Knowledge Management Practices

Introduction Infosys Limited (formerly Infosys

Technologies Limited) is an Indian multinational provider of business consulting, technology, engineering, and outsourcing services.

It is headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. Infosys is the third-largest India-based IT services company by 2012 revenues. Of this revenue, the majority comes from international business.

In 2009, Infosys collected 1.2% of its income from the domestic Indian market.

Infosys was co-founded in 1981 by N. R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora.

The company was incorporated as "Infosys Consultants Pvt Ltd.“

Infosys has 67 offices between the US, India, China, Australia, Japan, Middle East, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Poland, Canada.

In 1999, Infosys achieved Capability Maturity Model level 5 certification

KM- INFOSYS Its efforts to distribute knowledge within the

company began with the establishment of Education and Research Department in the year 1991 and the scope of the department grew with the launch of intranet.

A fully fledged KM program began in 1999 with the launch of K-shop. Through K-shop, knowledge generated in each project across the global operations of Infosys was captured.

A P2P Knowledge Management System (P2P-KMS) taps into the knowledge existing on a user’s machine.

“At Infosys, Knowledge

Management is central to our core

strategy of providing differentiated value to

customers and enabling their

business growth. KM has helped us develop a pervasive culture of beneficent knowledge

exchange across geographies.”

- Nandan M Nilekani

Description in brief of KM in Infosys

Aim- To move towards a "Learn Once, Use Anywhere" paradigm.

Objectives-

a)To minimise the efforts scattered in redoing learning that has already happened elsewhere. b) Ensuring that Infosys employees (Infoscions) in contact with the customer have the collective and organized knowledge of the Infosys with them. 

Goal- Delivering all organisational learning to benefit the customer.

Strategy- Knowledge Management Maturity Model.

Vision - globally respected knowledge leader Mission- To ensure that all the organisational

learning is leveraged in delivering business advantage to the customer.

Challenge-

a. External Customer benefited through KM.b. Empowerment through knowledge.

Infosys is essentially in knowledge intensive business. Up gradation of knowledge and history of evolution of further versions has its own importance.

Key determinants of Success are ability to leverage know how, innovation and reputation of the organisation as well as the employees.

'Balance Score Card' approach has gained importance.

At Infosys knowledge

management has helped us connect

people, bring

together geographically dispersed workgroup and create

an enduring culture of

sharing and caring

Initiation process

External structure initiatives from customers, competitors, suppliers.

Internal structure initiatives: Depends on the leadership qualities of CKO and KM Mentor,

Competence initiatives: Individual Tacit knowledge must be stimulated and tapped

KM Strategy Key constituents of KM Strategy:

a. People,b. Process, and c. Technology.

An integrated KM strategies are used in

a) Quality Department

b) Information System (IS) Group

c) Marketing Group

d) Education and Research (E & R). These people lead KM strategy with the motto of "We help Infoscions make learning a way of life". 

P2P-KMS Strategy It taps into the knowledge existing on a user’s

machine. Each machine is considered a peer. It participates in a decentralized knowledge network.

Multiple ad-hoc knowledge communities are created without any central control or administration.

People Knowledge Map (PKM)

It is a Knowledge Directory,

providing a pointer to expertise

available within the organisation

which provides intranet based

interface via which people can

register or locate expertise

Knowledge Management Maturity Model (KMM)

To achieve KM success significant changes are needed:a. In the working culture,b. In the Processes of the organisation, and c. System in the organisation.

The purpose of this model is to act as a mechanism to focus, and help prioritize, efforts to raise the level of KM maturity

This model Consists of 5 maturity levels: Initial Repeatable Defined Managed Optimized

Sparsh- The Intranet – (CIP) The Central Information Portal

Home page consists of Official policies, and documentation, Press Releases and Articles, Web Based In house information system.

Email: Every Infoscions has access to support, bulletin boards for official announcements as well as technical and personal queries.

Virtual Classroom: It is developed and deployed (installed) on the intranet. It has access to various courses (programs) whose contents

have also been developed by the Infoscions. Discussion Forum: For Questions and Answers related to

various courses. Several tutorials are there online, purchased legally.

Key Result Areas (KRA)

Each KRA defines a particular

capability in terms of People, Process,

or Technology and effectively serves as

unit of KM capability

Benefits of KM in INFOSYS Profit improvement and making money through

information. Increase in share value in India and abroad. Asset and infrastructure enhancement. Knowledgeable and Wise Infoscions are long

term asset for Infosys. Improved Infosys brand name, as it provides

end-to-end solutions to its clients. Employee involvement and organisation

belongingness among them, talent retentions through employee job satisfaction.

Continuous improvement in the customer satisfaction.

Infosys is able to beat the competitors with riding high on the KM instead of business intelligence.

Increase in customer loyalty through knowledge sharing.

Faster Innovation is made possible. KM has provided seamless information flow

among all the stake holders increasing the productivity.

Infosys Foundation has

set up 5500 libraries in

villages with Indian and

Provincial Government

collaborations as a part

of Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR).

Future needs and challenges Knowledge Preservation in the fast

technology obsolescence era has become a major challenge.

Up gradation of knowledge as well as its storage devices and technologies has to be up dated from time to time.

Conclusion In the knowledge explosion era, Infosys has

achieved excellence in all the fields only through continuous learning and knowledge management. It must think beyond competition and accept the multiple challenges in the world through wise and knowledgeable Infoscions thereby bringing complete paradigm shift in the world through Knowledge Management motto of Infosys 'learn once and use anywhere'.