A Report of

“EVALUATION AND RE-ENGINEERING OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

PRAACTICES IN BIZ PEOPLE FUNCTION AT MINDTREE, BANGALORE”
for

MINDTREE PRIVATE LIMITED, BANGALORE

Submitted to the

Department of Management Studies

In partial fulfilment of the

Post Graduate Diploma in Management

Under the Guidance of

PROF. MARIAKUTTY VARKEY

SCMS COCHIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

by

ARJUN R
PGDM 26 FK-3136

SCMS COCHIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

SCMS CAMPUS, PRATHAP NAGAR, MUTTOM, ALUVA, COCHIN-106.

September 2018

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DECLARATION

I, the undersigned, hereby declare that this project report entitled “EVALUATION AND
RE-ENGINEERING OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRAACTICES IN BIZ
PEOPLE FUNCTION AT MINDTREE, BANGALORE” has been written and submitted
under the guidance of PROF. MARIAKUTTY VARKEY and is my original work, I
understand that detection of any copying is liable to be punished in any way the school deems
fit.

Date: ARJUN R

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 SCMS COCHIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
SCMS CAMPUS, PRATHAP NAGAR, MUTTOM, ALUVA,
COCHIN-683106.

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project work entitled “EVALUATION AND RE-ENGINEERING
OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRAACTICES IN BIZ PEOPLE FUNCTION
AT MINDTREE, BANGALORE”, has been carried out under my guidance by ARJUN R
in partial fulfilment of his Post Graduate Diploma in Management during the academic
year 2017 - 2019.

Date: PROF. MARIAKUTTY VARKEY

FACULTY GUIDE

iii
 SCMS COCHIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
SCMS CAMPUS, PRATHAP NAGAR, MUTTOM, ALUVA,
COCHIN-683106.

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project work entitled “EVALUATION AND RE-ENGINEERING
OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRAACTICES IN BIZ PEOPLE FUNCTION
AT MINDTREE, BANGALORE”, has been carried out by ARJUN R in partial fulfilment
of his Post Graduate Diploma in Management.

Date: Dr.Filomina P. George

DIRECTOR

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Internship opportunity I had with Mindtree Private Limited was a great opportunity for
learning and professional development. Each one has accompanied me for the successful
completion of task that would be incomplete without mentioning the people who made it
possible.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr.Filomina P. George, Director, PGDM,

SCMS Cochin School of Business, for giving me opportunity to carry out summer internship
as part of my course.

I express my deepest thanks to Prof. K. J. Paulose, Dean, PGDM, SCMS Cochin School of
Business, for generous support during the Internship period.

I express my deepest thanks to Prof. MariakuttyVarkey, SCMS Cochin School of Business,

who is not only Faculty guide, but also an approachable teacher, mentor, well-wisher, path
maker, advisor motivating me each time and guiding me to stay par with traditional
theoretical knowledge to practical approach which made my everyday colourful throughout
the period.

My deep indebtedness goes to Mr Dinu Daniel, Associate Manager (Mindtree Private

Limited), for giving necessary advices and guidance. My best regards & deepest sense of
gratitude to him as company guide who in spite of being extremely busy with his duties, took
time out to hear, guide and kept me on the correct path.

I would like to thank all the other managers, employees and working and non-working staff in
the company for sharing their knowledge and suggestions.

I thank our librarian, friends, parents and other relatives for encouragement and support at
various stages of this project.
ARJUN R

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 Table of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND THEORITICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
................................................................................................................................................... 2
1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Theoretical background ................................................................................................... 4
1.3 Literature Review............................................................................................................. 8
CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................ 15
METHODOLOGY .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1 Topic of the study .......................................................................................................... 16
2.2 Objectives of study ........................................................................................................ 16
2.3 Data Collection .............................................................................................................. 16
2.4 Approach of the study .................................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................................ 19
PROFILES ............................................................................................................................... 19
3.1 Industry profile............................................................................................................... 20
3.2 Company profile ............................................................................................................ 22
3.2.1 Mission Statement ................................................................................................... 25
3.2.2 Core values.............................................................................................................. 25
3.2.3 Board of Directors................................................................................................... 26
3.3 Mindtree services profile ............................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER 4 ............................................................................................................................ 32
ANALYSIS OF EXISTING SYSTEMS ................................................................................. 32
4.1 Existing knowledge management syetm ........................................................................ 33
4.2.1 Features available in Konnect ................................................................................. 38
4.2.2 Limitations of Konnect System............................................................................... 39
CHAPTER 5 ............................................................................................................................ 42
PROPOSAL FOR IMPLEMENTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AT
MINDTREE ............................................................................................................................. 42
5.1 Proposal of KM framework ........................................................................................... 43
5.1.1 Call to action ........................................................................................................... 44
5.1.2 Developing Knowledge management strategy........................................................ 47

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 5.3.1 Design & Launch Knowledge managemnet capabilities ........................................ 53
5.1.4 Sustaining KM system ............................................................................................ 60
5.2 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 63
CHAPTER 7 ............................................................................................................................ 64
LEARNING AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS .......................................................... 64
7.1 Learning and managerial implications ........................................................................... 65
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 65

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 List of tables

Table 1: Major players in IT Industry ...................................................................................... 22

Table 2: Mindtree Locations Around the world ...................................................................... 29
Table 3: Acquisitions by Mindtree .......................................................................................... 30
Table 4: SWOT Analysis of Mindtree ..................................................................................... 31
Table 5: Summary of Contents in Service line people function teams .................................... 34
Table 6: Summary of contents in Vertical People function team ............................................ 35
Table 7: Types of communities in Konnect system ................................................................. 36
Table 8: Verification of contents- Recommendation and feasibility ....................................... 56
Table 9: Taxonomical arrangement- Recommendations and feasibility.................................. 56
Table 10: Expert chat tab - Recommendations and feasibility ................................................ 57
Table 11: Idea and innovation tab - Recommendations and feasibility ................................... 58

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 List of Figures
Figure 1: Knowledge management framework............................................................ 18
Figure 2 Screenshot of sample community in Konnect system ................................... 38
Figure 3: Knowledge management framework............................................................ 44
Figure 4: Competency wise work knowledge chart ..................................................... 45
Figure 5: Knowledge management team hierarchy chart ............................................ 49
Figure 6: Knowledge management maturity model..................................................... 52
Figure 7: Various Knowledge management approaches ............................................. 54
Figure 8: Taxonomical arrangement of content categories .......................................... 57
Figure 9: Knowledge management cycle ..................................................................... 60

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This Project titled ‘Evaluation and re reengineering of knowledge management
practices in Biz People Function” was conducted at Mindtree, Bangalore’. The
objectives of the project were:
 To understand the best practices followed by individual teams within People
function
 To assess the quality of existing knowledge contents
 To come up with a systematic road map to implement an efficient knowledge
management system.
After getting a basic understanding of KM systems, a detailed study was conducted in
each team to evaluate its KM practices, quality of content and storage methods .It was
found that no systematic knowledge management practices are followed in People
function. Most People function teams store the knowledge contents in the hard disks
and the quality of most of contents were low. Very few teams used SharePoint as their
knowledge management system and had a partial knowledge management processes
in place. The analysis showed that the knowledge management practices in Biz people
function at Mindtree are partial and localised.
The next task was to analyse Mindtree’s proprietary Knowledge management system,
“Konnect”, which was currently used by the IT project team, to see whether the same
can be deployed for People function. If found feasible, this can result in huge savings
in IT investment. It was found that the Konnect System is rich in many features, but
lacks certain desired functions and tools.
An effective KM framework has been proposed to systematically guide the
implementation of KM system. The framework proposed is American Productivity
and Quality Centre (APQC) KM framework with four phases namely call for action,
Developing KM strategy, Design and launch KM capabilities and Sustain
It was proposed to implement “Konnect” in People function with appropriate
enhancements. The suggested enhancements are listed below
 The contents that will get uploaded will be checked by KM team for value
addition and relevancy
 Contents will be taxonomically arranged in the user interface to surf the
contents more logically
 Incorporation of expert chat tab and idea tab to capture the tacit knowledge
and idea and innovation suggestions then store it in the KM system.
Further recommendations were made to make the Knowledge management system
sustainable.
 Top management to influence the employees to share and re use the
knowledge within people function
 Reward and recognitions to motivate the employees to contribute and reuse
the knowledge
 To incorporate the KM process into business process to avoid a feeling of
doing extra work

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The study was completed, and the proposal was presented before the company and the
project study was well appreciated.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND THEORITICAL

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

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1.1 INTRODUCTION

Now a days Knowledge management is considered as an important factor in the success and
as a prerequisite for the increasing the service quality and responsiveness of a corporate and
non-corporate organisation. Due to the global interconnectedness of markets today, the scope
and quality of individual employees’ knowledge have taken their place alongside with
traditional organizational resources such as work and capital. Knowledge of employees is
considered as the most important knowledge source within organizations. Therefore, it is
necessary to explicitly plan and manage the development, consolidation, representation and
application of the knowledge of organizations and individuals to support a learning
organization. Above all, knowledge communication between employees is essential for
growth and learning. When the employees share their knowledge which they gained through
the years of work experience and training, that knowledge can become a source of
competitive advantage for the organisation. The issue of finding the colleagues within an
organization who can provide the knowledge and skills needed in a given situation can also be
solved through implementing the right knowledge management system. This is particularly
true in large organizations, such as an international corporation with geographically
distributed departments. This will make the employees around the world to get expert
knowledge and which in return will contribute to a better decision making and finally the
customer satisfaction. Within the domain of knowledge management, the problem of finding
a suitable expert is usually solved with the help of expert finding systems such as company
yellow pages or similar tools. So, a knowledge management will enable the collaboration
among the employees who are working around the world. The important point is, the
responsiveness, improved service quality and decision making will finally reflect in the
bottom line of an organisation.

Purpose of the study

The project study was carried out in People function at Mindtree. In People function at
Mindtree there is a lack of systematic practice of knowledge capturing and knowledge sharing
process. There arises a need of knowledge management practices to gain maximum benefit
bycapturing allindividual knowledge of Minds working in People function team at Mindtree
and bring it together to a common platform from where any individual can access the
knowledge they required at the required moment. The project study identifies the current
knowledge management practices in People function team at Mindtree and propose a

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systematic way to implement an effective an optimum knowledge management system and
practices acrossPeople function team.

