The Challenge

A capital producer understood the complexity of navigating international regulatory environments. Operating across nations in numerous fields of specialization, the organization had to uphold diverse and disparate ordinances, many of which have changed over time. Dedicated to providing high-quality services to their customers, the organization sought a solution that would help them better navigate revisions to compliance requirements and ensure adherence to rigorous standards of excellence.

Like many companies, the capital producer relied on manual processes to identify, track, and communicate regulations across the organization. Unfortunately, manual approaches exposed the organization to human error, a possibility that threatened its ability to remain compliant. Since regulatory adherence depends on numerous team members throughout the organization, there were various potential points of failure, many of which were unknown. Staff had to personally determine how to best share sensitive information between groups, which created inefficiencies and risked information exposure. When these processes were performed correctly, they frequently included periods of redundancy where staff members duplicated each other’s efforts, thus diminishing organizational productivity. 

The Solution

To facilitate the organization’s compliance with regulations and standards, EK provided the capital producer with a comprehensive content management strategy rooted in knowledge management (KM) best practices. EK’s recommendations were informed by 11 separate interviews, four system demos, and 28 business unit validation workshop participants. EK spoke to executive stakeholders, content owners, system owners, and process performers throughout the organization. Based on these conversations and demonstrations of the organization’s current processes, EK developed a content strategy at the intersection of content and knowledge management. Recommendations for the organization were divided into five separate workstreams, based upon EK’s proprietary content strategy for KM evaluation framework, and broken down into the strategic and business impact of each item.

Leveraging EK’s expertise in semantics and data-driven knowledge management, EK delivered a content strategy with an emphasis on the structure, metadata, and management requirements for key organizational content types. For example, contracts exist currently as unstructured content, and in this organization’s use case can continue to be managed as such. Formulas for certain products, however, require robust security and personalization to enable regulatory compliance across multiple countries. These complex requirements necessitated a recommendation for structured formula content managed in a Product Information Management System (PIMS). 

Additionally, EK created a technology solution approach that not only identified existing pain points in the organization but also mapped each challenge to a corresponding technology solution. EK prioritized technical approaches that could easily work within the capital producer’s current technical ecosystem, minimizing the cost of integrating these solutions. At the start of the engagement, the organization was leveraging SharePoint for all content management needs. EK’s technology recommendations included strategies to optimize the use of SharePoint for appropriate use cases as well as recommendations for specialized contract management systems for product lifecycle management and contract management.

Implementing technological and procedural changes within the capital producer will allow the organization to continue to grow globally while providing compliant and high-quality products for its consumers. EK’s proposed content management approach will enable staff to better create, protect, share, and utilize compliance content to ensure the seamless continuity of operations, establish secure intellectual property, and achieve operational efficiencies. 

The EK Difference

Our team worked closely with the organization’s stakeholders to produce a content management strategy that would help them achieve larger knowledge objectives. Establishing processes and avenues for information sharing will enable the organization to not only uphold international standards of compliance but also increase productivity over time by efficiently sharing information and preserving tacit knowledge.

This engagement operated within the intersection of content management and KM. EK leveraged its KM background to guide this content strategy approach and used KM best practices to conduct knowledge-gathering activities, including document review, stakeholder interviews, stakeholder workshops, and system demos. After reviewing this information, EK was able to use its proprietary current state and target state framework to conduct a content management analysis at the organization. 

EK additionally utilized an ontological data modeling approach to guide its advanced content management strategy. The capital producer was exclusively a document-based organization at the beginning of the engagement; with EK’s support, they identified a future-ready content strategy for prioritized content use cases. There are a variety of content management approaches that can be used to provide structure to digital materials. These methods can be viewed on a continuum from file-level management to semantically enriched component management. However, not all approaches are the right fit for every client. Our content strategy and operations experts were able to ascertain the right level of content management for various use cases at the organization and ultimately provide them with a detailed technical plan for how to implement the right content management strategy. 

The Results

At the end of the engagement, EK provided the organization with a clear roadmap for the adoption of a transformational content management strategy. Stakeholders from over ten different business units aligned on an approach that addressed their various needs and pain points, as well as an understanding of the investment required to achieve the target state content strategy. 

EK provided the organization’s stakeholders with the roadmap for a long-term vision and the tools for a quick return on investment. This came in five key accelerators, allowing the organization to deploy strategies, frameworks, and management approaches tailored to the organization’s unique needs. Each accelerator included a description of the recommendation, a path to implement the task successfully, success indicators to track, and the corresponding pain points it addressed. 

