Assessment Principles And Stakeholder Consultation For Knowledge Management System

The companies must gain stakeholders opinion and consent on the knowledge management system. This is because the stakeholders like customers, especially the business customers, suppliers, distributors and investors share a great deal of information with the companies using their knowledge management systems. The category of knowledge management system must be compatible which would allow smooth acquisition, sharing and using of data. Moreover, knowledge management system requires a huge investment, which requires approval, and investment from the shareholders.

Installation and maintenance of KMS requires continuous investment, which in turn add to the cost of finished goods. Thus, while researching on KMS the companies require obtaining the approval of the customers. The companies also require obtaining financial help from financial institutions and require getting their approval as well. Thus, it can be summarised that companies must consult important stakeholders like customers, shareholders, suppliers and financial institutions because of three reasons. First, it leads to sharing of information with the stakeholders, second, it has implications on the cost of the goods and third it requires financial support from financial institutions and investors.

nowledge management system (KMS) enables companies to acquire, store, integrate and apply a large number of business data. The companies share this data their stakeholders like customers and suppliers on daily basis to conduct business. The objectives of knowledge management system are as follows:

Knowledge management system aims to enable the companies obtain, integrate and share a great deal of information with their business partners. This results in smooth business operations between companies and their business partners like suppliers and employees.
Knowledge management system enables the different departments to share data. This results in high degree of collaboration between them that helps them to achieve high degree of professional excellence.
KMS enables companies to share crucial business data with important stakeholders like investors and customers. The investors can get know about the financial status of the companies and take decisions regarding investment. KMS enables the customers to gain information about the products of the companies and decide to purchase them. Thus, KMS in this case aims to generate investment and revenue respectively.

a. Training Strategy	What methods of training will be used to train the stakeholders?	Who will develop the training materials?	What resources are required?	How would you conduct follow up training?
1.Internal stakeholders-employees and management board-meeting, internal training and conferences 2.Customers-in-store tutor, online product demonstration	1. HR department and departmental heads. 2.The marketing department	1. Training room, trainer, human resources, capital, brochures, and information technology and communication network like conference systems. 2. Brochures. Online store, venue	1. Checking performances of employees 2. Comparing between the revenue generated from a product before and after educating customers
3. Suppliers and distributors-Conferences, online training, brochure training, policy training, invoice training	3. Product department, marketing department and supply chain department	3. Brochures, invoice portals, demonstrations	3. Comparing between revenue generations to check the effectiveness of training pertaining to distributors. The supply of high quality materials confirming to the quality parameters of the company shows the positive impacts of training on the suppliers
b. How would you determine if training has been successful?	There are several ways of ascertaining the rate of success of training the stakeholders. Improvement in the performance and their enhanced ability to meet customer requirements would show that the company has successfully trained its employees. The increase in supply of high quality raw material at more economic rates would show that the company has successfully trained the suppliers. When the distributors would start stocking and selling the products of a company more than its competitors, it would show that the distributors have successfully received the training and have developed strong understanding about the business requirements of the company. When customers start consuming the products of a particular company compared to its competing companies, it shows that they have developed deeper understanding about the products of the company. A reduction in customer complaint and prolonged brand loyalty shows the success of companies in training customers.
c. How would you promote the system to external users?	The following are the ways to promote online portals among external users like customers and suppliers: 1. The companies owning the portals should have clear idea about the users of the portals like customers. They should have a clear idea about their lifestyle, financial conditions and degree of tech-friendliness and design the portal accordingly. For example, the users have good knowledge about technology; companies can make highly advanced or sophisticated portals whereas for less literate customers the portal and the system should more user-friendly. 2. The companies can promote their online knowledge sharing system and portals using various media. They can promote their portals using offline media like newspapers and magazines. They can also promote their portals using online platforms like internet advertisements. 3. Companies can send newsletters and mass emails to promote their knowledge management system or portals. The target recipients of the mails comprise both existing and new customers, which also increases the chances of the company to acquire new customers.
d. What strategies would you use to protect the system making sure external users would not make any changes to the system?	The knowledge management system would have very stringent security check strategies to ensure external users are not able to make changes in it. The KMS would categorise the users under two heads namely, authorised users and guests. The staff members having authority to make changes in the portal like updating of information will the authorised users. The external identities like customers and suppliers would be considered as external or ‘guest’ users. They would require creating account using their identity proofs like passports. They would be assigned user names and passwords, which they have to give while accessing the portals. The next strategy would be allowing access to users based on their category. The suppliers would have access to business pages like invoices, the investors would have to their own share trading portals if they have invested in the shares of the company. The customers would have no access to these portals. They would have access to their own portals who they would be able to view products and place orders for online purchase. The third strategy would be allowing these external identities like customers and suppliers to only upload and download documents using their identification names and passwords. The portal would get locked if left without operation for ten minutes continuously and would require the users to give the passwords again to continue usages. All these strategies would ensure that the system authenticates the people or identities like supplying companies when they would try to use the systems of companies. These would protect the KMS of the companies from fraud.

