1 ~:.'..'~,...

· •.•.. _. -- •••••.. _.::.; ... ::.; .•..••.••.•.. '""::1 .....

~:.' ..'~, Kiiowle'd~f(f~~Management and Collaboration at lata(' .:. ~~ , ~ .. 'Consulting Services" '. CASE STUDY

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is anIT-services, business-solutions and out-sourcing organization that offers a portfolioof IT and IT-enabled services to clients all

over the globe in horizontal, vertical, and geographi-cal domains. A part ofthe Tata Group, India's largestindustrial conglomerate, TCShas over 108,000 ITconsultants in 47 countries.

The concept of knowledge management (KM)was introduced in TCS in 1995 and a dedicated KMteam called "Corporate Groupware" was formedin 1998, This group launched the KM-pilot in mid-1999, which was implemented subsequently by ateam comprising the steering committee, corporateGroupWare irnplanters, branch champions, applica-tion owners and the infrastructure group.

At that time, KMin TCS covered nearly everyfunction, from quality assurance to HR management.While its 50 offices in India were linked throughdedicated communication lines, overseas officeswere connected through the Net and the Lotus NotesDomino Servers. The employees could access theknowledge repository that resided on the corporateand branch servers through the intranet, with abrowser front-end or a Notes client. The knowledgerepository, also called KBases contained a wide rangeof information about processes, line of'busíness, lineof technology, and projects.

Though the formal KMefforts started in TCS inthe late 1990s, the informal, closely knit communi-ties of practices (CoPs) had existed at TCSsince the1980s, when it had around a thousand employees.The earliest "group" was based on the migration oftechnologies. Later, teams were formed for main-frarne, Unix, and databases. The groups, consistingof one or two experts in their respective fields, beganformal documentation practices with the mem-bers writing down the best practices. Recollectingthe group practíces in the initial days, K.AnanthKrishnan, a technology consultant at that time,recounted that in the mid-eighties, problems andsolutions were documented and there were over1,500 case studies for mainframe. Sirnilarly, for qual-ity area, 40 case studies were reviewed as early as1993.

The next step was to create Process Asset Libraries(PALs)which contained information related totechnology, processes, and case studies for project

leaders, which were made available to all develop-ment centers through the intranet.

Then Ultimatix, a web-based electronic knowl-edge management (EKM)portal, which made theknowledge globally available, was developed. ThePALlibrary and KBases,which were hosted on theintranet, were merged with Ultimatix, which hadsub-portals for a quality management system, soft-ware productivity improvement, training materials,and tools information. There were EKMadministra-tors for each practice and subject group with definedresponsibílities, such as editing the documents andapproving them for publication. Commenting on thesuccess of CoP,Krishnan maintained that betweenJanuary 2003 and June 2003, CoP members hadexchanged around 10,000 document transactionsrelating to the industry practices and 21,000 servicepractices via Ultimatix. The telecom CoP alone had6,000 transactions, excluding the intranet-based com-munity activities.

To encourage employee conversations, TCS tookconsiderable care in the architecture of its develop-ment centers, located across the country. Reflectingon the new design of one of its development centersin Sholinganallur, Chennai, CFO S. Mahalingam com-mented that the center is made up of modules, eachdedicated to one particular technology or a client oran industry practice. These structures lead to gardenterraces, where employees gather during their breakfor informal conversations and brainstorm the solu-tions to many problems.

TCSalso launched a number of training programssuch as the Initial Learning Program, targeted atnew employees, the Continuous Learning Programfor experienced employees, and the LeadershipDevelopment Program for employees with morethan five years' experience. The integrated compe-tency and learning management systems (iCALMS)that was deployed globally across all TCSoffices pro-moted a culture of learning and growth in the organi-zation. Equipped with data about competency defini-tions, role definitions, and online/ classroom learningobjectives it helped the consultants to enhance theirskills in a customized manner. To gain cross-industryexperience, TCSregularly rotated people across vari-ous functions and within other Tata Group compa-nies. Employees were also encouraged to join outsidebodies like the IEEE, and go in for certifications.