By implementing a more robust content management strategy, the capital producer will maintain compliance with regulations and standards, ensure content is secure and only accessible to those who need it, and improve overall efficiency of content operations. 

Download Flyer

 

The post Content Management Strategy for a Capital Producer appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

Sustainable organizations are also more internally efficient. In a UCLA study of over 5,000 companies, environmental economists found that organizations that voluntarily adopt international “green” practices and standards have employees who are, on average, 16% more productive. And technological solutions, when paired with knowledge management (KM) practices, can create new pathways to grow sustainability at your organization.

KM can be used to achieve sustainability while simultaneously developing an organization’s technical capabilities. Our clients have used a variety of KM practices to become more sustainable, including:

• Pruning back the scale of content;
• Rooting sustainable practices in user behavior by promoting environmentally-conscious practices;
• Sprouting a green system by optimizing computational pipelines; and
• Leveraging semantics so they don’t miss the forest for the trees.

In this blog, I will discuss how EK has used these techniques to help three different organizations achieve their sustainability goals. 

Technique 1: Prune Back the Scale of Content

Unsure about how content is affecting your organization’s carbon footprint? Consider the scale of your content. Content increases carbon emissions because of the energy required to create, store, and access the materials. A higher volume of content necessitates more energy—thus generating more carbon emissions—to utilize. 

Removing duplicate content can also benefit organizations financially. Since organizations experience per-gigabyte (GB) data expenses, duplicate content can become costly, especially considering their deteriorative effect on overall data quality. If a file exists in multiple versions with different editors, it is nearly impossible to discern which file is the most up-to-date. An organization could easily rely on the wrong file for information, reducing accuracy and efficiency. 

Pruning back the scale of content benefits organizations from both a financial and environmental lens. Investigating the scale of asset libraries is a first step in this process, which can be performed by using semantic applications. 

Technique 2: Root Sustainable Practices in User Behavior

Users at an organization can inadvertently perpetuate an unsustainable content culture. Duplicate content most commonly emerges when employees save multiple copies of the same file to their devices, construct new files to replace forgotten ones, or use separate files for different document versions. Users may not consciously perpetuate these practices; however, the effects are damaging. Saving and storing unnecessary content has significant environmental impacts as it collects over time, where storing hundreds of GBs of data can equate to large amounts of carbon dioxide released.

Adjusting user behavior can prevent the unnecessary collection of data. When organizations provide visibility to their employees on their individual carbon footprint, users become accountable for their own environmental efforts and naturally decrease any unsustainable behavior.

Technique 3: Sprout a Green System Through the Optimization of Computational Pipelines

AI produces substantial environmental costs, through the electricity required to run data centers and the water necessary to cool them. Many organizations face a conflict between their desire to technologically mature by implementing AI, and their concern about the environmental impacts of doing so. 

Organizations can mitigate the environmental impact of their AI use and corresponding carbon emissions by reducing the computing power used in AI. This can be accomplished by making thoughtful decisions when designing AI architecture. How data is stored and transferred, and where servers are located, can have small but meaningful impacts on the sustainability of an AI solution. Your choice of cloud architecture also matters: powering AI models with renewable energy can promote sustainability.

Technique 4: Leverage Existing Data So You Don’t Miss the Forest for the Trees

Some organizations may have already launched sustainability activities. However, these solutions may not be optimized to maximize environmental outputs. When information is inconsistently tagged, siloed, or forgotten, it becomes lost to the organization, hurting otherwise well-planned ecological efforts. 

Organizations can maximize the effectiveness of their environmental campaigns by introducing technological solutions that promote visibility, insights, and accuracy about the ecological impact of their initiatives. Solutions such as a semantic layer can be leveraged to enhance organizational efficiency towards promoting sustainability. 

Conclusion

Sustainability has several benefits for an organization: it promotes productivity in the workforce, attracts high-quality employees, raises employee satisfaction overall, and increases the marketability of a company’s services. KM practices can help your organization achieve these outcomes while simultaneously reducing storage costs and streamlining client data. 

Enterprise Knowledge possesses expertise in making technical solutions that are both mature and sustainable. Our use of semantic applications and green data practices has supported environmental initiatives for various clients, and can help your organization to reach ambitious sustainability goals as well. Contact us today if you would like assistance in using KM to become environmentally friendly as an organization.

