How to Get the Most Out of



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Discussion List


Sharing information and knowledge among a group of people, using a single e-mail address. Thus all messages generated during each day can be grouped together and sent as a single e-mail in a “digest”. More commonly, it saves the time of having to individually send the e-mail to each person in the selected group.

Document Management Systems


System that ensures that the hundreds of documents generated each day in any organization are stored properly for easy retrieval. These systems make vast amounts of documents easily accessible and adaptable through the web. Often, such systems incorporate workflow functionality that allows documents to be intelligently routed to select, relevant people.

A useful document management tool is Microsoft SharePoint. SharePoint allows people to share Microsoft office documents with others through web pages. SharePoint sites are highly dynamic, unlike usual websites. Uploading of documents is a simple process. SharePoint also facilitates meetings, making public announcements, sending alerts and tracking work items. Instead of routing documents by e-mail, people can set up a workspace on a SharePoint site. E-mail alerts notify reviewers when files are uploaded or modified. Reviewers can discuss changes online. Comments can be tracked and all the changes can be recorded in version history. Document workspaces are provided to store work-in-progress. A workspace often contains only one document that a team is working on. A document library is typically used to store multiple documents within a site.

Double-loop Learning


Single-loop learning involves using knowledge to solve specific problems based on existing assumptions and is often based on what has worked in the past. But double-loop learning — also called generative learning — goes a step further and questions existing assumptions in order to create new insights.

(See also: Single-Loop Learning, Learning Organization)

DSS


See Decision Support system.

Dynamic Capability Building


In their book, The Only Sustainable Edge, John Hagel III and John Seely Brown define capability as the recurring mobilization of tangible and intangible resources for the delivery of distinctive value in excess of cost. They emphasize that companies must take a more dynamic view of capabilities. Otherwise, they will find themselves outflanked by more aggressive competitors. Sustainable competitive advantage will ultimately come from a firm’s institutional capacity to rapidly strengthen its distinctive capabilities and to accelerate learning across enterprise boundaries. As Hagel and Brown mention, “. . . . the primary role of the firm should be to accelerate the knowledge and capability building of its members so that all can create even more value. This perspective broadens managerial attention from the tasks of allocating existing resources to the tasks of deepening knowledge and capability in an increasingly uncertain environment”. Hagel and Brown suggest three mechanisms to accelerate capability building:

  1. Processes can be outsourced and in combination with offshoring can give the firm access to specialized capabilities.

  2. Distributed networks of specialized companies can also help in mobilizing resources.

  3. By bringing together people with diverse backgrounds and skills to solve business problems, capability building can again be accelerated.

E

E-learning


Unlike in the past, when people were brought together to one place for training, e-learning allows learning material and faculty expertise to be distributed to desktops. With the availability of various technologies, learning in organizations is undergoing a sea change. E-learning is leading to a fundamental rethinking of the learning process in business environments. E-learning is moving training away from a push-model to a pull-model. Employees determine what is useful to them. They can learn as per their convenience and customize training according to their specific needs and circumstances.

According to John Hagel III and John Seely Brown48, e-learning not only imparts training inputs but also helps shape common points of view and vocabularies across a distributed and diverse work force. E-learning can facilitate innovation by enabling people from very different backgrounds to collaborate effectively, using common frameworks and vocabularies. Cisco is one company which has deployed learning portals to serve the learning needs of its direct sales force, its system engineers as well as its channel partners. People can easily locate learning modules that are of the greatest relevance to them. Cisco has also been attempting to make the whole process more proactive by recommending to employees what kind of learning they must engage in, to be more effective in the work place. Thus, before a sales person meets a customer in a financial services company, the e-learning system might send a trigger suggesting that he may go through a new learning module that covers features of special interest to financial services companies.

Earl, Michael


Previously professor of Information Management at London Business School, Michael Earl works at the intersection of business strategy and IT. Earl has published widely in reputed journals like Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, and the Journal of Management Information Systems. His book Management Strategies for Information Technology became a best seller.

EIS


See Enterprise information systems.

Enterprise Information Systems (EIS)


A system that attempts to use the existing transaction data and display it in a form that is easy for top level executives to access. An EIS models the entire company. The landing page of an EIS is typically a graphical representation of the company. A CEO can drill down into required areas and ascertain relevant particulars. If there is a specific problem area, the CEO can do a more focused investigation and pinpoint responsibilities. The primary aim of an EIS is to provide easy access to data for senior executives. Instead of waiting for the information, they can retrieve it as soon as it is available. An EIS is expensive to create and maintain. Integrating the data and formatting it to make it user friendly requires programmers and analysts to anticipate management needs and keep the system up-to-date. Another issue is that senior managers often find it more convenient to ask lower level managers for reports instead of trying to retrieve the information themselves.


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