Digital knowledge management
Head of Product Management
Robin Kühnast-Benedikt

Making knowledge accessible: software that opens up potential.

Post from 30. June 2022

The year 2030 is only 8 years away. Currently, many strategic goals are aligned with this year. More efficiency, more sustainability and, above all, more digitalization. It is important to keep an eye on the progress and its effects on everyday life and work. The topic of digitalization can quickly degenerate into a complex and confusing major project if you don’t know which aspects to keep an eye on. Today, we want to focus on a topic that CIOs should pay much more attention to: Knowledge management.

What is knowledge?
Once: power. Today: competitive advantage.

Managing knowledge is the supreme discipline of modern corporate management. Especially in times when there is a noticeable shortage of specialists in many industries, it is of immense importance to anchor knowledge within the company. Before “managing”, however, it is important to understand what knowledge is. Knowledge comes in different forms. A distinction is made between explicit knowledge – knowledge that is easy to codify and can therefore be passed on from person A to person B using simple communicative means – and tacit knowledge, which resides in the heads of the employees and is not so easily transferable. This category includes the experiential knowledge of individuals. The challenge for companies is, on the one hand, to make explicit knowledge accessible to their employees and, on the other hand, to transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

 

Knowledge transformation

Knowledge losses in companies, e.g. due to the departure of employees, cost money. Just as it is about five times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an old one, it can also be assumed that retaining knowledge is significantly more cost-effective than acquiring new or lost knowledge.

It is undisputed that digitalization holds potential for an improved access to knowledge, not only with regard to explicit knowledge, but also to tacit knowledge. With the help of contemporary media and new technologies, companies can create transparency, but also make information, knowledge and competencies available so that they can be shared and acquired by employees.

The development of tacit knowledge is primarily driven by the mutual exchange with colleagues and other knowledge-bearing elements. This means that the interpersonal components contribute significantly to the success of a company. The more capacities are made available for exchanges between colleagues, the greater the chance that knowledge can be made available more quickly to everyone in the company. Although this is a difficult parameter to measure, it is critical to success. Just imagine how much economic damage can be caused if time and energy are spent in one part of the company to solve a problem that has long since been solved elsewhere.

Knowledge can only become a competitive advantage if its importance is recognized, head monopolies are abolished and barriers to the transfer of tacit knowledge are removed.
 

The right partner for digitalizing and centralizing your knowledge management

Knowledge management is the deliberate transformation of tacit knowledge that is tied to individuals or organizations into explicit knowledge that can be communicated and does not depend on individual persons. A knowledge database that provides information independent of time and place forms the basis for effective knowledge management.

At Boom Software, more than 60 experts work every day to further develop knowledge management in companies through new technologies and to map their processes completely digitally in order to create a central knowledge base in addition to transparency and control.

Customers are convinced of Boom Software’s solutions:

“With Boom Software’s solution, we extract for our employees the information that offers them added value or that they have to apply concretely and do not confront them with the entire system, thus improving the effectiveness, efficiency and also employee satisfaction in our company,” says Armin Wohlfahrter, Managing Director of ETL Lokservice GmbH.

 

Digitalization and the use of software is an enrichment for every individual in the company. Every person who can work through processes manually also has the skills to solve problems creatively. This potential needs to be tapped. And an essential part of this must be to ensure that the speed at which knowledge spreads throughout the company is as high as possible. A cocktail of measures and possibilities must be implemented, starting with ritualized exchange with colleagues and ending with powerful software applications. This takes energy and time, but the medium- and long-term benefits are enormous.

 

We at Boom Software support you on this path. Contact our railroad experts and learn in a non-binding conversation which steps are necessary to protect the existing knowledge in your company and thus strengthen your competitiveness.

Back to overview
Focus on
Rail
Blog
Bettina Bernhard , Marketing Managerin
Bettina
Why Excel doesn't fit on the rail
Post from 22. March 2024

Many companies still rely on programs like Access databases and Excel sheets, which, however, do not meet the requirements of modern maintenance

More
Bettina Bernhard , Marketing Managerin
Bettina
Why do businesses opt more frequently for railway-specific software solutions for maintenance over ERP systems geared towards commercial purposes?
Post from 18. March 2024

Companies are increasingly relying on software solutions to carry out the maintenance of rail vehicles, their components and infrastructure-related facilities more efficiently, effectively, and professionally.

More
Robert
Farewell, disruptions! Improved incident reporting in rail transport is available
Post from 20. December 2023

The fault indication app was specially developed to offer train drivers, train attendants and machine operators an uncomplicated and efficient way to generate fault indications.

More