Knowledge Management Strategies for Mitigating the Big Crew - Wipro

Knowledge Management Strategies for mitigating the Big Crew Change in E&P
In order to provide database and application connectivity to feed the KPI and operational dashboards, MOSS provides the
Business Data Catalog (BDC). Out of the box, the BDC comes with Application Data Files (ADF) for SAP, Siebel and other line of
business applications. ADFs simplify connectivity and reduce development effort/costs. In situations where ADFs do not exist for
legacy systems, Wipro will create the configuration files. The BDC will be used to connect to the enterprise asset management
systems, SAP HR systems, personnel systems, SCADA databases, troubleshooting systems and ticket management systems.
Out of the box, MOSS provides Webparts for social networking including wikis, blogs, forums, people search, and relationship
management. As part of Wipro’s solution this functionality has been aligned to business processes and extended to make it
more relevant to E&P operations. Social Networking functionality has been renamed Professional Networking to reflect its
business alignment. One of the most innovative components is the linking of processes, assets and people and integrating the
results through the MOSS search engine.
For example, if a user initiates a search for information on a piece of equipment he will not only get a list of documents (data
store, wikis, blogs, forums) but he will also get a list of people associated with asset directly or indirectly. People-to-asset linking
will show first, second and third order associations. First order associations are employees with a direct history to the asset.
Second order associations are employees with experience with the same equipment elsewhere in the company. Third order
associations represent experience with similar equipment. Users will want to start with first order relationships since they are
most likely to provide the desired result, leveraging the second and third tier if things do not pan out.
As the search engine turns up people, relationships between people are also displayed. People-topeople linking is what is found
in LinkedIn, the popular Web-based networking tool. LinkedIn allows users to leverage their relationships with individuals to
access a wider network. This will prove very effective in E&P when employees need to enlist the help of people with whom they
have no past relationship. Cold calling is never as effective as when someone else with a relationship acts as a liaison.
The knowledge market is an e-commerce site. Consultants sign-up to deliver predefined products, set prices and advertise their
services on a portal. The portal is accessed by on-duty employees who need assistance on projects or troubleshooting
operations. Based on need and cost, the on-duty employees make a decision about whether to secure an individual’s services. A
shopping basket would be used to make purchases and payments would be handled by Paypal-like functionality. Workflows
would be used to get the necessary approvals to authorize engagements and payments. MOSS would serve as the platform for
this site and existing and new Webparts would be used to provide the functionality. MOSS based workflows integrated with
Exchange e-mail would manage the approval process. The entire incentive system is based on compensating employees based
on the value of the knowledge they contribute to the system. When an employee accesses information through the knowledge
management system, the system will require that he fill out a survey on the value of the information.
This is very similar to what is in use on e-commerce sites. For example, when a consumer evaluates a book on the Barnes and
Noble website, they get the opportunity to read reviews from people who have read the book. This information is used as part
of the buying decision. This same technology is used in Wipro’s solution. The search engine takes into account the rating of the
content when delivering results based on relevancy. The system will also track the number of times a document is accessed, its
average score and link it to particular project or troubleshooting process that has a dollar value. A point system is then used to
quantify value. Each user will have a scorecard that shows the value of his information compared to his peer group. Value
received would then be used to determine bonuses, promotions or other incentives. This functionality will be delivered through
existing and new webparts for the MOSS platform.
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