Leverage Knowledge-Management Tools To Better Understand and Meet the Needs of the Industry

Abstract

To meet the long-term technology and performance needs of the upstream industry, the present and future market must first be understood and then acted upon. A collaborative knowledge management (KM) system complements other market assessment tools by harnessing the collective capability and experience of an organization's employees to more effectively identify, communicate and act on customer needs, market knowledge and potential solutions. While many companies' KM efforts are focused on technical problem solving and/or employee development, a KM system can also be used to develop better organizational and individual understanding of, and more importantly, adaptation to the market. Any employee can initiate or participate in collaborative communication to actively share and discuss customer needs, competitor activities, new technology applications and successes. Any employee can submit ideas for new or improved products to meet their local market needs. Where appropriate, these ideas are collaboratively reviewed, improved and validated through KM. We use our KM system to better understand the market and drive innovation. Examples demonstrate the use of collaborative discussion to share market intelligence, clarify market assumptions, harness the 'wisdom of the crowd' in collecting and validating new product/service ideas and transfer technology. KM tools and collaborative activity show promising value in improving market understanding and driving technology innovation. Halliburton broadly defines knowledge management as a systematic approach to getting the right information to the right people at the right time. Often the 'right information' pertains to market needs, new ideas or new technology. Knowledge Management Effort Overview There are many definitions for knowledge management. Halliburton prefers "a systematic approach to getting the right information to the right person at the right time." This is an adaptation of the American Productivity & Quality Center's (APQC) definition: "A set of strategies and approaches to create, safeguard and use knowledge assets (including people and information), which allows knowledge to flow to the right people at the right time so they can apply these assets to create more value for the enterprise." The company's KM approach is centered on developing and supporting communities of practice that meet the needs of the organization. While providing access to common portal processes and tools, it is believed each community has unique needs and distinct business objectives. However for the purposes of this discussion, the precise definition of KM adopted by a company is not critical. What matters most is the level and type of collaboration among employees that a KM system enables. At the heart of these communities is the ability to communicate and collaborate around relevant topics. The collaboration tool enables anyone in the organization to:Ask a questionPush knowledge (best practice, idea, etc.) proactively to the communitySee the original question/issue and all replies in one placeReply with an answer or opinionLearn on demand by searching previous discussions and accessing managed content Issues involving one or more communities can be shared to increase collaboration and gain additional perspective. While these discussions typically involve technical or operational problem solving related to the communities, we see an increasing amount of collaboration occurring around planning, innovation and strategy. Dedicated knowledge brokers for each community provide full time administration to facilitate that community's KM effort.

Implementing Knowledge-Management Systems: Collaboration Tools Create Efficient and Synergistic Operations Between Oil-Service and Energy Companies

“…Main objectives for the current KM structures are to improve the way corporate knowledge is captured, stored in a repository, and communicated within a particular group within the organization or spread throughout the organization itself (Paylow et al 2007;Smith et al 2003). KM tools and communication structure are used in such a way that information requests and solutions from the discussions are used by management and the corporate entities to share standards and policies to those same end users.…”