What is the lifeblood of your organization? Many would say their “employees” are the most vital to the life and health of their organization. Others might suggest their “customers” or “customer service” are the keys to their survival. Still others might offer “cash flow” as what’s needed to keep their organization alive and functioning well.
Truth is, the lifeblood and most valuable resource of your organization is knowledge.
Knowledge, or the intellectual knowing and understanding of a matter, is what sets your organization apart from all the rest and gives value to the products and services you offer in the marketplace.
Functionally, a knowledge management system will collect, store, and retrieve knowledge, find sources of knowledge, monitor knowledge use and needs. It helps automate the knowledge management process and creates efficiencies by providing key players with more time to spend learning from and applying data insights, information, and knowledge.
Knowledge management as a discipline seeks to accomplish effective use of a company’s knowledge assets, to increase productivity, improve staff morale and transform service delivery.
But knowledge doesn’t grow on trees.
You can’t manufacture knowledge the way you would a car’s alloy wheel or a glass light bulb. Knowledge resides within people — your current and future employees need this knowledge to accomplish needed tasks.
Universal Knowledge, a KPS flagship knowledge management system, uses “Natural Language Processing” and “Fragment Technology Search Functionality” to enable knowledge sharing across an organization’s entire information estate.
Universal Knowledge empowers your employees to share their knowledge with your entire organization in an efficient and secure manner.
Following are 3 ways Universal Knowledge empowers use of your organization’s most valuable resource — the collective knowledge of your employees.
Foster a Culture of Knowledge Sharing Within Your Organization
Think of it this way. Your organization represents a living entity. And the knowledge that flows within it represents its lifeblood. In order for your organization to benefit from the collective knowledge at its disposal it must be circulated.
Daniel Barris, one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts, suggests…
“To make knowledge sharing work, you need to engage in a process I call “knowledge pull,” where you create a shared understanding of what knowledge is, and then pull the knowledge from them.
First, realize that all knowledge needs both context and content. For example, a good storyteller can’t just give you the punch line. They have to set it up first by giving you context—the punch line that follows is the content. The same is true with your knowledge pull approach. You have to get people to share the context before the content has any meaning.
Universal Knowledge provides your employees opportunity to share both the context and content of their knowledge with your organization at the moment of highest clarity. Whether in the office or on the road, Universal Knowledge’s mobile capabilities empower your staff to contribute to the growth of your organization when and where relevant topics of interest come to mind.
Provide Focused Refinement of Knowledge Transferred
Knowledge can be shared with your organization via Universal Knowledge, ensuring the curation process is mapped according to YOUR vetting processes. This ensures that all submissions are accurate and compliant before they are deployed for use throughout your information estate.
Think of it like a blood transfusion.
You’d never transfer the blood of a donor directly into the veins of a patient without first making sure that it’s clean and compatible with the recipient’s blood type.
So too with the transference of your employees’ knowledge into the heart of your organization — it must first be confirmed true. Universal Knowledge allows you to ensure all relevant review and approval processes are adhered to through providing central and automated alerts.
Additionally, ideas shared may require ongoing ideation before they are considered ready for deployment. Such collaboration can also be done through Universal Software.
Deliver Timely and Accurate Information Where It’s Needed Most
When infection occurs within the body, white blood cells rush to the area to fight it. Similarly, when the body is cut or damaged in some way, platelets amass to form a protective scab over the wound.
Universal Knowledge delivers timely and accurate information when and where it’s need most.
Never again, should new hires or inexperienced staff feel unsure of the answers they give when asked questions related to your organization. Universal Knowledge is there to support them every step of the way.
Consider how Indiana University Health chose Universal’s Knowledge Management System to improve their customer service. As their case study relates…
“Universal knowledge, KPS knowledge management solutions, were chosen due to their ability to capture and maintain up to date information, with a powerful natural language search and fragment technology enabling representatives to find up to date clinic and physician information at the touch of a button.”
To know what such empowerment feels like, just imagine yourself driving in a city where you’ve never gone before. You’re nervous. But you have a GPS on your phone and as long as your phone remains charged, you’re good. You don’t have to worry about getting lost at all because your GPS feeds you the directions when and where you need them. At your moment of greatest need you have nothing to worry about because your GPS keeps you on track.
So it is with Universal Knowledge, it keeps you on track when relating your organization’s knowledge and content to others.
A successful Knowledge Management System implementation will provide the following benefits:
- Promote collaboration within and between teams
- Quickly share tacit knowledge previously hidden from colleagues
- Increase employee productivity
- Quickly and easy find the content to help solve problems
- Make use of existing content as the KMS will do the hard work to find the nuggets of valuable information
The benefits of developing a knowledge sharing culture in any industry facilitates the transfer of invaluable tacit knowledge from experienced employees and make it available to all those who need it. The benefits of knowledge sharing are to effectively leverage your intellectual capital, the biggest asset for any company.
Enabling a process, particularly through the use of a knowledge management platform, allows employees to provide feedback, suggest edits or request new knowledge, ensuring all employees feel valued. Those with the tacit knowledge can be recognised for their efforts in providing much needed information to all that require it, empowering them to continue the good work.
Knowledge exchange can only be effective if a single platform is utilised, otherwise information and knowledge will be missed, or information duplicated. This creates an unnecessary administration over head at best or provides incorrect or incomplete information at worst and if your organisation is customer facing, the implications of providing incorrect information can be far reaching.
Remote working and hybrid working has pushed the knowledge sharing requirement to the fore, relying on a colleague’s instant knowledge and availability is not practical, a knowledge sharing platform and culture must be implemented to ensure employees can do their jobs and customers can be well served.
To summarize, your organization’s knowledge is what gives you an edge and makes you unique in your approach to solving complex problems.
The knowledge that flows within your organization represents its lifeblood. In order for your organization to benefit from the collective knowledge at its disposal it must be circulated.
There are 3 ways Universal Knowledge empowers use of the collective knowledge of your employees.
- Fosters a Culture of Knowledge Sharing Within Your Organization
- Provides Focused Refinement of Knowledge Transferred
- Delivers Timely and Accurate Information Where It’s Needed Most
Knowledge Management Software provides organizations the ability to share, refine and deploy knowledge assets throughout their entire knowledge estate.
If you would like more information about this powerful software solution, please contact us.