Knowledge Portals with Knowledge Maps: The “Glue” for Business Objects and Processes

1. Knowledge Portals with Knowledge Maps: The “Glue” for Business Objects and Processes Dirk Mahling, Ph.D. Global KM Practice Leader dmahling@primix.com 617.923.6763

2. What is Knowledge Management?(official version) Managing intellectual capital to drive value-generating decisions and actions across the enterprise • Marrying processes and information to generate, gather, store, connect, and apply knowledge where and when people need it • Often an enabler of other domains • Objective is to drive business results through conversion of information into actionable knowledge • Metrics include cycle time, quality, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, productivity, etc.

3. What is Knowledge Management?(Unofficial Version) • Everything that is not “database” or transaction (unstructured mess) • Critical facture: culture; Visible part: technology • KM is: Community Personalization Portal CRM Content

4. So…What is a Portal? • Basically: A home-page on steroids. • Provides access to diverse enterprise content • Provides access to enterprise communities • Provides links to services within the enterprise • Provides key links to services and information outside the enterprise • Provides "utility services", e.g. personalization, security • Channels • More….

5. Leverage industry, customer, & product/technical knowledge Marketing programs Pre-sales efforts Sales process Support post-sales support & customer service Assist in product development & research Users Marketing people Sales people VARs and Distributors In-house and Contract technicians Customers (purchasing) Customers (service depts.) Two forces join to bring portals about Supplier Centric Catalogs Sales and Marketing Services Corporate Home Page Corporate Intranets NarrowCasting Buyer Centric Procurement Supplier Online Malls EDI Portal Knowledge Management and Customer Relations Transaction Management and E-Commerce

6. Different Types of Portals

7. Major Portal Features • Portal • - Knowledge Map for Enterprise • - Alerts, Personalization • - Channels, Profiling • Security, Login • Application Launching Customers, Employees, Partners Content - Searching - Grazing - Catalogs/ Indices - Alerts - Taxonomy - Pull/Push - BoKs Communities - Discussion Boards - Alerts - Taxonomy - TeamWare - Remote Collaboration - TeamArchive Best Practices - Workflow - Tasks - Profiling - Taxonomy - Capture - Store - ReUse • eAssist • - Diagnose • Solutions • Chat • CallCenter • CRM • eLearning • skill transfer • distance ed • curriculum • authoring • performance • personneldevelopment. • eCom • subscribe • pay per view • renew subscrip-tion

8. Case: BW Energy’s Vision Develop a vertical portal that: • Optimizes facility operation, equipment & maintenance • Aggregates and optimizes load among many users • Acts as a sophisticated exchange for the purchase of energy, passing volume and efficiency savings to our clients • Determines if and how to lower ongoing costs and improve efficiency • Identifies cost anomalies, develop solutions and takes both corrective and preventative action • Provides continuous, real-time monitoring and evaluation of your entire portfolio • Utilizes advanced forecasting techniques, direct weather info and real time utility rates to reduce consumption & minimize/avoid peak loads • Automatically implements optimizing solutions once approved

9. Case: First Creative Alternative

10. Case: Third Alternative

12. What the Portal Accomplished for WebGen • Increased sales • New channels, New Customers, New offerings Reduced cost, increased productivity for clients Automate processes, Streamline workflows • Clients leveraged assets better • Focus most valuable assets on most valuable functions Promoted loyalty Change economics of business relationships

13. Steps and Tools in Content Generation

14. The Knowledge Challenge “I Know It’s Out There, I Just Can’t Find It” - Merrill Lynch, Enterprise Information PortalsIn-depth Report November 1998

15. How to Address the Information Need Problem Info Access

16. Information needs differ • Users have different information needs • Some users knows exactly what they need • Some users can formulate the query but do not know whether a specific target document/object exists • Some users have a vague need that can not be verbalized yet • Users come with different degrees of knowledge at time of asking • Some users know the subject matter space well • Some users understand the problem at hand intricately • Some users know the collections and resources well

17. Cater to Individual Cognitive Styles • Different people prefer different cognitive styles • framed vs. unframed (internal vs. external frame of reference) • peripheral vs. focused (broad vs. narrow) • visual vs. textual (presentation and selection modes) • example: amazon.com • allows on portal page to search by • author, title • asking general NL questions • browsing subject areas

18. Search for information Browse/Graze Be educated while looking Iteratively refine information need Inquire Ask an intelligent agent User able to articulate information need User unaware of type of document Pinpoint Locate a document or object; User knows that document exists User has experience with catalog searches Retrieve information from: Databases Documents/Reports Internet or intranet e-mail External feeds Discussion groups Best practices libraries Human Search Behavior

19. Novices have more success with browsing;Experts prefer more sophisticated search mechanisms

20. Your Company Suppliers/Vendors Knowledge Workers K1 K3 K6 K2 Regulatory Entity K4 K5 Channel Partners K8 K7 K =source of knowledge Customers K9 Beyond Content: Communities • Bringing knowledge and knowledge workers together • Continually developing knowledge that drives business performance • Gathering and using business intelligence in support of strategy • Always having the best knowledge available for decision making

21. Communities Communities and hierarchies exist side-by-side in every organization, communities provide a solution to the problem Community = Two or more individuals who interact because of common interests or task requirements. Contain connections between individuals that may not be identified by any organization chart Communities are unique structures for connecting individuals, coordinating human action and generating knowledge

