Knowledge engineering and knowledge management

Knowledge engineering. Knowledge management. Big words for a fundamental process that many organisations leave to chance.

Your business is the sum of your knowledge and your working experience - or it should be. Organisations that manage their know-how, turning it into a tangible asset, typically perform far better than those that don't.

We've been providing knowledge management solutions since the term was coined. Well, actually, we were doing it before then.

While we can - and do - work in any sector, we have specific experience of working in the fast-moving, high-risk, capital-intensive, high-skilled, oil and gas exploration sector, specifically in drilling and production.

We have worked for over fifteen years developing knowledge management systems that collate complex information, data, rules and learning into real, working tools that literally transform an organisation's business performance and working methods.

Our knowledge management systems have transformed the way teams operate, increased the efficiency of operations, streamlined the sharing of knowledge, dramatically reduced business risk and improved the measurement and consistency of business processes. No, really. They have. And, we've won awards for it.

We get organisations to think about, and resolve, questions such as:

• Who is responsible for this process across the world? How do you identify and share scarce skills and experience?
• When did we last do this task?
• Where is the documentation or evidence? Are people relearning the same things over and over, or doing things less effectively?
• How can you prove your conformance or consistency?
• What do we need to do when a person becomes unavailable?
• How often have we had this problem and what are the known solutions?
• How effective is this process and how can it be improved so that there is a 'single best way' to undertake it?

Thinking about the questions is the first step - often organisations realise that their knowledge is transient - it walks out of the door every evening, and sometimes it doesn't come back. Hard-won skills are lost. People relearn the same tasks again and again. Standards vary - all of that can be changed.

We work with clients on all sizes of knowledge management project, helping them to define a vision, establish the business case, design and prototype a solution before developing, deploying and managing the knowledge management system itself. But it doesn't end there - we can also create the training needed to ensure uptake and success of the system and support through the process of change - and then, once the system is working, we're still around to help with ongoing system improvements to increase the value and usability of the application.

The change can be dramatic. One way, knowledge is like grains of sand falling through a hand - the other, knowledge becomes a precious asset that is continually built upon.