A Knowledge Strategy – Necessity or Luxury?

A Knowledge Strategy – Necessity or Luxury?

A Knowledge Strategy – Necessity or Luxury?

If I had a dollar for each time I have heard the phrase “… I didn’t know the system could do that”, I could probably afford a vacation at a nice beach resort on a tropical island. Trust me, I would love the beach time, but it is a shame that this is often the case for enterprise software customers.

The “I didn’t know” situation can contribute to companies wasting precious time, money and resources to address business needs that are not being met by their current enterprise applications. When a software solution is assumed to not meet a specific need, organizations can respond in several ways with varying implications:

Table 1:

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Granted, there will always be something that your current solution doesn’t do, or doesn’t do particularly well. But there is a great chance that the system offers a solution, and your organization is simply not aware of the feature or configuration option. This situation exists for any number of reasons, such as:

  • Business requirements have evolved over time and initial configuration(s) no longer fit
  • Users that were leveraging a feature have moved on and new users didn’t get the necessary training
  • Most notable for SaaS applications, is that most SaaS vendors introduce new features on a frequent cycle and customers lack a knowledge strategy to stay abreast of new features, thus missing the opportunity to improve the value they realize from the application(s).

This gap between business need and feature awareness is one that can be remedied and it does not have to involve an army of consultants, a large technology investment or a huge organization wide culture shift. It can be as straightforward as defining and executing a simple knowledge strategy, which should include these 4 best practices

1)     Designate individual(s) to be responsible for staying abreast of solution updates and advances

2)     Officially allocate a few hours per quarter to assigned individual(s) for the task of staying informed

3)     Train these folks on vendor’s resources designed to help customers stay up-to-date

4)     Hold your knowledge team accountable for reviewing quarterly net change guides, vetting features with the business users, and defining the go-forward plan for adoption

The number of individuals involved in your knowledge management strategy depends upon the breadth of your software footprint. A small SaaS footprint in one functional area could be managed by 1 person. In a larger footprint, you might assign someone for each functional pillar (HCM/ERP/CX/SCM, etc.) Incorporating these responsibilities into an individual’s annual performance plan will help to ensure your strategy will succeed.  

Figure 1: Modern Enterprise Application Life Cycle – Leveraging Oracle SaaS Quarterly Update Cycles for Greater Value Realization

The diagram shows the traditional enterprise applications life-cycle (depicted in phases 1 through 5). Note that updates/upgrades were often infrequent, usually years apart, and when done they were often focused on upgrading the technology, and business processes were left “as is”.

Phase 5+ depicts the opportunity for customers to realize higher value from quarterly SaaS updates (as delivered by Oracle), especially if they have commitment to a knowledge strategy requiring that new capabilities be evaluated each quarter and decisions made on which items to adopt in order address business needs and/or pain-points.

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Knowledge is Power! Even if there are new features that you decide not adopt due to fit or other business considerations, at least you know what the application can and cannot do. It’s this knowledge that allows you to avoid the costly results of the scenarios described in Table 1.

A knowledge strategy is indeed a necessity, not a luxury.

What’s Your Take?

Let’s start a discussion! Please share your thoughts and experience regarding the quarterly introduction of new features and enhancements. Others in the community will likely welcome a discussion on methods are you using for staying informed, any best practices implemented, key lessons learned on keeping net change management simple and effective, and satisfaction levels among your business users.

Key Oracle Resources to enabling your Knowledge Strategy

What's New by Release? Net Change Documents:

Tip! Oracle publishes the SaaS Net Change documents approximately 6 weeks prior to the release of each quarterly update. 

Net Change Training (Free on Oracle Launch Pad).

We Can Help!

Oracle’s North American Customer Success Business Advisory Services are here to guide your success with your Oracle SaaS solution. We are 100% focused on helping customers achieve faster value and realization of business objectives. Find out more and contact us here.

Kem Butler

#OracleEmp but opinions are my own.

#Oracle #SaaS #KnowledgeStrategy #ValueRealization #ChangeManagement #SuccessPlan




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