eSolve Blog
Knowledge Management and the Aging Workforce
Mar. 26, 2009 10:47
As identified in a recent Wall Street Journal article, knowledge management is becoming increasingly important as the workplace population ages. Interestingly, a number of companies, including ConocoPhillips (COP), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and BP PLC (BP) are encouraging workers to use "...handheld computers, interactive Web pages, blogs, social networks and other media to store information on how they make crucial decisions or resolve problems at the office and in the field."
Changes in technology have lead to a disconnected and dispersed workforce that relies heavily on email and real-time meetings. Technology such as Cisco Telepresence, offers an alternative to face-to-face communication to reduce travel and energy use, by focusing on video and audio conferencing and real-time communication. Unfortunately, the underlying problem – too many meetings – is not addressed. Workers have compensated by turning to non-real time tools such as email, chat, blogging, and other Web 2.0 social networking tools. The most popular non-real time communication methods currently in use are email, chatting, and other Web 2.0 social networking tools, such as blogging, Wiki’s, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Unfortunately, none of these methods has a project focus and communication is often random, difficult to follow, wasteful, off topic, and is unrelated and cannot be tied to specific work projects. Finding information when needed among all these dispersed sources has become an increasing problem, and the risk of losing important business information has increased. Workers have resorted to storing key data on laptops and mobile devices and this also increases the risk of data loss due to stolen or lost devices, and device failures (e.g., hard disk crashes).
Cisco reports that, since 2006, workers using its real-time virtual meeting technology have avoided travel for 17,500 meetings, savings $90M and 20 million cubic meters of emissions, or the equivalent of 8700 cars off the road. However, avoiding travel for meetings, only to replace it with online and virtual meetings, is not a final solution. In fact, online meetings can cost more and be less effective than face-to-face meetings, since they often tie-up more people in more locations, although few participants actively participate or engage in those meetings. A better method is to reduce the need for meetings while providing a better way for virtual teams to work and collaborate. The best way to accomplish this is to use non-real time communication.
A new, non-real time form of online communication called “project collaboration” has emerged that combines Web 2.0 tools and social networking with project management. These tools allow workers not only to discuss doing work, but actually conduct it anytime, anyplace, using a web browser and avoid business travel to attend meetings. Information is organized by project and is primarily text-based and easily searchable. The benefit of this type of communication is that persons both inside and outside organizational boundaries can engage in project discussions and work, since the tools reside outside organizational firewalls on the Internet. When properly secured, this form of communication provides a central store of information that captures all communication and discussion about a project or problem, normally only found in email. Users can discuss issues, develop solutions, collaborate on documents, share results, and plan tasks, all without physically meeting. This reduces the need for real-time communication to an absolute minimum, since all project data and interaction can be found in the online system at any time, from any location. Email is dramatically reduced since all communication occurs inside the system, tied to a specific project and discussion area. A recent survey by Cohesive Knowledge Solutions (CKS) reported that employees now spend over 40% of their workday on e-mail—and they consider more than a third of that time as wasted. This translates into $300 billion a year in lost productivity and profits. Additionally, since this technology is web-based, it is more environmentally friendly and efficient, since it not only reduces the amount of business travel necessary to communicate, but also reduces the number of servers needed and the associated energy costs of running and cooling the equipment.
Dr. Guy J. Cortesi
Director of Technology and Chief Information Officer
eSolve Solutions, Inc.
Mar. 26, 2009 10:47
As identified in a recent Wall Street Journal article, knowledge management is becoming increasingly important as the workplace population ages. Interestingly, a number of companies, including ConocoPhillips (COP), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and BP PLC (BP) are encouraging workers to use "...handheld computers, interactive Web pages, blogs, social networks and other media to store information on how they make crucial decisions or resolve problems at the office and in the field."
Changes in technology have lead to a disconnected and dispersed workforce that relies heavily on email and real-time meetings. Technology such as Cisco Telepresence, offers an alternative to face-to-face communication to reduce travel and energy use, by focusing on video and audio conferencing and real-time communication. Unfortunately, the underlying problem – too many meetings – is not addressed. Workers have compensated by turning to non-real time tools such as email, chat, blogging, and other Web 2.0 social networking tools. The most popular non-real time communication methods currently in use are email, chatting, and other Web 2.0 social networking tools, such as blogging, Wiki’s, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Unfortunately, none of these methods has a project focus and communication is often random, difficult to follow, wasteful, off topic, and is unrelated and cannot be tied to specific work projects. Finding information when needed among all these dispersed sources has become an increasing problem, and the risk of losing important business information has increased. Workers have resorted to storing key data on laptops and mobile devices and this also increases the risk of data loss due to stolen or lost devices, and device failures (e.g., hard disk crashes).
Cisco reports that, since 2006, workers using its real-time virtual meeting technology have avoided travel for 17,500 meetings, savings $90M and 20 million cubic meters of emissions, or the equivalent of 8700 cars off the road. However, avoiding travel for meetings, only to replace it with online and virtual meetings, is not a final solution. In fact, online meetings can cost more and be less effective than face-to-face meetings, since they often tie-up more people in more locations, although few participants actively participate or engage in those meetings. A better method is to reduce the need for meetings while providing a better way for virtual teams to work and collaborate. The best way to accomplish this is to use non-real time communication.
A new, non-real time form of online communication called “project collaboration” has emerged that combines Web 2.0 tools and social networking with project management. These tools allow workers not only to discuss doing work, but actually conduct it anytime, anyplace, using a web browser and avoid business travel to attend meetings. Information is organized by project and is primarily text-based and easily searchable. The benefit of this type of communication is that persons both inside and outside organizational boundaries can engage in project discussions and work, since the tools reside outside organizational firewalls on the Internet. When properly secured, this form of communication provides a central store of information that captures all communication and discussion about a project or problem, normally only found in email. Users can discuss issues, develop solutions, collaborate on documents, share results, and plan tasks, all without physically meeting. This reduces the need for real-time communication to an absolute minimum, since all project data and interaction can be found in the online system at any time, from any location. Email is dramatically reduced since all communication occurs inside the system, tied to a specific project and discussion area. A recent survey by Cohesive Knowledge Solutions (CKS) reported that employees now spend over 40% of their workday on e-mail—and they consider more than a third of that time as wasted. This translates into $300 billion a year in lost productivity and profits. Additionally, since this technology is web-based, it is more environmentally friendly and efficient, since it not only reduces the amount of business travel necessary to communicate, but also reduces the number of servers needed and the associated energy costs of running and cooling the equipment.
Dr. Guy J. Cortesi
Director of Technology and Chief Information Officer
eSolve Solutions, Inc.