1.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Knowledge

Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert
insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and
information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often
becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines,
processes, practices, and norms.(Davenport and Prusak, 2000).

Knowledge classification

The knowledge is classified mainly into two namely Explicit and Tacit knowledge.

1. Explicit knowledge

Explicit knowledge can be defined as knowledge that can be seen, shared, communicated with
others and easy to manage. It can be communicated because it can be expressed (represented)
in a formal way using a set of symbols (Choo, 2000). However, most explicit knowledge is in
the form of raw data such as documents that contain the work experiences of staff,
descriptions of cases or events, interpretations of data, beliefs, guesses, hunches, ideas,
opinions, judgment and proposed action (Jones et al., 2000).

2. Tacit knowledge

Tacit knowledge on the other hand is embedded in a person’s memory and is difficult to
extract and share with others (Choo, 2000; Zack, 1999). The knowledge of how to solve the
problem is actually a matter of personal interpretation, ability and skill. While the techniques
for problem solving can be learnt in the classroom, the solution created by one employee will
differ from that of another.

Knowledge management

Knowledge management is a formal process that evaluates a company’s organizational

processes, people, and technology and develops a system that leverages the relationships
between these components to get the right information to the right people at the right time to
improve productivity.

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Knowledge Management (KM) is the process of gathering, managing and sharing employees'
knowledge capital throughout the organisation. Knowledge sharing throughout the
organisation enhances existing organisational business processes, introduces more efficient
and effective business processes and removes redundant processes. It is a discipline that
promotes a collaborative and integrated approach to the creation, capture, organisation access
and use of an enterprise's knowledge assets. KM has now become a mainstream priority for
companies of all sizes. Capturing a company's most valuable Knowledge (asset) and
distributing it effectively across the enterprise is a business-critical issue.

Specific knowledge management activities help focus on organisation on acquiring, storing

and utilizing knowledge for problem solving, dynamic leaning, strategic planning and
decision making. It also prevents intellectual assets from decay, adds to firm intelligence and
provides increased flexibility.

It results in:

• Ensuring that the right information is passed on to the right people at the right time
• Helping companies turn human capital into intellectual capital by sharing experiences
and insights by subject matter specialists
• Maximizing people expertise and improve productivity by increasing collaboration
and preventing the need of companies to constantly reinvent the wheel

KM is not only about Knowledge Technology. KM must be an enabler to achieve strategic

business objectives. The organisational debris from failed attempts to impose new technical
infrastructures that are either inappropriate to their work environments, or where people are
not willing to share knowledge is ample evidence. Hence the need of Knowledge
Management initiative arises to become solution for such problems, which brings together
people, process and technology and helps corporate to achieve its goals and vision.

KM Components:

Knowledge Management components can be broadly classified into three classes:

People

The biggest challenge in KM is to ensure participation by the people or employees in

knowledge sharing, collaboration, and re-use to achieve business results. It can be achieved
through a combination of motivation/recognition and rewards, re-alignment of performance

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appraisal systems, and other measurement systems. A key to success in Knowledge
Management is to provide people visibility, recognition, and credit as "experts" in their
respective areas of specialization―while leveraging their expertise for business success.

Process

The Process component include standard processes for knowledge-contribution, content

management (accepting content, maintaining quality, keeping content current, deleting or
archiving content that is obsolete), retrieval, membership on communities of practice,
implementation-projects based on knowledge-reuse, methodology and standard formats to
document best-practices and case studies, etc. It is important for processes to be as clear and
simple as possible and well understood by employees across the organisation.

Technology

KM technology solutions provide functionality to support knowledge-sharing, collaboration,

and workflow, document-management. These tools typically provide a secure central space
where employees, customers, partners and suppliers can exchange information, share
knowledge and guide each other and the organization to better decisions. It is very important
to choose an easy and user-friendly technology option and ensure that there is balance
between KM strategy and information technology budget of the organization. As, it is
important to remember that users of the KM system are subject-matter experts in their
respective areas of specialization and not necessarily IT experts.

Barriers of knowledge sharing

Barriers originate from individual behaviour or people’s perceptions and actions and relate to
either individuals or groups within or between business functions. Barriers are manifold at
individual level and this review has identified the importance of well over a dozen barriers to
sharing knowledge. Some of them are listed below.

People

 Apprehension of fear that sharing may reduce or jeopardize people’s job security.
 Differences in experience levels, age, gender, education levels.
 Lack of trust in people and social network.

Organization

 Integration of KM strategy and sharing initiatives into the company’s goals and
strategic approach is missing or unclear.

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  Lack of leadership and managerial direction in terms of clearly communicating the
benefits and values of knowledge sharing practices.
 Lack of a transparent rewards and recognition systems that would motivate people to
share more of their knowledge.

Technology

 Lack of technical support (internal or external) and immediate maintenance of

integrated IT systems obstructs work routines and communication flows.
 Reluctance to use IT systems due to lack of familiarity and experience with them lack
of communication and demonstration of all advantages of any new systems over
existing ones.

Knowledge management system

A knowledge management system (KMS) is a system for applying and using knowledge
management principles. These include data-driven objectives around business productivity, a
competitive business model, business intelligence analysis and more. A knowledge
management system is made up of different software modules served by a central user
interface. Some of these features can allow for data mining on customer input and histories,
along with the provision or sharing of electronic documents. Knowledge management
systems can help with staff training and orientation, support better sales, or help business
leaders to make critical decisions.

A Knowledge Management System is an application designed to capture all the information

within your organization and make it easily available to your employees, anywhere, anytime.
In other words, a KMS is a knowledge repository software system. Most KMS provide an
"information hub" where content can be created, organized and redistributed through search
tools and other features that let users find answers quickly.

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1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW

Knowledge Management: Why Do We Need It for Corporates.

(Bhojaraju G. 2005) Knowledge Management (KM) is a process of gathering, managing and
sharing employees’ knowledge capital throughout the organisation. The article is an
introduction into details about what a Knowledge Management is, its need, definitions etc.
This article takes us through the various aspects of the knowledge management and its
meaning as defined by various intellectuals. It says that the need for Knowledge management
solutions can be seen in the corporates as it is important for companies to achieve their
strategic goals. It would help to serve the customers well, reduce cycle time, improve
customer service, innovate and deliver high quality products etc. There are various
components of Knowledge Management are divided into three classes – People, Processes,
and Technology. It is said in the article that Knowledge Management requires a holistic and
multidisciplinary approach to management processes. This KM process has helped in huge
shift in increasing the effectiveness of an organisation by focusing on the development. The
article concludes by saying that for KMS it is necessary cater to the long-term objectives
along with the short-term objectives.

Evolution of Knowledge Management

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(BranislavMasic, Sandra Nesic, DavorNikolic, MilenkoDzeletovic, 2017) Knowledge has
always been an important subject for study as it is important for the organisation as a valuable
resource. The main aim of the research is to analyse the history of Knowledge Management
and also to investigate the use of KM as a management tool for organisations. The study
analyses the evolution of KM and also the impact on the modern business environment. Based
on the critical success factors of an organisation, the KM also changes so the paper has some
aspects of the evolution of KM. it has been found in this study that the KM in companies has
declined. The processes of KM have been important through although the usage of KM in
companies has been declining. It has also been found that the technologies have proven to be
ore useful for the success of KM. For the improved decision making it is necessary that the
companies manage the KM properly and align with the organisational culture.

Document Management vs. Knowledge Management

(JECAN, 2008) This article describes three different concepts which are Document
management, designing processes and Knowledge Management. Document Management has
been pushed away for a long period by a number of IT professionals but know they have
started to take it seriously. By using workforce and Document Management packages,
organisations can now streamline a whole process. These packages help organisations to
reengineer business processes and achieve substantial returns. The advantage of workforce
and document management systems is that it keeps track of the events that happen so, there is
an audit trail and an easily operating set of controls. Knowledge management is believed by
software vendors as it is about search engines and how best to structure and hold information.
Companies that are fully exploiting their knowledge are characterized by excellent customer
understanding, innovation and creativity etc. So, this article concludes that the document
management is an important tool in IT and will remain so.

Knowledge Management Influence on Innovation: Theoretical Analysis of

Organizational Factors
(Girniene) The main aim of this article is to identify the interrelation of knowledge
management and innovation. It also aims at building a model for the continuous innovation
and development in the organisation. The various internal factors that influence knowledge
management and innovation are Organisational culture, learning, leadership, human resource
management, information technologies and other factors like organisational structure, size,
processes and business fields. The article also states that the external factors also has an
indirect influence on the organisation’s activities and its innovation like economic factors,
technological factors, social and political factors. There are also the direct factors that
influence like the competitors, clients, suppliers and partners. From the research it has been

9
able to show that both knowledge management and innovation are interrelated. It has proven
that both the external and internal factors have an impact on innovation.

Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know

(Davenport & Prusak, 2000) This article talks about how companies manage the knowledge
they have. The article starts with a definition of knowledge management, data, information,
knowledge, knowledge in action, experience, ground truth etc. It says about data that it has
very little relevance and purpose. Modern organisations have been into saving data in in
technological systems. Companies evaluate data management in terms of cost, speed, and
capacity. Information is another aspect which moves around organisations through hard and
soft network. Knowledge is the fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual
information, and expert insight. It provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new
experiences and information. The study also says that one benefit of experience is that it
provides a perspective from which we can view and understand situations and events. Ground
truth means knowing what really works and what doesn’t the low cost of computers and
networks has created a potential infrastructure for knowledge exchange and opened up
important knowledge management opportunities.

The role of Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning in Indian IT

organizations
(Raman, 2015) In the earlier articles it spoke about the knowledge management and its
various benefits all over the IT industry. This article overs the its role in the IT organisations
in India. India has been part of the knowledge system since a long time. It has the Vedic
knowledge and has evolved over time. Also, IT is an important contributor to the Indian
Economy. Knowledge Management and Organisational learning that can deliver competitive
advantage such as balanced decision, retention of talent and innovation. The article says that
the knowledge management systems have not been developed in a very strong way.
Knowledge management helps the employees gain a lot of information about the customer
experiences. This study has helped in initiatives and core business solutions.

