Intranet Portals - Search and Taxonomies. Using This One Simple Word Helped Triple My Site's Profits.
Knowledge Management for beginners
Knowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply as the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Knowledge assets are often grouped into two categories:
(1) Explicit Knowledge
Generally, everything and anything that can be documented, archived and codified. Examples include patents, trademarks, business plans, marketing research and customer lists.
(2) Tacit Knowledge
The rest. Tacit knowledge is the know-how contained in people's heads. The challenge inherent with tacit knowledge is figuring out how to recognize, generate, share and manage it.
Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to reach - or go beyond - best practice. For explicit knowledge, the focus can usefully be described as "connecting people to things", whilst for tacit knowledge, the focus is "connecting people to people".
Search technologies made simple
There are essentially two types of search technology: structured search and unstructured search:
1) Structured Search:
In a structured search (example Yahoo) the user clicks down through a directory of categories to find the material sought. The tree structure of the directory is called a taxonomy, with a root node at the top that applies to all objects and nodes below that classify more specific subsets of the total set of objects. A well-known example of a taxonomy is Carolus Linnaeus's Scientific classification of organisms. The root node is (implicitly) "organism" and nodes below are Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species.
In Yahoo, the root is "Directory" and there are 14 main nodes, including Society & Culture, Social Science and Reference. If I were searching for best man's speech tips (which I was not so long ago), I could try (on Yahoo) clicking down the branch of the tree: Directory > Society and Culture > Weddings > Speeches and Toasts. Alternatively, I could try Directory > Social Science > Communications > Public Speaking.
There are obvious pros and cons to structured search. The main con is that I might head down several blind alleys on the tree before finding the most useful branch. The main pro is that - once I have found that branch - I am likely to find a whole collection of relevant material gathered together in one place.
For the librarian (maintaining the taxonomy), there is another key con.
As our wedding example illustrates so well, there are often two or more places one could put any given information. Oh the agonies of choice!2) Unstructured Search:
In an unstructured search (example Google) the user enters a series of keywords into a search engine, which searches an index of content (regularly crawled) and brings back results, ordered by closest match to the search string.
The main pro of an unstructured search are that I do not have to second-guess where the right branch is on the taxonomy tree, but rather leap in at the leaf I am looking for. The cons are rather less obvious and the main one is that some materials I might actually find very useful may not come up in the search. This can be due to my poor selection of search terms, deficiency in indexing / search algorithms or poor metadata in the content itself.
Should I implement search functionality and, if so, how?
Search invariably scores well on any prioritisation of intranet functionality and is generally "out-of-the-box" with your portal solution, so I would definitely recommend you include it in the scope of your project.
It may not surprise you to hear that the most effective search implementations allow the user to chose between structured and unstructured search options and to easily navigate between the two. For example, my unstructured Yahoo search on "best mans speeches" takes me straight to a relevant document, but also tells me where it sits in the directory. By clicking on the directory category, I can bring up all the other materials in that area (where I ultimately find the best resource for my need).
To implement the structured
search part of your solution, you will need to develop a taxonomy structure for your organisation and the information resources your people need to do their jobs. This can be quite a challenge! For example, should an HR grievance policy be found under ABC Co > Human Resources > Employee Services Unit > Policy or under an ABC Co > My Employment > My Rights > Grievance branch?
My advice is to keep it simple and give it room to evolve and change. An ideal taxonomy should be flat and broad (having no more than three levels) and should suit the provider or creator of information rather than the user of it (as they are the people who will populate your library and you need it to be easy for them to do so).
To ensure the unstructured component of your solution is effective, you need to ensure firstly that people avoid jargon in the body of their documents (using instead keywords that users will recognise) and secondly that a high percentage of documents contain decent metadata. Metadata can be simply defined as "data about data". For example, the grievance document metadata might include author: Tessa Jones, job title: Employee Relations Officer, department: Employee Services, function: HR, subject: Employment, title: Grievance policy.
Can search help with tacit knowledge sharing?
Absolutely! Many organisations fail to recognise this. Connecting people to people (for that 10 minute telephone conversations that could save a week's work) is often much more valuable than storing documents.
