Technologies To Locate And Connect People


‘I am writing a paper on “xyz” who might be able to help me?’, or ‘I have got to give a presentation to a client on “xyz”, has anyone else given a similar presentation?’. These are fairly typical problems that people within organisations have to resolve. In small to medium sized organisations, say around two hundred to three hundred people, it is likely that individuals will know a large percentage of their colleagues personally. If not, it is likely that they will only have to make one or two calls in order to make contact with the person who can be of most help. But where organisations consist of larger numbers of people, and these people are located in different locations, then locating and connecting to the right person can be more problematic.

Directory systems are one of the more common knowledge management systems. Often referred to as ‘Yellow Pages’, basic directory systems can provide a central point for listing who is who within an organisation, together with some basic contact details (e-mail address, telephone number, mobile number, workplace location).

However, directories can be used in more extensive ways than this, depending on the needs of the organisation. Most of the big consultancies use directories as a way of making it easier to locate, connect and tap into the explicit and tacit knowledge of their consultants. KPMG’s Kclient, for example, helps individuals locate particular knowledge experts, as well as facilitating knowledge sharing among different professional teams. Ericsson’s Stargate system is a centralised resource designed to enhance global collaboration. The system enables individuals to locate information about customers, identify someone in the organisation with a specific skill, or area of specialist knowledge, create a new community of practice, as well as providing easier access to published documents.

Before implementing directory systems, some cultural questions need to be considered. To what extent do people currently share their ‘know how’ freely with others? What are some of the existing political behaviours that get in the way of knowledge exchanges? How will people be encouraged/enticed to use the system? Who will be responsible for keeping the information in the directory system up-to-date? Will the directory be available to all staff, or just certain groups?

As usage of ‘Yellow Pages’ type systems in most organisations is voluntary, some of the ways in which people can be encouraged to use the system is by enabling them to personalise their own directory entry, either by including their hobbies and interests outside of work, or including a photograph of themselves, or latest holiday pictures. Adding photographs, and other personal details, is seen as a way of helping to establish trust among users; an essential ingredient for knowledge exchanges. Giving people a free hand to personalise their directory entry may provide the initial stimulus to encourage people to start to use the system. But getting them to keep their details up-to-date, may need more innovative incentives. While knowledge is normally freely, or relatively freely, available within organisations, HP have adopted a slightly different approach. Users of HP’s internal search engine pay a monthly charge that goes some way to enabling providers to recover the costs incurred in delivering knowledge services to their customers[2]. What would happen if a similar approach were adopted for rewarding individual knowledge contributors and sharers? Might this lead to a change in behaviours?

As well as helping individuals quickly to locate the right expert to help them with a specific problem, directory systems can also be used as a management tool, for example, to locate individuals with a particular area of expertise to work on a client project. One HR Director pointed out to me that while informal networking is an important way of matching individuals to projects, in a projectworking environment, their ‘Yellow Pages’ system is an important tool for matching people and projects.

[2]Skyrme, D. J. (2001), Capitalising on Knowledge. From e-business to k-business. Butterworth-Heinemann.




Managing the Knowledge - HR's Strategic Role
Managing for Knowledge: HRs Strategic Role
ISBN: 0750655666
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 175

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