Dynamic Knowledge Management: A Breakthrough in the Traditional Watch-Glass

Perspective in the Indian IT Sector Context
(Chakraborty & Mandal, 2011) This study is concentrated on the standardized KM practices
in three India IT majors: TATA Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and Infosys. The KM
and the shred learning are constantly evolving. So, in today’s world an industry which is able
to effectively identify, capture, share, store and utilize knowledge helps them to have

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competitive advantage. From the study it was found that the main factors that influence the
KM in industries are KM practices, Learning Orientation, Demographics, Organisational
Structure, Trust, and IT infrastructure. The research done on the IT industries of the
companies show that research work in determining important factors shaping knowledge
sharing process.

Role of knowledge management in human resource management

(Kumar, 2016) Knowledge Management plays a very important role in the human resource
management. The managers are the main part of a company and they are ones who take all
the decisions. Hence, they need knowledge and managing the knowledge available is the
major challenge. This article talks about how effective KM would be helpful in changing the
face of HRM in an organisation. KM is still an emerging field in a number of industries
especially the IT industry. The main aim of this paper is to achieve consensus among IS
professionals on conceptualization, goals, and scope of KM in HR. So, from the paper it can
be understood that KM plays an important role in the decision-making process. It will change
the face of the HR practices as it will help in the managers to take the important decisions of
their organisation. Thus, the KM practices would find a path towards organisational growth
and success.

The Knowledge Movement: Trends and Opportunities

(Rao, 2012) The news article covers a recent event which was the launch of the Pune K-
Community. The inaugural function included panel discussions on the various trends,
opportunities, and challenges in Knowledge Management. There are 12 trends and ideas that
where highlights of the session as mentioned in this article. The first point is that the KM
initiatives look into both external collaboration and internal collaboration. In this the internal
collaboration has been achieved by the various KM initiatives but the external collaboration is
the challenge like business partners, customers, process designers etc. Examples for
companies that have good advanced KM strategies are P&G and Nike. Some organisation
have KM brand managers while other choose clever newsletter and event names that reflect
the organisation. Social media is important for knowledge narrative and mobile cloud is a key
trend in workflow infrastructure. The organisation should find a right balance between
creation and reuse of knowledge assets. Gamification is another way of growing the personal
practices in KM. Academic researches has been finding increasing acceptance among KM
practitioners. The mature KM practices from India are award winning around the world. 90%
of the knowledge contributions in Wipro happens as part of the normal workflow. KM is
being used for discussing and defining high-level organisational vision and market strategies.
There are organisations which are open to new and creative ideas for activities. Another idea

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put up was that to promote KM in India, they are planning to tap local languages as well. KM
practices need to be different for organisations based on their profit-making, knowledge
dynamics etc. thus the Pune K-Community was filled with lot of ideas and initiative different
from the earlier ones.

Challenges and Strategies to Knowledge Management: Case Studies of Selected

Companies
(Singh & Yadav) Knowledge management is a complex process which must be managed and
people must be encouraged to learn. The paper here examines the issues and challenges of
Knowledge Management and also find ways in which organisations ca perform Knowledge
Management. Its also examines the initiatives that are taken by the Indian companies towards
KM. KM is treated as a business activity with two important aspects which are: treating the
strategies, policies and practices as knowledge components and making a direct connect with
both explicit and tacit aspects of an organisation. The paper gives example of certain
companies that have KM practices. One of the companies is Patni Computers which has used
this system and it has helped them in the reduction of training time and boosting productivity
as knowledge is shared better to them. Wipro has been also using the same system and it has
been helping them by assisting the knowledge seekers to tap into the right source for the
queries. Similarly, Infosys, ONGC, Reliance, TATA steel etc. have also been using the KM
systems in India to better the knowledge management in their organisations. So, from this
paper it could be understood that the KM is a very attractive notion and provides massive
business opportunities. In terms of KM India is not fully developed and is still learning. It
says that we must start creating our own software packages by harnessing the knowledge of
our people.

Towards a Strategy for Knowledge Management

(Blumentritt & Johnston, 1999) Knowledge Management has been developing as a global
challenge and it is very important for organisations to effectively manage knowledge. The
study talks about the various challenges of Knowledge management like establishing and
optimizing the information – knowledge balance appropriate to a company or industry. It also
looks into IT based productivity improvements in information management. Another
challenge is identifying and maintaining the core knowledge of an organisation. The article
talks about a knowledge – information cycle which shows the relation between knowledge
and information. In this model the knowledge side has two basic steps: the knowledge
creation and the knowledge use. Similarly, the information side two has two steps:
information creation and Information use. It can be used for the identifying the appropriate
contexts and possible support systems for the creation and use of knowledge and information

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system. So, to conclude the article summarized into several points. It says that knowledge and
information are different. A boundary between knowledge and information can be
established. Also, knowledge cannot be managed with the same tools as information. And
also, that the interaction between knowledge and information can be described in a model.

Building a Knowledge Management System for Content Sharing with Customers

(Kumar U. , 2013) The main aim of this study is finding and designing a roadmap for a
Knowledge Management System (KMS) which would help in managing knowledge in a
proper way. It depends on the needs of the organisation and selection of tools chosen for it.
The main data for this study is collected from the various case study done by the company in
the same field. The study would also provide suggestions based on the current and future
needs of the company. The study also talks about the various KM models. The first one is the
Spiral model introduced by Nonaka and Takeuchi which deals with a well-defined knowledge
creation process. The second model is the Building and Using Knowledge model which
explains that knowledge can be useful and valuable if it is organized. The third model is the
KM process framework by Bukowitz and William. This model depicts the process of that
defines the strategy for management to build, divest and enhance knowledge assets. The final
model is the Knowledge Management model that has three broad categories which are
knowledge creation and sensing, knowledge organizing and capture, and knowledge sharing
and dissemination which overlap over each other. Based on all the analysis and study the
company had come up with a proper KMS for them.

A Knowledge Management Framework and Approach for Clinical Development

(Salzano, Maurer, Wyvratt, & Stewart, 2016) This article deals with the Clinical Knowledge
Management as Knowledge management helps in enhancing the knowledge, gathering,
sharing, application and retention with clinical development. The paper mainly concentrates
on the CKM framework which would help the clinical development organisations understand
the benefits and basic components. The paper talks about two different types of knowledge
which are explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. The first one in the knowledge that is
capture and documented while the other is the knowledge that is gained through experience
and insight. From this paper we get to know about CKM, and the key elements of CKM and
also steps to develop, implement and sustain a CKM program. The CKM framework includes
two foundational building blocks which are culture and continuous improvement and four
supporting pillars which are people, business processes, content and technology. The

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development of CKM depends on how well the clinical development organisation engage and
obtain information on the Knowledge Management.

Establishing an integrated KM system in Iran Aerospace Industries Organization

(Jafari, Fesharaki, & Akhavan, 2007) According to Bergeron, Knowledge Management is a
deliberate, systematic business optimization strategy to that selects, stores, organizes,
packages, and communicates information essentials to the business of a company in a manner
that improves employee performance and corporate competitiveness. This paper deals with
the investigation of the role of Knowledge Management in the aerospace industry. It also
looks at providing a framework for knowledge management for the aerospace industries. The
paper also looks into the challenges faced by Km in the aerospace industry like a distributed
workforce, an aging workforce, the costs of lower performance and productivity levels, the
cost of longer learning curves, disasters etc. Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organisation (AIO)
managers believes that if they do not start managing their knowledge, they will never be able
to succeed and improve in organisations. They will not be able to learn from their mistakes.
The integrated KM system that was started in the aerospace industries was to manage
knowledge and intellectual capital. The knowledge sharing and Knowledge creation are the
two factors that are strongest in the network and are known as core categories. It is because of
these factors hat KM is success full in Iran and has become the most important and largest
case of KM.

Knowledge-based systems: A Re-evaluation

(Abdullah, Kimble, Benest, & Paige, 2006) Knowledge management has been becoming a
key aspect for organisations to reach success. It can be seen in this article that the need for
organisation now needs to look at their intellectual assets more than ever. They need this for
maintaining the competitive advantage. The most prominently used tool in managing
Knowledge - Based System (KSB). The advantages of Knowledge Management are Time
saving, Quality improvement, Practical knowledge made applicable, infallible and complete,
Replication, all day, every day, consistency etc. the current generation of systems has evolved
from being stand-alone expert system machines, to being part of a larger group of enterprise-
wide system. It says in the article that to re-evaluate the role that knowledge-based system to
use them to employ in the knowledge management.

14
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

15
2.1 TOPIC OF THE STUDY

“Evaluation and re-engineering of knowledge management practices in biz people

function at Mindtree, Bangalore”

2.2 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

This project was undertaken at Mindtree, Bangalore with the following objectives.

 To evaluate the available knowledge management system in People function Team at

Mindtree and different contents that are available in it.
 To examine the quality of the contents and select the best quality contents to share among
the People Functions at Mindtree.
 To find out the best system to integrate and make accessible all those contents among the
People Functions at Mindtree.
 To find the best practices of creating and sharing knowledge at each Verticals and check
whether it can be implemented across the People Functions at Mindtree.
 To recommend ways for implementing the knowledge management system and attain
benefits from it.

2.3 DATA COLLECTION

Primary Data
Primary Data is to be collected from different People Function Managers in the Organization
to collect the knowledge management practices and Knowledge content they hold.
Secondary data
Secondary data is collected from the company websites, research papers and articles

2.4 APPROACH OF THE STUDY

The following approach was chosen to complete the project.

The first step was to understand the practices and technologies regarding the knowledge and
knowledge management system. This study was carried out by reading various articles,

16
research papers and websites related to knowledge management and looked into various
knowledge management techniques implemented in different IT firms and other successful
firms that have implemented the knowledge management system successfully.

Then the next step was to evaluate the existing knowledge management system that is
currently prevailing in Biz people function at Mindtree. There were four verticals (profit
centres) and five Service lines (People owners in Mindtree which constitute the Business
people function. One representative was selected from each people function team and they
were interviewed about the current knowledge management system they are using in the
people function team and the best practices they are following through the biz people function
at Mindtree.

The knowledge contents and the destination where the contents are stored were also
evaluated. Then the quality of those contents was evaluated according to the industry
accepted standards. Also, all the representatives were asked and verified the need and
requirement of a knowledge management system.

Then then an optimum knowledge management framework was selected. The framework will
give a systematic architecture to guide how to implement an efficient knowledge management
system step by step from scratch to a fully operational knowledge management system by
keeping all the elements in place. The knowledge management framework will make sure that
no elements and no phases are left out in the process of implementation of an efficient
knowledge management. The KM framework is modified to include the Mindtree
requirements and needs. The km framework will help to lay a road map to establish a
systematic knowledge management system through various phases and steps at Mindtree.

