Wouldn't it be nice if Johnson could log on to the state's intranet, conduct a keyword search and pull out a detailed report on Jones' work, complete with engineering designs, phone numbers of colleagues and a wide range of work products he can recycle for his own needs?
The emerging technology that can recycle information from one jurisdiction to another is known as Knowledge Management. It can be simply defined as the processes, technology infrastructure and incentives through which an organization uses its collective intelligence to accomplish strategic objectives.
The examples cited above are fictitious. But pioneers who have been deploying these kinds of systems in private industry are seeing some substantial benefits, among them faster project turnarounds, more insightful decision making based on comprehensive--not anecdotal-- understanding of issues, and higher quality solutions to problems. For at least one private-sector firm, the return on its investment has been remarkable. According to a 1996 study by International Data Corp., the ROI for the knowledge-management system at the Booz-Allen & Hamilton consulting company was an impressive 1,400 percent.
What does this mean for government? At the very least, knowledge- management systems would allow state and local government agencies to capture some of the institutional knowledge that otherwise walks out the door every time an experienced employee leaves the public sector. Even bigger benefits might accrue from the productivity gains that come from simply giving one set of employees access to similar work products of others in related jobs. "People stop spending half a day chasing their tails," reports Stephen Cranford, senior vice president of knowledge-management solutions for KPMG Consulting.
KPMG employs a team of 30 "knowledge managers" who take content about their various projects, "cleanse" it of proprietary client information and upload the information to a central repository that includes everything from work plans, methodology documents, data models and e- mails. Similarly, BA&H gives employees access to a database of 4,000 reports describing the experience of a variety of consulting engagements with clients. When a given project is complete, one of 80 so-called dedicated "information experts" meets with consultants to ferret out the common lessons that can be applied to similar problems.
Needless to say, it's hard to imagine cash-strapped state and local governments ever having the resources to devote to a dedicated knowledge-managmement work group, even as the title Chief Knowledge Officer starts to make the rounds in the upper stratospheres of the federal bureaucracy. (In June of 1999, Shereen G. Remez was appointed the federal government's first Chief Knowledge Officer at GSA; several other federal agencies are making similar appointments.)
Still, there is something to be said for combining computer systems-- even simple e-mail--with business processes that give, say, an environmental engineer in Duluth instant access to the work done by a colleague in Minneapolis who is dealing with a similar problem in a local water supply. That's the kind of information sharing that is starting to appear on a few radar screens within state and local government. In Tucson and Phoenix, for example, local police departments are developing a knowledge-management system under a grant from the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice in which both departments will be able to tap into a central repository containing case reports as well as databases of weapons, automobiles and other relevant items that are normally buried in isolated systems in the two departments. Likewise, in New York State, the state controllers' Division of Municipal Affairs, with the aid of the Center for Technology in Government, is developing a Municipal Affairs contact repository operating system that will provide employees with remote and desktop access to vital information about the municipalities that they support.
Technology alone won't break down walls between governmental agencies. If private-sector experience is any indication, the most serious obstacles states and localities face in implementing computer systems that recycle ideas and projects is getting individuals to take advantage of them. At BA&H, the idea of a shared knowledge database prompted considerable skepticism at first. Eventually, however, it became an integral part of employees' daily routines. The message for government, then, is this: You have much to gain from emerging collaborative technologies. But don't forget to demonstrate their value to the people who will use them.
