What Are You Doing With Your Knowledge?What Are You Doing With Your Knowledge?

Companies in all walks of business are finding that technology helps them put internal knowledge to work like never before. From the sharing of information across diverse global organizations to the creation of knowledge-sharing communities, businesses gathered at this week's Delphi Collaborative Commerce Summit in Coronado, Calif., are demonstrating how they're using knowledge to transform themselves.

For instance, Baker & McKenzie, a law firm with offices all over the world, has invested several million dollars in an internal-knowledge management system geared toward improving its client-service reputation. Brian Gillam, the firm's director of practice-management systems, says that by encouraging attorneys to share at least portions of their knowledge throughout Baker & McKenzie, the firm can dispel the sense that its quality of service varies from one office to the next. Even in its nascent stage, Gillam says the system is changing client perceptions of the firm. "Their proverbial jaws are dropping," he says. "They can see how this can help them."

Ericsson Research Canada in Montreal is launching a knowledge-sharing community that's been in development for nearly two years, and chief knowledge officer Anders Hemre says he's discovered that the technology that makes the community possible isn't nearly as important as getting organizational buy-in, from both senior management and employees. "Simply putting a system in place and hoping for the best will not work," Hemre says.

But consultant Douglas Mecham says companies still are missing one piece of the puzzle: data warehouse integration. Mecham is attending the summit hoping to persuade companies such as Baker & McKenzie and Ericsson to take their internal collaboration efforts one step further by turning the short-term benefits of knowledge sharing into a long-term asset. "Knowledge gained from collaboration is instrumental," Mecham says. "It improves management's ability to make strategic decisions."