Ibm Canada Case Study

Executive Summary

Ontario Ministry of Education has contracted IBM consultants to find a solution for their inefficient knowledge management system. After a thorough investigation five major issues were identified. Firstly that the knowledge at the ministry was mainly tacit, documented knowledge was difficult to find and distribute, significant cultural issues existed that inhibited knowledge sharing, the knowledge sharing infrastructure that existed at EDU was fragile and finally managers had difficulty identifying experts in relevant fields. As a result of these issues the EDU has enlisted the help of Kathryn Everest who is a management consultant at IBM Canada. Kathryn has come up with three solutions that would combat the issues. Namely document management, communities of practice and the creation of an expert directory.

Issue(s) Identification

IBM Canada was a leader in providing information technology products, services and management consulting. With their headquarters in Markham which possessed the sole responsibility of marketing and servicing IBM products. IBM’s knowledge and Organizational Performance Forum was founded in 1999. The purpose of this forum is to allow private and public sector organizations a chance to discuss and, “conduct grounded pragmatic research on the growing scope and impact of knowledge related initiatives.” The Ontario Ministry of Education has contracted IBM to provide them with an overview of current practices in knowledge management. Kathryn Everest was put in charge of the IBM team to identify the problems and propose a solution to the current knowledge management program. IBM’s investigation revealed the main issues as

being knowledge at the ministry was mainly tacit, documented knowledge was difficult to locate and share, significant cultural issues that stunted knowledge sharing, the overall weak infrastructure of the ministry’s knowledge sharing program and mangers were unable to identify relevant experts. IBM has identified three options that can be used alone or combined to rectify the issue. The challenge becomes deciding which option to implement.

Environmental and Root Cause Analysis

The Ontario Ministry of Education is enlisted with the job of developing and sustaining a province wide curriculum also to promote accountability through setting provincial standards for achievement, class size and instructional time. The ministry has the job of regulating elementary and secondary schools across the province.

The Social Capital survey shown in the case has been illustrated next. This survey was a