Development of Tools for Knowledge Management in SMEs

Transcription

1 Development of Tools for Knowledge Management in SMEs 26 SMEs shift Carinthia to a knowledge based region in Austria Since knowledge-based value creation becomes more and more important within the EU especially for SMEs Knowledge Management is a keyfactor for economic success, both for enterprises and regions. Therefore a project was set up in Carinthia in order to improve the competitiveness of the region and SMEs with the help of Knowledge Management. However, at the beginning it was not clear which measures should be implemented in order to achieve a sustainable improvement. The figure below gives an overview of the project. 03/2004 resp. 01/2006 Project Planning 2 days 1-2 employees/sme Trainings Assessments E.o.E. E.o.E. Pilot Projects Member State: Austria Programme: Regional Programme for Innovative Actions Carinthia Total budget: EUR 338, Structural Fund (ERDF) co-financing: EUR 89, National public co-financing: EUR 144, National private co-financing: EUR 104, /2005 resp. 12/2006 End of of Project 1 day 3-5 employees/sme Project Mgmt. by the enterprise Project team 3-5 Workshops 1. Project Planning and Project Management The planning of the project and the project management was done by ISN Innovation Service Network which is the network for Innovation- and Knowledge Management experts located in Austria and Slovenia. ISN aggregates currently forty-five partners from Austrian and Slovene universities, colleges, application oriented competence centres and other service enterprises. First of all, milestones and activities were planned. An information campaign was initiated with the intention to improve the awareness for the importance of Knowledge Management and to acquire SMEs for the pilot projects. In the first edition (03/2004 until 07/2005) 10 SMEs took part, currently the second edition with 16 SMEs is in progress (up to now 26 SMEs in total). 2. Assessments All enterprises were assessed using the kscan ( Knowledge Scan ) assessment tool which was developed by ISN for this project in strong cooperation between research and application partners. With the help of the kscan-tool it was possible to determine the problems and to discover possible Quick Wins regarding Knowledge Management. 3. Trainings Two-day trainings were used to make selected employees of the companies familiar with Knowledge Management.

2 4. Pilot Projects Based on the results of the assessments, pilot projects were initiated or are currently being initiated for the second edition of the project. 5. E.O.E. (Exchange of Experience) Additionally, meetings were organized in which the enterprises taking part in the program could exchange their experiences, share knowledge, talk about problems, discuss Knowledge Management issues and create solutions for their problems, 6. End of Project After the pilot projects had been completed, best practice examples were identified and described. These examples are solutions and measures suitable for the vast majority of the SMEs in the region, hence capable of improving Carinthia s competitiveness in a global knowledge economy. Additionally, the experiences gained were the input for the 2 nd edition of the Knowledge Management program. 7. Financial Volume: 1 st Edition ( ): financial volume: EUR 137, funding: EUR 96, Training and Assessments were funded with 100% 2 nd Edition (2006): financial volume: EUR 200, funding: EUR 136, Training and Assessments were funded with 100% Context and Reason why the programme was set up In Carinthia, SMEs are the most important employers. Therefore it is necessary to improve their competitiveness. Since innovation and knowledge are vital factors for economic success, Knowledge Management is a strategic issue for enterprises. However, most of the Carinthian SMEs had no experience regarding Knowledge Management. Therefore it was decided to start a Knowledge Management project. Objectives of the programme The main goals of the projects were and still are: 1. Improve the competitiveness of the SMEs taking part 2. Improve the competitiveness of Carinthia as a knowledge based local economy 3. Derive adequate measures for dissemination of Knowledge Management within the whole region Critical Success factors: 1. Cooperation between SMEs and the scientific project management team 2. Willingness of the SMEs to take part in the project 3. Co-Founding of the EU Description of the major activities and project management For a description of the major activities undertaken so far please refer to the project description on page 2. For the upcoming months, pilot projects in selected enterprises are currently being planned. Furthermore, meetings in which the enterprises taking part can exchange their experiences will take place in autumn On the roadmap to a knowledge based region the next step will be an extended dissemination of the experiences generated so far to other companies. Stakeholder of the project are the SMEs taking part, the employees of these SMEs, the local government of Carinthia, the Carinthian Economic Promotion Fund (KWF) and ISN Innovation Service Network

