Knowledge Management Technology - Etisalat Telecommunication Company - Case Study Example

Knowledge Management Technology Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Knowledge Management Technology Introduction Knowledge availability is essential to the management and success of an organization. According to Bellaver & Lusa (2002) the process of obtaining, developing, distributing as well as using organizational knowledge is termed as knowledge management. Managing knowledge is challenging to most organizations thus, there is always a need to have technologies that support the new processes, strategies techniques and methods to develop, share, disseminate and use the best knowledge anytime in all the sectors of the organization. There are numerous benefits accrued from integrating different technologies. For instance, knowledge management focuses on knowledge sharing. Thus, everyone in the organization gains the same knowledge. Thus, there can always be a substitute (Handzic, 2005). This avoids duplication of work and saves time. It is in this regard that this essay seeks to look into the knowledge management technologies at the Etisalat telecommunication company. It will specifically analyze the major knowledge management problems at the organization. It will discuss how the cooperation is using technology in solving its issues and some of the benefits and challenges experienced while using the technologies. How the company implements its appropriate toolset to solve, their issues will also be addressed. Moreover, a highlight on how the solution meets its issues will also be looked into. Analysis of the Knowledge Management problem Despite the numerous benefits accrued in using the various knowledge-based technologies, there are some challenges or setbacks that arise from the use of the technologies. If the problems are not well managed they can have detrimental effects on the success of the organization. Therefore, companies need to stay abreast in monitoring their knowledge-based technologies to ensure that they gain the best out of them. Etisalat is a no exception; it has experienced some challenges. The major problems it has experienced in a bid to using the knowledge-based technologies barriers in the technical barriers and human-related barriers. The company has embraced several technologies including the CBCM technology. This technology offers an elegant and a high-end technology software solution which has eased their operations in workflow management, data interchange, communication and information sharing. However, the technology is very expensive to run and monitor; this has been a giant constraint to the company. Some of the technologies are complex to use and needs specialized personnel to operate them, inadequate and lack of literacy a problem. Moreover, technology is today changing at unprecedented, making technologies outdated quickly, thus keeping up with the new technologies can be challenging (Al-Shammari, 2009). For instance, there is always need to update or acquire new software to manage the systems. Furthermore, these technologies are prone to breakdowns, thus sometimes have interrupted operations at the company. The security of the systems has also proved to be a challenge. People can easily hack into the companies systems and gain access to data that are private to the organization. This poses a security threat to the organization. Similarly, due to the magnitude of the operations of the company, a fast and reliable technology is needed to manage the systems. However, some of these technologies are slow and constantly hangs thus slowing down its operations thus not efficient and effective. For instance, when Etisalat introduced the CBCM technology, it was able to manage its client's accounts effectively more easily as compared to the old technology systems. Furthermore, it enabled them to add some services sold to customers that had to be billed manually to the technology or system. The e-hosting service is an example of the additional services. Now, the challenge that was experienced during the development and implementation stage of the system was that each of the company’s products had to be managed by its information technology application. Similarly, to computerize the registration of the provided products, first, the connections had to begin from the CBCM then get changed into an understandable form that can be interpreted by the system before it could be activated. Besides this process being hectic, it was prone to breakdown as the transaction conversion sometimes failed resulting in a delay in service activation for clients (Maier, 2007). This to a larger extent led to customer dissatisfaction and a negative impact on the company. The company’s management has to focus on resolving these issues and maximize the best use of data that can be provided by the CBCM to create reports for decision making which directly affects knowledge management. The failure of the systems was sometimes as a result of human error. The system is complex and requires specialized knowledge and skills in operating the systems (International Business Publications, 2013). However, Etisalat had limited personnel specialized in managing the technologies, they sometimes got overstretched and thus led to the frequent delays. Score 2: Use of technology in solving the business issue and the analysis of the available toolset for solving the problem with pros and cons of each tool evaluated It is often said for every problem there is always a solution. To manage the above problems, the Google Wave protocol can be integrated into the company’s operation systems to minimize or eliminate the knowledge management problems. Typically, the Etisalat company is growing, and its operations are increasing every single day, it is, therefore, imperative that they develop a uniform and consistent way of sharing its knowledge across its business units. Etisalat keeps its information in word processors, databases, spreadsheets, various presentations, html documents and in wikis. Coming up with a single search interface that can understand these formats will be essential. They also need to be kept safe. All these can be attained through the Google wave technologies. The Google Wave innate 2.0 supports knowledge of users. The wave protocol can make the participants aware through the document which resides in the wave. The wave protocol also comes handy in supporting conversations. Furthermore, it can nest conversation thus allowing sharing and dissemination of information (Gottschalk, 2005). Besides the company’s documents resides on the server and can support collaborative editing. The wave protocol can easily expose it to customer’s email, webpage, or a blog through a multitude of available extensions. However, in using this technology the company must be keen not to be too strenuous to support the wave to different customers. The technology also supports structured documents. Thus, it is preferable. Since