The post How Sustainability Grows from KM appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

In this presentation, Wyatt explored the intersection of knowledge and content management and highlighted various knowledge models and content models. She illustrated common knowledge and content challenges such as metadata hierarchy, “strings” over “things”, and infinite reference loops and provided examples of how semantic knowledge models and content models can address those challenges with contextualized case studies of EK clients who use CMS to capture, manage, and act on knowledge. Attendees gained insight into:

• The types of information assets that cross the boundary of content and represent organizational knowledge;
• The role of the CMS integrated with a larger knowledge management ecosystem to not only engage and delight content consumers but also to enable organizational decision-making; and
• The integration of content models and semantic models to enable interoperable systems.

The post Getting More Value Out of Your Content appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

In this presentation, DeMay and Anna explored the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) approach to developing its knowledge management strategy from the ground up. They focused on the organization’s initial challenges, such as disparate systems and siloed information. They highlighted WWF’s strategy for overcoming these obstacles, emphasizing the integration of people, processes, and technology to craft a roadmap aligned with WWF’s organizational goals.

They discussed WWF’s proactive efforts to foster a knowledge-sharing culture, define clear roles, and implement a governance structure that enhances content management across a distributed team of over 1,900 employees. They also addressed the vital role of change management, sharing techniques for navigating resistance and securing buy-in through executive sponsorship and grassroots advocacy.

Participants in this session gained insights into:

• Key challenges and strategies for building a KM program from scratch;
• The importance of aligning KM initiatives with organizational goals;
• Techniques for fostering a knowledge-sharing culture and managing content; and
• How to drive sustainable change with effective communication, training, and support.

The post Nurturing Knowledge – A Journey in Building a KM Program from Scratch: A Case Study appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

A metadata catalog is a central database of information about disparate content. Imagine having a single application to go to that allows the learning managers to search, view, and manage all of their content. This is what a metadata catalog can do. The catalog has a record of each content asset that points to the content where it sits. This record also stores descriptive information about the asset in the form of metadata. Some examples of the metadata we frequently capture for learning content includes:

• Course title
• Length of course
• Medium
• Status—Is the course complete or still being developed?
• Topic (typically from a defined taxonomy)
• Skills addressed
• Competencies
• Audience

Once a metadata catalog is in place, learning managers have a single place to go to manage all of their learning content no matter where it lives. Learning managers can search for their content using an Amazon-like faceted search and then click on the content to open it up in its source location.

The metadata catalog becomes the central hub of all learning content for the enterprise. It is the single place for finding information about any course in any system. As a result, it provides a great deal of value as the source of record for learning across the organization.

The most obvious use of the catalog is to enable rapid assembly of training content. Learning managers can assemble courses using content from multiple sources rather than recreate content each time they develop a new learning curriculum. Larger organizations tend to have multiple departments creating courses and training. As a result, different groups often recreate training built by another group. If their learning creators are able to easily find and pull training from other courses, they can quickly assemble courses that re-use the work of others. This course assembly can also be automated to support a more personalized approach to training. Learners don’t have to sit in event-based training as they can search on what they need when they need it to improve their performance on the job. Based on this information, courses can be assembled that align with those skills gaps. This personalized training not only makes employees more productive, it also keeps them happier because they are not forced to sit through courses on information that they already know.

In addition to streamlining the way in which courses are created, the metadata catalog gives learning managers better insight into what training exists. The legal department at one of our retail clients asked how much training was offered to employees about minimum wage laws. This request would have taken days as learning managers searched through 10 different systems and assembled a list of courses on that topic. Instead, the client ran a quick search and provided their response in minutes. Our client has greater confidence that they are meeting their obligations and their learning managers can focus on developing training and not researching answers for questions from the legal department.

One of the most exciting uses we are seeing with metadata catalogs has to do with badging or certifications. Certifications typically require a mapping of courses to skills and to the certification. There are LMS systems that do this mapping, but they cannot include courses or related learning information that is captured outside of the LMS. The metadata catalog provides a full list of learning material (irrespective of where it lives) as well as descriptive information about them. It is relatively easy to map this learning material to the certifications and integrate with products like Badgr to implement certifications across the organization.

If your organization is struggling to keep up with your learning needs, a metadata catalog could be the answer to getting control over your current learning and to creating better, more personalized learning offerings in the future. 

