;!.ttE-cIl..+L9Y:r!# i: 'unavailable,,t Chapter 11 . Knowledge Management 523 tion at Siemens involved res tO 20 percent IT and 80 percent change runagement- p of dealing with cultural change and human interfaces.,, The roots of knowledge management at Siemens go back to 1996, when a number of people in rhe corporation.wtro had an interest in knowledge man- agement (XM) formed a comniunity of interest. They researched the subiect, learned what *,as being done by other companies- and determiried how KM could benefir Siemens- \Fithout suggesrion of crlcour?€emenl frirm senior executives, midlevel employeei ih Siemens business units began creating repositories, cofilmunities of pracice. and informal knou'ledge-sharing techniques_ Bv 1999, Siemens AG s central board confirmed the imponance of l(.ltl to the entire company by creating an organizational unit that would be responsible for the tvorldu,ide deplol,ment of knorr.ledge flunagement. Siemens's filovetr€rlt to*'ard KII has presentd ser.eral challenges to the companl-- tlre most notable of nhich are tedrnological and cr-rttural- At the hsart of Siemens's technical solution to knowledge management is a \Feb site called ShareNet, which combines eiements of a database repository, a chat room, and a search engine. Online entry forrns allow emplovees ro srore information they think might be useful to colleagues. Other Siemens employees are lble to search the repository or browse by topic and, then contact the authors for more information, using one of the ar.-ailable communication channels.,In addition- rhe s\stern leLs ernplor-ees post alerts when thev har..e an urgenr quesdon. Although knowledge ;lgarn ho*, Siemens has used a three-pronged effort to ii!A,. lts ,convirice employees that it is importalt ro pafiici- ;...,:.,,t.t" pate in the "r.trng. of ideas ;i.*f;;;;;;; to share nhat they know. The challenge is manag- ing the people who manage the knou.ledge. tt has to be eas-v for them to'3hare, or they q.on,t. Siemens has assigned 100 internal evangelisrs around the world to be responsible for training. anssvering questions, and monitoring the system. Siemens,s top management has sho$,n its ftill support for the KM proiects. and the compan-v is pror'.iding incentives to overcome employees' resistance to change. \{rhen emplol'ees post documenG to the sl'stem or use the kno*'ledge, Siemens rewards rhem n'ith .shares', (similar to frequent-fl1-er n:iles). An employee's accumulation of shares can be exchanged for things such as consumer electronics or dist-ounted trips to other countri,es- Ho*-el'er. the.real inc-entir-e of dre s.\-stem is much more basic. Conmissiondrir-en salespeople have alreadv learned that the knosr.l- edge and expertise of their colleagues ar-ailable througCr ShareNet ean be indispensable in rr.innine lucratire contracts. Emplovees in marketing. sen-ice- research and development- and other departments \ are also willing to parricipare and contribute w.hen tlrcy realize that the svsrem pror.ides them q-ith useful information in a convenient \r-a\,. tt"' "', ShaieNet "has' undergone tre nlc nclou s gro\\th. which has resulted in ser-eral challenges for :'Siemens.: The company srives to maintain a balance.he,tryeen,global and local knos,ledge initia- tlves as Well as between KM effort.s thar support the efltire:-aoinpany r.aad those that help indir iclual tiusiness units-;.Furtirermore. Siemens n-orks ro pre- .vent ,shareNetr fr6m.becoming so or.erloaded n-ith ---T:* FI