knowledge management
RI's top bestsellers
Facilitating knowledge
Ready to perform
Connectivity value
Two-way street
In our striving to become a knowledge-driven bank, Rl has
put tremendous effort into bringing together the building
blocks needed to create the necessary environment.
Everything considered necessary by Ketelhöhn, Parker and
our own experts for the accumulation and dissemination of
knowledge appears to be either in place or in the making.
So is that it? Have we made it? We asked Hans Megens of
the Netherlands branch for his take on the complex
business of putting knowledge to work - for the customer.
What'sNewS Issue 12-December 1998 13
atrick Guyver
stabilization of adininistration
issues. 'In building a system
like Insight, what we try to do
is address the five elements
content, IT, culture, managing
knowledge as a process, and
roles and responsibilities - the
graphic shows you how it
works,' says Guyver. 'Now the
IT aspect is there because it
provides a communication
platform, it is our enabling
technology. The actual sereens
also have to look good,
because people have to feel
comfortable when using them.
So it is more than just being
user friendly. Basically, what
^fcnsight must do is represent
the business. It is far more
than just providing
information. A colleague has
to look at it and say: hey,
that's my job. So the user
interface has got to "know"
what you're attempting to do.
Let me give you one example
here. Say I want to do some
risk assessment, then the
technology has to jump
out at me and say: Okay,
let me show you last
three we've done so you
can find out best practice
to help you do this next
one. This should bring
you to what Steve and
his people call
performance readiness.'
The key, it seems, is to
create a knowledge
enabling system - in this
case Insight - which
becomes an
indispensable tooi in
allowing you to do your
job optimally. According
to Parker, the system is
structured in a way that
'brings stuff to you - you don't
have to go looking for it. The
information you need to do
you job is at hand to enable
you to do it very well indeed.
In our book performance
readiness is: you want to do a
job, you are at a certain place
in the IT system, the IT system
has the ability to recognize
what you are about to do. It
should then suggest
alternatives, tools you can use
to support what you want to
do without you having to go
looking for them. Basically, it
is the next step along from
what the organization
currently has in the public
folders. There you have to
know where to look to get the
information you need.'
The information needed to
create this kind of system was
already in house, not least
through the Industry
Knowledge Manual, compiled
by APFT over the last couple
of years in close cooperation
with FAR. What Insight means
is that this information and the
structures and methodologies
needed to ensure it remains a
living, evolving system will be
formalized to become
performance ready. Says
Parker: 'The value out of this
is not so rnuch the knowledge
content itself, but how you
apply that knowledge. And
this is where collaboration,
sharing comes into it - what
we call connectivity. The
connectivity value you gain by
being able to share, by being
Megens and his Utrecht-
based team are often
asked to give presentations.
People have proved eager to
learn about the so-called
market core teams put in place
some time ago for RI's Dutch
cliënt base. The underlying
idea behind the MCT
structure was that our focus
should be on the customer
because we exist to provide
services to the customer.
Although you may think this is
self-evident - after all, we are a
customer-focused financial
institution. But that required
some change in mindset, in the
way we are organizing
ourselves. In fact, it required
able to collaborate is
potentially infinite. Take APFT
as example, you've got 50
people spread over 17 different
locations. FIow on earth can
you put the optimal four
people together needed to
handle a particular cliënt
problem? That is connectivity
and we can do only through
IT. It is a new way of working,
it enables you to generate new
ideas that wouldn't have been
possible before. And because it
can assist in that way, it makes
sense for everyone to share, to
collaborate, because you then
become the kind of continuous
learning organization that will
always succeed.'
facilitating action on the part
of management. Facilitating is
a word you'11 often hear from
Megens. So much so, he sees it
as the main role of
management. So when it
comes to knowledge
management, it is hardly
surprising that facilitation
plays an equally key role.
'It begins with our customers
and how we see them,' he says.
'So if your goal is to provide
the best possible service to
customers, and that is our
stated goal, then you have to
organize your own structure
around them. The same
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