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	October 8, 2003

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY FOR CONSULTANTS Last week I suggested that IT and KM (Knowledge Management) departments need to get together and refocus themselves on enhancing individual front line worker effectiveness and productivity. Since then I've knocked this around with some IT and KM people both online and in person, representing a variety of different industries, and they've helped me refine these ideas considerably. The first thing I've concluded is that for pragmatic reasons KM should be organizationally part of IT, rather than a separate department or a part of HR or Sales & Marketing. IT has the resources and the budget, understands the function of infrastructure, is less vulnerable to full outsourcing, and has objectives that are so synergistic with KM's that sometimes they step on each other's toes. Besides, as I explained in that previous post, KM has a lot to offer IT as well, to get it past the major challenges IT is facing today. The new, combined TechKnowledgy department would have not only the traditional responsibilities for managing the financial, HR and sales systems and the centralized and desktop hardware of the organization, but also these new responsibilities: Development of new social software tools for front-line employees, including: Expertise locators - to help people find other people inside and outside the organization they need to talk with to do their job more effectively Personal content management tools - simple, weblog-type tools that organize, access and selectively publish each individual's 'filing cabinet' Personal collaboration tools - wireless, portable videoconferencing and networking tools that save travel costs and allow people to participate virtually in events where they cannot afford to participate in person Research bibilography and canvassing tools - technologies and templates that enable effective do-it-yourself business research and analysis and facilitate the preparation of professional reports and presentations, and Hands-on assistance to front-line employees -- helping them make effective use of technology and knowledge, including the above tools, one-on-one, in the context of their individual roles. Not training, not wait-for-the-phone-to-ring help desk service -- face to face, scheduled sessions where individuals can show what they do and what they know, and experts can show them how to do it better, faster, and take the intelligence of what else is needed back to HO so developers can improve effectiveness even more. Why should management pay for these new tools and services that they don't directly benefit from? Because improvements in the effectiveness of front-line workers increases profitability, and because the above tools will also make some management tasks easier: appraisal of employee performance, identification of internal and external experts, knowledge hoarders, and (as these tools begin to cross organizational boundaries) the quality of potential recruits, contractors and suppliers. And some of the personal content management tools could replace centralized content tools and repositories that, in most organizations, have produced more pain than gain. When we talked about this, it also occurred to us that this second category of new responsibilities -- hands-on assistance to front-line employees -- might lend itself right out of the gate to outsourcing. This might create a huge opportunity for all the un- and under-employed IT consultants out there -- as front-line productivity consultants. There are certainly plenty of value propositions for such a service -- lousy return on IT and death by e-mail overload come immediately to mind. So, infrastructure lovers everywhere, there are two opportunities here: One to save both KM and IT from attrition and irrelevance by joining forces and doing some new and desperately needed things, and the other to create a host of new entrepreneurial businesses that will allow business- and tech-savvy people to solve what Drucker called the greatest business challenge of the 21st century. Now all we have to do is convince management. 10:25:06 AM  trackback []  comment []

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