The post Managing Disparate Learning Content appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

John Collins, Senior Content Architect at Atlassian, and Yanko Ivanov, Enterprise Knowledge Senior Solution Architect, will co-present. Collins and Ivanov will explore how Atlassian is helping end-users and administrators prepare for changes by delivering timely, relevant, personalized multi-channel release notes enabled by componentized content and taxonomy.

Two of Enterprise Knowledge’s Software Engineers James Midkiff and Kate Erfle, will present a live demo of a software solution built by EK software engineers and showcase how it improves the accuracy and efficiency of content recommendations across multiple user interfaces inside a global development organization’s systems.

Britt Elmer, Director of the Content Strategy Program at TSYS, and Yanko Ivanov, Enterprise Knowledge Senior Solution Architect, will discuss the business case and drivers for the advanced content authoring and delivery framework solution at TSYS. Learn from the two content experts about how they leverage a unified taxonomy and auto-tagging, a componentized content model for content reuse, knowledge graphs, and additional content engineering best practices to deliver connected, discoverable, and personalized content to  internal and external clients.

Register for the conference here: Online event registration | Omnichannel Conference

June 13-16, 2022

Sessions will run 10am to 7pm Central European Time

Use discount code DISC3022

The post Enterprise Knowledge to speak at International Web Conference OmnichannelX appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

    If you would like to be a guest on Knowledge Cast, Contact Enterprise Knowledge for more information.

The post Knowledge Cast – Dana Tessier of Shopify appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

Andreas has been CEO and managing partner of Semantic Web Company (SWC) for more than 15 years. At SWC, he is responsible for corporate strategy and strategic business development. Andreas has been a pioneer in the field of Semantic AI since 2001.

If you would like to be a guest on Knowledge Cast, Contact Enterprise Knowledge for more information.

The post Knowledge Cast Product Spotlight – Andreas Blumauer of Semantic Web Company appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

If you would like to be a guest on Knowledge Cast, Contact Enterprise Knowledge for more information.

The post Knowledge Cast Product Spotlight – David Clarke of Synaptica appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.

The Solution

Piloting an approach with their IT Support team, EK implemented a Knowledge Management strategy in addition to a taxonomy and an enterprise search strategy aligned with the Bank’s needs and objectives. Using an agile approach, EK:

1. Inventoried information repositories, based on criticality and frequency of use;
2. Assessed and prioritized content by developing indicators to determine content’s value based on user needs and organizational goals, thus eliminating stale, inconsistent, or irrelevant information;
3. Implemented a taxonomy management tool and integrated the system with repositories to tag content, based on an EK-developed taxonomy; and
4. Revamped the search experience by implementing an open-source search engine and designing a new search interface and indexing strategy.

EK trained IT Support Managers, CSRs, and technical staff on how to conduct their roles with the new solutions and further scale their capabilities to benefit other business units in the bank. EK also implemented a KM Leadership team to ensure KM governance processes were in place and that the bank understood the newly developed strategy and how to communicate its value to executive leadership and their staff.

The EK Difference

EK was able to provide end-to-end KM services for the bank with expertise ranging from strategy and design to implementation and maintenance of the proposed solutions. EK utilized a variety of top-down and bottom-up approaches to assess the current inventory of repositories, define a content management strategy based on organizational and user needs, implement a taxonomy management system to properly tag and manage content, and align the system with an EK-designed taxonomy for consistent content management. EK partnered with the bank’s IT team to ensure a transparent and collaborative process, and to ensure that the bank’s staff received the proper and necessary training for effective maintenance of the new solutions. EK further enhanced the process of finding information by implementing a search engine, using in-house expertise, which also aligned with the content management strategy, taxonomy management solution, and the new taxonomy. EK was able to streamline the process of finding information due to the varied expertise in taxonomy design/implementation, content management processes, and enterprise search design and implementation.

The Results

Implementing the Knowledge Management strategy and technical solution resulted in the Federal Bank’s IT Support team being able to more quickly find information at the time of need. Key success outcomes of the engagement include:

• Cost Per Ticket was reduced
• Staff prefer the new search experience over SharePoint Online and DokuWiki
• Employees report increased confidence in search results
• Decreased time spent finding required information
• Increased ability for employees to discover content
• IT Support management understand their roles and responsibilities as they relate to governing the solution and guiding CSRs

IT-Support-Implementation-for-a-Large-Federal-BankDownload

The post IT Support Implementation for a Large Federal Bank appeared first on Enterprise Knowledge.