Knowledge Management

at
Infosys

Company background: Infosys

Infosys
consulting and software services organization

headquartered in Bangalore Founded in 1981 1, 00,000 employees in over 50 offices worldwide.

KM initiatives at Infosys
Education and Research Department in the year 1991 A fully fledged KM program began in 1999 with the

launch of Kshop Important features

Learn once, use any where KM maturity model Incentive scheme- Knowledge currency unit.

Analysis and Comparison of Knowledge Management framework at Infosys

Infosys has units all over the world, and thousands

of employees from different countries and cultures are working It has developed robust Knowledge Management system for taping both explicit and tacit knowledge needed to full-fill their business objectives and smooth flow of information within the organization and from outside environment. Implementation strategies adopted by the organization are different in some aspects and similar in some other aspects.

Aim

To move towards a "Learn Once, Use Anywhere" paradigm.

Objectives

i. To minimise the efforts dissipated in redoing learning that has already happened elsewhere, and ii. Ensuring that Infosys employees (Infoscions) in contact with the customer have the collective and organised knowledge of the Infosys with them. Delivering all organisational learning to benefit the customer.

Goal

Strategy

Knowledge Management Maturity Model. KMM- Knowledge Management Maturity Model is based on the realisation that path to achieve KM success involves significant changes: a. In the working culture, b. In the Processes of the organisation, and c. System in the organisation. ii. Instead of taking one giant leap a staged frame work is done under progressive development. The most well established model available today to/ for managing changes in phased manner is Software Engineering Institute's (SEI Carnegie Mellon Institute) Capability Maturity Model (CMM). iii. Further the purpose of KMM Model is twofold: a. To provide framework, this can be used to assess current level of KM maturity, b. To act as a mechanism to focus, and help prioritize, efforts to raise the level of KM maturity.

Comparison based on 8Cs frame work

Connectivity Sparsh- The Intranet (CIP) The Central

Information Portal. . ii. It forms the central information portal. iii. It consists of 5000 nodes: a. Spread across India-Based Development Centres/DCs b. USA based marketing office. Other technologies like video conferencing, wireless connectivity etc. are also established to foster better communication.

Content

Very well strategies to Manage Content. Eighteen different content types have been identified such as case studies, white papers, book reviews and product reviews, Frequently Asked questions, and event materials etc. For easy retrieval, each document is tagged by one or more paths though knowledge level hierarchy. Each document is also associated with composite Knowledge Currency Unit rating awarded by subject matter expert. Knowledge created posted by individual employees is also earning KCU when they get used.

Community Many virtual communities are being formed among employees. These communities are not formed by Management, but by interested group to share their views and ideas across all the units. Online collaborative tools like wikis; blogs etc are being used to facilitate the communication.

Capacity

Infosys Infosys management decided to locate the KM team in its Education & Research (E&R) group of Infosys corporate University to enable the team to enforce changes in the organization as a whole, they bolstered the KM team's influence by giving it a high-level steering committee that included many members of the board of directors and several other heads of business units.

Culture

The aim of KM initiative in Infosys is to move towards a culture where knowledge sharing is built into the organizational fabric. Creating such a culture of sharing is governed by principles that have much in common with Metcalfes Law - as more people grow convinced of the benefits of participating in the knowledge-sharing movement; it becomes easier to convince more people to buy in. Infosys adopted a judicious mix of motivation, facilitation and awareness mechanism to develop a knowledge culture within the organization across all units.

Capacity

Infosys management decided to locate the KM team in its Education & Research (E&R) group of Infosys corporate University to enable the team to enforce changes in the organization as a whole, they bolstered the KM team's influence by giving it a high-level steering committee that included many members of the board of directors and several other heads of business units.

Cooperation

Infosys collaborates and shares its knowledge with Academia and other partners. Its campus connect programs act as forum. Some of the best practices of Infosys may be shared with educational institutions and also aligning the needs of colleges, its students, faculties with those of the IT industry. Infosys has set up collaborations with many institutes to upgrade their employees in different domains. It also has set up many in house programs too.

Commerce Devised Knowledge Currency Units (KCUs) whereby employees can award points to knowledge assets posted by their colleagues, and can award points to knowledge assets posted by their colleagues, and can also earn points when their own posted knowledge assets are utilized or ranked by their colleagues. These can be encashed in to gifts at a local e-tailer.

Capital

Infosys highly values the importance of Knowledge Management and it believes in incremental modelling. Management is providing adequate financial support to Knowledge Management department and its activities. Latest figure could not be gathered as it is not published in the net.

Awards

Winner of MAKE (Most Admirable Knowledge Enterprise) award from the year 2003 onwards. In 2009 also Infosys is selected for Asian MAKE award. In the year 2005, Infosys has been included in the hall of fame list of MAKE.

Experts from Infosys Knowledge Management group have authored the book Ten Steps to Maturity in Knowledge Management: Lessons in Economy. It focuses on Knowledge Management from a practitioners viewpoint and covers all aspects of planning, design, implementation and assessment of knowledge management.

Findings
Key features of KM frame work in Infosys are as

follows 1. A K M team in the learning Unit 2. Decentralized Architecture 3. Incremental Scope 4. Content first, then collaboration 5. Voluntary participation 6. An in-house solution

KM system: similarities
Similarities 1.

2.
3. 4.

5.

Vision and Objectives aims for customer satisfaction Adequate technology backups & 24 x 7 access to all Measures to build Knowledge culture and capacity Introductory courses Cooperation with outside world like academic communities

Contrasts
Strategy
Infosys follows KMM- Knowledge Management Maturity Model

Knowledge communities
Infosys allows making of communities by interested group employees

References
http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/IT

%20and%20Systems/ITSY055.htm ( (Infosys Knowledge Management Initiatives ) www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC724/fc72 4.html (Pedagogies of Knowledge Management at Infosys) http://www.iirusa.com/upload/wysiwyg/M1947/Onl ine%20Docs/IIR_M947_Rehmet.pdf (Unisys frame work for Knowledge Management)