There's no such thing as generic knowledge management, and one company's knowledge management success can rarely serve as an exact model for others. Just as each organization's business processes are unique, the specific goals and reasons for knowledge management initiatives vary from company to company. While most KM practitioners eschew large data repositories, there are notable exceptions. Employees at Dow Chemical share documents pertaining to operating procedures for chemical process plants, regulatory rules and procedures, environmental information, reference information for products and services, and internal research reports through a variety of repositories. Dow uses a Documentum document management system, an Oracle database and a Siebel Systems help desk system.
Users can search the systems for specific information, concepts, project references or people.
And it's fundamental to the safety and security of our workers and the profitability of the company. Dow is a rare exception, and for good reason, notes Giga Information Group analyst Dan Rasmus. They're a knowledge company, not just a chemical company. That's a shift we're seeing in a lot of companies. As you hear all the talk about the knowledge economy, companies are realizing what they really do, and those that get it are trying to transform themselves.