HIERARCHY OF EVOLUTIONARY LEVELS IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Mones, Adriano(1); Ortega, Francisco(2); Roqueñí, Nieves(2); Mesa, J. Manuel(2); Álvarez, J. Valeriano(2)
(1)Grupo SFT
(2)Department of Project Engineering
University of Oviedo
C/ Independencia, 13
OVIEDO
Abstract: The introduction of new technologies and the spread of the computer networks has produced a complete change in the structure of the organizations and on the way it manages its relationships. Specially in some fields, the capability to create automated processes and to incorporate the customers and suppliers in a common structure is a critical competitive factor for companies nowadays. The introduction of technology has made possible to separate knowledge from persons to create company´s know-how, independent and managed directly through th use of computing facilities in the so-called Knowledge Management. Unfortunately the relative novelty of the field and its fast evolution has caused the apparition of several names and denominations related to knowledge management but generally confusing and disordered. This article tries to setup a base of the different levels of KM, characterizing them and creating a procedure to upgrade from one to the other, from Documental management to Intangible Assets.
Key-Words: Knowledge Management, CRM, Workflow, Groupware, Competitive Intelligence
1 Introduction
In the digital era, the Customer Retationships Management, Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management are not disciplines that can be differentiated perfectly to each other. As the Customer Retationships Management allows to infer other dynamic ones like the evolution of the competitors or the market, the line that separates the customer Knowledge of the following evolutionary level is more difficult to draw up. When that Customer Knowledge, Market Knowledge and Competitors Knowledge, is related to the Knowledge of one more, wider than the reality of the scope of the business of an organization, that can have an relevant strategic impact, (what requires an explicit Knowledge of the environment), then we are speaking of true Knowledge Assets.
We define Knowledge Assets as the set of dispositions that take to us to act when a certain problem to be solved occurs. Knowledge Assets are embeded in devices, individuals, groups, organizations, customers, competitors, market and environment. They have the potential to add value for the company. Knowledge Assets suppose the superior evolutionary level in our hierarchic classification of the systems of Knowledge Management, since its strategic impact requires a superior Knowledge than in the rest of levels (it´s necessary an explicit Knowledge of all dynamics, the endogenous and the exogenous ones), and its content is the explicit Knowledge based on the transformation of structured data in information, happened in the previous levels.
After the study of practical cases in which it has been shown how in each level of Knowledge of this classification a concrete necessity was satisfied, we observed that a chronological relation cause-effect does not exist. Knowledge Management strategies do not evolve at the same time in all the organizations.
This article presents the theoretical substrate that sublies after the study of these cases and it relates the previously exposed concepts about Knowledge Management in any type of organization.
2 Evolutionary levels in Knowledge Management
The following figure represents the hierarchical classification of the levels that integrate the different Knowledge Management systems prsented until now. This hierarchical classification is made based on the content and the scope of the transactions of an organization.
As it is observed in the previous figure, the organizational Knowledge, that that really has application in the scope of a company, appears as the data are structured, with the use of tools in processes of codification and abstraction, with the purpose of being transformed in information, and this to be spread and processed by the agents that form the organizational environment and thus to be transformed into Knowledge
3 Level 1:Documentation Management
In the era of the information, the digital Documentation Management is becoming more and more demanded. Most of the administrative processes of many companies are made using new technologies which allows economic savings measured in terms of space and time, which means more productivity.
Documentation Management is the system that allows the administration of the information due structured data generated in any type of organization. The management of a company requires of the benefits that an application of Documentation Management provides.
Several standards for the document management exist, more and more are being used in order to facilitate their portability. Each individual has an own system to manage its data to convert them into information. The use of a standard for its management enhance the capacity of the individual to spread those data turned into information.
The tools of an effective Documentation Management must guarantee not only the standardization and the portability of the information, but also the structure, with the purpose of eliminating the obsolescencias or duplicities due to a simultaneous handling between several individuals.
Most of the applications of Documentation Management emphasize the following functions that the system can carry out: To make the Documentation Management of the organization: Creating documents from any geographic location. Index and catalogating documents. Finding and visualizing pages of documents that contain the words or texts required in searching processes. Moving and storing documents in the right directories. Assigning status to documents. Turning files of different formats from format pdf in an automated and programmed way). Asigning automatically electronic signature to certain documents. Granting profiles and permissions in the access to the manipulation of documents. Printing seals, logos, and other graphical elements of form neglected in the documents that require it. Manipulating documents: Triming, rotating, and enclosing pages. Producing and spreading forms in a massive, on line and centralized way, gathering the records in a data base.
4 Level 2: Workflow Management
In many administrative processes, the product in some cases is a document turned out of a process of structuring and spreading information by a team of people. We defined Information Flow as the flow of administrative processes, that is to say, the set of activities or tasks that, depending on the scope, will be related to the team work, the organization, the customers, the competitors, the market or the environment, made in sequence or parallel by two or more individuals sharing a common objective.
In the era of the information the digitalization of this one allows the automatization of these processes under determined rules. The Information Flow is the waiting room of the Groupware. Once determined the Information Flow, the diverse types of applications appear: Productive flow, collaborative flow and administrative flow of Information.
In the productive Information Flow, the main task is the own flow between the participants with the purpose of making additional activities in its daily work. For that reason the speed of transference is relevant, and not as much the flexibility of being able to change the process. Once the flow is determined, it remains without change by long time. The scope of the Information Flow of production is related to a department, therefore the scalability is not so important than in oder cases. These applications are designed to manage great volumes of information and images throughout predetermined routes.