KM framework gives the idea that where to begin and guides systematically how to design,
implement, sustain the Knowledge management system. There are many KM frameworks
established by many pioneers in the knowledge management industry. From the KM
frameworks available the KM framework laid by American Productivity and Quality Centre
(APQC) is selected for designing and implementing Knowledge management system in
Mindtree.

American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC) Knowledge management framework is a

widely accepted framework and adopted by many organizations around the world. APQC has
an experience of more than 20 years and the KM framework is updated for all the new
changes occurring in the Industry. KM framework can be used a reference to successfully
design the value proposition, strategies and approaches before getting into actual
implementation.

17
 APQC KM Framework

Design and
Develop KM Sustain and
Call to action Launch KM
strategy Evolve
capabilities

Figure 1: Knowledge management framework

The current knowledge management system was evaluated according to the requirements of
the people function managers and IT industry best practices. The various proprietary
knowledge management systems and open source knowledge management system were
examined, and an optimum knowledge management system will be selected to implement at
Mindtree.

After identifying an optimum knowledge management system and an efficient knowledge

management road map to implement in the Mindtree the same will be proposed in front of all
the stakeholders in the people function team at Mindtree. Then the feedback will be taken
regarding the corrections and improvements that can be made into the proposed knowledge
management stem. After making the needed corrections the full proposal will be submitted to
the Biz People function at Mindtree

18
CHAPTER 3: PROFILES

19
3.1 INDUSTRY PROFILE

Information Technology includes the digital processing, storage and communication of

information across different stakeholders. It is the Information technology that made all the
information that we need at our disposal. It has revolutionized our world and life by making it
easier and convenient. Today product or service that we need is one click or touch away from
us. Thanks to the Information Technology. IT industry’s scope includes traditional hardware,
software and services, telecom services, and various emerging technologies which either
don’t comes under the traditional categories or comes under multiple categories.

Today Information technology is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. All over in
all economic sectors in the world there is a strong demand for Information technology. It
plays an important role of facilitator in an efficient way. Globally the information technology
sector has surpassed the $4.5 trillion mark in 2017. United States is the largest IT market in
the world with a share of 31% of the total market. Asia – pacific region which includes china,
Japan, Australia, India, and surrounding countries accounts for one – third of the total market.

Indian Information Technology

Information technology industry has a major role in making Indian a greater player globally.
From an agriculture majority economy to services majority economy Indian has achieved
greatness with a substantial effort of IT sector. The contribution of information technology
sector to the gross domestic product of the country has increased substantially from 1.2% in
1998 to 7.7% in 2017. According to the report of NASSCOM the total revenue of IT sector
has touched $160 billion in 2017.

Now India is the leader in the sourcing destination across the world accounting for 55% of
the market share. Indian IT companies has set up over 1000 global delivery service centres in
over 80 countries around the world. The computer hardware and software sector has attracted
an aggregate of $29.825 billion from 2000 to 2017. The IT industry also generated a lot of
employment in the country. The IT sector in India is generating 3.86 million direct
employments and 12 million indirect employments. India is now one of the biggest IT capitals
of the modern world and all the major players in the world IT sector are present in the
country.

20
Indian government is also closely watching and giving adequate attention to the sector
continuously. As a part of union budget 2018-2019, NITI ayog is setting up a national
program that will encourage the Artificial intelligence technology to contribute to the
developments works in the country. The government is also trying the leverage the
information technology to help other sector like healthcare, agriculture and to finally achieve
the target of $1 trillion digital economy.

But the recent developments I the United States visa restrictions and the Brexit are raising a
threat alarm to the Indian IT industry. Also, the increasing automation and Artificial
intelligence is may lead to a fewer workforce in the near future in the IT industry. But the
steady growth of Indian economy, a better consumption power of Indian citizen and a push
for digital economy by the government of India is paving a way for an increased demand for
the information technology, thus again boosting the IT industry.

Major players in the Industry

The following are the top 5 information technology players in Indian according to the market
capitalization.

21
 Table 1: Major players in IT Industry

Firm Revenues Employees Fiscal Headquarters

year
TCS $ 19.08 394998 2018 Mumbai
Billion
Infosys $ 10.93 200364 2018 Bangalore
Billion
Wipro $ 8.40 162553 2018 Bangalore
Billion
HCL $ 7.80 117781 2018 Noida
Billion
Tech $ 4.77 112807 2018 Pune
Mahindra Billion

3.2 COMPANY PROFILE

Mindtree is an Indian Multinational information technology and Outsourcing Company that is

headquartered in Bangalore, India and New Jersey, USA. The Company was incorporated in
1999. Presently there are more than 17723 employees and 335bots who are adding value to
the organization. Of the total employees 30% of them are women. Its workforce consists of

22
employee from 55 countries around the globe. The total Revenue has reached $840 million
with an operating income of $107 million and Net income of $620million in 2017. Currently
Mindtree is the seventh largest Information technology services industry in India.

The company is providing services for Ecommerce, mobile application, Cloud computing,
Digital transformation, Data analysis and ERP. There are 338 active clients around the world.
The company has operations in 18 countries with a total of 45 offices in all together. Digital
Pumpkin is the research and development lab of the company that is situated at Bangalore,
India.

When Subroto Bagchi and other nine co-founding members started Mindtree in 1999 they
kept in mind that they don’t what to build just another Software company. They wanted their
venture to stand out from all other software companies. They wanted their company to be
culture driven. All the Founders of Mindtree were successful professional and they
understood the value of continuous learning and they encouraged a continuous learning
culture in the organization. It has become a practice in learning new things and “Hot Skills”
that are happening new in the Market to keep up the competency of the organization. In
Mindtree the company itself is seen as a big tree that is interconnected with Minds of people
and technology and the logo depicts the same. The tag line “Welcome to Possible” is both the
invitation and expectation. It is the promise that the company is offering to its stakeholders.

Mindtree’s business can be classified mainly on four verticals namely

1. Retail, CPG and Manufacturing (RCM)

2. Banking, Financial service and insurance (BFSI)
3. Technology Media and Services (TMS)
4. Travel and Hospitality (TH)

History

The idea of Mindtree was formed from the discussion between Subroto Bagchi and
Krishnakumar Natarajan in 1998. Mr Subroto Bagchi was working in lucent Technologies
and Mr Krishnakumar Natarajan was working in Wipro at that time. Then the two of them
explained in detail the business plan of their new venture to Prof. N. Balasubramaniam who
was the professor of Indian Institute of Management, who later joined the team. Later in
1999, Anjan Lahari from Cambridge Technology joined the team. Then Mr Kamaran Ozar
and Mr Kalyan Banerjee were joined as technology experts. Mr N.S. Parthasarathy joined
from Wipro. As a sales expert,Mr Scott Staples came in who was then working for Cambridge
Technology. Mr Rostow Ravanan Joined as a financial expert who was working at bell Lab at
that time. Then Ashok Soota who was the Vice chairman at Wipro joined in the team. Finally,

23
after the official launch of the company S. Janakiraman who was also working in Wipro
joined, thus making the ten founding members of Mindtree.

After the founding the important milestones that occurred inside the organization are

Timeline

1998 Founders meet for the first time to think through mission, vision and
values.
1999 Mindtree’s logo designed. Company incorporated under the Companies
Act, 1956.
2000 Business Plan pitched to our first Venture Capitalist, Walden and first
round of investment made.
2001 Investment by Walden Software Investments Limited, Amalgamated
Holdings Limited and Vaitarna Holdings Private Limited in the First
Round Fund raising.
2004 Global Quality Management standard CMMI Level-5 achieved within 5
years of inception.
2005 West Campus development centre opened in Bangalore.
2006 Ranked on the “Best Companies to work for in India” list by Business
Today, Mercer and TNS.
2007 Listed on BSE and NSE. IPO oversubscribe d more than 100 times.
2008 Acquired Aztecsoft, Changed Company name from Mindtree Consulting
Ltd to Mindtree Ltd.
2009 Registered office of Company changed to Global Village, RCVE Post,
Mysore Road, Bangalore.
2010 Successfully partnered with Government of India for the AADHAAR
project, one of the world’s largest big data implementation and citizen
identification program.
2011 Mindtree's Assist Technologies Program wins Manthan Awards South Asia
2010
2012 New brand identity unveiled with slogan “Welcome to possible”. A journey
to be an expertise-led and culture-backed organization begins.
2013 Won the “Most promising company of the year” Award from CNBC TV18.
2014 I Got Garbage (IGG) - The technology platform for waste management is
now open for Bangalore Citizens. ING Vysya selects Mindtree as a
strategic digital partner.
2015 Mindtree acquires Discoverture, Bluefin and RSI.

24
 2016 Recognized by ICSI for excellence in Corporate Governance. Named on
“Forbes India’s Super 50” list for the second consecutive year.
2017 Mindtree has been included in the Market Guide for Trade Promotion
Management and Optimization for the Consumer Goods Industry by
Gartner
2018 Zinnov award for Digital Leadership. Customer Experience scores highest
in five years.

3.2.1 MISSION STATEMENT

“We engineer meaningful technology solutions to help businesses and societies flourish”

3.2.2 CORE VALUES

Collaborative spirit

Mindtree believes in teamwork and collaboration between all the minds to achieve the
organizational goals and targets. In Mindtree everyone understands that gone are the days of
monolithic competence and today it is the time for putting multiple competence together to
solve a problem and attain a solution with more efficiency. Mindtree uphold the value of
collaboration and realizes that the ideas for the best solutions may come from different
sources. Mindtree encourages its employees to respect the individual opinion and built a
collaborative environment.

Unrelenting Dedication

Mindtree encourages the Minds to be relentless until they solve a problem. It shares a values
to staying with the problem and working on it until a feasible solution is attained. Mindtree
understands the importance of customer satisfaction and most of the work they do for their
customers are mission critical and it should not be left unattended at any cost. So Mindtree
developed a value of unrelenting dedication and to be determined to solve a business problem
and do not rest until an optimum solution is attained.

