Re: Knpwledge Management

["Amanda A" <bluestreaker1977 -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Ooops--  I misread the posting and sent info on content management.  But now 
you can learn about the difference between the two, right?

Doh!

Amanda


Cool Company: Intraspect
Few companies have turned knowledge management into a viable business. 
Intraspect may break the curse.
FORTUNE
Sunday, May 12, 2002
By Fred Vogelstein


Brisbane, Calif.

Jim Pflaging is a man used to rejection. His company, Intraspect, makes 
knowledge management software, and in Silicon Valley, KM just gets no 
respect. That's a pity, because programs that help companies keep better 
track of what they do day-to-day are desperately needed in corporate 
America. Ray Ozzie's Lotus Notes convinced the world of that fact in the 
1980s. But few companies have turned KM into a viable business. KM software 
has typically required users to change their work habits, and getting 
information into the system has entailed expensive and time-consuming data 
conversions.

Intraspect may break the KM curse. Its product lets employee groups create 
searchable electronic filing cabinets on their own intranet sites. Group 
members fill the cabinet with useful information for all to share--say, 
details of a winning sales pitch to a key customer. The software also 
notifies interested parties whenever relevant information appears. That 
means the folks in legal, who might be planning a trademark-infringement 
suit against a company, know to hold off because sales is about to land it 
as a major client.

Sun Microsystems has been using Intraspect for eight months in its 
12,000-person sales force, and it's catching on. Sun salespeople are 
compensated not just on how they do but on how their team does, so they have 
an incentive to share knowledge. About 20% of the sales force uses the 
system, says marketing director Mike Douglas, and requests are doubling 
every month.

Sun, the corporation, benefits too. It now has a database of information 
about sales pitches that have succeeded and failed. "If we can cut new 
salesmen's ramp-up time by just 5%, we're looking at another $100 million in 
revenue a year," Douglas says.

Since the beginning of 2001, Intraspect has boosted revenues by 40%, to 
almost $45 million a year. And the KM market has become hot enough that 
Microsoft wants in. The software giant recently pumped $51 million into 
Groove Networks, Ray Ozzie's Internet collaboration startup.



But Wait, There's More ...
Knowledge management? That's so 2001. What you want--no, what you need--is 
something newer. Something better. Something guaranteed to get results.
FORTUNE
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
By Michael Schrage


Pick up the latest FORTUNE, Forbes, or Fast Company--gosh, they're all 
thinner, aren't they?--and you'll know that knowledge management is what we 
all must do better, you value-added knowledge worker, you. Knowledge workers 
are the value drivers. If your company is hip, trendy, or techie, chances 
are you even have a chief knowledge officer to oversee your company's 
precious intellectual capital.

That CKO is obsessed with boosting your company's ROI--return on intranet. 
Knowledge management and network management seem inextricably interlinked. A 
knowledge of technology is essential for managing the technology of 
knowledge.

Why not? Knowledge is a key corporate asset--so leverage it. Who better to 
create knowledge management infrastructures than the fabulous folks who 
handle "information management"? What is knowledge but value-added 
information? Indeed, wasn't data processing the forerunner of information 
management? Didn't information management beget knowledge management?

Today's top management must be anticipatory, aggressive, and proactive. Do 
you see where I'm going here? Knowledge management is clearly just a phase, 
an ephemeral link in the great value chain of organizational productivity. 
Knowledge management simply doesn't go far enough. Organizations have to 
have the courage and creativity to look to the management destiny beyond 
knowledge management. I'm confident you know what that destiny is; it's the 
logical extension of knowledge well managed: Wisdom ManagementT.

Wisdom trumps knowledge. A wise CEO will surely make better decisions than 
the merely knowledgeable one. A wise company inspires greater trust and 
loyalty from employees and customers than one that simply has more 
knowledge. Why focus on developing expert systems and "knowledge portals" 
when we should really be building wisdom systems and wisdom portals? Why 
make knowledge management the organizational centerpiece of investment when 
what we aspire to is greater wisdom? Wisdom simply has a better brand than 
knowledge.

Let's cut to the intellectual chase: Let's leapfrog knowledge management and 
move directly to wisdom management. Whenever you see the word "knowledge," 
substitute the word "wisdom."

Instead of identifying key knowledge assets, locate and cherish wisdom 
assets. Instead of asking what new knowledge is central to generating 
innovation, ask what new wisdom will spark new products, new services, and 
new relationships. Come now, shouldn't you try to train wise leaders rather 
than just knowledgeable ones? Passing along wisdom is not the same as 
sharing knowledge. The CKO is dead; long live the CWO!

But what, you ask, is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Well, 
it's not unlike the difference between data and information...or information 
and knowledge. Most managers can tell the difference between wisdom and 
knowledge with the same confidence with which they distinguish between 
information and knowledge or, for that matter, data and information. Surely 
your company is sophisticated enough to draw these distinctions and manage 
itself accordingly.

Of course, companies must be careful about instantiating mere conventional 
wisdoms into their wisdom management systems. That is just wisdom's 
counterpart to the perennial challenge of data integrity. Indeed, we need 
meta-wisdom--wisdom about wisdom. So companies need to manage their wisdom 
data, wisdom information, and wisdom knowledge strategically and rigorously. 
Foolish wisdom management could prove even more disastrous than ignorant 
information management. But who would argue that well-designed wisdom 
management systems will deliver superior results to knowledge management 
systems of comparable quality?

That said, C-level executives have an obligation to resist pressures to 
build new systems around the fad of knowledge management. Responsible 
leadership--visionary leadership--must look beyond knowledge for the best 
way to go. Let's commit ourselves to the strategic benefits of wisdom. Isn't 
that the wisest choice a knowledgeable organization could make?



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