of the knowledge repository.3.1.1.2 DatabasesThe main database currently in use as far as KM is concerned is the knowledge repository set up in January 1999. A full time support staff member has been employed to co-ordinate the capture, storage and dissemination of information and knowledge stored in the database.In addition, a separate area on the network is provided for the storage and retrieval of client specific data. This area is controlled through network security, with access only being granted to IRM.3.2 The United StatesThe US practice is part of the first wave of the KM and KWorld migration. Currently they are:n rebuilding the international KPMG web site, ;n populating KWorld with their library documents (this involves removing information currently stored on KMan and migrating it into knowledge repositories accessible through the KWorld portal); andn working on the overview of IRM products and services.They have not hired an IRM Knowledge Manager as yet, however this is in the pipeline. This person will be required to, amongst other tasks, collate relevant information and ensure that it is forwarded to the relevant persons through the available channels.They are looking to rely heavily on web-based technologies in order to free up the e-mail and manual printing communication channels.3.3 International Headquarters (IHQ)Joanna Parr, on secondment to IHQ from the London office, is currently involved in a number of international initiatives from an IRM perspective. These include:n The development of a set of 揷ore” IRM services that will form the basis of the IRM suite of services;n Building a global KWorld area to be populated with core methodologies, toolkits, checklists, etc. This information is currently held, to a greater or lesser extent, on OpenAccess;n Overseeing and providing guidance for smaller practices as the move towards the globalisation of KPMG gathers speed;n The defining of additional 揷ore” services to be provided by IRM as globalisation advances;n The managing of the migration of OpenAccess onto the KWorld platform by March 2000, at which point OpenAccess will be discontinued; andn Providing a point of contact for IRM practices world-wide.3.4 South AfricaFrom discussions with Richard Samson and Phil Hartridge of Technology Support, it appears that South Africa will be part of the third wave of KWorld rollouts. This is expected to take place not sooner than September 1999, but more realistically as from June 2000. This presents a challenge to the South African IRM practice as regards implementing any form of KM prior to being 揔World抎”. Any decisions, or initiatives that we may take must clearly be in line with the KM/KWorld strategy world-wide. To these ends, we are planning to leverage off the process undertaken by the UK through close contact with Walter Palk the Knowledge Manager for FS IRM in London.No significant investment in additional infrastructure, including technology and KM support staff is expected prior to the commencement of the KWorld migration process within the South African practice, i.e. the existing infrastructure can easily be utilised. Initial steps towards the KWorld migration have begun, specifically in relation putting the 揵uilding blocks” in place for this move. These include standardisation