The Role of Knowledge Management within Your Support Center a/k/a Measuring the Success of Knowledge Management Programs

1
The Role of Knowledge Management within Your
Support Centera/k/a Measuring the Success of
Knowledge Management Programs

• Kathleen T. Masterson
• Knowledge Manager

2
Role of KM ...

• 2.11 Knowledge Management Process
• The SCP certification book, 5th edition suggests
  a support center should have
• a formal documented knowledge management process
  to maintain the knowledgebase ... and to resolve
  issues and obtain product information
• Solution 6 began its KM initiative with the
  Tallahassee Support Centers Knowledge Base
• a searchable document management system stocked
  with articles to allow clients, support reps and
  other registered users to find answers in a
  self-service manner

3
Role of KM ...

• Then ...
• 200 articles
• No formal content management
• No processes for article creation, publication,
  maintenance
• No mechanisms to trigger article creation
• Just Do It

• And now ...
• 2500 articles (internal and external)
• Dedicated Knowledge Manager, KB Coordinator, Web
  Developer and KB Black Belts
• Processes firmly in place
• Capture Best Practices and Lessons Learned

4
Role of KM ...

• A modicum of Knowledge Base success ...
• SCP recognition
• High scores
• Positive narrative in audit report
• Support Secret Candidate
• Invitation to Roundtable
• ASP contest
• Well above average scores related to Knowledge
  Base, two consecutive years
• Client and other user feedback

5
Role of KM ...

• A modicum of Knowledge Management success ...
• Within our organization
• Promotion of KB Coordinator to Knowledge Manager
• Expansion of Knowledge Center Department
• Increased visibility in organization
• Increased direct participation with client base
• Beyond our organization
• External publications (SCP publications, LawNet,
  KMPro)
• Speaking engagements (SCP, Users Groups,
  Taskforce)
• Fellow position on the National Knowledge
  Intellectual Property Management Taskforce

6
Measuring Success ...

• Isnt that enough?

NO!

• Internal Requirements (executive managements
  expectations)
• External Prerequisites (certification, award
  contests)
• Measurement Madness
• You cant manage what you dont measure

7
Measuring Success ...
Most KM measurement occurs in Stages 2 through 4
of KM life cycle
Source APQC Project
8
Measuring Success ...

• Admonitions/Considerations
• Knowledge Management is soft (intangible) most
  measures are for hard aspects (tangibles)
• Are you relying on people, technology or both for
  your KM efforts?
• Easier to measure explicit rather than tacit
  knowledge
• Dont force KM into an inappropriate measurement
  box
• Check recheck your assumptions
• Be sure to support your organizations overall
  strategic direction

9
Measuring Success ...

• CHARACTERISTICS1,2 OF
• INFORMATION QUALITY
• Accuracy Understandability
• Precision Usefulness
• Currency Sufficiency
• Output Timeliness Lack of bias
• Reliability Comparability
• Completeness Quantitativeness
• Conciseness
• Format
• Relevance
• 1Bailey, James E and Sammy W. Pearson,
  Development of a Tool for Measuring and
  Analyzing Computer User Satisfaction, Management
  Science, Vol 29, No 5, May 1983, pp530-545
• 2 Srinivasan, Anath, Alternative Measures of
  System Effectiveness Associations and
  Impliciations, MIS Quarterly, Vol 9, No 3,
  September 1985, pp243-253

10
Measuring Success ...

• A FORMULA FOR
• INFORMATION QUALITY3
• Info. Quality Recall Precision Coverage
  Currency
• Recall is the ability to locate all relevant
  documents
• Precision is the ability to find only relevant
  documents
• Coverage is the breadth of completeness of stored
  information sources
• Currency is the shelf life (before the
  information should be archived)
• 3 Martin, Kingsley, Law Office Management Workbook

11
Measuring Success ...

• What to measure?
• KB tools ... hardware, software
• Consider basic capital expenditures
• KB itself
• Usage
• Effectiveness

