Knowledge Management In An Ever-Changing World

“Knowledge is power."

“Work smart”, as illustrated in the picture, working intelligently makes things easier. Wars in history were not only won by brute force, they are beautifully planned and skillfully initiated with the guidance of war strategists. That is how powerful knowledge is.

Knowledge is power but knowledge sharing is empowerment.

Take the illustration above, if he shared his knowledge with the other two, not only they can finish early and with ease, the other two gained new knowledge that could greatly improve their current ways. Also, would gain their trust and respect. In today’s world, who do you think would be more successful, the person who keeps the knowledge to himself or the person who shares their knowledge? Influencers are recognized as one of the most successful people. They are looked upon by others and considered as part of their daily lives.  Besides, there’s nothing more fulfilling than knowing you have created a positive impact and changed people’s lives, right?

Knowledge Management in Organizations

When the world shifted to new normal, good Knowledge Management became vital for our organization’s SOPs. Before, training was conducted in a classroom set up; we were sent to head office in Manila or different branches for refresher courses or promotion training courses. We reached out to our clients through visitations and seminars for our latest advisories. Today, all these are available and done online. We are able to cut costs from transportation, resources, and allowances without sacrificing our career growth and learning opportunities.

The biggest barrier to this will always start with people’s perception to change. Often, we rejected changes in accustomed practices. Organizations can overcome such challenges by creating a culture of knowledge sharing among employees and management.

As the organization faces a fast-changing and challenging future, having a good Knowledge Management system is essential for its survival.

Business Intelligence a Competitive Advantage

Change is unpredictable; competition is uncontrollable in every sector of business. Having business intelligence is significant to outperform competitors. But what is Business Intelligence? Business Intelligence refers to the technology that enables businesses to organize and analyze data in the company. Why is Business Intelligence important? Because business intelligence is fast and its data-informed decision-making can drive success to high customer expectations, global competition, and low-profit margin of an organization.

Business intelligence is instrumental in the finance industry. This technology is used by most banking and financial companies to develop new payment services and market offer to customers. It also helps the company detect fraud and protect customers whose card data may be compromised. 

Landbank of the Philippines, a financial institution which is one of the largest banks in the Philippines, a commercial bank, a government-owned bank, and also the biggest lender to farmers and fisher-folk cooperatives, rural banks, and local government units, also using business intelligence in trust of its company’s success. The data from the bank’s operational source system including deposits and loans can make reports available for fast, accurate, and effective decision-making. The research team can rely on this to analyze the clients’ historical transactions and products used for new product development and promotion ideas.

Looking ahead, LANDBANK, with the help of business intelligence, can cope with tighter banking regulations, able to reduce risk, enhance decision support, strengthen its customer relationships, and above all develop a competitive advantage among its competitors.

Source:

Landbank Increases Agility and Competitiveness at Lower Risk with Informatica. (2018). Informatica. Retrieved 08 March 2022 from https://www.informatica.com/content/dam/informatica-com/en/collateral/customer-success-story/landbank_customer-story_2644.pdf

A Burden to Hero

Identifying, analyzing, and controlling risk is the most crucial and difficult job in an organization. With this, the role of a project risk manager is a hard job, for the success or failure of the company depends also on the success and failure of the team.

In a team, there will always be problems with members who are not into the project and do not value their work and the effort of the team. This should not be tolerated by a project manager who puts his full effort and even the hardworking members for the success of the risk management team.

Some members may disregard the team or give less attention to the project but project managers should take a step in solving these problems and encourage their members to work with the team. Managers can take a step by talking personally to the member, listening to his concerns, and helping whatever the manager can offer. Another by training or giving brief seminars and information, looking back to the purpose of the team as project risk team are a key for the success of the company. And most importantly, the office is open for everyone, having a team-building and enough benefits to employees.

In project risk management, we cannot foresee the future, so it is better for us to be prepared. If one fails, the whole organization will also fail. Give attention to the person who does not have an interest maybe in the long run he will be the one to solve and may have a huge help for the team and a hero for the company.

Advantages and Issues in Outsourcing of IT Security

Outsourcing is a trend in some companies today and became highly recommended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But first, let’s define outsourcing.

What is Outsourcing?

Outsourcing is an arrangement in which one company contracts with another organization to provide services.

                           

Advantages of outsourcing of IT security

        1. To cut or reduce company expenses
    2. To have access to a global talent pool or wide source of partners
    3. To upgrade the organizations capabilities and services

    4. To improve the organizations focus on its core areas or priorities

Companies gain many benefits from outsourcing as stated above, but these benefits come with some issues. These include quality problems, loss of control, and potential data and security breaches.

Issues in IT Outsourcing and How to Address them

1. Quality Problems. These are commonly occurring when having a third-party business.

• How to Manage this Issue

       To help minimize this risk, a detailed product specification of outsourcing partner should be prepared, quality control specification, and checking regularly of the final product.

2. Loss of Control. The biggest risk of outsourcing is the lack of control over outsourcing partners.

• How to Manage this Issue

     Before hiring an outsourcing company, identify first, and secure that hired partner is trusted.

3.  Data Security and Integrity Issues. Another issue is concern over maintaining data security and integrity to safeguard against data security lapses.

•  How to Manage this Issue

    Preparing of Service Level Agreement and Non-disclosure agreement of parties for the protection of the organization in case of a future security breach.

Based on the above advantages and issues it is the choice of the company to take a risk to outsource their IT security. What to consider is the success of the company together with a healthy and happy working environment for the workers.

Resources:

TimeDoctor.com. Top 10 Risks of Outsourcing (and How to Manage Them). Retrieved 25 February 2022 from, https://biz30.timedoctor.com/risks-of-outsourcing/

Openpr.com. (2019). Outsourcing. Retrieved 25 February 2022 from  https://cdn.openpr.com/T/c/Tc16317672_g.jpg

Reynolds, G.W. (2010). Information Technology for Managers. Cengage Learning.

“I.T. connects people”

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well. Most of us loves traveling, but in this pandemic, we are limited to doing so. Despite the situation, let me explore you, not about happy places we used to travel but on exploring that information technology connects us, people.

Information Technology or I.T. refers to anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies. These technologies helped many businesses, organizations, and especially people to make our lives easier and faster in a short period of time.

The internet is the one that connects computers and people around the world, bringing everyone closer even they are continents away. 

 Information technology introduced us the online learning for students and teachers and the web seminar or known as webinars for business organizations.

Connecting to our loved ones is very important, whenever we are, information technology handles this for us. Technology evolves offering us websites, apps, and entertainment, these help us know what is happening in the world. Online communication platforms are widely used nowadays. Below is a study by KEPIOS showing the world’s most-used social platforms:

In this modern world, full of technologies, connecting people around the world is fun but let us not forget how happier we are when touching our loved ones in flesh and interacting face to face.

For more interesting information about technology and how it changes people's lives, I leave a link for you to watch. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpZNTZZitpw

 

Resources:

TechTerms.com The Computer Dictionary. (2006). Retrieved 19 February 2022, from https://techterms.com/definition/it

Video Engager. (2020). Retrieved 19 February 2022 from https://www.videoengager.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1669-blog-header-webinar-marketing-1536x864.png

Scooter Media Co. (2020). Retrieved 19 February 2022 from https://www.scootermediaco.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Social-Media-Usage-Metrics-July-2020.jpg

YouCurious? How Has The Internet Changed Our Lives? (2020). Retrieved 19 February 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpZNTZZitpw