Assessing the Readiness of Professional Services Company 45Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without writtenAs shown, the decentralized management style of “CITE” led to different knowl-
edge management problems that are due to the lack of company strategy on what
knowledge should be made available, its location, and how it is acquired. Also, other
reported problems were due to how to interact and deal with knowledge, how to efficiently
use the OMIS, and what are the most relevant technologies to adopt in order to implement
an efficient OMIS. To solve these problems, an owner must be responsible to coordinate
all related activities. Therefore, a chief knowledge officer (CKO) has to be hired with a
main business objective to set a company strategy for knowledge management in general,
and also to be responsible of the implementation of that strategy by implementing an
efficient OMIS.
Develop Specialized Training Programs on OMIS
In order to push new members of the PS team to use the OMIS efficiently, a
specialized training program has to be developed and then delivered to all new hires.
Also, in order to guarantee that the previous generations of PS consultants are efficiently
using the OMIS, all old members of the PS team have to be given refreshment training
and update training on how to better use the OMIS and its new versions, if any.
Shift the Corporate Culture
One of the main problems facing “CITE” is the incompleteness of available
information regarding the integration with other vendors’ products. A good portion of
such knowledge is a tacit one that employees develop over time through their experience
gained in complex installation. Therefore, it is becoming very crucial to instill a culture
that encourages knowledge sharing. A formal infrastructure is needed to make knowl-
edge sharing flourish, where “CITE” must redefine its business processes to foster a new
corporate culture. Also, “CITE” must have people who can make sense of knowledge
sharing and apply it.
“CITE’s” top management must create an environment that encourages employees
to continuously share what they know. The centerpiece of that environment is interactive
learning, which occurs either through work experience or communication with fellow
practitioners. The key to interactive learning is the give and take that occurs when
employees share knowledge. A lack of time is a major obstacle to this process, and “CITE”
must find ways for it PS consultants to share what they know. We recommend that “CITE”
makes knowledge sharing part of the performance reviews, and builds rewards into the
compensation and benefits plans of its employees. In addition, “CITE” should also
publicize employees’ efforts, praise their participation and give special titles to those
who actively transfer knowledge. In other words, “CITE” has to reward and recognize—
formally and informally—the PS consultants who spend a lot of time helping each other
and contributing to the corporate knowledge base.
Develop a Communication Mechanism Between the PS
Consultants and the Content Owners
It was shown that the lack of communication between the content users (the PS
consultants) and the content owners (the owners of the different Web sites) leads to
problems related to information relevance, completeness, importance, and richness. The