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

copyright 1999 Primix Solutions | www.primix.com

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

Dirk Mahling, Ph.D.Global KM Practice [email protected]

copyright 2000 Primix Solutions | www.primix.com | [email protected] Page 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.


What is Knowledge Management?(Unofficial Version)

• Everything that is not “database” or transaction (unstructured mess)

• Critical facture: culture; Visible part: technology

• KM is:


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….


Sales and MarketingServices

PortaPortall

Knowledge Management and Customer Relations

Transaction Managementand E-Commerce

Corporate Intranets

Supplier Online Malls EDI

Buyer Centric Procurement

Supplier Centric

CatalogsNarrowCasting

Corporate Home Page

Two forces join to bring portals about

• 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.)


Consumer

Portals

Corporate

Portals

Customer

Portals

Vertical Portals Commerce

Portals

Example Yahoo,

AOL

Business Portal/EIP Premier Pages Industry Web Site,

Energyportal.com,

Digital Marketplace,

Commerce Hub

Target User Consumers Employees Customers Business

Professionals in a

single discipline.

Communities of

Interest and

Practice

Business

Professionals in

any discipline;

eMarkets

Purpose Directory/ Internet

Apps

Leverage Intranet

Resources

Customer Specific

Views

Content, Links, and

Commerce

Online forum for

B2B supply chains

Content Anything Intranet Apps/

Internet Content

Catalogs, Manuals,

FAQs, Transactions

Articles, Job

Listings, Catalogs,

Guides

Catalogs, Shopping

Guides,

Transactions

Different Types of Portals


Major Portal Features Portal- Knowledge Map for Enterprise- Alerts, Personalization- Channels, Profiling- Security, Login- Application Launching

Content- Searching- Grazing

- Catalogs/Indices- Alerts

- Taxonomy- Pull/Push

- BoKs

BestPractices- Workflow

- Tasks- Profiling

- Taxonomy- Capture

- Store- ReUse

eAssist- Diagnose-Solutions

Chat-CallCenter

- CRM

eCom-subscribe - pay per

view- renew

subscrip-tion

Communities- Discussion

Boards- Alerts

- Taxonomy- TeamWare

- RemoteCollaboration

- TeamArchive

eLearning-skill transfer- distance ed- curriculum - authoring

- performance- personnel

development.

Customers,Employees,

Partners


Case: BW Energy’s VisionDevelop 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


Case: First Creative Alternative


Case: Third Alternative



What the Portal Accomplished for WebGen

Reduced cost, increased productivity for clientsAutomate processes, Streamline workflows

Clients leveraged assets betterFocus most valuable assets on most valuable functions

Promoted loyaltyChange economics of business relationships

Increased salesNew channels, New Customers, New offerings


Steps and Tools in Content Generation


The Knowledge Challenge

I Just Can’t Find It”I Just Can’t Find It”

“I Know It’s Out There,“I Know It’s Out There,

- Merrill Lynch, Enterprise Information PortalsIn-depth Report November 1998


InfoAccess

How to Address the Information Need Problem


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


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


Human Search Behavior

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


Novices have more success with browsing;Experts prefer more sophisticated search

mechanismsUser Expert Expert Expert Novice Novice Novice

Issue RetrievalTime

RetrievalRelev.

Iteration(Learning)

RetrievalTime

RetrievalRelev.

Iteration(Learning)

Browsing slow low yes slow high yesInquire inEnglish

mid high yes mid high yes

Inquire inBoolean

fast high some fast verylow

no

Pinpointw/ Cat.

veryfast

veryhigh

no veryfast

low no


CustomersK = source of knowledge

Suppliers/Vendors

K7

Regulatory Entity

K8

Your Company

K4 K5

K2 K3 K6

Knowledge Workers

Channel Partners

K9

K1

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


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

Communities


Organizational Reach

MemberCohesivenessHighLow

Local

Global

Work TeamWork Team

Community -of-Interest


Tacit Knowledge

Explicit Knowledge

Community -of-Practice


Best PracticeCommunity


Economic-WebEconomic-Web

Understand Community Type

• Communities vary

significantly, and it

is critical to

understand the

appropriateness of

each type


Generally better for:• Rapid, incremental innovation• Improved efficiency (cost, time)• Improved task quality

Organizational Reach

MemberCohesivenessHighLow

Local

Global

Work TeamWork Team



Tacit Knowledge

Explicit Knowledge





Economic-WebEconomic-Web

Community selection should be driven by business goals and needs

Generally better for:• Slow, revolutionary innovation• Improved average performance (less variance) • Improved error rate

Which community is right for you?


