Knowledge knit

T Radhakrishna
27 March 2003

Though the formal KM programme was initiated in Satyam about two years ago, knowledge repositories did exist for the last seven years. The present knowledge initiative — KI as it is called internally — is an organisation-wide process to address the pain-areas of its project managers and presales teams by filling the current information and knowledge gaps.

Unlike KM efforts in many organisations, wherein the focus is broad-based towards generic knowledge sharing among all employees, the KI process in Satyam is specifically targeted for enhancing the communication among project management and presales activities. This approach has significantly received wide acceptance from various groups within the organisation, and particularly from a large section of technical associates, as the benefit to personal productivity is clearly visible and felt.

The fact that about 60 per cent of its associates have voluntarily requested to be members of K-Window, the knowledge networking portal of Satyam, is a proud testimony considering the size and geographic spread of Satyam. The initiative is being sustained out of the positive feedback it generates.

By focusing on associates’ pattern of working and their business priorities, KI has launched a series of innovative features without creating any ripples in the existing organisation’s processes and information systems. Some of these innovations do not have parallels in any global KM practices that are usually centred around document and content management. Some of the highly successful ideas implemented in Satyam’s KI programme are Satyam Pathshala, Communities of Excellence, K-Radio and the latest K-Mobile.

The real acquired knowledge is the one that is “experienced” by the associate. For example, the associates who handle tough customer negotiations, address customer-complaints effectively, close a sales-lead, architect innovative solutions and make a winning presentation have vast knowledge reservoirs. This “experienced knowledge” is rarely documented, and even if it is documented, it rarely conveys the context or experience felt. KI has embarked on this exercise of capturing tacit knowledge by launching Satyam Pathshala. Satyam Pathshala is a tacit knowledge-sharing programme facilitated by the associates volunteering to share their knowledge or learning with fellow associates.