Re-thinking Knowledge Management in the Digital Age

In the middle of campus at the University of Chicago sits the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, a glass-domed structure that allows sunlight to shine through on students and scholars for as long as the sun sits in the sky. Beneath its crystalline exterior sits a reading room, and below that is where the real magic happens.

The library features a “high density automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS),” which features a robotic crane that retrieves requested materials within minutes. The amount of time that saves students on shuffling between stacks & manually retrieving materials cannot be understated. With automated technology taking the drudgery out of academic research, scholars can focus on what matters – their work.

Efficiency Optimized

Automation allows people to do their work more efficiently in a variety of contexts, with the retrieval and delivery of academic materials & information being one such application. When time isn’t spent on sourcing and searching for information, you can spend more time applying that information toward your goals. In a business context, that saved time correlates with lowered costs, improved job performance, and better customer experiences.

Incredible knowledge delivery capabilities don’t need to be reserved for elite academic institutions. Technologies that can deliver knowledge to end users are useful in a variety of industries, and for a variety of teams and job roles. From financial services to retail and restaurants, sooner or later most people have found themselves in a situation in which they did not have an answer – but desperately needed one.

The Restaurant Fiasco

Moving from the library to the kitchen, let’s examine a scenario in which automated knowledge delivery would save the day. Tens of orders are coming in at a time, and suddenly the kitchen printer disconnects and will not re-start. Heat, volume and tensions are running high, as the kitchen staff has no way of knowing what’s coming in. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a little help button embedded into the screen of that restaurant’s point-of-sale that could deliver information on how to reconnect that printer?

With a knowledge delivery platform that can easily integrate with that software, instructions for re-connecting that kitchen printer are literally at the manager’s fingertips. In no time at all, they can solve the problem and get re-connected so that business can keep moving along. No angry customers, no stressed-out staff, and best of all, no money lost. In times of crisis, the knowledge we need is more important than ever. Can you imagine trying to solve that problem thumbing through a manual?

Every Small Bank’s Nightmare

Financial services & banking constitute some of the most highly complex services that can be provided to businesses and consumers. Every transaction and service rendered must follow legal and institutional guidelines to a T, and that can become quite troublesome for those tasked with intaking applications at particularly high volumes.

Recently faced with implementing the SBA 7(a) loan program to provide small businesses with the relief they need during an economic shutdown, lending institutions found themselves slammed with applications while working remotely. Servicing these applicants would require cataloguing & delivering huge quantities of legal and logistical information, much of which had only recently been signed into law. Without a framework in place for delivering that knowledge, lag times and frustration were only due to increase.

We need Knowledge Delivery Now

We developed our platform because we know that time is money. In cutting down response times and ensuring that correct, contextual knowledge lands in the hands of those who need it, we’ve made it our mission to revolutionize how the working world thinks about managing their proprietary knowledge.

If our universities have moved beyond traditional use of the Dewey Decimal System, shouldn’t the business world move beyond searching static knowledge bases and rummaging around for operational manuals that are gathering dust? It’s time to move on.

If you’d like to get in touch about how we might help in this, please shoot us a note (partners@goboomtown.com).