IS 456 Class VI Homework assignments

Homework for Week VI:
Homework for this week is in two parts, please see both sections below:

Homework Week VI

Start with the Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning.pdf article
* Skim this article, as reading goes, this is rather rough sledding.
* See figure 1. We’ve seen this before, now some things have been added.
* Where does "learning" occur?
o ANS: Learning occurs at the "Refinement" Stage where the Explication, Drawing inferences, Encoding, Evaluation, Selection for inclusion in memory occurs.

Huber article:
* Don’t spend too much time on this article. I wanted you to see Figure 1, that is the main idea.
* This is difficult reading, but still is a widely cited article from way back in 1991.
* It answers the question, how many different ways can the organization learn? See the 4 branches of the diagram.

o Knowledge acquisition is the process by which knowledge is obtained.
o Information distribution is the process by which information from different sources is shared and thereby leads to new information or understanding.
o Information interpretation is the process by which distributed information is given one or more commonly understood interpretations.
o Organizational memory is the means by which knowledge is stored for future use.
* Under which of the branches do you find "media richness? Have you seen this before? Do you agree?
o ANS: Media Richness is found in the "Information Interpretation" branch. We came across media richness when we discussed "Multimedia and the cognitive process" using Mettalica’s song "One" in class. The concept that stood out during the discussion was "BIAS".

* What is unlearning, and where does it fall?
o Ans: Headberg in 1981 defined "Unlearning" as a process through which learners discard Knowledge. He also described it as discarding obsolete and misleading knowledge and termed it intentional and functional in the Organizational learning process. Unlearning falls in the Information Interpretation Branch.

General:
* What is the difference between knowledge management and organizational learning?
o ANS: Organizational Learning focuses on the Process and Knowledge Management focuses on the content of Knowledge in the process of " Acquire àCreate (and refine) àStore,à Transfer/ShareàUse,à Improve Performance". Organizational Learning can be summarized as a goal of Knowledge Management.

* Between knowledge transfer and organizational learning?
o ANS: Knowledge transfer is a sub part of the Organizational Learning Process. The overall Organizational learning process has these components: Acquire àCreate (and refine) àStore,à Transfer/ShareàUse,à Improve Performance

* Between knowledge transfer and knowledge management?
o ANS: Knowledge transfer is a sub part of the Organizational Learning Process. Knowledge Mangement deals with the CONTENT in the Organizational learning Process. The overall Organizational learning process has these components: Acquire àCreate (and refine) àStore,à Transfer/ShareàUse,à Improve Performance

HomeWork Week VI part a.

Readings are based on the Enterprise Content Management readings distributed as pdf, titled: Best practices of Content Management.
2 The Chaos of Content
* List 3 sources of tension between IT and the user community, in terms of enterprise content management.
o ANS: The 3 sources of tension discussed are: Growth, Brand and Speed.
Growth: Companies that are trying to grow their on line presence often see this tension between IT and the business unit(user community), where the user wants the best customer experience and IT can only provide the most efficient, with the resources they have
Brand: Consolidating Brand assets centrally when companies are going global is a huge challenge in areas of consistency and meeting localized needs of various cultures and demographics.
Speed: If IT does not have speed to deliver the brand managers will most probably take matters into their own hands, making the task of delivering what the users need quickly and being consistent across the business.

4 Unlock the Value of Content to Maximize Online Business Performance
* Getting the right content, to the right person, is a popular KM phrase.
* How can better content enable enterprises to optimize the customer experience?
o ANS: Optimizing Customer experience can be achieved by delivering the most accurate, Current, persuasive and appropriate content, in short BETTER content. Better content will Strengthen Customer loyalty, Achieve unified brands, messages and corporate images, Accelerate worldwide product launches and promotions, Optimize customer process efficiencies and Provide regulatory compliance and security.

6 Content Management vs. Knowledge Management
* The article mentions some differences between CM and KM. Which of these terms describe CM, and which describe KM?
o ANS:
o Capture: Knowledge Management domain
o Create: Content Management domain
o Route: Knowledge Management domain
o Manage: Content Management domain
o Convert: Knowledge Management domain
o Publish: Content Management domain

* Is CM or KM bigger in scope, i.e. does one belong under the other’s umbrella?
o ANS: Content Management can be defined more as a static " Create/Manage/Publish" process while Knowledge management is broader and envelopes CM owing to its dynamic and holistic "capture/route/convert/measure" approach.

8 Managing Email Overload: The Smart, Secure and Legal Way
* Name 3 drivers that dictate what an email management solution must do.
o ANS:
1) Email as a source of corporate records needed for regulatory compliance and legal discovery
2) Email growth is explosive
3) Email is a source of business critical information

* Name 5 requirements of any email management solution.
o ANS:
1) Retain messages in compliance with corporate and regulatory policies
2) Provide a highly scalable repository that is capable of fast growth and has scalable retention capabilities.
3) Facilitate searching as required for legal discovery
4) Improve system performance
5) Integrate email with other corporate records and content.

* What are some consequences of not having an email management system?
o ANS:
1) Additional time spent on administration of the email
2) Overloaded servers will degrade performance of the email platform
3) Users will be burdened with mailbox limits
4) Risks of non-compliance and or additional hours will be spent during litigation and regulatory requests.
5) Benefits of sharing important information through the company is lost.