You should create a well developed yellow pages database, where people have entered augmented their white pages details (job title, email address, telephone number) with information about their skills, experience and interests. Then - when someone searches for grievance - in addition to (a) the word document policy, the results also include (b) a link to Tessa Jones' Yellow Pages entry and (c) a link to the Employee Relations teamspace, where Tessa - and her line colleagues across ABC Co - collaborate on policy development and employee relations management.
Some final thoughts
The humble search function can be the most powerful agent for improved knowledge management your organisation has ever invested in. By extension, therefore, it can become the definitive "killer application" on your intranet portal. However, it is vital that the search capability can acccess all the information and people in your organisation and that result relevancy is high. This is not as easy as it sounds and requires proper planning and detailed work.
About the author:
David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.
Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
This article is very important.
In fact, the chances are it will give you more sales from your website. Now I'm not suggesting you're low on sales but we could all do with more sales right?
I first started using this word on my website about a year ago. Using the word changed the whole focus of my website, my business and my life!
Sounds unbelievable doesn't it?
But it's not, it's entirely true and I want to share it with you.
You want to know what this word is don't you? Okay then - no more messing around then.
This word is the reason you are reading this article and the reason you carried on reading after the first paragraph. Have you guessed it already? The single most important word you need to use on your homepage is "YOU"!.
You. You. You.
Using 'YOU' Brings Success
Using the word 'you' on your homepage can have dramatic effects on how effective your website is at converting visitors into enquiries and sales. Using the word 'YOU' gets across your business' message in the only way that truly works - from the customer's point of view.Now you might be thinking this is all obvious stuff. And it is! But just remember to look at the next few homepages you visit and see how many site owners are not following this simplest but most effective of rules.
Most businesses fall into the trap of wording things in this way:
"We provide such and such a product. We are industry-leaders.. We are based in .."
What you should be doing is changing the entire angle and 'voice' of your website around from an anonymous corporate 'brochure-type-speak' into a more personal YOU-focused angle. Take a look at my homepage and you'll see what I mean - www.websitemarketingbible.com . Now take a look at your homepage - how many 'YOU's have you got on your page?
So Why Is Using 'YOU' So Important?
Because YOU are the most important thing in YOUR universe. You don't want to hear about me, my company, what we do or what our strengths are - you want to hear what's in it for YOU.
Studies show that you should have around 70% of all sales and marketing literature comprised of words like 'YOU', 'YOUR', 'YOURS' etc. This might seem like an uphill struggle at first and your initial attempts might not read too well but you will soon get the hang of it.
Can You Play YOU-Gymnastics?
You can actually start treating it like a game. It takes time but eventually you will master the skill of turning any sentence around from a 'WE', 'US' or 'OUR' statement into a 'YOU' or 'YOUR' statement.
I urge you to revamp your homepage and get rid of any 'WE's or 'OUR's that you have and reword everything to put the customer at the heart of the matter. Now we're just talking about the homepage here but really you should be applying this principle to your entire website.
How The Word "YOU" Changed My Life
When I first learned of this golden rule it changed my website totally. I went from talking about my business and products on the site to talking directly to my customers and putting things across in a way which meant most to THEM. It also made me take a step back and re-draft all my corporate literature adopting this same YOU principle. But the story doesn't end there..
I realised that putting 'YOU' at the heart of my business communications and my business as a whole was actually the starting point for something far deeper. Ask any successful person and they will tell you that 'givers gain' - that is, if you give first and receive second you will achieve more than the person who takes first and thinks of giving afterwards.
It was then that I realised that I needed to start putting the 'YOU' at the centre of my whole life. I realised that to every other single person in the world - they were the most important thing that existed.
I listened more and made better relationships.
I empathised more and made more sales.
I gave more and felt more rewarded.
I could go on but feel that YOU need to go off now and start implementing this powerful technique for YOUR website!
I wish YOU great success!
Michael Cheney is Author of The Website Marketing BibleTM. Take the Free 7-Part Course "Internet Marketing Made Easy" and get your free sampler of 'The Bible' here: http://www.websitemarketingbible.com/marketing/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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