Knowledge Management
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Rome
The ServiceNow® Knowledge Management (KM) application enables the sharing of
information in knowledge bases. These knowledge bases contain articles that provide users
with information such as self-help, troubleshooting, and task resolution.
Knowledge Management has significantly changed with Knowledge v3, which is enabled by
default for all instances starting with the Fuji release.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal enables users to access a portal view of
knowledge bases and articles. It is available by default for new customers on the Madrid and
later releases. If required, existing and upgrade customers can activate the Knowledge
Management Service Portal plugin.
Knowledge Management supports processes for creating, categorizing, reviewing, and
approving articles. Users can search and browse articles as well as provide feedback.
To support multiple groups, knowledge bases can be assigned to individual managers.
Separate workflows can be used for publishing and retiring articles, and separate access
controls can be used to control reading and contributing.
Introduction
Knowledge management is an activity practised by enterprises
all over the world. In the process of knowledge management,
these enterprises comprehensively gather information using
many methods and tools.
Then, gathered information is organized, stored, shared, and
analyzed using defined techniques.
The analysis of such information will be based on resources,
documents, people and their skills.
Properly analyzed information will then be stored as
'knowledge' of the enterprise. This knowledge is later used for
activities such as organizational decision making and training
new staff members.
There have been many approaches to knowledge management
from early days. Most of early approaches have been manual
storing and analysis of information. With the introduction of
computers, most organizational knowledge and management
processes have been automated.
Therefore, information storing, retrieval and sharing have
become convenient. Nowadays, most enterprises have their
own knowledge management framework in place.
The framework defines the knowledge gathering points,
gathering techniques, tools used, data storing tools and
techniques and analyzing mechanism.
The Knowledge Management Process
The process of knowledge management is universal for any
enterprise. Sometimes, the resources used, such as tools and
techniques, can be unique to the organizational environment.
The Knowledge Management process has six basic steps
assisted by different tools and techniques. When these steps
are followed sequentially, the data transforms into knowledge.
Step 1: Collecting
This is the most important step of the knowledge management
process. If you collect the incorrect or irrelevant data, the
resulting knowledge may not be the most accurate. Therefore,
the decisions made based on such knowledge could be
inaccurate as well.
There are many methods and tools used for data collection.
First of all, data collection should be a procedure in knowledge
management process. These procedures should be properly
documented and followed by people involved in data collection
process.
The data collection procedure defines certain data collection
points. Some points may be the summary of certain routine
reports. As an example, monthly sales report and daily
attendance reports may be two good resources for data
collection.
With data collection points, the data extraction techniques and
tools are also defined. As an example, the sales report may be
a paper-based report where a data entry operator needs to
feed the data manually to a database whereas, the daily
attendance report may be an online report where it is directly
stored in the database.
In addition to data collecting points and extraction mechanism,
data storage is also defined in this step. Most of the
organizations now use a software database application for this
purpose.
Step 2: Organizing
The data collected need to be organized. This organization
usually happens based on certain rules. These rules are
defined by the organization.
As an example, all sales-related data can be filed together and
all staff-related data could be stored in the same database
table. This type of organization helps to maintain data
accurately within a database.
If there is much data in the database, techniques such as
'normalization' can be used for organizing and reducing the
duplication.
This way, data is logically arranged and related to one another
for easy retrieval. When data passes step 2, it becomes
information.
Step 3: Summarizing
In this step, the information is summarized in order to take the
essence of it. The lengthy information is presented in tabular or
graphical format and stored appropriately.
For summarizing, there are many tools that can be used such
as software packages, charts (Pareto, cause-and-effect), and
different techniques.
Step 4: Analyzing
At this stage, the information is analyzed in order to find the
relationships, redundancies and patterns.
An expert or an expert team should be assigned for this
purpose as the experience of the person/team plays a vital role.
Usually, there are reports created after analysis of information.
Step 5: Synthesizing
At this point, information becomes knowledge. The results of
analysis (usually the reports) are combined together to derive
various concepts and artefacts.
A pattern or behavior of one entity can be applied to explain
another, and collectively, the organization will have a set of
knowledge elements that can be used across the organization.
This knowledge is then stored in the organizational knowledge
base for further use.
Usually, the knowledge base is a software implementation that
can be accessed from anywhere through the Internet.
You can also buy such knowledge base software or download
an open-source implementation of the same for free.
Step 6: Decision Making
At this stage, the knowledge is used for decision making. As an
example, when estimating a specific type of a project or a task,
the knowledge related to previous estimates can be used.
This accelerates the estimation process and adds high
accuracy. This is how the organizational knowledge
management adds value and saves money in the long run.
Conclusion
Knowledge management is an essential practice for enterprise
organizations. Organizational knowledge adds long-term
benefits to the organization in terms of finances, culture and
people.
Therefore, all mature organizations should take necessary
steps for knowledge management in order to enhance the
business operations and organization's overall capability.
