Enterprise Knowledge Portals (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "You have probably heard many definitions of knowledge management..." (more)
Key Phrases: enterprise knowledge portal, knowledge expert community, focus area diagrams, Heidi Collins, Year One, David Kennedy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"..a must read if you are thinking about knowledge management within your organization -- Online magazine

"It's a handy tool that provides a step-by-step method for developing and maintaining your company's EKP." -- Information Today, Medford New Jersey June 2003

Product Description

Far beyond simple data archives and streamlined access, enterprise knowledge portals represent the future of corporate information management. Seamlessly interweaving three essential principles -- people, content, and technology -- an effective portal is the ultimate roadmap to every conceivable permutation of the components in a business's landscape.

This prescient, authoritative book is a vital reference for anyone concerned with harvesting, creating, distributing, or analyzing company information. HR executives and IT professionals will learn not only how to create the atlas to their company's universe but also how to define and assign the roles and responsibilities that will ensure long-term efficacy and relevance. Companies will have the ability to:

* Build technology around knowledge requirements, not the other way around * Customize desktop access around individual requirements and workstyles * Make better decisions as a result of quick access to crucial information * Maximize speed, efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility of knowledge transfer.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; 1st edition (February 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814407080
• ISBN-13: 978-0814407080
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #527,599 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enterprise Portal Boosting Productivity and Profitability, October 19, 2003

By	Serge J. Van Steenkiste (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Enterprise Knowledge Portals is a good reference book that is relevant to both a business and IT audience. Heidi Collins rightly reminds her audience that the enterprise portal should be designed around and be implementing the organization's knowledge management strategy. The enterprise portal is key to manage and communicate knowledge within an organization and to eventually share part of it with strategic external constituencies. Collins briefly describes the existing four portal categories: enterprise information portals, e-business and e-commerce portals, mobile commerce portals and Internet portals. Over time, a portal could metamorphose itself into a hybrid creature that offers the functionality of different portal categories to meet the needs of multiple constituencies.

Enterprise portal is gaining increasing acceptance because there is great value in having a single repository for all the information knowledge workers need to do their job. Knowledge workers should not waste their precious time locating information or answering questions again and again that could be addressed on the enterprise portal. In the process, innovation could get a definitive boost by facilitating both internal and external collaboration. Enterprise portal strategy should not be separated from alliance strategy for that reason.

A portal reporting team made up of cross-functional members from diverse business functions should be identified to get widespread buy-in. The portal reporting team could meet resistance or deal with skepticism from entrenched interests that are happy with the status quo. An executive sponsor is key to deal with these eventual obstacles effectively. A budget roadmap should also be defined to keep track of costs associated with the project and facilitate ROI calculation.

Portal components should be defined and organized around work processes and then prioritized. Data and/or applications needed to support portal components should be determined and documented. Data should be scrubbed, mapped and validated to guarantee credibility. Security and confidentiality should not be overlooked in the process.

When the portal is ready to be launched, one individual or a dedicated team should be identified as the single contact responsible for managing the portal and keeping its content fresh and relevant to the target audience. Before making the portal widely accessible, a portal pilot is advisable. Usage should be tracked. Furthermore, the pilot audience should be surveyed on a regular basis to foster acceptance, document key learnings and tweak the portal wherever necessary.

The portal management should keep in mind that the portal is a collective effort that requires buy-in from multiple constituencies to avoid stall content. Roles and responsibilities should be clearly delineated to insure accountability on that point. Ultimately, a portal is dynamic because its objectives are associated with corporate strategy and vision.

As portal project manager and administrator in addition to my marketing roles and responsibilities in a large company, I have only one regret about Enterprise Knowledge Portals. Some portal pages reproduced are generic screen snapshots that have little bearing on what a portal reporting and/or managing team is expected to tackle in the life of such a project.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-Read for Businesspeople and IT alike, June 1, 2003

By	Robert J. Boeri "Information Insider" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am an IT Manager responsible for knowledge management initiatives. I have found "Enterprise Knowledge Portals" to be an invaluable and one-of-a-kind reference. The book is a comprehensive reference for developing a portal initiative and the prerequisite elements of a knowledge management program. Two infrastructure layers of particular interest to me are content-based retrieval and related taxonomy-categorization systems, and this book makes these subjects understandable to technician and business user alike. I was also pleased to find Collins' emphasis of a subject that is often ignored in KM initiatives: Usability. Her chapter on support and competency centers provides guidance about usability, the magic ingredient helping assure success in KM projects and one that is often overlooked on technical requirements short lists. I found Collins' description of all these subjects succinct, readable and comprehensive. The book is a must-read for both IT staff and businesspeople assigned to portal and KM projects.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Knowledge Transformation point of view, May 29, 2003

By	Shir Nir (Weston, CT USA) - See all my reviews

In this book Heidi presents the challenges of developing and implementing knowledge portals in organizations in a very articulate yet simple way. The book walks you through the phases and the challenges associated with implementing both knowledge management practices and systems. You will get insights to what others have experienced and what you could expect. "If you just build it, they might not come" you have to get the culture and the people involved in the process.