25
Expert Thinking

Mindtree see its Minds as future experts and motivates them to think it that way and see it
themselves. With expertise Mindtree clearly stating that the expertise should not be in any
single domain or processing a specific skill set. With an expert Mindtree expects the Minds
should be expert in all the things that Mindtree do and be an expert in all those. Mindtree
wants its minds to be seen as an expert in every field of Mindtree operations to an external
person or to a customer. By this point Mindtree wants its customers to trust its employees
with highest level of expertise and without any second thought.

3.2.3 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Akshaya Bhargava - Independent Director

Akshaya Bhargava serves as an independent director of Mindtree. He served as the Chief

Executive Officer of the wealth management division of Barclays. He is also an entrepreneur
who has founded Infra Hedge and Bridgeweave Ltd. Mr Bhargava holds a bachelor’s degree
in Economics from Poona University and PGDM from Indian Institute of Management –
Calcutta.

Apurva Purohit- Independent Director

Apurva Purohit, who is a Specialist in Media Business is serving as an independent director

of Mindtree. She introduced the concept of media buying in India by opening an independent
media buying company, Lodestar in 1995. She was also behind the successful launch and
operations of ZOOM TV and was also behind the turnaround strategy of ZEE TV.

Manisha Girotra - Independent Director

Ms Manisha Girotra is the CEO of Moelis& company. She has lot of experience in
investment banking, Mergers and acquisitions and wealth management. She was honoured
with Young Global Leader award in 2010 by world economic forum. She holds a bachelor’s
degree in economics from St. Stephen’s college and Masters from Delhi School of Economics

26
Prof. Pankaj Chandra - Independent Director

Mr Pankaj Chandra is the professor of operations and technology managements at Indian

Institute of Management – Bangalore. He is an expert in manufacturing management, supply
chain management and hi-tech entrepreneurship. He holds his bachelor’s degree in
technology from the Institute of technology – BHU and Ph.D. from the Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania.

KrishnakumarNatarajan - Executive Chairman

Mr Krishnakumar Natarajan was the one of ten founders who started Mindtree in 1999. He
was the one who played an important role in building Mindtree’s US operations and
expanding operations in Europe and Asia pacific. He has a vast experience of 36 years in the
IT industry and held several top management positions in Wipro Technologies. Mr Natarajan
holds bachelor’s degree in Mechanical engineering from the college of engineering, Chennai
and master’s degree in Business administration from XLRI Jamshedpur.

Subroto Bagchi- Non-Executive Director

Mr Subroto Bagchi is a successful entrepreneur who co-founded Mindtree in 1999 with other
nine co-founders. His vision and ideas in Leadership development, knowledge management
and marketing has played an important role in differentiating the company from its
competitors. He served as the chief executive of Wipro’s global research and development.
He also served as the vice president of Lucent Technologies. Mr Bagchi is also a bestselling
business author. He studies political science at Utkal University.

Milind Sarwate - Independent Director

Mr Milind Sarwate is an expert in finance, HR, Strategic planning, business development and
served various sectors in his 34 years of which most of them was related to consumer
products and services. He served as CFO and CHRO at Marico. He holds a bachelor’s degree
in commerce from university of Bombay. In 2013, Milind was inducted into the CFO India
Hall of Fame by the CFO India Magazine.

N. S. Parthasarathy - Executive Vice Chairman, President & COO

Mr N.S. Parthasarthy serves as the executive vice chairman, president and chief operating
officer of Mindtree. Mr Parthasarathy oversees the people functions at Kalinga, which is the
global learning centre of Mindtree. He served as a general manager of Wipro’s Technology
Solutions. He holds a master’s degree I computer science from Indian Institute of
Technology- Kharagpur.

27
Rostow Ravanan - CEO & Managing Director

As CEO and Managing Director, Mr Rostow is responsible for providing strategic direction
and achieving industry-leading growth for Mindtree. He was responsible for growing
Mindtree’s European operations. Mr Rostow also served as the Chief Financial Officer for
more than 10 years. He spearheaded the successful completion of the IPO at Mindtree
Limited in the year 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Bangalore
University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary and an alumnus of
Harvard Business School.

3.3 MINDTREE SERVICES PROFILE

Development

Mindtree offers application development to different customers around the world. Mindtree
provides mission critical application solution that will be specifically customized to the
customers which satisfies the particular requirement of the customer. This will help the
customers to get a good return on investment and better responsiveness to their business
requirements.

Engineering

Mindtree offers engineering services to its customers which will help them to transform their
business ideas into real designs. Mindtree’s research and development services helps in
making building problem free products and also ensure faster delivery of the products

Maintenance

Mindtree collaborates with their customers to understand their business, products and
services, and applications. Then they will try to enhance the product usability to the customer
to attain better market response. Mindtree offers this by providing maintenance service to the
customers by enhancing the application stability, reducing running costs, increasing the
quality of the product and offering continuous services.

Consulting

Mindtree also provide Consulting services to their customers for bettering their business,
reducing the costs and create new revenue inflows. Mindtree offers short term and long-term
strategies to their customers by evaluating their goals, targets, vision, skills and polices.

28
Package Implementation

Mindtree offers its customers the service of implementing enterprise application and get
maximum benefit from those applications. The enterprise application software offers ranges
Oracle, SAP etc. Mindtree has premium partnerships which will allows its customers also to
access latest tools and technologies.

IP Led Revenue

Mindtree is one of the leaders in providing short range wireless service for over 17 years.
Mindtree provides business offering in Bluetooth technology solutions covering Silicon IP
and Software stacks. Mindtree is providing millions of units of highly robust and
interoperable IPs all over the world.

Independent Testing

Mindtree offers independent testing services to several Fortune 500 companies. Mindtree has
an exclusive testing workforce of over 3000. Mindtree provide more than simple functional
testing by finding out the actual business requirements of the customers.

Infrastructure management and Tech Support

Mindtree offer infrastructure services for the business requirements of the customers.
Mindtree provides software as a service and combine it with infrastructure management to
derive maximum service quality and better performance for the customers’ business.
Mindtree also provides management and operations platform, MWatch, which provides
complete transparency and better productivity.

Table 2: Mindtree Locations Around the world

United States Europe India Rest of the

World
Chicago, Illinois •Basel, Switzerland •Bengaluru •Beijing, China
•Cleveland, Ohio •Diegem, Belgium •Bhubaneswar •Dubai, UAE
•Dallas, Texas •Cologne, Germany •Chennai •Kuala Lumpur,
•Gainesville, Florida •Dublin, Ireland •Hyderabad Malaysia

29
•Burbank, California •London, UK •Pune •Selangor,
•Minneapolis, Minnesota •Munich, Germany Malaysia
•New York, New York •Paris, France •Melbourne,
•San Joe, California •Stockholm, Sweden Australia
•Scottsdale, Arizona •Utrecht, Netherlands •Singapore
•Toronto, Canada •Warszawa, Poland •Sydney,
•Redmond, Washington Australia
•Warren, New Jersey •Shanghai, China
•Tokyo, Japan

Table 3: Acquisitions by Mindtree

Name Acquisition Domain Headquarter Price

year

ASAP India & Not

2004 SAP & ERP
Solutions United States Available

Application
LincSoftware
development $7
Services Pvt 2005 India
and million
Ltd
Maintenance
Telecom -
₹ 10
CoSystems 2005 Indian United States
million
Division
TES-Purple $6.55
2007 Electronics France
Vision million
Product
engineering ₹ 40
Aztecsoft 2008 India
and Testing million
services
Kyocera
Wireless $6
Wireless India 2009 Japan
services million
Pvt Ltd

30
 Remote
infrastructure ₹ 7.2
7Strata 2010 India
management million
services
Property and
Discoverture $15
2015 Casualty United States
Solutions LLC million
Insurance
Bluefin IT solutions,
United £42.3
Solutions 2015 SAP HANA
Kingdom million
Limited solutions
Relational $10
2015 IT solutions United States
Solutions Inc million

Salesforce $50
Magnet 360 2016 United States
consulting million

Table 4: SWOT Analysis of Mindtree

Strength
 Superior corporate governance
 High performance focused culture
 Technically expert employees
 Strong growth strategies
 Nonlinear revenue models
Weakness
 Pricing pressures
 Prospectus client loss
 Abiding different laws and
regulations around the globe

Opportunities
 Stable growth rate of IT
industry
 Strong market of Germany,
Sweden, Netherlands etc.
 Growth in domestic demand
due to encouragement of
Digital economy
Threat
 Uncertain economic trends
 Legislation impacting
outsourcing
 Increased competitions

31
CHAPTER 4:ANALYSIS OF EXISTING SYSTEMS

32
4.1 EXISTING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYETM

The current knowledge management system and practices that arefollowed by the people
function team at Mindtree were evaluated. First the knowledge management system used by
the vertical and service line teams within the people function were evaluated first. There was
no standardized knowledge management system that was use in by the people function. Each
team have their own system of keeping the contents that are required by them. But those
system cannot be seen as a optimum knowledge management system as there was no
systematic knowledge capture, storage and sharing happening. The system used by each can
be seen as more of a database for storing the contents of their requirements and most of it will
be a computer hard disk. Even if there is a knowledge requirement by some team members
they cannot access it directly. They must ask for the request the content to the colleague who
has the required knowledge or information and get those through mails. This was a demerit

The detailed analysis done by interviewing each vertical and service line representative has
shown that majority of them has their own folder and all the contents are stored in the hard
disk which are then shared across the team members when requested. Few teams have a
SharePoint microsite as a knowledge management system and they follow somewhat partial
knowledge management practices. This will include sharing some employee engagement
activity photographs, learning files etc. But a proper documentation and continuous updating
and reuse of those is absent in SharePoint also.Rest of the teams have no knowledge
management practices and systems.

Then the knowledge management best practices were evaluated. From that analysis what was
understood was that they were some knowledge sharing initiatives happening in some of the
individual teams. For example, BFSI- vertical People function team, conducts ishare sections,
where any individual can share any information or thought which is relevant to People
function domain. But, there is no documentation or storing of that knowledge is happening. If
this can be captured and shared across the people function the value it will add to the whole
People function team. From a best practice scope the only systematic knowledge sharing that
is happening is the recentlyinitiated‘PF solution’. PF solution is a knowledge sharing
initiative where different problems occurred in the People function will be analysed.The
reason for the problem, the solution taken for those problems and other possible alternate
solutions that could have taken will be evaluated in detail. Then the summary of those will be
well documented and shared across the people function team to avoid similar problems and
improve the future decision making.

