CIA 2 – Case Study on Knowledge

Management

Subject: Knowledge Management

Submitted by: Bharathi M, Divya M, Jean Mishel
Register No.: 1828933, 1828934, 1828913
Submitted to: Dr. Boopathy.S
Date of Submission: 16/09/2019
 KM Initiatives at Infosys Pvt. Ltd – Case Analysis

Summary

This case is about the knowledge management (KM) initiatives at Infosys Pvt. Ltd. The case
discusses the various initiatives taken by Infosys to encourage employee participation.

As innovation from everyone and everywhere required knowledge to be assimilated and

democratized, the company set up three centrally operated knowledge repositories – Knowledge
Shop (K-Shop); Process Asset Database (PAD) and People Knowledge Map (PKM). The case
elucidates the various KM tools used by Infosys to capture, share, and manage knowledge.

The documents shared in these platforms were available to all Infosys Employees, this helped
provide new projects with information on similar and previously executed projects.

The distinguishing feature of Infosys KM practice was that KM was with project level focus, which
in-turn improved productivity through rework and teamwork.

Every employee who contributes in knowledge sharing is rewarded with Knowledge Currency
Units (KCU).

Infosys has a dedicated team comprising of 8 “Brand Managers” who help build and maintain the
KM infrastructure in Infosys.

The case concludes by emphasizing that the company could reduce its defect level by much as
40% and could increase productivity by 3% due to faster access to accurate information and reuse
of knowledge.
Problems

 Understand the strategic importance of knowledge management in gaining a competitive

advantage.
 Analyse the knowledge management tools used by Infosys to capture and disseminate
knowledge.
 Appreciate the use of IT for knowledge management.

KM as a core strategy

At Infosys, KM was central to a core strategy to provide differentiated value to customers and to
achieve competitive advantage. Infosys realized that knowledge capturing, and sharing was
critical to provide superior value to its customers. Infosys was able to create a sustained
environment for continuous learning and collaboration among people based out of various
geographies and functions.

Infosys was able to win the “Global Most-admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) award in the
year 2004.

Various Tools implemented by Infosys for KM

Infosys developed three centrally operated knowledge repositories - Knowledge Shop (K-Shop);
Process Asset Database (PAD) and People Knowledge Map (PKM) to manage organization-wide
knowledge.

The K-Shop architecture was built on Microsoft site server technology in which employees can
share contents in any form or type of document. These contents were available to access by all
the employees in the organization.

The Process Asset Database (PAD) was a platform in which all the project details are captured by
employees who work on engagements. They store information such as project code, customer
name, domain, type of project, technology, etc. This will help other employees who work on
similar projects in future to set meaningful goals about the project.
Process Knowledge Map is a directory of experts in various fields. All employees will be able to
identify the experts in a particular field. The company’s Intranet portal is called as SPARSH and
serves as a central tool.

Infosys has also a Quality System Documentation which maintains the guidelines and templates
which must be used by all the employees when they work on projects. This will help to maintain
uniform deliverables.

Newsletters are shared by various departments and they discuss technology and business trends.

Benefits and Recognitions for Knowledge Management

Another major feature of Knowledge Management in Infosys is the Incentive for Knowledge
Sharing. Here, the infosyian submits the document to the K-Shop and if it’s unique submission,
then it’s published. The Reviewer and publisher are rewarded with Knowledge Currency Units
(KCU) when someone reads the submitted document from K-Shop. The received KCU can be
redeemed for cash or other gifts. There are various other rewards and recognition for Knowledge
Management among which are the “ideas beget wealth”, Innovation Management etc.

Conclusion

The Knowledge management initiatives at Infosys contributed to innovation embedment and

competency development.

Infosys was recognized as ‘globally most-admired knowledge enterprise (MAKE)’ for 2004. The
global MAKE winners are those who transform enterprise knowledge into wealth-creating ideas,
products and solutions. At Infosys, knowledge management (KM) is central to a core strategy to
provide differentiated value to customers and to enable competitive advantage.

Currently the K-Shop owns around 12,600 documents, Knowledge Management has helped
Infosys increase its productivity and refuse defect levels. The defect level was reduced by 40%
and productivity was increased by 3% which was possible due to efficient and faster knowledge
sharing within the organization.