3 Analysis of the outcome, results and (potential) effects of the programme The experience of assessment in 26 SMEs and Pilot Projects in 10 SMEs so far show the following lacks regarding Knowledge Management: 1. Environment: This domain is characterized on the one hand by a mi- 1 Umfeld Environment nor use of methods and instruments for the collection of knowledge from customers, suppliers and competitors. Beyond that it can be said that the preparation and making avai- 2 Organisation Wissensebene Knowledge Level 3 lable of knowledge is not satisfying Application/Learning Anwenden/Lernen for the relevant co-workers in the Handlungsebene Action Level company. Especially for SME it is Wertschöpfungsprozess Business process very difficult to get in contact with 4 research institutes or universities to cooperate. This can change rapidly Dokumentation/Information Documentation/Information when a graduate person joins the Datenebene Data Level company as new member. Customer Kunde 5 2. Organisation: In the organisational domain formalized systems (e.g. expert rounds, coaching, etc.) hardly take place. So older and/or experienced co-workers are not used to transfer their knowledge to younger and/or new co-workers. 3. Knowledge level (the people involved): The most frequent inadequacy on this level is that the new knowledge generated within the completion of the processes and projects is hardly systematically documented and/or passed on. A comparatively large portion of the knowledge is transmittedthrough unplanned personal communication. There often exists the desire for an intensified formalizing of the knowledge passing on (e.g. regular meetings, rules for traffic...). 4. Action level (the processes carried out): This level is characterized by an insufficient preparation or sudden separating of the core processes knowledge worker. There are hardly redundancies and the documentation of the necessary knowledge for the execution of the processes is very often missing. 5. Data level (the IT-Infrastructure): Here there are hardly any clear regulations regarding which piece of knowledge should be documented in what way (hardly structures and samples) or where (file server, data bases, etc.). The logical results are long search times and an antiquated volume of data. Using these results, it was possible to derive three categories of SMEs from a Knowledge Management point of view: 1. Dynamic growing enterprises with flat hierarchies For such an enterprise flexibility and dynamism are typical. Decisions are made rapidly, an open corporate culture prevails. Innovation is a central issue and knowledge is a key competition factor. Much knowledge is available but focused on very few experts. Risk estimation and knowledge saving activities are subjects which should be treated urgently, but in most of the cases it is perceived as unimportant. First Knowledge Management-activities target the creation of structures and stabilization of processes. The fundamental openness for external partners and cooperation faces unfortunately financial limitations. 2. Production-oriented traditional enterprises with industrial structures Many of these enterprises have been on the market for a long time already, usually in a stable industry. They know their surrounding field and structures, department-thinking and strongly distinct hierarchies dominate. The mobility suffers from this situation and leads therefore to Knowledge Management activities with a focus on inter-departmental, process orientated organizational development. The knowledge transfer within the enterprise as well as over geographical boundaries attains a high importance. Often it Customer Kunde

