Implementation of HUBzero as a Knowledge Management System in a Large Organization
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Abstract
HUBzero has not only been an effective research and academic collaboration platform but through this study, it has also proven itself to be an effective knowledge management solution for commercial organizations. Knowledge management efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organization. In an ongoing project with Reliability Engineering division of a large company, the HUB-in-a-box version of HUBzero has been successfully implemented to play the role of a knowledge base of different reliability tools being used in the company like Failure Mode Effects Analysis, Reliability Growth Curves etc. HUBzero acted as a medium for building organizational memory and will allow people in working different areas to collaborate in a social networking manner which will not only improve the quality of the work but will also save a lot of time by reusing the work done by colleagues to solve a similar problem.
Challenges faced during the implementation of HUBzero included selection of the HUBzero server and maintaining its security, which were accomplished with the help for HUBzero development team at Purdue. We also devised a method for automated data collection from people and getting author's consent before publishing. A dashboard was developed by interfacing HUBzero and one of the existing groupware in the organization for selecting and publishing good quality resources.
Some of the areas in which ongoing/future work is planned include developing a generic guideline/template for requirements analysis for HUBzero implementation projects. We also want to develop the measures of effectiveness, metrics detailing how much HUBzero actually helps the end users by performing usability analysis. Based on the results of these studies, we expect to enhance the usability of HUBzero as a knowledge management system in a large enterprise setting.