K-Maps connect Content, Community, and ProcessWhich task

needs this?

Where is the policy manual? Process

Document K-Map

Document

Process


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


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


Yahoo: Hierarchical Taxonomy


TheBrain: Semantic Nets


Northern Light: "Word" Folders


Semio: Categories on demand


Themescape: Word Count and Relation


Dataware: Concept Identification


Building a Knowledge Map

• 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


Comparing Ways to Generate and Refresh Knowledge Maps

Method Advantage Disadvantage

Automatic Very fast May be sub-

optimal

Semi-

Automatic

Fast and accurate Requires human

intervention

Manual Accurate Slow

On Demand High relevance Sometimes lower

relevance


Content Scenario

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ExternalInformation

Sources

InternalInformation

Sources

Time-Sensitive Information

(faxes, conversations, meetings)

CAPTURE

FILTER

STORE

USE

TAXONOMY

Document Management System, Databases, etc...

BUSINESS PROCESSES

Information technology makes knowledge management possible and necessary now in ways it has not been in the past.

BUSINESS PROCESSES

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KNOWLEDGE SOURCES

Process Scenario

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

COMMUNITY ACOMMUNITY B

SUPPORTTEAM

SHARED

WORK-

SPACES

COMMUNITIES OFINTEREST NETWORKS

Communication, cooperation, control technology (email, Lotus Notes, WWW, etc.)

Customer Virtual Communities

Collaboration Scenario

ENHANCED BUSINESS PROCESSES

LIBRARY

Transforming Information into Business Advantage


KM Solution In tegration P ro jectKM B lueprin t P ro jectKM R oadm ap Pro ject

IBA KMPlatform

IBA KM BenchmarkDatabase

Strategic Assessment

LongList

SelectionCustom er Knowledge

Existing Solutions

Know-How

Expertise Carriers

RelationshipKnowledge

Risk

Cost

Return

Feasable

ProjectDefinition:

KMRoadm ap

Quick W ins

InfrastructureSW Selection

Process/PolicyBusiness Case

KM ArchitectureBlueprint

(Technology,Business, Policy)

KM App. In tegration

KM C hg. M anagem ent

RunningKM

Solution

Primix KM BenchmarkDatabase

Primix KMPlatform

KASP

KM RoadmapKM Roadmap KM BlueprintKM Blueprint KM SolutionKM Solution

KM Roadmap Quick Start Portal

Drill Down Modules

Profile of a Knowledge Mapping Program


Resulting Major Potential Features Portal- Knowledge Map for Enterprise- Alerts, Personalization- Channels, Profiling- Security, Login- Application Launching

Content- Searching- Grazing

- Catalogs/Indices- Alerts

- Taxonomy- Pull/Push

- BoKs

BestPractices- Workflow

- Tasks- Profiling

- Taxonomy- Capture

- Store- ReUse

eAssist- Diagnose-Solutions

Chat-CallCenter

- CRM

eCom-subscribe - pay per

view- renew

subscrip-tion

Communities- Discussion

Boards- Alerts

- Taxonomy- TeamWare

- RemoteCollaboration

- TeamArchive

eLearning-skill transfer- distance ed- curriculum - authoring

- performance- personnel

development.

Customers,Employees,

Partners


Internet

Intranet

Functional Convergence of Portals

Internal Access to

"Mainframe" Data Extranet Access

for Channel Partners Access for

Customers

Catalogs,E-Commerce

External E-Commerce

Catalog

Shipping, Tracking

Access to Content (Content

Management)

Customer Support

Communities


Knowledge Management and Customer Relations

Transaction Managementand 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

Portal Vision for Electronic Business

Unstructured Info Structured InfoE-BIZ


www.primix.comStrategic Internet Services

One Arsenal MallWatertown, MA 02472

Dirk Mahling, Ph.D.Global Practice [email protected]

617.923.6763