What benefits can companies expect from KM?

Some benefits of KM correlate directly to bottom-line savings, while others are more difficult to quantify. In today's information-driven economy, companies uncover the most opportunities — and ultimately derive the most value — from intellectual rather than physical assets. To get the most value from a company's intellectual assets, KM practitioners maintain that knowledge must be shared and serve as the foundation for collaboration. Consequently, an effective KM program should help a company do one or more of the following:

• Foster innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas by offering flexible technical framework
• Improve customer service by streamlining response time by implementing workflow processes and alert and monitoring facilities
• Boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster by smoother collaboration between people and systems
• Enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees' knowledge and allowing them to share knowledge in a easy to use browser based environment
• Streamline operations and reduce costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary processes
These are the most prevalent examples. A creative approach to KM can result in improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenues in practically any business function.