Times have changed: The casually dropped maxim "What you don't know won't hurt you." has long since given way to "What you don't know won't make you rich". In a society dominated by technology and information, knowledge has become the decisive competitive factor. However, the race for the top positions in the respective markets can only be won by those who can draw relevant conclusions from the flood of information. But we should not forget that information alone is not enough. It is only by placing it in a context that it becomes knowledge. The systematic identification, preparation, implementation and application is again summarized under the term knowledge management.
In a certain sense, every organization practices some form of knowledge management. The question is: How effectively and efficiently does it do so? The casual conversation between colleagues in the coffee kitchen as a narrative knowledge transfer is only a tiny part of it. Even a personalized knowledge transfer in workshops or in the context of virtual project rooms does not help when it comes to making profitable use of the mountains of information on which companies have long been sitting. In order to have quick access to existing knowledge, a systematic transfer across the most diverse information and communication systems is required. Of course, every employee can click through applications - but the logic and the way of thinking differ so much that without a mature and connecting or integrating search technology and supporting systems, a lot of knowledge is lost very quickly.
The answer may be an enterprise search solution - if it comes with the necessary technologies. It must be able to connect many different sources of structured and unstructured data to the system, regardless of whether they are located on in-house servers, in the cloud or in the deep web. In addition, the search and analysis software must be scalable not only at a single location, but also across many globally distributed data centers. It must also be able to grow with the database to enable true mass data processing. If the software supports distributed systems, it can easily increase its performance by adding more computers if required - thus providing a future-oriented system architecture. In addition to such fundamentals, it also requires a complete technology stack for content enrichment, analytics and artificial intelligence. If the enterprise search solution supports machine learning and deep learning processes, it is able to record content thematically, sort data automatically, recognize relationships between data and identify trends. And despite these complex applications running in the background, the solution must be clear for the user, easy to use and, ideally, personalizable. This is the only way to ensure that all employees use the tool intuitively and enjoy using it.
If all these points are met, the advantages of an enterprise search solution are obvious: Since the information is easily and centrally accessible, companies are not forced to reinvent the wheel, which increases productivity. Knowledge management with intelligent search - the keyword here is cognitive search - makes companies more competitive because they can use internal stores of knowledge, enrich them with external information such as market trends and thus gain an advantage. It also increases customer satisfaction when queries are answered faster and more thoroughly. Happy customers, in turn, are less likely to switch to the competitor.
Companies must understand: Without modern knowledge management there is no way today. Knowledge is long since the basic resource of modern societies and the driving force behind production.
