For example, a mechanical-heart-valve manufacturer recently turned to Teltech after its scientists and engineers spent six fruitless months trying to get a new product to seal properly. The researcher assigned to the case began by checking Teltech's intranet-based knowledge-transfer tracking system, which holds a comprehensive record of research already done by the company. She then used the company's proprietary research portal to comb the Web, 1,600 databases (including Lexis-Nexis and Dialog), and a network of 3,000 technical and industry experts. (The portal employs a Teltech-patented search-and-retrieval system that sorts and presents findings according to categories of sources, such as trade-press articles, suppliers, and patents.) The search turned up a handful of articles, Web sites, conference proceedings, and experts; the last category included a marine scientist who knew a lot about high-pressure valves but nothing about hearts. "We put our client in touch with the expert, and the problem was solved in two weeks," says Teltech president and CEO Andrew Michuda.
Teltech is essentially a knowledge-management outsourcer--it collects and makes accessible information other companies need from outside their own walls. But like the Center for Project Management's Kapur, Michuda recognizes that there's money to be made advising other companies on their internal knowledge-management efforts. "It became apparent to us that we know a lot about information sources and that knowledge has resale value," says Michuda. No kidding. Teltech charges clients anywhere from $30,000 (for the development of knowledge-management strategies and searchable databases) to more than $500,000 (for soup-to-nuts knowledge-management solutions).
One company paying for a Teltech makeover is 140-employee Renaissance Inc., in Carmel, Ind., which wants to become "the Reuters of the social-capital [nonprofit-funding] world," according to president and CEO Paul Brooks. Renaissance began life helping financial advisers learn to use charitable-gift instruments with their clients. For years the company treated its employees (lawyers, tax professionals, and the like) as information "silos"--isolated individuals who would be forced to punt whenever matters strayed outside their areas of expertise. So, for example, if a client called a lawyer with a thorny tax question about trust funds, the lawyer would research it in the old-fashioned way. "He'd stick his head out the door and say, 'Hey, does anyone know the answer to this?" says Brooks.
But Brooks recognized that that wasn't the best way to serve customers, and it certainly didn't exploit his employees' considerable talents. "We were clear that we generated income on the basis of what we knew, but what we knew was haphazardly held," says the CEO. Beguiled by knowledge-management case studies in Harvard Business Review and other publications, Brooks tried the Field of Dreams approach to getting a grip on his employees' collective smarts. "We named the smartest guy in our company 'director of intellectual capital' when none of us knew what that meant," he recalls.
With its newly anointed intellectual-capital director leading the charge and Teltech providing the battle plan, Renaissance began a total rethink of what it does and how it operates. Instead of being a traditional support organization offering training and administrative help, the company is morphing into what Brooks terms a "call center," a sort of clearinghouse that provides anyone involved in philanthropy with access to information on setting up and running charitable trusts.
To do that, Renaissance has had to become information-centric as opposed to consultant-centric; all its consultants' expertise has been harvested, mapped, and stored on a private Web site that clients can check for answers to many of their questions. Employees' roles and titles are also being adjusted: instead of lawyers and receptionists Renaissance now has "knowledge managers" (people who know or find answers to questions), "client relationship managers" (people who ensure that clients get the answers), and members of an as-yet-unnamed group responsible for taxonomy (people who record questions and answers for easy retrieval in the company's database).
In the end, says Brooks, knowledge management isn't about fancy seminars, expensive software, or New Age thinking. "It's about finding out what it is people really pay you for," he says. "It's about grabbing it, measuring it. It's about learning how to account not only for stuff but also for the things that aren't stuff." In the troubled annals of knowledge-management lexicology, that may be the clearest definition yet.
Bronwyn Fryer is a contributing writer for Inc. Technology.
Smart Starts
Teltech Resource Network Corp. asked 83 large and small companies worldwide where they are focusing their knowledge-management initiatives. The survey found that product development and production (defined as activities that help organizations deliver products and services to the marketplace) are the most popular targets.
PRODUCTION 30%
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 25%
CUSTOMER SERVICE 15%
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE/STRATEGIC PLANNING 10%
SALES 5%
PROJECT MANAGEMENT 5%
PATENT PORTFOLIO/INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT 5%
ALL OTHER FUNCTIONS 5% The Need to Know
Should your company be doing knowledge management? If three or more of your answers to the following questions match those in the key, it's time to consider it.
1. Are you competing for business against global companies?
2. Do you depend on the effective application of science and technology for competitive advantage?
3. Do your employees possess knowledge that they would take away with them if they left the company?
4. Do your employees willingly share what they know with colleagues?
5. Do your employees know which of their colleagues they can turn to for help when faced with a particular challenge or problem?
6. Does your company possess intellectual capital that could be repackaged into a product or service with resale value?
7. Are you able to make informed decisions faster than your competitors?
8. Does it take you longer than your competitors to get a new employee up to speed?
ANSWERS: 1.Y 2.Y 3.Y 4.N 5.N 6.Y 7.N 8.Y
Source: Teltech Resource Network Corp.
