Order InfoSubject:Business and ManagementTopic:Knowledge and Information Management in Project Environments - Reflective JournalType of work:Reflective JournalLevel:MasterNumber of pages:9 pages = 2475 words Grade:High Quality (Normal Charge)Formatting st

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KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN PROJECT ENVIRONMENTS

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Knowledge and Information Management in Project Environments

Executive Summary

The knowledge and information management environment assessment is explored in a company known as the Parkmore and Ballybrit Company in Ireland. The company has five sites located in different locations within the country. Currently, it relies on an on-premise time and shifts management system. Each Site possesses its design, and staffs in each location are responsible for managing the system. However, based on its environment's complexity, its current system maintains several limitations that need to be addressed to help bridge the gap within its knowledge and information system. Some of the issues facing the On-premise time and shift management system are that it is prone to mistakes, it has limited functionality, and above all, it lacks integration due to its volatile environment.

The analysis and exploration of the program's primary competencies have shown that although the on-premise has significant weaknesses, it also possesses some features that make it exemplary. It is easily accessible. It can also be managed internally by in-house ICT department staff, which makes it outstanding. However, the system's standalone features are one reason it lacks integration, hence impacting the accuracy of data collection and making it prone to human error. For this reason, it is highly recommended that to help curb the problems the company is experiencing with its knowledge and information system, it needs to adopt a cloud-based time and shift management system. The system's capabilities will help it curb costs, increase productivity, leverage efficiency, and reduce the costs involved in addressing obsolete technology issues.

Project Environment Overview

Parkmore & Ballybrit Company is an organization operating in a complex, volatile, and competitive business environment. The company is conducting its activities in Ireland. It boasts of around five sites spread around the country. It encompasses premises in locations such as Ballybrit, Athlone, Mervue, and Crospon. The company currently focuses on on-premises in controlling and managing its employee’s shifts and time. Each location possesses its own system where the workers shift and time data are processed and loaded to support the organization's business processes. The major problem facing its knowledge and information management environment is that its current system is complex and costly to maintain since it encompasses many legacy systems (Link, and Back, 2015). Other issues affecting its current system include high maintenance costs, lack of integration, prone to errors, and the inability to adapt and support new applications.

Because of its environment's competitive and volatile nature, the company requires information technology that can ensure that it responds to changes effectively and competes well within its environment. Its current system lacks in terms of availability, integration, functionality, and user support. For this reason, there is an increasing demand for Parkmore & Ballybrit Company to address the identified shortcomings by using more advanced information and knowledge management system that will focus on curbing costs, allowing the company to addresses volatile issues within its environment and the ensuing smarter capacity planning (Sedera et al., 2016). The new project should also enable the company to access advanced technology, effectively manage and control wage costs and leverage its forecasting abilities.

Knowledge Management Strategy

An on-premise time and shift check system are instrumental in tracking employee schedules and ensuring no regulatory or policy violations. It also manages to simplify employee’s payroll (Ichijo, and Nonaka, 2006). When implementing a digitally-enabled work environment, the company realized that a sophisticated attendance management system is essential. It is reasonable for keeping and maintaining a clear view on the motions of employees and being crucial in managing their attendance within the organizations (Giachetti, 2016). Besides, the system simplifies compliance.

Any solution that assists in controlling and monitoring the time employees spent in the office is a time and shift technology. Interestingly, in some instances, such systems may fail to be digital platforms. Some organizations may use time clocks, paper registers, and excel-based spreadsheets, among others (Lee et al., 2016). However, with the technology evolving at an alarming speed and companies focusing on distributed, large and extensive workforce, record attendance tools must also advance (Sedera et al., 2016). As a result, such issues have resulted in dedicated software for focusing on-time tracing across various platforms and devices. The system should encompass multiple features.

Knowledge management competencies, resources, and practices

With the increasing trend and advancement in technology, many organizations are switching their on-premises or internal attendance management system with newer technologies. However, Parkmore & Ballybrit Company possess an internally established attendance management system that completes its information and knowledge management system (Giachetti, 2016). Unlike the cloud-based management system that offers little management, similarly, an in-premise attendance system ensures that the company has control over its information and can employ it based on the organization's needs (Sedera et al., 2016). Besides, the information on this system is handled internally. The company staff has the expertise of facilitating the system as the organizations make required adjustments and upgrades based on the organization's working patterns.