33
After evaluating the knowledge management system and best practices used by the individual
teams the next objective was to analyse the quality of the knowledge contents that each team
had with them. In order to evaluate the quality of the knowledge contents three industry
approved factors were used. Those are explained below.

1. Approver rating
2. User Rating
3. Content structure/ Template

1. Approver Rating
The contents that are to be shared across team will be reviewed by the approver who
will have the knowledge and experience in evaluating the contents. The evaluation will
be according to the value addition of the contents to the People function team and the
validity of the contents. According to that the approver will rate the content whether it
is high quality or low quality.

2. User rating
The users who used the contents for their requirements will rate the contents according
to the usefulness of the particular document they used. They will rate according to the
completeness of the information that are required, the clarity in information writing, the
success of the decision they took by reading the content. Depending on all those they
will rate the contents.

3. Content structure/template
The structure of the contents will decide how easy is it to identify the required
information from the content document. The content document should have a
templatewhich include heading like topic, Summary of topic, detailed note,
alternativeview on the topic etc. to easily identify the required information right away.

The summary of contents and the quality of the contents they possess is given below.

Table 5: Summary of Contents in Service line people function teams

Service Knowledge Documented KM System

Quality
lines sharing Contents used

34
 process
IMTS NIL NA NA NA
Package Letter Letter
High Hard disk
Solutions Templates Templates
Trial of a leader
Series,
Trail of a
PF counter
Leader, DNA
Digital connect, High SharePoint
digital bash
Employee
review
Engagement
activities
Summary To
EIM TO DO list. Low Hard disk
do list

Testing Nil NA NA NA

Table 6: Summary of contents in Vertical People function team

Knowledge
Service Documented KM System
sharing Quality
lines Contents used
process
ishare Files on
BFSI Low
sessions, Digitalizing Hard disk
Files on process

35
 digitalizing
FAQs for
Sales team,
RCM FAQs High
Repository Hard disk
for Top
talent.

TTH NIL NA NA NA

TMS NIL NA NA NA

Toconclude, there is no systematic and Standardknowledge management system or practices

is followed by any individual People Function team. The analysis showed that the knowledge
management practices in Biz people function at Mindtree are partial and localised.

4.2 Analysis of Konnect

The next step was to analysis the Konnect system which is a proprietary knowledge
management package of Mindtree. TheKonnect is used by the IT project team as the
knowledge management system for knowledge storing, knowledge storing and for providing
collaboration among the team members. The analysis as conducted in order to examine
whether the Konnect system can be adapted into the people function as an efficient
knowledge management system.

Konnect is a proprietary knowledge management system which was built on the SharePoint
platform and various content collecting microsites are built on to it.The features of the
Konnect system was analysed to check whether it can be made an ideal knowledge
management system as per the requirements of people function and worldwide best practices.

The following table shows the different Knowledge management communities and Groups
that can be formed accordingly to the Konnect standard working procedure.

Table 7: Types of communities in Konnect system

Entities - Who is Content Content How to join? Purpose

Scope aware of Sharing Viewing

36
 existence Permission

Community Click on Categorization

All All All
– Public Join of contents

Groups – Only Invitation Private

All All
Private Members from group Collaboration
Invitation Private and
Stealth - Only Only Only
from group Limited
Secret Members Members Members
admin Collaboration
Click on
Join. Admin
Closed Categorization
Only has to
Community All All of contents
Members approve the
– Public with Privacy
Minds
Request

37
 Figure 2 Screenshot of sample community in Konnect system

4.2.1 FEATURES AVAILABLE IN KONNECT

The following are the different features that Konnect is having to capture store and share the
knowledge with in the different project groups across Mindtree.

My Communities

This displays the user specific communities

Conversation

Post to Feed –Where a conversation can be posted along with an attachment, the attachments
like audio, video, image, documents file can be posted in the conversation. OOTB Newsfeed
is used here which allows users to post, view, and reply and like a conversation.

Discussion

Discussions in community is OOTB feature, where the members can start a discussion. It can
be of any topic that will be relevant and adss value to the organisation.

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Events

Every Mindtree Mind should be able to add “New Event”. User can filter the events based on
Location, Created By me and Upcoming events. User can view details of the event and also
can nominate to attend the event. Add to calendar provides user to save the particular event
under outlook calendar.

Blogs: - A space to share personal, technical thoughts. New Blog Post – Using this Mind can
add a new blog post. Report as Spam –To mark a particular blog as spam, which helps the org
admin to know if any illegal contents are shared and so that further action of delete is
possible. Most Rated Blogs – This displays Sorted list of Blogs based on the number of
ratings for each blog in descending order.

Streams: - Org, Communities and Me have similar view for listing view for stream and same
filters (All, Video, Audio, Images). Upload Stream –This provides a form to upload a new
media file to the site. The media type filters are also part of this web part.

Documents: - Customized SharePoint DMS with approval workflow. Any Mind uploads a
document selects the properties, whether it should be read only, Printable, downloadable
based on which the workflow uploads the document into respective folder.

After analysing the Konnect it was evaluated with respect to knowledge requirements of the
people function team and following limitations in the system was identified. They are
mentionedbelow.

4.2.2 LIMITATIONS OF KONNECT SYSTEM

 No verification of contents

As of now any member in the Konnect community can post or upload any content into
the KM system. There is no verification of contents happening in Konnect whether it is
valid, relevant and adds value to the organization. This will lead to the data dumping and
irrelevant knowledge build up.

 No taxonomical arrangement of contents

39
 The contents that are now get uploaded in Konnect are displayed in the chronological
order. That is last uploaded document gets displayed first on the list. Similarly, there is a
long list of documents, which makes it difficult to find the required document from the
list for the users. There is search and find option to find the documents easily by using
the key words.

If all the document categories can be displayed in the document tab on Konnect, it will
give a user-friendly content surfing. So that the PF team member will have an idea of
what are different categories of documents that mind can access and get maximum
benefit from all the uploaded documents. This will give a logical understanding to the
team member about what are all the topics that comes under the People function and can
easily surf through the different categories and understand various new concepts which
mind was not aware of.

 No platform for sharing ideas

In the job description of people function managers at Mindtree there are expected to
identify possible process improvements and new ideas to increase the productivity. As of
now there is no platform for such an idea or innovation sharing.

 No platform for capturing expert tacit knowledge

In Konnect there is conversation and discussion option, but they are not real time. In
addition to that the conversation and discussion option do not capture tacit knowledge
effectively. For example, if any Mind post a question or a clarification in the system,
there will be usually a time lag to get that question answered. This cannot be termed as
an effective Knowledge management system since the definition of KM says getting
right information to right person at right time. This has been identified as a limitation of
the Konnect.

40
41
CHAPTER 5:PROPOSAL FOR IMPLEMENTING
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AT
MINDTREE

42
Implementing a knowledge management system is a very systematic process. There are many
steps to be taken care of before implementing a knowledge management system.
Implementing a Knowledge management system does not means buying or renting a
knowledge management software package. It may not serve the required purpose. Because IT
solution can only serve as an enabler. So, to obtain all the acquirable benefit from a
knowledge management system the first thing to be realized is to not see knowledge
management system as an IT solution alone.

Designing and implementing a knowledge management system is step by step process in

which the actual implementation and deploying software solution happens towards the final
step. There are many things to be to be identified, evaluated and taken care of before the last
step. To support and assist this step by step design and implementation of Knowledge
management system a Knowledge management framework must be selected.

The knowledge management framework is to guide us through the important step by step
process and make sure that no important process or step is left out. KM framework gives the
idea of where to begin and guides how to design, implement, sustain the Knowledge
management system. There are many KM frameworks established by the pioneers in the
knowledge management industry. From all those frameworks the KM framework laid by
American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC) is selected for designing and
implementing Knowledge management system in Mindtree.

American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC) Knowledge management framework is a

widely accepted framework and adopted by many organizations around the world.APQC has
an experience of more than 20 years in the Knowledge management domain and the KM
framework is updated for all the new changes occurring in the Industry. Km framework can
be used as a reference to successfully design the value proposition, strategies and approaches
before getting into actual implementation.

5.1 PROPOSAL OF KM FRAMEWORK

APQC KM Framework
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 Design and
Develop KM Sustain and
Call to action Launch KM
strategy Evolve
capabilities

Figure 3: Knowledge management framework

According to APQC KM framework there are four phases in designing, implementing and
sustaining knowledge management system in the given organization.

1. Call to action
2. Develop KM strategy
3. Design and Launch KM capabilities
4. Sustain and Evolve

5.1.1 CALL TO ACTION

This is the first phase of KM implementation. This step will define the value proposition. This
phase identifies the need of the knowledge management system and the benefits that the team
or organization will gain from the implementation of the knowledge management system.
This is an important step because the team or the organization should be very clear on why
they need such a knowledge sharing and storing platform. There should be some value
addition happening by the implementation of the knowledge management system. This will
justify the time, investment and effort put by the organization for such a system.

So, the first step is to identify the need of a knowledge management system at Mindtree. This
was identified by conducting meetings with various People function managers and various
documents describing the job requirements of the People function managers. Those are
explained below.

1. Critical work knowledge

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Critical work knowledge means the knowledge that are required to be possessed by a People
function manager while working at Mindtree. These are correctly mentioned in the KRA
indicators of People function. Also, the level of knowledge required for each competency is
benchmarked clearly. Such an established indicator can be used to measure the current work
knowledge level of People function managers and compared it to the required level. This can
be done by team leads of each team with the help of a knowledge map.

Competency C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9
Work Knowledge
1 Business Understanding M M H H H H H H LOW
2 Critical Talent Management & Retention M M H H H H H H MEDIUM
3 Optimum Usage of RnR H H M M M M M M HIGH
4 Negotiation L L H H H H H H
5 Documentation & Reporting H H
6 Attrition M M H H
7 Decision Making L L M M M M M M
8 Building and Managing Relationships H H H
9 Client/ Stakeholder Management H H H H H H
10 Communicating and Influencing H H H
11 Planning & Organizing H H H H H H
12 Strategic Thinking H H H
13 Change Agent M M M M M M
14 Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving H H H
15 Excellence H H H
16 Effective Communication H H H
17 People Development H H H
18 Networking H H
19 Entrepreneurship H H
20 People leadership H H
21 Business leadership H H
22 Customer leadership H H
23 Transformational leadership H H

Figure 4: Competency wise work knowledge chart

Once the evaluation is over, if there is a difference between the required level of work
knowledge and available level of work knowledge that are possessed by the people function
managers, it is an indication that knowledge gap is prevailing.
Then there is a need to have a knowledge management system to create, store and share
enough information and knowledge which will reduce the gap. The knowledge can be tutorial
videos, research paper, blogs etc... which will provide learning to the managers and reduce the
knowledge gap.