22. Organizational Reach Tacit Knowledge Local Work Team Community -of- Practice Member Cohesiveness High Low Best Practice Community Community -of- Interest Economic-Web Global Explicit Knowledge Understand Community Type • Communities vary significantly, and it is critical to understand the appropriateness of each type

23. Organizational Reach Tacit Knowledge Local Work Team Community -of- Practice Member Cohesiveness High Low Best Practice Community Community -of- Interest Economic-Web Global Explicit Knowledge Which community is right for you? • Generally better for: • Rapid, incremental innovation • Improved efficiency (cost, time) • Improved task quality • Generally better for: • Slow, revolutionary innovation • Improved average performance (less variance) • Improved error rate Community selection should be driven by business goals and needs

24. K-Maps connect Content, Community, and Process Which task needs this? Document K-Map Document Process Where is the policy manual? Process

25. Taxonomies • Taxonomies are ways to structure vast amounts of information, e.g. • Dewey system, SIC, animal kingdom • Multiple parallel taxonomies can co-exist, e.g. • from a product point of view • from a process point of view • from a R&D point of view • The “first cut” at a taxonomy should be done by a domain expert and KM expert • Taxonomies can be living entities (updateable) • Content that is mapped by the taxonomies can be automatically “refreshed” and sorted

26. Types of K-Maps • Hierarchical Taxonomies • Tree structures • Single path to target • Documents just on leaves or also above? • Lattices • Multiple paths • Semantic Networks (similar to lattice) • Associative • Predefined and "Word" Folders • Concept Recognition, Dynamic Categories

27. Yahoo: Hierarchical Taxonomy

28. TheBrain: Semantic Nets

29. Northern Light: "Word" Folders

30. Semio: Categories on demand

31. Themescape: Word Count and Relation

32. Dataware: Concept Identification

33. DOs build a company specific taxonomy build many taxonomies involve all stakeholders employ soft methods such as “day in a life”, storyboarding keep the map an “evergreen” object Employ automatic engines, e.g. Semio or Dataware DON’Ts start with SIC codes make it an exercise in library science re-invent Dewey try to be complete try to be overly efficient try to be un-ambiguous Building a Knowledge Map

34. Comparing Ways to Generate and Refresh Knowledge Maps

35. 6/9/96 6/9/96 6/9/96 6/9/96 Page: 1 Page: 1 Page: 1 Page: 1 LIBRARY 6/9/96 6/9/96 Page: 1 Page: 1 TAXONOMY Document Management System, Databases, etc... 6/9/96 6/9/96 Page: 1 Page: 1 Transforming Information into Business Advantage Content Scenario Collaboration Scenario Process Scenario Customer Virtual Communities COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST NETWORKS BUSINESS PROCESSES Time-Sensitive Information (faxes, conversations, meetings) External Information Sources Internal Information Sources ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE CAPTURE FILTER KNOWLEDGE SOURCES STORE COMMUNITY B COMMUNITY A SHARED WORK-SPACES SUPPORT TEAM ENHANCED BUSINESS PROCESSES ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE USE BUSINESS PROCESSES Communication, cooperation, control technology (email, Lotus Notes, WWW, etc.) Information technology makes knowledge management possible and necessary now in ways it has not been in the past.

36. Profile of a Knowledge Mapping Program KM Roadmap KM Blueprint KM Solution Primix KM Benchmark Database Primix KM Platform KASP Quick Start Portal KM Roadmap Drill Down Modules

37. Resulting Major Potential Features • Portal • - Knowledge Map for Enterprise • - Alerts, Personalization • - Channels, Profiling • Security, Login • Application Launching Customers, Employees, Partners Content - Searching - Grazing - Catalogs/ Indices - Alerts - Taxonomy - Pull/Push - BoKs Communities - Discussion Boards - Alerts - Taxonomy - TeamWare - Remote Collaboration - TeamArchive Best Practices - Workflow - Tasks - Profiling - Taxonomy - Capture - Store - ReUse • eAssist • - Diagnose • Solutions • Chat • CallCenter • CRM • eLearning • skill transfer • distance ed • curriculum • authoring • performance • personneldevelopment. • eCom • subscribe • pay per view • renew subscrip-tion

38. Functional Convergence of Portals Intranet Internal Access to "Mainframe" Data Extranet Access for Channel Partners Access for Customers Catalogs, E-Commerce Internet Communities Customer Support Access to Content (Content Management) Shipping, Tracking External E-Commerce Catalog

39. Portal Vision for Electronic Business Enterprise Knowledge Portal E-BIZ Unstructured Info Structured Info Knowledge Management and Customer Relations Transaction Management and E-Commerce • Portal Is Not Just Providing A Vehicle For Making A Transaction Happen • Providing Knowledge To Support The Buying Process Is Critical • Facilitating Internal Electronic Information Exchange • Organizations That Develop Leverage Enterprise Portals for Internal Knowledge Management and External Relationship Management are Poised for Success

40. www.primix.com Strategic Internet Services One Arsenal Mall Watertown, MA 02472 Dirk Mahling, Ph.D. Global Practice Leader dmahling@primix.com 617.923.6763