480 Part Three I<eySystem Applications for the Digital Age

Knowmax, a knowledge management systern,developed using Microsoft sharepoint portal server in2007, gave TCSconsultants access to nearly 40 yearsof experience and best practices, arranged by typeof engagement, the technology in use, and customerrequirements. It supported more than 60 knowledgeassets and was accessible via Ultimatix to all TCSassociates. Any associate could contribute to theK-Bankand Knowledge Officers were made respon-sible for maintaining the quality of content.

To maintain the work-life balance of its employ-ees, TCSinitiated Propel sessions which broughttogether employees with similar interests to conductvarious activities such as reading books. Later, heldevery quarter through conferences and carnps, thisinitiative also spurred knowledge transfer amongthe employees. The knowledge sharing at the proj-ect level was done through LiveMeeting application,where all the project meetings were recorded andstored in the project repository. Team members whomissed the meeting, or any new members in theteam, could listen to the recorded sessions and thisenabled them to catch up with the rest of the team.Furtherrnore, Knowledge Transition sessions con-ducted weekly by the "Subject Matter Expert" helpedthe team to learn from the experience of the experts."Tip of the Day" mail, comprising either technical,or conceptual, or human skills tips were also sharedwithin the organization, almost daily.

Though Ultimatix, launched in 2002, digitized theentire organization frorn end to end and improvedthe business processes' effíciency, it still couldn't tapthe knowledge of employees effectively. To improvecollaboratíon among employees, Project Infinity waslaunched in 2007; this involved a number of technol-ogies including IBM's Sametime, QuickPlace, LotusDomino Collaboration tools, Avaya VOIP telephony,and Polycorn IP videoconferencing.

As a result of adopting Infinity, collaborationof overseas and local offices improved as instantmessaging (IM) got rid of cultural and pronun-ciation differences that could occur on the phone.Furtherrnore, corporate communications were ableto run a 24-hour internal news broadcast to all TCSoffices in the world. In addition, travel and telecom-munications costs were reduced by 40 percent and 6percent respectively.

Other than these channels, the company alsoused the JustAsk system (embedded into the KM),Blogplatforrn, IdeaStorm, TIp' and My Site. Blogginghad caught on rapidly since 2006 when it was first

introduced. Almost 40,000-50,000TCSstaffbloggedon the intranet. While the JustAsk system allowedemployees to post questions that others couldanswer, Idea Storm was a once-a-year event, wheretwo to three topics were posted by the corporateteam on which ideas were invited by everyone. TIp'an open portal for product innovation and potentialnew ideas was launched to promote the sharing ofideas. MySite, embedded into the KMportal, allowedeach associate to have a personal page like Facebookor Orkut.

Sources: Sankaranarayanan G., "Building Communities, the TCSway," expressitpeople.com, September 2003; Kavita Kaur, "Giveand 'Iake," india-today.corn, January 2000; Sunil Shah, "NetworkWonder: Collaborative 'Ibols Help TCS Grow," cio.com, July 2007;Shivani Shinde, "TCS Sees Synergy in Gen X 'Ibols," rediff.com,July 2008.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS1. Analyze the knowledge management efforts at

TCSusing the knowledge management valuechain model. Which tools or activities were usedfor managing tacit knowledge and which ones areused for explicit knowledge?

2. Describe the growth ofknowledge managementsystems at TCS.How have these systems helpedTCS in its business?

3. Describe the collaboration tools used at TCS?Whatbenefits did TCSreap frorn these tools?

4. How did Web 2.0 tools help TCS to manage knowl-edge and collaboration among its employees?

5. How do you think KMtools have changed somekey operational processes at TCS, such as biddingfor new projects, project development and imple-mentation, customer service, and so on?

Case contributed by Neerja Sethi and Vijay Sethi,Nanyang Technological University

.,\