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For example, take the case of ‘Business understanding’. In the FRA indicator, it is defined
that C2 and C3 managers should have the ‘Business understanding’ level of ‘medium’. To
measure this,there should be defined specific standards for each knowledge levels. This
should be defined by top level management. Once the benchmark is defined it is easy to
compare it with the available knowledge of managers. The C2 and C3 are evaluated to find
out how much ‘Business understanding’ they have against how much they ought to be. Then
the gap is reduced by creating and sharing those knowledges which will provide new learning
to them.

But the most important point is it should not be stopped by creating and sharing, there should
be a follow up whether the created knowledge actually reduced the knowledge gap otherwise
the whole exercise is futile. If done consistently this will substantially increase the
productivity and service quality of the People function team.

The knowledge management system can be used to create, store and share the required
knowledge among the new joiners according to the competency level and there by increasing
the learning curve.

2. Continuous learning

Continuous learning is an important process to stay competitive in this changing world.

Everyday something new comes up and new inventions are happening. So, it is very
important that all the mangers in the people function are aware of what is happening around
the world in the human resources domain and get updated to it.

For example, the upcoming trend in Human resources is Analytics. So, the minds should be
aware about it and be prepared to accept it into their jobs. The white papers, articles, tutorial
videos regarding the HR analytics will be captured and stored in the database to be read by
the managers. Thus,they will be get updated to the most prominent and upcoming news and
knowledge regarding the human resources analytics.

Knowledge management system can be used as a platform to continuously improve the

learning process and updating the best human resources practices across the world and
increase the service quality as well as theproductivity of the people function team.

3. Expert Tacit Knowledge

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In Mindtree there are experts for each sub-practices of People function like, compensation,
promotion, HR analytics etc... These experts carry a lot of tacit knowledge with them because
of their long experience and training. Currently there are no practices of collecting and
codifying the experienced persons’ knowledge. If their knowledge can be captured and shared
to people who are in need of that particular knowledge it will add value to the organization.

In addition to that the lessons learned and best practices that they learned during their long
employment period which can be shared as a wisdom and this will lead to good decision
makingsin the whole people function team. The knowledge management system can also be
used to capture such experience, lessons learned and wisdom to make the people function an
efficient team.

4. Idea and innovation

In the job description of people function managers, it is mentioned that they are supposed to
identify possible process improvements. For example,generating quarterly attrition report
takes seven hours and a manager identifies that same job can be done in a simpler way which
takes only five hours. This is a process improvement. The manager has saved two hours of the
valuable working time. If the manager shares it with the team that comprises of 8 members,
then the hours saved will be sixteen. Now the amount of time and energy saved if the process
improvement is shared across the people function team comprising of 100 members will be
substantial.

It is evident that there is a difference between a process improvement that is identified by a

single mind and the process improvement that is identified and shared across a whole team.
This is the advantage of knowledge management system.

The requirement and value addition of these four knowledges are identified as the reason to
implement a knowledge management system across the people function. These four
knowledges are identified by conducting discussions with every individual teams in
peoplefunctionand by examining the knowledge that are being captured by the companies
who are successful in implementing the knowledge management program.

5.1.2 DEVELOPING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

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Developing KM strategy is the second phase of Knowledge management framework.
Knowledge management strategy is to systematically steer the KM system implementation
further. It also gives an idea of Knowledge management governance frame work and phased
implementation of the program. The steps in developing a KM strategy is explained in detail
below.

1. Identifying current status

2. Create governance framework
3. Design phased implementation

1. Identifying the current status:

The first step in developing a knowledge management strategy is to identify the current state
of knowledge management system and practices in people function at Mindtree. This has
been detailed given in the chapter in the third chapter.

2. Create governance framework

The next step is to create a Knowledge management governance framework. It is proven that
the success of the KM system cannot be achieved without a proper KM team. Every
organization which has a successful knowledge management program will have an efficient
knowledge management team in place. So,creating a Knowledge management steering team
should be decided in the beginning of developing of a Knowledge management strategy.

Knowledge management team will be responsible for the final designing, administration, and
sustainability of the Knowledge Management program. They will also be responsible for
identifying the Knowledge resources, funding and finally collaborating with the IT team for
an efficient and optimum Knowledge Management system.

According to the organizational structure and experience required to be includedin the

knowledge management team, the members have been identified. The proposed knowledge
management team is shown below.

Knowledge management team

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The ideal Knowledge management team can consist of three elements namely KM leader,
Figure 5: Knowledge management team hierarchy chart
KM core group and KM executives. The responsibilities of each element are detailed below.

KM leader

Knowledge management leader is the face of the knowledge management program in the
people function team. KM leader will oversee the knowledge management program andwill
support in aligning the knowledge management strategies to the business goal and objectives.
KM leader is the one who establishes the mission and vision statement of the knowledge
management program. The knowledge management leader will be responsible in finding
required funds and promotes knowledge management practices across the Biz People function
at Mindtree. The knowledge management leader will continuously evaluate and find out
various strategies in which the knowledge management Program can add value to the people
function team.

Considering all the points said above the people function head will be the most suitable
person for the knowledge management leader position. The people function head will have
constant interaction with the top management as well as the business and he could give an
accurate strategic direction for creating and sharing the required knowledge that will help in
realizing the goals and objectives of the organisation.

KM core group

49
Knowledge management core group will be responsible for understanding and designing the
different knowledge management approaches according to the strategic direction laid by the
knowledge management leader. Knowledge management core group will identify the suitable
IT solution to capture the knowledge through identified approaches. This core group will be
designing the training plans and methods for the people function managers. The knowledge
management group will be finally look after the administration andmaintenance of the
knowledge management system.
The proposed core group will consist of one knowledge management champion, one people
function team lead from vertical, one people function team lead from service line and a
manager from IT support.

KM Champion

The knowledge management champion will be responsible for designing the accurate
approaches and capture the organisational knowledge according the strategy laid by the KM
leader. The knowledge management champion will be the person who has a vast experience
and training in the field of knowledge management. The knowledge management champion
will also assist in designing the KM system and establish best practices in capturing and
sharing the knowledge across the people function.

People Function Team Leads

The people function team leads will be responsible to give inputs to the KM champion and
should support in designing the KM approaches to effectively capture the required
knowledge. The people function leads should designthe various rewards and recognitions
mechanism for the managers who are contributing their knowledge into the Knowledge
management system. The people function leads will also design and set bench marks for the
minimum contribution and reuse of knowledge for the people function managers according to
their competency level.

Role of IT Manager

The manager from the IT team will be responsible for the software package solution and
infrastructure of the knowledge management system. The IT manager will be overseeing the
proper maintenance and support of the knowledge management system all the time. The IT
manager will design and implement the various functions and tools that are required to

50
capture the identified knowledge from the established appropriate knowledge management
approaches.

KM Executives

The knowledge management executives will be responsible for the administration and day to
day affairs of the knowledge management program. They will lead the training session for the
People function team members to understand the working of the knowledge management
system along with the various functions and tools in it. The knowledge management
executives will be evaluate the relevancy and value addition of the contents that are being
uploaded into the knowledge management system. The KM executives will be also
responsible for the regular updating and validation of the contents in the knowledge
management system on a quarterly or yearly basis.

3. Design Phased implementation

Once the current status is identified and governance framework is finalised the next step is to
design the step by step implementation of the knowledge system. The designing of phased
implementation will systematically provide a guideline to build a knowledge management
system from the inceptionto making it an efficient and optimum one. The phased
implementation will help in expanding the KM system in a orderly way rather that
incorporating all the knowledge contents, IT functions and tools in a single launch. This will
overload the repository which will make it difficult to the people who are creating the
knowledge management system as well as using it.

There is APQC defined and proven maturity model to implement the KM system through
different phases. The maturity model is mentioned below.

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 Figure 6: Knowledge management maturity model

 Initiate
In this step the People function team identifies that there is a no proper method of knowledge
capturing and knowledge sharing happening. The tea realises the importance and requirement
of knowledge sharing and then initiates for the same. The people function team will design
various knowledge sharing practices and also evaluates different knowledge management
systems which will fit the business case of the people function the best.

 Develop
Now the People function team identifies the critical Knowledge gap. Initiate measures for
reducing the gap by designing localised knowledge management practices and implementing
a knowledge management system. The localised practices means the individual team of
People function have their own knowledge sharing initiatives and knowledge systems.

Knowledge management initiatives in People function team at Mindtree has reached up to this
phase and then stopped here. Each vertical and service line team of people function has
identified a knowledge sharing requirement. To fulfil the requirement each team started their
own knowledge management practices and implemented their own knowledge systems. But
further expansion of those initiatives did not happen.

 Standardize
Next phase is where the people function team standardize the knowledge management
practices across the team. In this phase the standard working procedure for all Knowledge
management processes across the team will be defined. Here the importance should be given

52
in fulfilling the immediate knowledge requirements. For example the focus could be given in
capturing critical work knowledge related contents.

 Optimize
Once the team requirements are fulfilled in the third phase the knowledge management efforts
can be expanded to leverage the knowledge assets with in the team. The knowledge
management system can be modified to capture the tacit knowledge of expert employees and
store in the database to increase the quality ofdecision making and productivity.
In this phase the incorporation of knowledge management processes can be integrated into the
job functions of the people function managers to make knowledge sharing more accountable
and increase their participation.

 Innovate
In this final stage of expansion the focus is on continuous improvements. Now the KM
processes will be expanded to capture and share the knowledge that supports continuous
innovation as well as improvement of the People function domain. In this phase the
knowledge management efforts will be expanded to collaborate with the related teams such as
business, talent accusation and talent management to attain synergy.