The collaborative Information Flow requires structured processes that allow several people to collaborate in a Groupware. These processes manage documents that contain information, flowing step by step in such form, that in each one of them the agent makes a task on the "document". The essential characteristics of collaborative Information Flow are the following ones: The "document" and the "process" are the key. It is oriented to the Knowledge workers, individuals with certain creative capacity within the organization. The collaborative Information Flow must be more flexible than the productive one since the creative processes tend to arise from the complexity and the chaos more than of stable and ordered environments. The applications of collaborative Information Flow are oriented to the object, that is to say, to the document.
The administrative Information Flow manages processes related to requests of supplies, orders, expeditions, invoices, parts of expenses, information of quality, etc. It is a necessary process so that the diffusion of certain critical information has a greater scope, or in the own organization or superior states. The characteristics of an application of this type are that it manages several administrative processes, therefore must be able to handle different processes, and the scalability has more relevance.
5 Level 3: Groupware Management
Groupware is defined as the convergence of different technologies such the e-mail, the videoconference and the flows of information between a group of individuals, an organization or between different organizations formed by customers, competitors, markets or in the relevant environment).
From three different perspective, we can talk about the communication process, the coordination process and the collaboration process, and affirm that Groupware is a tool that allows the individuals to work together in a way qualitatively better than the raised one by the traditional organizational patrons due the communication with other individuals using electronic mail, collaborating in groupwares through a community of virtual work, and coordinating critical processes redesigning the structure of the business model to communicate and to create mechanisms of defined political collaboration as well as to implement good and outside the company. The Groupware is an answer to the challenges that a business must confront in the era of the information. The individuals, communities, organizations and the society as a whole, by means of the use of this technology, are able to maintain a better communication with a smaller dependency of the space and the time.
Due the entailment of these technologies, the management processes are designed and evolved in a more effective way, and its application has a wider scope because they affect to the generic and the specific business activities, allowing the organizations to capture and to spread structured information of such form that is susceptible to become Knowledge.
This set of technologies, together with the histories, symbols, relationships, routines and systems of control, belong to the organizational culture and in many cases it operates as a driver because it determines the way in that transactions are made, and the way in that goals are negotiated and scopees are stabished, and it contributes to the management of the own organization.
Finally, the Groupware facilitates the diagnosis of management processes of the organizational Knowledge capturing the relevant Information, storing it and administering it in a structured way, determining and implementing action plans and facilitating its pursuit, generating new information.
6 Level 4: Customer Relationshipships Management
The Customer Relationshipships Management is one of the last stages to cross in the way of the Knowledge Management facing the attainment of Knowledge Assets. It is a process of human relation, an evolution of the Groupware when being increased the scope of his results. This level of management goes beyond the accomplishment of commercial transactions with the customers of the company.
The set of transactions that can be made with this type of applications composes of the economic transactions, the space in which these take place, and the context of the interchange of the same ones, in a way that the Customer Knowledge acquired is increased. These transactions are normally activities related with order processing, purchasing, sales, customer service and trade. Organizations based on relationships have capacity to recognize and to create conversations with different groups of customers, being able to understand the type of conversation that each individual wishes to maintain. This technology must discover constantly its customers unmeet needs with the purpose of taking decisions about how to meet them. Transactions with customers are the result of decisions taken by the people in charge of the organization based on the information and the Knowledge that they provide.
The Customer Relationshipships Management must consider all the scopes of an organization: the operative one, the technology, the personnel and the processes, in a way that the security of the system must be guaranteed. The systems of pursuit and tracking the steps taken by the customers will be critical when they access to the services offered by the company. Due this function the company will be able to acquire a deeper Knowledge on the behavior of the customer.
Several stages exist during the purchase process and the system must track them, recording the customer behavior, starting from the selection of different alternatives, to the final acquisition of the product or demanded service. In order to analyze this purchasing process with the support of a Customer Relationships Management system, it must generate also new information to be turned critical in Knowledge handling it correctly, using techniques such data mining or artificial intelligence.
7 Level 5: Competitive Intelligence Management
Competitive Intelligence are the systems that allows us to capture and to structure information on the market and is able to turn it in critical Knowledge which can be used in the attainment of the objectives of the organization. It is to emphasize in this definition three important components: the systematic process, the one of structuring and the scope of this intelligence, that is located over the state of the Knowledge of our customers.
Competitive Intelligence is a process. This implies that it must be made in a systematic way, is not something done “ad-hoc. And if this is a systematic process this means that somebody must be in charge to make it. In the organizations this requirement gives rise to a new activity to carry out, that can be made by a certain department in collaboration with the rest of agents who form their industry, or can be scattered by some or all the departmental units of the company that interact with the relevant environment.
This function of Competitive Intelligence is not limited to gathet the information, it must structure it in order to facilitate the understading and to turn it into relevant Knowledge with the purpose of increasing his value for the organization. This information will only have really value if it contributes to the attainment of the strategic targets. Said this, it is important not to confuse Competitive Intelligence with the industrial espionage.
This process of picking up and structuring of information and Knowledge is made in a structured way, in such a way that the systematic process begins with the phase of selection of objectives, consisting of identifying subjects and agents who act in the market, whose existence has repercussion in the organizational environment.