How to move from many knowledge databases to one

1. From Many to One
Knowledge
Management
Systems
Eric VanAuken
An approach to move
from many databases to
one database using
Knowledge Centered
Support

2. How do I get my hands around the many
various knowledge systems we have?
p.2
Congratulations you have started the journey.
Lets take a look where people usually have knowledge stored.
• Sticky notes on side of their computer screed
• Excel spreadsheets
• Word documents
• In the heads of key individuals
• Existing document repositories
• Home grown knowledge management systems
• Shareware knowledge management systems
• Existing knowledge management systems
So what to do?
Take an inventory of what you have in all of the known systems and
repositories. Do not worry as much about the spreadsheets and sticky notes.
They will be taken care of as people get comfortable in the system. If you
don’t have any systems or repositories then focus on the spreadsheets and
word documents.

3. So now you know where knowledge is
stored, what’s next?
p.3
Once you know where your knowledge is stored you need to take a look at
the amount of data your up against.
1. How many records/articles are in each repository?
2. Out of those records how many of those articles have been used more
than once to solve a customer case? (this is key to helping drive decisions)
3. What approach did the repository use in creating the articles?
• Is it in the customer language/terms? (easier to re-use if it is)
• Is it in a standard format? (Multiple formats make it harder)
• How up to date is it? (Older articles may still be good don’t give up on them.
Just make sure its not old and no one is using it)
• When was the last time the solution was used? (only look at those used in the
last year or so )
• What language is the article in? (depending on what language you plan to use in
your database its easier to start with articles written in that language)
Why did we ask all those questions?
In the KCS methodology, you should start with a clean new database.
However we live in the real world and we do not want to waste all of that good
Information out there. Thus we need to determine what to re-use.

4. What data to select to move forward?
p.4
In most existing databases you will have about 80% of all data/articles that
have not been used more than once or have not been touched in over 3
years.
Why bring that information over?
Simple Answer - You shouldn’t !!
So we look at the articles that have been used more than 3 times in the past year
as our starting point.
So what happens when you have a few databases or sources of knowledge that fit
the bill you use the other criteria to select which articles/database to choose.
You may want to use multiple databases when porting articles over as it
helps the regions and teams feel like their information is not lost and they
feel some ownership.

5. So we have selected the databases &
articles to use. What’s next?
p.5
So what do you do with the articles selected?
When starting up the new knowledge database and moving to the KCS philosophy,
you will nee to do some training. This is where the selected articles come into play.
Lets start with the KCS Coaches.
1.In your first phase of training have the team (Coaches) use the selected articles
and convert them over to a true KCS approach and put everything in the
language/terms of the customers.
2.Enter the article into the new knowledge management system.
3.Have the training team do an Article Quality Index on the new article. (this will
ground the team on what is good and what needs work)
4.Move the trainee’s on to the next article and repeat. Make sure that the team
always checks the database to ensure that there is not already a similar article in
there. If there is have them check the article and if needed take the new
information and improve the existing article instead of writing a new one.
( Each Coach should add in 10 or so articles during training)

6. The Coaches are now trained what’s next?
p.6
Now comes the time when the Coaches train the candidates
1.The Coaches now do the training of the candidates. As part of their training they
should work with the candidates like the trainer worked with them to starting loading
the database.
2.The candidate would continue down the list of selected articles and enter the
article into the new knowledge management system. Prior to entering the article
they should look for duplicates in the system.
3.Have the Coaches do an Article Quality Index on the new article. (this will ground
the candidate on what is good and what needs work)
4.Move the candidates on to the next article and repeat. Once again, Make sure
that the team always checks the database to ensure that there is not already a
similar article in there. If there is have them check the article and if needed take
the new information and improve the existing article instead of writing a new one.
( Each Candidate should add in 10 or so articles during training)

7. People are now trained. So where are we
with the new database?
p.7
Lets do some math:
If you have 4 regions doing training & 4 coaches getting trained, you should have
160 articles written during the training process.
If each coach goes back and trains 4 people and they do the 10 articles you should
have an additional 640 articles added into the database.
Now you have some good data (800 Articles ) and you can open up the database
to be used daily.

8. Now we are live, what to do Next?
p.8
Ok so your Live. First and foremost Congratulations!!!!
You should have may of your top articles already added into the system. You
should now have the team follow the KCS philosophy of the following:
• Check the new database first and see if an article is already written. If it
is then use it to solve the case.
• If there isn’t an article in the new database but is in the old database.
Mine it from the old database and put it into the new database in the
correct KCS format.
• If there isn’t an article in the old or the new database. Write a new
article and share it with the world in the new database.
• Move on to next call and repeat!!!

9. What do we do with the old databases?
p.9
This is a bit more of a complicated question but there is a relatively simple
answer.
After mining the old system for 6 months to a year, you should notice that you are
no longer going to find useful information from it on a daily/weekly basis. Once you
reach that point you know what to do.
It’s time to cut the cord and not be reliant on it anymore. Your team should be
living in the new database now. They should also be re-using more existing
articles and writing less new articles.
TIME TO ARCHIVE IT & RETIRE IT !!!!

10. What do we do with the old databases?
p.9
This is a bit more of a complicated question but there is a relatively simple
answer.
After mining the old system for 6 months to a year, you should notice that you are
no longer going to find useful information from it on a daily/weekly basis. Once you
reach that point you know what to do.
It’s time to cut the cord and not be reliant on it anymore. Your team should be
living in the new database now. They should also be re-using more existing
articles and writing less new articles.
TIME TO ARCHIVE IT & RETIRE IT !!!!