Before KMS, new employees floundered when confronted with urgent deals they knew nothing about. If you weren't in the office, you couldn't see your computer files. If the boss was away overseas, you had to contact him by phone or wait until he returned. Now, every Samsung employee with a password has global access to a database containing information on everything from product specifications and pending sales to the financial status of 1,000 banks around the world. A bulletin board tells them the latest news in their field.
Bosses can instantly send comments on transactions to salespeople.
Faxing, phoning or mailing seem primordial by comparison. But the biggest benefit is that every employee now knows how to use the Internet and e-mail. Yim says some processes, such as getting approval for a contract from the legal department, take half as long as they did last year. Samsung officials say KMS also encourages greater workplace cooperation and openness, qualities that have eluded Korea's opaque, top-down conglomerates. Now their performance is very clear.