University expands its knowledge

The raw material of any knowledge management system is not data; rather, it's information, usually residing as documents. It would seem that the key to any KM system - whether based on specific KM tools or a change in corporate culture - is a powerful document management system.

The evolutionary approach to applying document management systems into KM has been applied by Deakin University, Victoria, one of Australia's major tertiary education institutions.

It has implemented a new KM system which stores and retrieves information using CanoCentral, developed in Australia by Canon Integrated Systems.

The University's records manager, Ken Mould said Deakin was using CanoCentral to standardise the document classification process throughout the University. There are presently 20 senior management members using the system within the University in this implementation phase.

"As a University we receive large amounts of information in different formats - reports, e-mails, publications, records, memoranda and images, which need to be stored and accessed on an as needed basis," he said

The new system allows the university staff to retrieve documents by date, key word, data range, or document type. "One of the key benefits of CanoCentral for us is its use of a common corporate language which applies throughout the organisation," Mr Mould said.

This allows any user with the desktop client and appropriate access to obtain the relevant information that they need to access.

Prior to CanoCentral, corporate information was stored in various repositories with non-standard indexes which were not conducive to an efficient retrieval process, and represented a potential loss of control over corporate knowledge, said Mr Mould.

Deakin University has been trialing the new system in its records department, where all of the university's corporate information is managed for the past 12 months. CanoCentral supports all common document and image classifications and runs on most popular platforms.