CRM - November 2008 - (Page BPS5)

Sponsored Content November 2008 5 Getting Ready for Next-Generation Knowledge Management Over the years, companies have developed an effective set of guiding principles for knowledge management. The best practices leading to successful knowledge management implementations have been tested and refined through thousands of deployments. Two principles in particular influence success. First, knowledge management must be managed as a strategic asset. Second, it must relentlessly focus on knowledge consumers, ensuring the knowledge experience reflects their needs. As applicable as these best practices are today, they will prove even more valuable as we move to next-generation knowledge management. AN ESSENTIAL BUSINESS PROCESS Power to the People: organization’s ability to respond effectively erodes, requiring constant duplication of learning. This is an inefficient and costly way to gain and impart knowledge. LISTENING TO THE CUSTOMER At the top of the best practice list is recognition that knowledge management is not a project – it is an essential and ongoing business process that requires funding and staffing at the same level as other key corporate assets. Knowledge management must be ingrained as part of the corporate culture because it is integral to the organization’s success. For example, new product launches kick off a proactive process that includes developing a marketing strategy and launch plan, establishing pricing, determining how to train the sales and support force, writing end-user documentation, and so on. These activities are designed to successfully sell the product as well as manage its impact on the organization. Because knowledge will be instrumental to the company’s ability to promote and sustain a product, knowledge management needs to be an integral part of this product introduction process. When knowledge management is treated as an afterthought, the results are predictable. Two of the most common are as follows: • Knowledge quickly becomes inaccurate, incomplete, and out-of-date. Nature abhors a vacuum, and knowledge workers will quickly fill any void. Customer service agents, for example, will embrace any source when they need to answer a question, and over time create a body of suspect knowledge that impacts productivity. • Knowledge walks out the door. Each time an employee leaves, an The second best practice is to embrace and act on the voice of the customer by bringing them into the process. It is important to recognize that the people using the knowledge are often the real experts and can best determine what knowledge is needed. Knowledge constituencies include a wide range of people – traditional subjectmatter-expert realms, customer service representatives and, of course, the consumers who buy your goods and services. All of these constituencies need representation as knowledge is developed and refined. Companies have learned to proactively engage knowledge consumers through feedback mechanisms built into knowledge management products, surveys, focus groups, even phone calls and meetings. The communication loop is closed by acknowledging the contributions, no matter whether the contribution is good, bad, or indifferent. Acknowledgement does not mean complying with every suggestion, but it does mean making sure contributors know they have been heard and treated with respect. This not only encourages feedback, enabling continuous improvement in knowledge, but builds a stronger relationship of trust with the organization – a reaction that can have particularly positive value when it comes to encouraging customer loyalty and repeat purchases. NEXT-GENERATION KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT These best practices guide the current world of knowledge management. But what about the future? Will these best practices continue to be important, and what new ones will be needed as we move to the next generation of knowledge management? In the light of Web 2.0, the relationship with consumers is changing dramatically. Web 2.0 is just the beginning of a transformation to a world of interactivity, collaboration, and community. It is easy to see the significance of this brave new world in the influence and power of social networking sites and online customer reviews for just about every product in existence. This environment will dramatically affect how companies design and implement knowledge management. Up to now, knowledge management has largely been a push model – a company develops and distributes content using its in-house experts. But with the advent of Web 2.0, this strategy of “golden content delivered from on high” has a far more limited use and appeal than it did just two years ago. Certainly, in highly regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals, the need for formal, company-generated knowledge will exist for some time to come. However, for many other businesses – and especially those with commoditized products – the new relationship will require an approach to knowledge management that is based on a “conversation” which encourages the free and open exchange of ideas. And the results can far exceed the quality of top-down, formal processes. Odd as it may seem, companies must be willing to accept that they will no longer be the experts on their products and services. A company may still best understand why a product was developed and how it should be sold. However, when it comes to knowing why a product is bought, whether or not it is a good product, or how to best use it, the real experts are the customers. Think how often a quick search on the Web turns up ingenious customer-generated solutions, or an innovative application which could only be discovered through a level of actual product use that a company could never duplicate in its labs. As a result, interactivity, collaboration, and community will become as fundamental to knowledge management as wheels are to cars. Knowledge consumers will become knowledge generators, and such an integral part of the knowledge management solution that they can drive its success or failure. GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR NEXTGENERATION KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT What may seem scary about nextgeneration knowledge management is that it requires a company to give up sole control http://www.talisma.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - November 2008

CRM - November 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Working with the Years CRM on Twitter Virtual Spenders Contact Centers Chatting to Success The Complexity Chasm Required Reading Generational Spending: A Special Report Who, What, Where, When, Y The Slackers’ X-cellent Adventure The Boomer Boom The Matures Endure Boosting Productivity North of the Border Changing the Channel Invicta’s Thrill of Victory Secret of My Success Connect Re:Tooling Pint of View

CRM - November 2008

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