1. Suggest strategies for resolving the following information management system problems:
Problem	Strategy for resolving problem
a. In the knowledge management system, you want to summarise your sales information by customer type. There is no report in the KMS which allows you to do this?	The knowledge management system would be formatted and whenever a customer would try to login, they would require to mention their category. The individual customers would require choosing ‘individual’ from a drop down menu while the suppliers and distributors would choose ‘business concern’ option. Then the ‘business customers’ would have to mention whether they are suppliers or distributors. This would allow the marketing department and the accounts departments to summarise the sales information based on customer type. For example, if an individual customer makes an online purchase, the sales amount would show under individual customer. Similarly, if a distributor buys bulk items the amount would show under ‘business concern’ option. Thus, the concerned would able to calculate the sale amount of both the category of customer separately or together as per the requirement.
b. You are constantly losing data, due to your computer constantly crashing?	The software, operating software, RAM and other peripherals would be checked. The information technology department should format all the systems, hardware and software. They should reinstall updated versions of the software like Windows, antivirus and all the crucial software like Tally and HR management.
c. A supplier has received information/data about one of your customers in error?	I would ensure that the supply discloses the extent of data he has received and if possible destroy his copy of data. The entire customer data management system would be secured once again and the passwords would be changed under the supervision of the apex management. The next action would be tracking the entire procedure, which led to the mistake. If any employee is found deliberately involved in the leaking of the information, the company would take immediate legal action and he would be terminated with immediate effect. If the investigation shows that the leak happened unintentionally, the employees would trained and counselled to avoid recurring of the mistake.
d. Customers are complaining about shipping delays and back orders?	The marketing and sales department would look into the matter. The supply chain management and the logistics management would be integrated to minimise shipping delays and back orders.
Using the web link provide watch the video on the information/knowledge management system. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of that system.
Strengths of the Xerox Knowledge Management System	Weaknesses of the Xerox Knowledge Management System
It helps in integrating a vast amount of data.	It is very expensive and can only be used by multinational companies.
It helps the company to manage data relating to customers, suppliers and distributors simultaneously.	It attracts legal, ethical and system related complications.
It helps the company communicate to stakeholders like customers and suppliers	It exposes the company to data theft and virus attacks.
3. Prepare a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation (please paste each slide to the cells below) based on an existing knowledge management system that you are familiar with and ensure you cover the following: a. Assess the effectiveness of this system, explaining how you collected the information to complete the assessment. b. How is the knowledge management system monitor for compliance, effectiveness and efficiency within the organisation? c. Does the knowledge management system comply with organisational policies and procedures? d. How does the knowledge management system identify with the Privacy Act 1988? Who is responsible for ensuring the knowledge management system complies with current legislation? e. Identify the contingency plan which the organisation has put in place in case of system failure. f. Identify possible improvements that could be made to the system.
a. The knowledge management system is extremely effective and efficient. The sources of the information are newspapers, magazines, companies who are suing the knowledge management system at present and also the customer online ratings.	b. The KMS is monitored by a multi-specialized security and compliance check to ensure that it is efficient, complies to the laws and the efficient. The system asks for user identification names, email ids and passwords when any entity tries to login, including business partners and customers. Then the operator at the back end would check the authenticity of every user. Any unauthorized attempt to enter the portal would block the user.
c. The knowledge management system complies with the procedures and policies of the company.	d. The company would comply with the Privacy Act 1988 and acquire the information about customers to use it for business purpose only. Further it would collect the information with prior consent of the customers and information them the method in which the information would be used by it.
e. The company maintains backup of all the information on the knowledge management system. Hence, it would not loose valuable data if the system crashes.	f. The system can be upgraded. The company can employ system experts who would especially maintain and supervise the system.