KnowledgeMapper

KnowledgeMapper is a knowledge management solution offered by PlanetAsia. Since it is a solution, you can implement it and use a different name for it.

We found KnowledgeMapper to be completely customizable. Any component could be added or removed based on requirement. Its backbone consists of Win NT with Site Server, IIS, Exchange server, and SQL server. You can add various components to this backbone such as chat, discussion, public folders, etc. The solution lies on top of a company’s intranet. 

KnowledgeMapper has been implemented and is currently operational at Wipro under the name Infomine. You can access Infomine through a Web browser, just as you would access a company intranet. Every user has a login ID and a password, and rights to various sections have been defined according to user profile. Infomine has various methods of capturing information from users and making it easily available to the rest.

It has various interesting sections. The home page offers news about Wipro and interesting happenings. It also offers links to all Wipro groups, and the subsequent sub-groups. For example, there’s a computers and systems integration division, which is further sub-divided into business MIS, logistics, factory, marketing, etc. 

Information has been tailored based on user needs. For example, pricing details are accessible to the marketing people, financial information is accessible to the accounts department, etc. For collaboration, Infomine uses Microsoft Exchange public folders–a common area where users can post their messages and read what others have to say about a particular topic. These are accessed through Microsoft Outlook Web access, which is basically Outlook in a Web browser. The public folders are divided into various categories. Discussions in the public folder are threaded, so a new user can read the entire dialog on a particular topic before posting a response. 

There’s also an online chat facility. A search facility allows users to find documents and other information. This is pretty extensive, allowing you to search in particular sections or with specific parameters. There’s a separate people finder that lets you get a list of all people that match your query. This can be drilled down deeper to find their contact information. 

Users can also upload their own documents into Infomine. Various categories have been defined for this–corporate presentations, price lists, share price movement, etc. If your document doesn’t fit into any of these, you can create a new one. There’s a ticker that gets information from different Websites on different days. Online quizzes, jokes, etc, have been included for entertainment. 

KnowledgeMapper was implemented at Wipro at a cost of Rs 25 lakh, excluding the cost of the required hardware and software.