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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (MGMT630)

Assignment 1 (Case Study)
Marks: 30

SOLUTION

1. What is the reason of discussions on the concept of Knowledge Management given in this
case? In your opinion, what could be other reasons of such debates on knowledge
management?
¾ There is very intense discussion on the concepts of Knowledge Management between
consultants
¾ Reason being, there are different definitions of the Knowledge Management
¾ It may be due to the lack of operational experiences of consultants
¾ For a lot of professionals the Knowledge Management is just a concept

Other reasons:
Consultants and professionals interpret knowledge management in different perspectives. Experts
with different educational backgrounds and experiences take it in their own way. As it is an
emerging field, academic researches are being done on its various aspects. Moreover, this is an
integration of entirely different fields like ICT, management, philosophy, psychology and other
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behavioral sciences. So every expert emphasizes his or her own field.

2. Analyze the situation and identify what problem was faced by Bouygues Telecom. What
strategy was adopted by Bouygues Telecom to cope the situation?
Problems:
¾ Big size of the organization
¾ Managing the flow of information and know-how across the organization
U
¾ Departments and individuals unable to collaborate effectively with other employees in many
parts of the business

Strategy:
V

¾ Bouygues Telecom launched an initiative aimed at maximizing the value of its business and
employee intelligence
¾ They defined and developed short and practical KM projects

3. How Bouygues Telecom incorporated IT tools to implement the Knowledge Management

system?
¾ Bouygues Telecom issued an invitation to tender
¾ Microsoft’s SharePoint Portal Server solution was selected after research
¾ SharePoint Portal Server solution was selected because it was easy to implement and flexible
enough to meet the various requirements of the business
¾ SharePoint Portal Server is described as a single knowledge portal, and is based on a
document management server which enables organizations to manage all of the workflow
processes associated with the publication of documents and to share them in dedicated spaces

4. Which initial step Bouygues Telecom took to share implicit knowledge?

¾ Bouygues Telecom launched the pilot project in north-east France
¾ It delivered support to one hundred staff using SAP

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¾ The aim of the project was to provide online assistance to end-users and ensure that they could
share best practice of this solution
¾ This knowledge base manages the publication and the classification of documents and
provides users with a single knowledge portal.
¾ Users can add their own advices and experiences relating to SAP via their browser

5. How did Bouygues Telecom convert its technical implicit knowledge into explicit
knowledge?
¾ The second project gave technicians online access to the company knowledge base of
technical information
¾ Technicians, working on site, could connect to the technical knowledge base on the portal
from their portable computers, and access technical files and recommendations made by their
colleagues in similar situations
¾ If a file was not 100 per cent relevant, they could improve it and made their expertise
available to others
¾ In a few months, Bouygues Telecom had built a comprehensive online library of technical
knowledge
¾ Technicians now have rapid, real-time access to the sum total of the company’s expertise.
¾ It is also highly versatile and technicians can search the knowledge base according to various
criteria including full text, and their specific areas of interest
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6. According to the information given in the case, which approach was employed to implement
knowledge management in Bouygues Telecom – top down or bottom up approach?
¾ Bouygues Telecom adopted the bottom up approach of the Knowledge Management
¾ It is an implementation approach
¾ It is positioned as an incremental deployment of the Knowledge Management and focalized on
unit realization of knowledge base
U
¾ With this approach, the job is registering and qualifying the needs for knowledge bases rose
from the ground floor
V

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