Realizing the Value of Your Intellectual Assets with SharePoint Knowledge Management

November, 2007

In today’s wired world, information and knowledge are created and acquired constantly and oftentimes without structure. Organizations of all sizes struggle to bring order to the otherwise chaotic accumulation of information in email inboxes, local disk drives, shared file folders, departmental or organization-wide intranets, and other sources. Knowledge Management is an expensive solution for some, an elusive dream for many.

Wikipedia defines Knowledge Management as comprising “a range of practices used by organizations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning.”

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) allows organizations of all sizes to cost effectively implement the tools required to put such practices to practical use.

SharePoint collaboration sites are used to initially create the knowledge document(s). For a given business function, a site template is used and populated with site metadata. The documents created within the site automatically inherit the site metadata, reducing the responsibility of authors to do so. As an example, the Engineering Department would use a design site template for a given product or part. The metadata appropriate for the engineering drawings document library within this site would automatically populate from site metadata such as Product Name, Office, Project Number, etc. Other forms of knowledge created at the collaboration level could include HR policies and procedures, customer engagement deliverables, vendor contracts, and more.

After the collaboration is complete, final versions of knowledge documents are moved to the Knowledge Management Center along with metadata and archival timing where they can be searched and retrieved at will. A Knowledge Management Archive is used to retain all old knowledge documents that no longer should remain in the Knowledge Management Center.

SharePoint can be extended relatively easily to further enhance the out of the box capabilities described thus far. Examples of ways to create a more robust solution include:

• Use of an automated site provisioning utility: Where collaboration sites are created for repeatable business functions (i.e., due diligence sites for real estate transactions, project management sites for IT projects, collaboration sites for marketing collateral creation), an InfoPath form can be used to collect key information, site participants and roles and then the site can be automatically provisioned with metadata structures and default values, and users.
• Automatic archival of old knowledge documents: As documents are moved into the Knowledge Management Center, they can acquire an expiration date (i.e., 3 years after the document creation date). A custom workflow can ensure that when the expiration date is reached, the organization’s Knowledge Manager is informed that the document will automatically be moved into the Knowledge Archive unless alternate action is taken.
• Knowledge rating system: When users search for and retrieve documents from the Knowledge Management Center, they may rate the value of the document via a knowledge rating system. Each document’s rating can be displayed on a search results page as additional information to help a user ascertain which documents will provide them with the needed information.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 comes with significant capabilities that allow for collaboration and knowledge management. With the right planning and setup, the knowledge created as part of your organization’s key business functions can be leveraged as the intellectual assets that they are for many years to come.