12
Measuring Success ... Hardware/Software

• ROI Return on Investment
• To Accountants/Financial Analysts
• Net Income/Average Total Assets
• To Business Managers
• PV of Incremental Gain/Total Cost of Project
• (where PV is Present Value)
• __________________________________________________
  __________
• Advantage Readily accepted Disadvantage
  Easily manipulated

13
Measuring Success ... Hardware/Software

• EVA Economic Value Added
• NOTE Research suggests there is no direct
  correlation between profitability
• and technology investments. (Paul
  Straussman and Martin Butler)
• EVA Net Operating Profit After Taxes
  (Capital Cost of Capital)
• Modify for IT investments . . .
• EVA was developed by Stern Stewart Co.

14
Measuring Success ... Hardware/Software

• EVA Example
• The firm is considering replacing its network
  storage system (that carries an annual
  maintenance expense of 200,000 per year)
• with a new system costing 700,000 (and carrying
  an annual maintenance charge of 75,000 per
  year).
• Theres a capital charge on the 700,000 of
  15.

15
Measuring Success ... Hardware/Software

• EVA Example
• EVA Net Operating Profit After Taxes
• (Capital Cost of Capital)
• (200,000 old - 75,000 new)
• (700,000 .15)
• 20,000
• The new systems maintenance charge must be so
  much lower than the old systems that it covers
  the new systems capital charge.
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  _
• Advantage CFOs love this! Disadvantage What
  rate for capital charge?

16
Measuring Success ... Hardware/Software

• Payback
• Payback Period Required to Recover Cost of an
  Investment
• The firm is considering investing in a machine
  that costs 11,875 and is expected to generate an
  annual cash savings of 2,500.
• Payback 11,875/2,500
• 4.75 (4 years, 9 months)
• ___________________________________________
• Advantage Simple to understand easy to
  calculate
• Disadvantage Ignores time value of money
  ignores cash flows after payback

17
Measuring Success ... Usage/Effectiveness

• Usage (KB)
• Develop strategic goals
• Number of hits per article
• Average hits per author ... categories (per
  Support author, overall)
• Track articles per Support rep
• Monitor article types
• Traffic (web statistics)
• Effectiveness (KB)
• Review article rating
• Ability to close issue

18
Measuring Success ... Usage/Effectiveness

• COI Cost of Information
• COI Document Preparation Cost / Rate of Reuse
• Document Preparation Cost is the total cost of
  article preparation
• Rate of Reuse is the average number of documents
  in the system divided by the total number of
  times a document is reused in a designated period

19
Measuring Success ... Usage/Effectiveness

• COI Cost of Information
• COI Document Preparation Cost / Rate of Reuse
• Document Preparation Cost How much time was
  spent preparing the document?
• Rate of Reuse Number of hits within a
  designated period
• (1.5 hours at average rate of 20) / 20 hits in
  1st month
• 1.50 ... compare to benchmark
• ... monitor individual authors

20
Measuring Success ... Usage/Effectiveness

• Incentives (KB)
• Objective incentive
• KB Bonus Plan
• Subjective recognition
• KB Spotlight
• Random reward
• KB Movie Drawing

21
Measuring Success ... Usage/Effectiveness

• KM and the Balanced Scorecard
• Human Capital all individual capabilities, the
  personal knowledge, skill and experience of
  employees and managers
• Intellectual Capital intangibles such as
  information, knowledge and skills that can be
  leveraged by the organization
• Social Capital the goodwill resulting from
  physical and virtual interchanges between people
  with like interests who are willing to share
  ideas
• Structural Capital the processes, structures
  and systems an organization owns (less the people
  involved)

22
Measuring Success ... Usage/Effectiveness

• KM and the Balanced Scorecard

23
Conclusion

• K a t h y
• M a s t e r s o n
• QUESTIONS?
• kathy.masterson_at_us.solution6.com

n o w l e d g e
a n a g e m e n t