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In my presentation yesterday, I covered how the structuring of an e-business needs to differ from that of a traditional brick and mortar business in today’s economy. In this post, I would like to touch upon in a little more detail the fierce business environment and the problems it presents e-businesses (specifically retail businesses). First of all, the internet removes the constraints placed on traditional businesses that need to build a distribution network with a physical presence in several places in order to remain competitive. This means that start up operations can easily enter the marketplace without having to build the infrastructure that burdens traditional businesses. Additionally, this lack of a physical presence means that their is less marketing occurring, requiring an e-business to promote its business even more than a traditional business might have to due to its physical presence and availability to the public eye.
Additionally, the greatness of the internet is that your product can be made available to virtually anyone through a web site. At the same time however, this is a problem for e-businesses when potential competitors can view your website and learn greatly about your operations. While accessibility is great, it is difficult to make your business publicly accessible and remove this threat. Furthermore, the continuous accessibility of the web requires 24 hour service to maintain the web structure of your e-business. If this is not possible, an event that incapacitates your site leads to the customer simply finding another e-business, and considering the fact that these are much easier to establish than traditional businesses, there are often several other options that are available to the customer.
I think knowledge management is really all about one thing. And that is not gaining knowledge from other companies, or job security, or even the most useful way to run a meeting. It is about taking the knowledge you have or may gain and use it most efficiently for competitive advantage. The world of technology is quickly changing around us. But having the most complicated system isnt necessarily the most useful. Are you just trying to get the smartest people to use it? Like we talked about in class today, the most diverse groups will challenge each other the most, creating the best ideas. If everyone thinks in a group think, no one is stepping outside the box to take risks that may benefit a company. Technolofy is about advancement, but it doesnt have to be through computers. Technology can be through ideas. Efficiency is making things simple and effective, getting the most results from the least amount of work. So knowledge management is really about ways we can save time. Instead of getting wrapped up in overloads of knowledge information, lets refine ideas, challenge what we know, and facilitate ourselves to become efficient workers.
i found this article really interesting, because it talks about the new product that is coming out in market. Coveo solutions has released a limited of Coveo G2B for email. the company claims that Coveo G2B is the only email searching product that deliver unified search across both live and archieved email from any desktop, or any mobile device.
further the company says that it give a better protections for companies who uses the product. for example an employee cannot walk or send company data through company’s server because Coveo application will detect the threat.
This article deals with customers on the internet who want to search for specific information and their frustration with the online search. Zachary McGeary, principal analyst at Jupiter Research states that, “Customers often are not sure how to phrase their questions or search requests. In addition, over half the customers who report usability problems say that their searches offer too many results to be helpful.” The problem with asking question on the internet is when customers ask them in ways that are not considered standard. This causes many issues but as technology continues to enhance the systems that allow for the customer to ask questions are becoming more aware of natural language. This means that a customer can ask a question in any way that he or she pleases and the system will attempt to find the answer regardless of how the customer phrased the question.
http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/Feature/Web-self-service-searching-for-answers-41338.aspx
“Knowledge management is the process of transforming information and intellectual assets into enduring value. It connects people with the knowledge that they need to take action, when they need it.”
Several trends will shape the field of knowledge management in the near future. 1) Emerging technology solutions- will become easier and with faster technologies being developed everyday, we will need to keep up. 2) The convergence of knowledge management with e-business. The trend toward portals as the technology tool of choice for knowledge leads to this Keeping data on-line will become the norm. 3) The movement from limited knowledge management projects to move enterprise wide projects. More knowledge=more development. 4) Increasing use of knowledge management to enhance innovation. 5) Increasing use of tacit knowledge (rather than explicit knowledge).
http://www.crmadvocate.com/required/knova080805.pdf
This site gives ten principles to follow in order to achieve KM success. They are basically the same concepts we discussed in class. First realize its more than just a technology but a discipline for people. It needs to be supported by more than a single individual and motivated from the top. If people arent used to sharing, then management plans need to be rearranged in order to appease new KM structures. Sensativity towards organizational culture is crucial. KM cannot succeed if it becomes a distraction or burden. Information needs to stay current and to the point, but employees should not be discouraged if the system is challenging or too involved. Part of Km is consistent updates. Technology changes, just as information and knowledge is created, modernized, used, and passed along, and sometimes ‘thrown out’. Making a KM system part of a daily routine by incorporating it into existing systems or making it a required job task will get people involved in it as they see it with higher purpose. And train people to use it, not just once, but continually as it changes. The easier and quicker it is to use, the more people will find it a useful and efficient source. If the purpose of KM is to be the most efficient and gain knowledge for competitive advantage, what good is a system that wastes time on technological mishaps?
I found this article on the BBC News about how there is a profession for writing blogs for corporations who are interested in getting their company name and product out there. It kind of sounds like a marketing gimmick for corporate leaders. This profession is known as “digital marketing consultants” who write blogs that anyone can read.
Check it out, it sounded interesting to me.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/03/the_business_of_blogging.html
Today’s literature research presentation over effective ways to implement knowledge management and communities of practice in businesses targets many of the problems brought up by the ‘nonsense of KM’ article. One of the biggest challenges is getting people to trust the system. Knowing where and who their knowledge is going to, and its professional use will help people in their confidence to share. One of the 14 ways to get successfull sharing was having direct request to do so from supieriors, bosses, or other companies/co-workers. Knowing that the effort and time taken to ’share’ will be recognized and looked upon positively will be encouraging. It may also give opportunity for promotion and positive feedbacks and evaluations which help the employees. Also have specific questions that are straight forward and not ongoing will cut down on the time it takes to answer. The person providing information won’t have to guess what the question they are being asked is. They can provide direct answers that will also cut out possibilities of several follow up questions. Having direct access to these questions will also allow people to save time searching trough information bases. Time and incentives are as influencial in knowledge sharing as trust of job security and accountability. Addressing directly the problems involved and offering solutions such as the presentation today did, will help in building a stronger knowledge base and community of practice/sharing.
In researching information about these terms for Dr. Phelps class I have came to the conclusion that these terms are in the eye of the beholder so to speak. People may try to tie a concerte definition to these words but it really depends on what the sistuation is to dtermine the defenitions. For example, information for baking a cake is not the same as information for growing a farm. This is because as I said earlier, these terms are in the eyes of the beholder.
Almost all of the articles we have read or looked over in class, and all of the presentations have emphasized the importance of having complete and consistent support for knowledge sharing, management, distribution from top management. Top management tends to have this influence due to their power to give rewards/punishments. It gives employees incentives to use the system, and also and obligation as incorporating it as a job task. However, if a company was able to provide the resources for knowledge sharing to its employees and let them take it, or leave it, from there, it may turn out to be more successful. In this case it is made optional so those that are using it are willing and wanting to take the time to learn to use the technology and utilize the resources and information it provides. Those employees that are not in favor, comfortable with the technology, or don’t have time for KM can find their own methods to get work done. Managers would provide the same rewards for getting work done effiently and effectively, but have it independent of methods used.
