Benefits of Knowledge Management

Knowledge is like a fuel and energy source for business, a power source. Imagine the use of other power sources such as electricity or gasoline. What are the uses? What are the potential Benefits? The possibilities are many.  To list a few: effective knowledge management pays off in fewer mistakes, less redundancy, quicker problem solving, and better decision making, reduced research development costs, increased worker independence, enhanced customer relations, and improved service. Further, some benefits of KM for the enterprise are (not all are possible to realize simultaneously):

¨      Productivity and efficiency

¨      Client collaboration

¨      Competitive advantage, including market visibility as a high-tech firm

¨      Ability to direct work to skilled specialists

¨      Knowledge sharing, skill development, and training

¨      Consistency of work product across offices or practice areas

¨      Faster delivery times

¨      Quality control

¨      Significant reduction in time & effort for retrieval of documents

Each company should determine the specific goals for its knowledge management program, because unless the goals are defined, it is impossible to measure success.