10 Today's Search: All The Power. No Pain.
* What are some criteria for evaluating an enterprise search solution?
o ANS:
1) Ease of installation
2) Time needed to learn how to build interfaces and put the server up
3) The ability to easily manipulate the user interface
4) relevance of search results
5) time to search and load over 2.5Million documents in a wide variety of formats and data sources.

11 The Emerging Role of SharePoint in ECM
* Do you think SharePoint is a good choice for students to search a discussion forum on COLWeb? Why or why not?
o ANS: Microsoft’s documentation claims that Sharepoint is an ideal platform for Basic search and retrieval. However depending on its implementation this may or may not be true.
When I went to the discussion form at colweb using IE (http://collaboration.cti.depaul.edu/2008-3/IS356/841) I received a permissions error, indicating I donot have privileges to view this page. When I went to the discussion forum at colweb using Firefox, it does not render the page at all.
The reason: The IT team has not completed implementation of this component. Perhaps it is just a configuration error.

12 Top Five Reasons to Outsource Document Capture
* Name the "top five reasons to outsource your document capture project".
o ANS:
1. Focus on your organization’s core business processes;
2. Improve service levels to clients and reduce transaction costs at the same time;
3. Faster and more secure implementation of compliance and discovery initiatives;
4. Providing near-term cost savings while avoiding technological obsolescence;
5. Cost-effective disaster recovery

13 Will Your Next CMS Scale to Meet Your Demands?
* Is content management something you buy, or something you do? Explain.
o ANS:
CM is something you DO since it is more of a pursuit than a product.

We know your organization, its needs and its appetite, and propensity for change. Finding a flexible, scalable solution that best aligns with a well-defined strategy is a logical goal. Ending up with the most features or the lowest initial is not necessarily a measure of success in a CM implementation.

14 The Value of SharePoint-Based ECM Solutions
* What are the key chunks of functionality that an enterprise content management system should have?
o ANS:
1) Document management, Forms management, Web content management and email management
2) Transactional content functionality such as document scanning and imaging, report management and enterprise class BPM.
3) Achieve enhanced business content control and management,
4) Broaden user adoption across the enterprise
5) Enjoy higher, longer-lasting returns on their ECM investments.
6) Minimize the impact on both the information worker desktop as well as the internal IT operational infrastructure

15 How to Correct Your Organization’s Content Myopia
* What is the best approach to transforming these business areas with Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?
o ANS:
o Accounts payable:
start by scanning, classifying and indexing paper documents as well as capturing electronic invoices. Save time and improve accuracy using tools such as queue-based workflows and automatic notification. Integrate accounts payable information with enterprise resource planning and other line-of-business systems to ensure it gains the widest possible currency.

Contract management
Begin by leveraging collaborative workspaces to share documents, track deliverables and hold threaded discussions. Enable users to access associated contentoffice documents, scanned images, email and more from a common content repository. Develop electronic forms to streamline contract requests and notify others about contract milestones and obligations.

o Client engagement:
Enable collaboration across projects and around the globe. This will provide the capability to track milestones and resolve issues, give clients visibility into processes from project launch to completion, and track key metrics across various projects. Increased delivery throughput, exceeding client expectations and driving new engagement opportunities will be the benefits that this collaborative approach will bring.

o Compliance:
Start by automating the entire content lifecycle to protect content from inappropriate use or disclosure while ensuring its accessibility. Mitigate risk of non-compliance by automatically auditing content during any stage and enforcing policies for retention and, as appropriate, disposal.

o New product development:
Create flexible workspace templates to enforce best practices and track progress across multiple projects through enterprise database rollups, dashboards and reporting tools

o Enterprise marketing:
Streamline the marketing process and provide seamless access to marketing content. Coordinate campaigns, product launches and ongoing branding and marketing communications. Keep projects on track, reduce overall costs and exert greater control over brand assets using media repositories, creative workflows and virtual workspaces.

16 Widgets, Wizzbangs and Whoozits
* New functionality on your web site should be in alignment with "the companies Business Model".
* Give an example of when a discussion forum might not be a good idea on a website.
o ANS: Cell phone provider website where customer turnover is very high. Prospective customers could get turned off by negative comments.

17 Is On-Demand Content Management Right for You?
* In a few paragraphs, explain when SaaS would be an appropriate alternative for content management?
o ANS:
Software as a Service can deliver great project success at a dramatically reduced cost if the CM project has a heavy dependency on Document management and Workflow tools. Along with this criteria, the following evaluation guidelines will assist with assessing the FIT of SaaS as the preferred Choice in CM implementation.

The Breadth test: If your CM requirements needs one or more components not often found in off-the-shelf CM packages, such as send/receive faxes from the application, OCR, Scanner integration, E-Forms and combining form based data, Ability to view proprietary formats and advanced document workflow.

The Speed Test: If your implementation,/adoption rate is required to be RAPID, then SaaS is a better fit than the traditional CM application deployed by the IT/project teams.

The Cash Flow Test: If the project requires lower TCO and lesser Risk, SaaS is a better option than traditional CM deployment.

Evolving needs test: If the needs of the user community are constantly evolving, the In-House CM implementation might tend to become cumbersome. The SaaS option under these circumstances would provide a better fit.

The 80/20 test: The mixture of integration and configuration is referred to as the 80/20 rule. If 80% of the solution is provided out of the box by the SaaS solution, then it should be considered over the traditional CM implementation.