RE: Key elements In KM Programme

["Catharine Strauss" <Catharine -dot- Strauss -at- coanetwork -dot- com>]

>>I want to get a few comments on what are the key elements you would look
for before purchasing a KM programme.

1. Ability to track the creation and modification of content.  Some kind of
version control would also be nice.
2. Directory structure (some way to "browse" to information as an alternate
to full-text searching), as well as a way to specify that directory
structure.
3. Different user roles/security.
4. The ability to assign properties to a content item, and to find content
based on those properties. (Date, author, content format, etc.)
5. The ability to accept many different formats of information, and link to
external content sources (web, databases, etc.).

>In my opinion I have listed a few -
>1.Programme must guarantee reduction in time taken to find relevant
  information.

The most important facet of a KM system, IMHO, is a search engine, but to
reduce the time taken to find relevant information, it depends on how people
currently find information.  You should prepare a list of the way and time
spent on searching now to compare with the potential KM system.  You should
probably try to find a system that adapts their current methods, rather than
present them with a brand new method.

You should also do lots of testing, if possible, with the search engine for
any system you are considering.  Search engines can be very frustrating.
Does a search allow you to specify that results should contain both
keywords?  Either keyword?  Can you search within search results?  Is the
term Boolean search unfamiliar to the people who will use the KM system?
Will they automatically use boolean terms?  These are all things to
consider.

> 2.Pro-active communication

All KM programs seem to promise this, they all lie.  A piece of software
will not give you this.  It is an attitude thing.  Software can't make
people pro-active.  Look carefully at the tools they say will do this, and
decide if people will use them (based on what they use to communicate now).
What is going to get people to drop their current methods in favor of a new
communication tool?

>3.Good measures on Efficiency,Effectivity, Customer Satisfaction
  before and after the programme.

Some way to tie the content to the action taken after the content is found.
Like for a customer support system, you could link the documents to the
calls, and measure success based on how many calls were resolved with a
particular bit of content.  Or a checkbox that users can mark to say they
found the content helpful, and then use that information to push useful
content at other people in the same situation.  Or a way to track how many
times a particular bit of content is accessed (although you need a way to
determine if the user was helped by the content).

Doing a user evaluation before you implement the system would be a good
idea.  Again, figuring out what people do now is important to figuring out
what kind of KM system would help them.

Good Luck!

-Catharine Strauss




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