Iknow - Technology Recommendations

Technology is a core enabler of knowledge management. In this Section, we briefly discuss our three-step process for developing technology recommendations. These steps are:

Identifying technology needs from the business requirements,
Defining the technology requirements, and
Developing the specific technology recommendations.

Step 1: Identifying Technology Needs from Business Requirements

During the initial project assignment, Iknow consultants conduct a series of customer and end user interviews and workshops to elicit business requirements. During this first step, the business requirements are refined and prioritized.

We have found that we can categorize the business requirements into three general groups based on their primary business objective. Clients generally want to:

Better leverage intellectual assets through knowledge capture, sharing, and reuse;
Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of teams and business processes through enhanced information access and knowledge sharing; and/or
Improve the quality and speed of making decisions.

By grouping the business requirements into these three categories, we are able to quickly identify the specific technology components that could be important components in the overall solution.

Step 2: Defining the Technology Requirements

The second step in creating detailed technical recommendations is defining the technology requirements. Based on our client experiences and our detailed understanding of the KM software market, we’ve developed a set of technology guidelines that we use for defining the high-level technology requirements of our solutions. These guidelines are:

“Best of breed” architecture that combines
- Proven commercial “package” applications
- Custom software development, and the
- Customer’s legacy databases and applications.
Modular architecture that permits customers to initially deploy only the specific applications that they need and allowing them to add other applications over time.
Ease of use. The applications should involve point and click, cut, copy, and drag and drop functionality, as well as seamlessly integrate with existing legacy systems and familiar desktop applications like Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes.
Fully customizable.
Can be deployed on a customer’s hardware, delivered as a turn-key solution (hardware, operating system, middleware, applications), or set up as a hosted solution.

Using these guidelines as a starting point, we then define and refine the high-level technology requirements that satisfy the end-user business requirements.

Step 3: Developing Technology Recommendations

The third step is developing detailed technology recommendations. Usually, Iknow's client assignments typically involve identifying, selecting, and deploying one or more software products and performing customization and data and application integration.

Iknow will develop the optimal technology recommendations for each client's unique business requirements. We make this claim because at Iknow, we understand and work with all KM-related software technologies and we work jointly with our clients to reach and agree on the best technical direction for moving forward. We also have a large ongoing research effort that keeps us on top of new software product releases and novel software advances. Please see the Solutions Section for more information about commercial software products by category.

Our consulting recommendations are unbiased and independent. The company is not a distributor or reseller of KM and collaboration software or hardware products, so our technology recommendations will never be influenced by sales commissions or other incentives from software or hardware vendors. You can be sure that Iknow's technology recommendations are objective, impartial, and truly fit your business requirements. We never “push” vendors’ products.

* * *

Related Topics

To find out more about Iknow's project delivery methodology, please see:

Learn More

Please select a topic below to find out more about how Iknow can generate results for your company.

content services development vendors recommendations deployment systems consulting suppliers data portal collaboration business management workflow software companies firms design km custom top technology needs tools requirements consultants knowledge products technology collaboration knowledge services content data km recommendations needs requirements consultants software firms suppliers management development systems vendors portal companies top consulting workflow business design tools custom deployment products

analysis asset business classification collaboration content data document information intelligence knowledge learning management mining portal process repository taxonomy visualization workflow

KM business change companies consultants consulting firms management program project services software solutions suppliers systems tools top vendors

mining content visualization classification repository management learning data intelligence information portal analysis document knowledge business taxonomy asset process workflow collaboration

management services suppliers software systems tools solutions firms consultants business companies top km project consulting program change vendors

business content collaboration information management mining analysis taxonomy data knowledge portal classification repository learning document workflow process visualization intelligence asset

firms km software change services tools companies consultants systems program business project top suppliers management consulting vendors solutions

business management content asset analysis information knowledge repository process collaboration document portal taxonomy data classification intelligence mining learning visualization workflow

consulting tools software business km change suppliers companies project management services vendors systems program top solutions consultants firms

Consulting and Professional Services Firms

Full-time and Part-time Employment

Computer Software and Hardware Product Companies

Independent Contractors

Support and Related Services

Research

Compliance