the company stores its information documents wave in the XML, there is a need to develop schemas that lend a structure to different types of documents (Rollett, 2003). A plain vanilla email can also be integrated along with pre-agreed XML formatting to develop structured documents. The technology has search engines that allow access to the wave documents. Plain text, especially in the form of XML and sparse structured documents can also be accessed through the search engines. Furthermore, the technology supports all kinds of hyperlinks and media. The wave supports images, videos and audio both by linking and online. It, therefore, supports the storage of documents in different formats. The wave protocol thus can transform and improve the format of the knowledge management landscape. The Google Wave protocol has a standardized format that can enable collaborative editing, commenting, attachments and metadata thus are considered effective in knowledge dissemination and sharing of the company’s documents. The technology is advantageous in the sense that it is real-time interface. It is s a real-time innovation that enables one to see colleagues, friends and clients writing and typing in real time. The technology also promotes wave collaborations, enables doing things simultaneously while communicating. The technology is disadvantageous in the sense that it has no undo system, there are no options for hiding your replies, it has no notification system and also limits user invitation. Implementation of an appropriate toolset to solve the problem The Etisalat Company understands the need for maintaining and enhancing a strong relationship with its customers. It has, therefore, developed and implemented some tools to enable it to manage it knowledge with its stakeholders. Some of the implemented tools include; The e-CRM: the company introduced the Customer Relations Management application tool primarily to attract and retain its loyal clients. They realized, with the introduction of internet websites became the new stores for most companies. The eCRM application tool enabled the Etisalat Company to communicate proactively with its clients regarding its new products and services, new promotional campaigns as well as sending outstanding bills through emails or faxes to customers. In this way, they can disseminate and share information to its stakeholder’s thus effective knowledge management. They also sought to increase the loyalty of their customers. They developed an information technology tool that enabled its customers to subscribe and manage their user accounts through the website. It is an online reward program where on a monthly basis, the clients are rewarded with points that can enable them to pay bills or get shopping vouchers which they can use to shop to use in Etisalat partners retails. Database tools: the company uses the ORACLE database system to manage its knowledge information. The database can share a conglomeration of logically linked data and designs it in a way that meets the specific needs of its customers. The Click and Mortar Company knowledge management tool This business model incorporates both offline and online operations which primarily entails a physical store and website store. The Etisalat Company in a bid to increase its knowledge provides its services through the online websites or offline by physically visiting outlets and shops. However, it has focused on using the internet as most of its customers prefer using the internet. It is also convenient to the company. Development of a report detailing the solution set describing how the developed solution meets the issues raised by the problem Based on the above, various knowledge management problems, it can be ascertained that various technologies can help in mitigating the various challenges experienced by the Etisalat Company. To effectively manage the challenges that arise as a result of technological barriers, it is prudent for the Etisalat Company to conduct a prior feasibility study before implementing a knowledge management technology. It is advisable to develop and implement a system that is manageable by the corporation. It should be compatible with the operations of the company, in this case, the Etisalat Company mainly deals with telecommunication services . Therefore, it should seek for technologies that are related to telecommunication. Technologies such as the Google wave and e-CRM are a good example of technologies that can be effective. Further, they should be affordable regarding the acquisition cost, maintenance cost as well as the operational cost (Borghoff & Pareschi, 2000). Furthermore, there should also be available manpower that is skilled and knowledgeable about using the system (Borghoff & Pareschi, 2000). Moreover, it must not be an outdated technology but rather a more recent and up to date technology. The technology being implemented must also be effective and efficient regarding knowledge management; it must have the ability to disseminate and share appropriate information with the relevant stakeholders. Conclusion It is no doubt that the world is becoming digitalized and almost all companies are embracing the use of modern technologies in their operations, knowledge management being key among them. The Etisalat, as discussed above, have relatively embraced technologies that aim to help it manage its knowledge capacity, however, it has not fully maximized on some technologies. It has been faced with myriad problems about the use of the systems, with the prevalent challenge being technical challenges. This essay has outlined how the company can overcome this challenge by implementing the Google wave technology and other tools such as the e-CRM and CBCM. Therefore, to have the best the best technologies that facilitates knowledge. References Al-Shammari, M. (2009). Customer knowledge management: People, processes, and technology. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Bellaver, R. F., & Lusa, J. M. (2002). Knowledge management strategy and technology. Boston: Artech House. Borghoff, U. M., & Pareschi, R. (2000). Information Technology for Knowledge Management. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Gottschalk, P. (2005). Strategic knowledge management technology. (Idea Group.) Hershey PA: Idea Group Pub. Handzic, M. (2005). Knowledge Management: Through The Technology Glass. Singapore: World Scientific. Handzic, M. (2005). Knowledge Management: Through The Technology Glass. Singapore: World Scientific. (Handzic, 2005) International Business Publications, USA. (2013). United Arab Emirates country study guide: Volume 1. Maier, R. (2007). Knowledge management systems: Information and communication technologies for knowledge management. Berlin: Springer Berlin. Rollett, H. (2003). Knowledge Management: Processes and Technologies. Boston, MA: Springer US. Tsui, E. (2005). Technology in knowledge management. Bradford, England: Emerald Group Pub. (Tsui, 2005) Read More