The on-premise provides capabilities of internal issue resolution. The system offers Parkmore & Ballybrit Company the ease of resolving the frequent and various information and technology-related issues internally by using the department expertise (Giachetti, 2016). The organization's department possesses all accessibility and backup to ensure that the information and knowledge can quickly curb data loss (Sedera et al., 2016). It allows the company to retain control on issues revolving around issue resolution, maintenance of windows and need to be applied among others

The system also allows staff and employees to perform customization whenever they need it. It can be flexible in adjusting such systems without taking the required time or halting the system to address these internal issues to their attendance and time system (Hislop, Bosua, & Helms, 2018). They may also be customized and offers many options to workers that can adjust over time, working hours, and leaves, among others, conveniently or manually (Giachetti, 2016). It also provides employees with more in-depth customization alternatives based on management discretion.

The On-premise information system is famous for offering easy access to workers to check and mark their status. Nonetheless, this can also cause attendance and time frauds (Sedera et al., 2016). Using an on-promise information and knowledge management system curbs such insecurities and makes it necessary for all workers to be present within the company as per the company schedules and mark whether they are present or absent (Sedera et al., 2016). It also helps the employees keep their schedule based on critical and evading login issues and log out whenever they leave the company premises without telling the supervisors.

One of the potential areas where the on-premise can improve is working on reducing is human error. Human error ranks among the most significant roadblocks affecting the effectiveness of this system (Lehmhus et al., 2015). There is a high chance that mistakes will be made during recording, and there may even be some attempts from employees, visitors and other stakeholders to change the functionality of the system as soon as they notice or discovers some loopholes (Link, and Back, 2015). Although it may not be seen as a fraud, some staffs fill in spreadsheets at the culmination of the work period many days after they worked or completed their hours (Payne, Roden, and Simister, 2019). It is sometimes challenging to remember when they went on break, took lunch, or left the working premises. For this reason, implementing a digital and advanced cloud-based information and knowledge management system will allow employees to keep track of their time input impartially and accurately (King, 2009). Automated time-keeping software is instrumental in mitigating such issues and human error chances compromising the information and data.

Unification of timesheet data is another area that the system needs to improve on. The on-premise information and knowledge management system is sometimes acting on the mercy of the employee’s data tools and input processes (Sedera et al., 2016). Physical techniques such as manual entry via machines stamped-timecards and an additional layer of data capture may make information drift and occasionally reach the hands of scrupulous actors. In some instances, considering the system depends on the legacy software, even with the inclusion of a digital application, the lack of integration with the rest of the company operations will still create data silos (Sedera et al., 2016). Besides, separate business units imply that the human resource and accounting teams and every other department will fail to get an apparent image of the on-premise information and management system for every employee, staff, and stakeholders.

Challenges

The current system includes several standalone information systems located in different locations. It makes it challenging to share and manage information adequately. Data duplication is also one of the primary issues affecting the current system across various departments in the five locations. Besides, each working site manages and controls information and knowledge management site independently, which creates many information silos. The cost involved in managing and controlling the current information system is disproportionate to the value that it establishes. For instance, the enterprise needs to pay for software licensing and premium subscriptions and pay ICT staff to help control and manage the system. There are also additional costs coupled with expensive legacy systems that are challenging to maintain and operate. It is challenging to maintain and mobility and big data using this system, which is why this system lacks efficiency and integration.

The system is also facing severe threats in terms of technological changes since they have made it obsolete. Extensive maintenance costs are less viable in the short run, which also hampers the tracking and monitoring employee attendance. Lack of inbuilt authentication platforms makes the system experience constant security and outages, which makes it unreliable. Besides, the system is available because it forces the organization to assume all the risks and devastating implications of the current system. For instance, whenever a security threat occurs, the enterprise will experience all costs linked with the recovery and the breach.

The current system also makes it difficult for the existing employees to manage their schedules and track their progress within the organization, work time, holidays, and pay. Additionally, it is challenging for employees to share and access information revolving around their supervisors' performance and knowledge (Sedera et al., 2016). For instance, the Department of Information and Communication technology and top-level management within the organization are forced to manually take extra responsibilities of using that the records are reliable and accurate. In doing so, this affects their productivity and performance within the organization.

