Case Studies in Knowledge Management

Infosys Technologies, Limited 299

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CASE DESCRIPTION: BUILDING A

KNOWLEDGE-BASED COMPANY

Initial Knowledge-Sharing Mechanisms

Since its inception, Infosys had always emphasized knowledge sharing. In the
earlier years, the hundred or so software developers usually shared project-specific
knowledge over informal gatherings. By 1992, the number of employees had risen
considerably, so Murthy asked all project managers to hold brainstorming and mentoring
sessions at the completion of every project, and to document these sessions. A central
library, called the Body of Knowledge (BoK), was created to catalog and archive these
documents for future reference. BoK was later converted to its electronic form.
Over the years, as the knowledge-sharing needs of employees intensified, some
other stand-alone mechanisms evolved. They included:

• A technical bulletin forum – set up in 1995 by the employees themselves to generate
  technical discussions


• Corporate Intranet – rolled out in 1996 to integrated all departmental information


• Process Assets Database – created in 1997 to facilitate software developers’ store
  project-related artifacts for future reuse


• Project Leader Toolkit – assembled in 1998 to consolidate helpful tips regarding
  offshore project management


• Marketing Assets Repository – built in 1997, it had client presentations, key project
  proposals, and client case studies

In 1999, following Nandan’s recommendations, it was decided to initiate formal KM
program. Exhibit 10 traces the evolution of Infosys’s KM program.
A steering committee, comprising Nandan himself, some other members of the
board, and senior-level employees with diverse profiles, was formed to articulate a formal
KM implementation strategy. The committee’s first task was to define Infosys’s KM
vision statement. The steering committee envisioned Infosys “to be an organization
where every action is fully enabled by the power of knowledge; which truly believes in
leveraging knowledge for innovation; where every employee is empowered by the
knowledge of every other employee; which is a globally respected knowledge leader”
(Kochikar & Suresh, 2004, p. 249).

Building the KM Infrastructure

The steering committee made four critical decisions while establishing the organi-
zational KM infrastructure:

Focus on Explicit Knowledge
An initial study of various user communities within the organization revealed that
a significant bit of their knowledge requirements included reusable documents, reports,
software code, and architectural diagrams. Keeping this in mind, the committee restricted
its infrastructure-related efforts to enhance the sharing of explicit knowledge.