4 requires a re-orientation and a restriction on substantial core fields of knowledge as well as a decrease of the creation of value depth, in order to remain competitive. 3. Family companies with authoritarian leadership Many of these companies developed from a crafts enterprise into an industrial surrounding field. Very often the founder of the company can only be found in a subordinated role because his company had to master crises and now he has to face an investor or an international business group as a partner. Such a prehistory is usually combined with knowledge loss through fluctuation. Thus usually the openness for the topic of knowledge management increases. For each of these categories, a specific set of measures is necessary for the sustainable implementation of Knowledge Management. Any difficulties experienced during implementation and how they were overcome It was very difficult to get enough enterprises for the first phase of the project. Of 63 companies contacted via telephone roughly 30 attended a road show and finally 10 took part. Some of them had to be visited in order to clarify special needs and answer detailed questions about Knowledge Management. The main challenges the project team had to deal with were: 1. Knowledge Management had to be translated into the specific language of the enterprises: What is it all about and what are the benefits for us? 2. Key eemployees for Knowledge Management have a very narrow time schedule and operate with a workload of 120%. 3. Time-consuming scheduling of meetings since people from different departments were needed and daily business is of higher priority 4. Wrong expectations that internal tensions can be solved with the help of Knowledge Management 5. Expectation that solely IT is able to solve problems regarding knowledge transfer To meet these challenges it was found that one should consider the following: 1. The patronage of the executives is a prerequisite for a sustainable implementation of Knowledge Management 2. A certain number of employees directly involved in the project is necessary for an adequate diffusion of the topic 3. Motivation can be increased by achieving quick wins due to small and manageable pilot projects and achievable goals 4. A highly motivated and well trained project team delivers quicker results 5. A good coordination between internal project management and external experts leads to quicker success 6. Knowledge Management has to consider the value-adding processes of an enterprise Difference made by support from the Structural Funds Without funding it would not have been possible to start the project: Most of the SMEs would not have dealt with Knowledge Management since high-level experts are expensive. The funding provided reduced financial risk for the SMEs since the cost for external Knowledge Management experts could be reduced substantially. But still it was very difficult to find enough SMEs for the 1 st phase of the Knowledge Management program, mainly due to a lack of information about the topic itself. Perspectives for the future: sustainability and follow up The success of the first phase of the Knowledge Management program is best illustrated by comparing the fact that the number of companies taking part in the second phase increased from 10 to 16 and after the completion of the 2 nd phase the program will have been running for more than 2½ years. For the future the following actions will be needed in order to increase the region s status as a knowledge based economy: 1. More meetings in which the enterprises taking part in the 1 st and 2 nd phases of the project are able to exchange their experiences regarding Knowledge Management: This enhances best practice transfer and creates a strong incentive for SMEs that are currently not dealing with Knowledge Management but for which it would be very important in order to improve their competitiveness

5 2. Dissemination of the results of both editions of the project for example road shows in different regions in order to spread the experiences gained from Knowledge Management projects in 26 SMEs. This would enable a lot of enterprises in the region to manage their knowledge more efficiently and improve the competitiveness of the whole region. Contribution of the project to the fulfilment of the revised strategic orientations of the Lisbon strategy The project deals with Knowledge Management, which is an essential asset for enterprises and regions that want to play a leading role in the knowledge based economy. Since the project is not limited to a single enterprise but comprises a whole region within the EU, it helps this region to achieve the goals of the Lisbon strategy. Furthermore, it is possible to set up similar projects for other regions (adaptations might be possible of course, depending on the local economic structure). This will help the entire EU to get the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, since its enterprises are able to deal with their knowledge effectively and efficiently. Relation of the project to the aspects of sustainable development For the enterprises taking part the project reduced the risk of knowledge loss due to the resignation of employees. Furthermore, not dealing with Knowledge Management at an early stage (compared to possible competitors) means a substantial risk that competitiveness will not be maintained in a medium and long term perspective. To take into consideration the region as whole, the project plays a vital role of reducing the risk of being not attractive for knowledge work. Reason why the project was a success and should be considered as a best practice project The success of the project is best illustrated by comparing the fact that the number of companies taking part increased from 10 in first phase to 16 in the second phase. Furthermore, some of the companies are continuing with Knowledge Management without any funding or are implementing measures by themselves. The main achievement was to get Knowledge Management from an academical level on to the shop floor. Contact person Name: Reinhard Schinner Telephone: Function: Managing Authority RPIA and Objective 2 Carinthia Fax: Address: Heuplatz 2, 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria schinner@kwf.at