FIT5088 Information And Knowledge Management Systems - Analytical IKM System Report

Introduction

Organizational success largely depends on the intellectual capability of the highly proficient knowledge workers (Dalkir, 2017). Using the expertise of knowledge workers organizations create competitive advantage and provide greater customer satisfaction. In today’s complex business environment organizations need to optimize, create, assemble, transfer, protect and exploit knowledge assets to achieve sustained advantage over others (Collins, 2013). UNICEF has vast network and has increased local presence and global reach and provides emergency health care and food for children (UNICEF, 2019). It is entirely funded by voluntary contributions, which is used efficiently to improve children and young people’s lives. It provides attends to humanitarian emergencies with the help of global supply chain and local presence. Global Shared Service Center (GSCC) is a unit of UNICEF, which has been able to achieve its mission of automating transaction processes and freed up staff time, increased cost efficiencies by handling HR administration, payroll and Global Help Desk from field offices (UNICEF GSSC, 2018). But the management of knowledge is not very effective, and it lacks systems for storing the relevant information and sharing it on a wider platform. Wiki, a knowledge management tool allows people to share and create knowledge and collaborate to produce software and offers more opportunities for collaboration as compared to other Web 2.0 tools (Collins, 2013). This report discusses the knowledge management issues faced by GSSC. The report then analyzes Wiki technology for knowledge management and provides recommendations to GSSC to overcome its issues.

Overview of GSSC 

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was established in 1946 and was aimed at providing emergency healthcare and food to children and mothers in countries destroyed by World War II (UNICEF, 2019). UNICEF operates in over 190 countries and territories and protects the rights of the children across these nations (UNICEF, 2019). The organization’s research and reports are a leading source of information and data about the situation of children and based on the information the organization engages with different partners across the world. Global Shared Service Center (GSCC) is one of the units of UNICEF, which started its operation in 2016 aims at maximizing the use of UNICEF resources for improvement of lives of children (UNICEF GSSC, 2018). The center has been able to reduce overall risk through improved enforcement and adherence to policies. The center has also increased its service quality by optimizing service delivery by leveraging on technologies and expertise and increased knowledge of its 300 staff members (UNICEF GSSC, 2018). 

Knowledge Management Issues at GSCC

For an organization to sustain a competitive advantage and function efficiently, it is essential to optimize the expertise of the knowledge workers present in the organization by creating, managing, transferring, sharing and communicating the information and knowledge (Dalkir, 2017). Organizations should identify the knowledge, which is essential of the organization, based on individual knowledge or past decisions and strategies, gathered market knowledge or information gathered form many related sources should be accumulated and integrated and stored in an organizational database, which can then be transferred or shared with other members in the organization (Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2010). To constantly improve the knowledge gathered, organization should adopt appropriate technology, encourage knowledge workers to share information and encourage interaction and dialogue among them to create different point of views about products, services or processes, which can lead to changes or improvements in the processes and products (Rhem, 2016).  

GSSC has significantly enhanced its communication and knowledge sharing with staff and offices. The GSSC intranet portal has been implemented as central repository of information, process guidance, tools related to GSSC, change process instructions, updates and records of published GSSC performance, dashboard providing offices increased visibility about performances, which can be filtered based on region, country, function and specific request can also be made about the performances (UNICEF GSSC, 2018). It has a knowledge portal for establishing collaboration among offices and staff engaged in Business Operations Strategy (BOS). The existing knowledge management of GSSC lacks effective management of cases due to lack of adequate information, data analytics and operational reporting function is not very efficient (UNICEF GSSC, 2018). The change and knowledge management is not very effective and lacks efficiency due to lack of proper practices to update or modify information. The existing case management tool is not very efficient and lacks access to real time information on returned cases and does not provide metrics and analytics in the form, which is useful to the offices and staff (UNICEF GSSC, 2018).