From a Document Transfer System to Knowledge Management
by Leonid Tschernjak

This is a summary of the conversation between the editor Leonid Tschernjak and Dmitrij Romanow, the director of “Aj-Ti”.

Knowledge Management (KM) is the management of a company’s knowledge. The objective of the use of KM lies in the enhancement of the employee’s productivity.
Central questions that have a strong influence on the KM system are:

• How to obtain information,


• How to find the experts of the respective field,


• How to put the new ideas into practice,


• How to best disperse the knowledge and increase the experience of the company.

The development of KM is closely connected to the research of new organisational structures.
Knowledge is the spread of information that people acquired: Knowledge = (people + information) circulation. Many managers appreciate this formula, which was developed by Arthur Anderson.
Information can be spread verbally or in writing. This happens in three stages:
1. preparation of the document,
2. transfer of the document,
3. receiving of the document.

These three stages correspond to three characteristic time intervals:
1. the time it takes to prepare the document,
2. the time it takes to transfer the document,
3. the time it takes to receive to document.
Information technology enables us to shorten the time it takes to transfer the document. Similarly, KM technologies help to shorten the preparation of a document and foster the process of comprehension and decision making.

What is important for a company? The success of a company depends on the speed of information processing. However, this does not need to be the case for every company. For some, the employee’s knowledge and experience are most important. In order to enhance the qualification and experience of its staff, companies use the KM system. KM systems belong to the kind of tools that can make companies more efficient.

In order to read the full interview (in Russian language) click here.