Services

Iknow defines KM solutions as technology deployments that involve one or more software products, data and application integration, and potentially custom software development.

Iknow offers a full range of solution design, development, implementation, and integration services that cover a wide variety of verticals and business domains. We can assist you across any and all stages of the software development lifecycle—from conceptualization, business analysis, and prototyping to development and deployment of a complete solution. Three of our solution services are:

Iknow is an expert at identifying, evaluating, and selecting technologies that enable your knowledge management strategy. We have experience evaluating the tradeoffs between the business and technical requirements, the current and planned technology infrastructure, financial budgets, and the seemingly unlimited claims made by software product vendors. We have in-depth experience implementing commercial software products, open-source products, and custom-developed applications in both on-premises and cloud-hosted environments.

Technology projects are complex. Technical requirements collection is initiated after the business need is first identified and can be done simultaneously with, or following, the collection and confirmation of the business requirements. Requirements refinement often continues after the project is approved.

A current-state assessment of the existing knowledge management-related IT infrastructure can be done as a stand-alone project or as part of a broader KM current-state assessment. Understanding the existing technologies and tools is necessary because they play a critical role in enabling the core KM processes.

Organizations create value through the successful execution of their core business processes. Business strategy dictates which business processes are key. Some companies choose to compete on cost so they focus on supply chain and operational efficiencies. Others compete on service, so responsive customer care is essential. In all cases, repeatable core business processes is what creates value.

Decision analysis helps organizations improve the quality, speed, and accountability of its decisions and includes a variety of procedures, methods, and tools for identifying, clearly representing, and formally assessing the important inputs and steps to decision making.

Communities are groups in an organization, spanning beyond a single group or department, who come together for a shared business purpose. Not necessarily tied to a business process or an organizational structure, communities are often created around a specific topic area where knowledge and expertise exist across the organization, and serve as a forum for community members to interact with other members. Communities can provide the forum for a wide range of business activities, such as information sharing, problem solving, idea generation, and training.

Various case studies have shown that much of the business value from knowledge management comes from stronger “people-to-people” collaboration. While document and content repositories still play an important role in most knowledge management initiatives, shorter business process cycle times and the shorter “shelf life” of information drive the need for more rapid (and even spontaneous) human interactions.

A common goal for any knowledge-based organization is to provide people with an easy ability to find others with relevant experience, skills, or knowledge (expertise) when needed. Delivering this in an efficient manner, enabled with appropriate technology, is an objective for most organizations. This capability is vital for such tasks as solving urgent problems and staffing new projects.

Knowledge capture is the process of gathering, collecting, and codifying an organization’s knowledge and know-how so that it can be stored, shared, reused, and leveraged. With the increasing importance of intellectual assets relative to physical and financial assets, most organizations have begun to actively focus on managing their knowledge capital.