The system has also been having issues with skeptical employees. Some employees have been hesitant to adopt the technology, especially those reluctant to accept change. However, the proposed system will solve these issues by encouraging open communication within the organization to inform employees to comprehend the advantages of the system and its convenience. In some instances, the company has been experiencing the challenge of underutilization within the system. For example, since the company has invested heavily when implementing the system, if some of its features are underused, the company is getting little Returns on investment. Thus, the company should have ensured that it comprehends how the system will operate within the organization, especially whenever they embody premium features and tools. The company has also been experiencing internet connectivity issues. Most information and knowledge management system are internet-based and depend heavily on the internet. However, considering that the company was using legacy technology, it was challenging for its users to prefer high-level performance with the internet.

Overall Analysis and Recommendations

Parkmore & Ballybrit Company should implement and adopt a cloud-based employee time and shift management system to address its current problems. The new information and knowledge management technology will permit the organization to purchase the needed computing services and resources from third parties. In doing so, it will leverage smarter planning capabilities and help the company improve its focus on management. It will also help Parkmore & Ballybrit Company manage its wage costs and easily access the forecasting data and information. The new cloud-based time and shift management shift will enable the company to access advanced technology responsible for observing and shifting management with the company.

The adoption of the Kronos cloud-based employee time and shift management system will help leverage the quality of Human resources and management focus because of its capacity to ensure accurate forecasting. For this reason, the company should deploy a system that integrates effectively across the five sites. It should also deploy approximately 12 clock machines that will be instrumental in capturing data (Sedera et al., 2016). The system should also link to locations in Athlone, Ballybrit, Parkmore, Crospon, and Mervue. Before the complete installation, the company should also train relevant employees to increase the system, including supervisors and reporting managers.

The cloud-based time and shift management system will encompass knowledge and information on time and attendance. It will be embedded with labor tracking capabilities that simplify the collection of data on employee attendance (Sedera et al., 2016). It will also be embedded with Artificial intelligence attributes that will reduce manual processes to ensure optimal labor coverage. Besides, it will be possible for the company to get the relevant information they require to better produce the labor demands with the appropriate labor forecasting attributes.

Manual shift and time collection techniques are inefficient and error-prone. As such, the cloud-based time and shift management system will be highly automated with time tracking software that will ensure that its data collection devices and technological tools effectively boost the accuracy and efficiency of data collection. It will do so by lowering costs, leveraging productivity, and minimizing noncompliance.

The new information and knowledge management system will bring enormous benefits to the company. It will support its smart capacity planning within the organization. Considering that Parkmore & Ballybrit operates in a business environment that is volatile and highly competitive and is characterized by frequent changes, the company will need to be flexible when implementing its new system. The cloud-based system offers outstanding features to the company because of its flexibility to either reduce or increase the employment of various resources and services depending on its ends. With the implementation of the new system technology, the company will never need to invest in costly legacy tools, which may become obsolete due to system requirements. Moreover, the system offers the company an opportunity to exercise and meet the company's needs due to its resources and the capabilities it possesses.

References

Giachetti, R.E., 2016. Design of enterprise systems: Theory, architecture, and methods. CRC Press.

Hislop, D., Bosua, R. & Helms, R. (2018). Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction (4th Edition) Oxford University Press.

Ichijo, K. and Nonaka, I. (eds.) (2006) Knowledge creation and management: new challenges for managers, Oxford University Press.

King, W.R. (ed) (2009) Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning, Springer.

Lee, Y.T., Hsiao, W.H., Huang, C.M. and Seng-cho, T.C., 2016. An integrated cloud-based smart home management system with community hierarchy. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, 62(1), pp.1-9.

Lehmhus, D., Wuest, T., Wellsandt, S., Bosse, S., Kaihara, T., Thoben, K.D. and Busse, M., 2015. Cloud-based automated design and additive manufacturing: a usage data-enabled paradigm shift. Sensors, 15(12), pp.32079-32122.

Link, B. and Back, A., 2015. Classifying systemic differences between software as a service-and on-premise-enterprise resource planning. Journal of Enterprise Information Management.

Payne, J., Roden, E., Simister, S. (2019), Managing Knowledge in Project Environments. Milton: Routledge.

Sedera, D., Lokuge, S., Grover, V., Sarker, S. and Sarker, S., 2016. Innovating with enterprise systems and digital platforms: A contingent resource-based theory view. Information & Management, 53(3), pp.366-379.

Sedera, D., Lokuge, S., Grover, V., Sarker, S. and Sarker, S., 2016. Innovating with enterprise systems and digital platforms: A contingent resource-based theory view. Information & Management, 53(3), pp.366-379.