Research firm gives tips for optimizing resources through effective knowledge management
Chapel Hill, NC — February 11, 2005 — As corporate budgets continue to tighten, an increasing number of companies are recognizing the value of knowledge-sharing. In fact, effective information management helped a division of British Petroleum that experienced a 63 percent budget cut and 90 percent personnel reduction to deliver $460 million in savings without any visible loss of value, as found by research and consulting firm Best Practices, LLC.
According to the firm, implementing a few simple steps can result in significant cost and time savings while also driving employee involvement. For example:
* Create a best practice library to guide personal development plans. At one company, distributors have been able to self-evaluate their business' strengths and areas for improvement by comparing current practices to those best practices outlined in the library.
* Store knowledge in databases and intranets to provide greater company access to information. A global management consulting firm maintains a knowledge on-line (KOL) system (an intranet accessible by the browser). KOL makes it easy to tap into experts and ideas regardless of geography or specialty. For example, a consultant in Indonesia helping an oil company improve customer service might want to access previous knowledge developed by colleagues in Caracas, Houston or New York.
* Recognize internal experts to encourage sharing of best practices at all levels. One benchmarking company appoints individuals as "certified practice experts" in various knowledge areas. An important aspect of this system is giving workers recognition for their efforts. Public recognition of contributions increases the incentive to participate in knowledge and practice exchange.
For more best practices regarding information management, download the report.
Best Practices facilitates such things as peer-to-peer networking, customized benchmarking research and on-demand tactics.