5.3.1 DESIGN & LAUNCHKNOWLEDGE MANAGEMNET CAPABILITIES

Design the KM Approach and tools

The knowledge management approaches are to share the required knowledge according to the
type of knowledge and the human involvement in sharing those knowledge. Thus the
approach will vary depending up on the type of knowledge to be shared, that is either explicit
or tacit, and the amount of Human interaction required in the process.
The most important point in selecting KM approaches is that it may not be enough to select a
single approach to share the required amount of knowledge from the People function team.
There may be a necessity of using two or more approaches combined together. Depending
upon the type of knowledge to be shared and human interaction there are four approaches.
Those four approaches are explained in detail below.

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 Figure 7: Various Knowledge management approaches

 Self-Service
 Lessons Learned
 Communities
 Transfer of Best practices

 Self-service

This approach is for sharing the explicit knowledge.The human interaction here is very low.
This approach is used share documented knowledge that is already in the system. In this case
the human interaction is low. For example, new employee learning module, where newly
joined team member learns about the basic work knowledge. These contents will be in the
knowledge repository and the employees can access it through search options or find under
the appropriate category tabs.

 Lessons learned
Here the human interaction is greater than the self- service category and tacit knowledge will
also be shared. The approach is used to capture the lessons learned by evaluating the reasons
for success or failure in a particular case. The evaluation will be done by a person who in
detail explains the reasons for an outcome and the lessons learned from the particular case.
Thus, capturing the tacit knowledge from the experience of the person and sharing it among
the People function is to avoid further similar failures. Here the human interaction is more
than self- service approach.

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 Communities
This approach is to capture and share the knowledge outcome that occur when a group of
people comes together to share a particular topic or to discuss about an issue or a new
method. Here the human interaction is more, and knowledge shared will be more of tacit type.
It can be a group study, an issue discussion, a learning class room etc.

 Transfer of best practices

This approach can also be used to capture the tacit knowledge from the team memberswho
have substantial expertise in theirdomains, like expert connect program. Here the human
interaction will be at the highest level and the knowledge captured will be of tacit in nature.

After identifying the required knowledge for the People function team and finding different
approaches to capture these knowledges, the different functions and tools that are required for
the Knowledge Management system at Mindtree can be designed.

Designing Tools for KM system

The Konnect system that is being used by the IT project teams in Mindtree was analysed to
check whether the same system can be adapted into the people function as an efficient
knowledge management system. The details of the analysis is explain in the chapter 4. The
Konnect system is rich in features and has a strong infrastructure in place. Since such a well-
established knowledge management system is in place the same can be deployed for people
function which can save huge IT system investments.

After analysing Konnect the limitations of it has been identified by discussing with different
vertical and service line teams which are detailed in chapter 4. So, in the design phase those
limitations have to overcome to make the Konnect system a fully efficient knowledge
management system.

To achieve this, the following tools and function are recommended to serve all the knowledge
management requirements for the entire People function team.The feasibility of all the
recommendations are discussed with the IT team to find out the practicality of the
enhancements. All those details are tabulated below.

Enhancements of Konnect

The following are the recommendations of tools and functions will make Konnect, the current
knowledge management system at Mindtree, more efficient, user-friendly and beneficial for
the People function team.

I. Verification of contents

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 Table 8: Verification of contents- Recommendation and feasibility

Enhancement Recommendations Feasibility

Content Verification  Contents that get uploaded into  Option was disabled in the
the Konnect will be Konnect system because
automatically forwarded to the of the lack of usage.
KM team.
 It can be enable without
 Team will check the relevancy any difficulty.
and value addition and will
publish it under the correct
category in Content section.

 Team will check the relevancy

and value addition and will
publish it to the Content section.

II.Taxonomical arrangement of contents

Table 9: Taxonomical arrangement- Recommendations and feasibility

Enhancement Recommendations Feasibility

Taxonomical  There should be a logical
categorization of various PF
arrangement
contents to enable a logical
knowledge surfing for the team
members.
 To find the categories, the job
definitions of all people function
managers have been evaluated
and created a list of categories.
 The contents are
taxonomically tagged in
the database for storage
 Modifications can be
made to bring those
categories into the user
interface easily.

 The documents which are

uploaded should go to any of the
subcategories and categories
accordingly.

To categorize all the knowledge that are required for the people function team, the job
definitions of the people function team are examined in detail. From those evaluation of job
functions four main content categories and sub categories that go under them are identified.
Those are listed below in the figure.

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 Figure 8: Taxonomical arrangement of content categories

III.Expert chat Tab

Table 10: Expert chat tab - Recommendations and feasibility

Enhancement Recommendations Feasibility

Expert chat tab  The experts for each topics  The real time chat option
should internally identified and can be built on the
listed in the chat tab SharePoint platform

 The team members can reach out

to these experts for knowledge
for in the respective topics real
time

 The clarified chat session will be

directed to the KM team and
they will publish it according to
the topic for future reference

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IV.Idea and innovation tab

Table 11: Idea and innovation tab - Recommendations and feasibility

Enhancement Recommendations Feasibility

Idea and innovation  The minds who come up with  Data collection microsite
any idea and innovation to make can be built on share point
tab
process and service quality platform.
improvements can share it in the
given tab.

 The KM team will verify it and

find the practicability along with
value addition and publish it in
Konnect system.

Thus with all these newly added functions and tools the Konnect application can be used as a
Knowledge management system for People function by creating closed community
exclusively for People function members. The Konnect system also has to be modified to
include the People function related documents, because now there are no options for
uploading PF related documents and taxonomically tag it to the specific folder in the software
package. Together with all the new options and currently existing features Konnect system
can be made into an efficient Knowledge management system for People function at
Mindtree.

Launch the KM approach

The critical knowledge has been identified, the KM strategy has been formulated and the
design of the KM system has been finalized. Now the official launching of the Knowledge
management system can be done.

The launching phase has some important steps which are critical and cannot be neglected.
They are mentioned below in detail with recommendations.

I. Communicate
Communicating to the whole people function team that a Knowledge management system is
in place and there is a system available to reach out to any knowledge they require in the job
environment is very important. The people function team members should know that there is

58
system available for the knowledge creation, storing, sharing and reusing and it for their
benefits as well as organisations’.

Recommendations

• The KM team should do a People function meet with all the members to share about the
KM system launch and the advantages of using it.
• Frequent mails should be sent to minds to remind what they were conveyed.
• Every individual team lead should communicate and encourage their team members to
take part in the knowledge sharing practices.

II.Train

After communicating there is a knowledge management system in place, all the Minds should
be trained to use the system. The training will make the team to be familiar with the working
and usage of the knowledge management system.

Recommendations

• The PF teams should take the responsibility of training the People function team.
• The training should cover all the options available to them in the system and how to use all
those.
• Knowledge management training of new joiner should be made mandatory by the KM
team to ensure Konnect usage by them.

III.Deploy
After communicating and training the team, the system can be launched officially and made
available to all team members for usage.

Recommendations

• The function and tools along with the infrastructure should be in place and error free at the
time of launch. Because such difficulties in the beginning will discourage the minds to
further use the system.

IV.Support

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Once the deployment is over, there should be a continuous and strong support from the KM
team to clarify or help users with any questions or doubts and usage difficulties. Because if
they don’t get theirdoubts, and difficulties cleared in the initial stages itself they users will be
discouraged to use the system.

Recommendations

• KM team should be accessible every time when a mind reaches out to clarify any
difficulties or doubts
• The Konnect system should be well maintained and minimize the server down cases,
because KM is all about sharing the right information at right time
• KM team should reach out to users and get feedback about the system and make necessary
correction for easy usage.

5.1.4 SUSTAINING KM SYSTEM

Implementing the knowledge management system, capturing the contents, then storing it in
the database is not everything in the Knowledge management. The very important phase of
maintaining, improving and sustaining the knowledge management system is the difficult
part. To sustain a knowledge management program, there should be a continuous cycle of
knowledge identification, creation, storing, sharing and reusing.

Identification

Reuse Capture

Share Store

Figure 9: Knowledge management cycle

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If any one of these steps in this continuous cycle is broke there won’t be a sustainable
knowledge management program. To have such a continuous knowledge cycle, there should
be a knowledge sharing culture prevailing in the pole function team. If such a sharing culture
is not there the implementation of the knowledge management system will be of no use.

But there are some effective ways in which a knowledge sharing culture within the People
team can be developed. To develop a knowledge sharing culture three factors are identified as
important. Those are explained in detail below.

I.Effort from Top management

The influencers who have a unique position to drive a change are the executives at the top
management. It has been proved from the inception of knowledge management concept that
the top management can motivate the knowledge sharing culture in the organization in a very
effective way.The top management have clear idea on how the People function team should
operate and what are the different knowledge assets that a PF manager should have to attain
the organizational goals and objectives. Thus, the input from top management will help the
Knowledge management system to acquire contents which will strategically help the People
function to attain the goals.

Recommendations
 The Top executive should continuously encourage the rest of the team to share and reuse
the knowledge for the betterment of the organization.

 The top management executives should always lead by example in the knowledge sharing
and knowledge using practices, which will encourage the rest of the Team members.

 The input given by the top management will help to share the knowledge that are required
for the strategic goals of the organisation. Such knowledge sharing practices will help the
team to attain the goals more effectively and this will in turn boost the knowledge sharing
culture of the team because they are seeing results in using the Knowledge management
system.

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 II.Rewards and recognition
This is another important success factor in sustaining the KM system. Because the minds are
taking some efforts in sharing their knowledge for the betterment of the organization and in
some cases, they even sacrifice their competitive advantage. So there arises the simplest
question as a human being, what is in it for me? This question must be answered so that an
effective knowledge sharing culture will be developed within the People function team.

There are many rewards and recognition methods that are followed by various organization
around the world. The KM team should find an optimum reward and recognition methods to
address all the knowledge sharing activities. Not only the knowledge contribution, but also
the knowledge usage should be rewarded. The rewards and recognitions can be monetary or
non-monetary.

Recommendations:
• Relevant and value adding contents can be awarded ‘spot on’, a recognition mechanism in
Mindtree.
• Practical process improvements ideas can be awarded monetarily, because they are
sacrificing their competitive advantage for the organization.
• Most read content contributor can be awarded ‘Best teacher’ and the member who applied
most of the knowledge can be awarded ‘Best student’. It can be given quarterly or
annually.

III.Integrating KM process into business process

Integrating knowledge management process into business process means to make the
knowledge sharing culture as a part of their day today work. This will reduce the feeling
doing an additional job for the knowledge sharing process.

Recommendations:
 The integration should start from the induction of employees. The duty of knowledge
sharing and usage should be mentioned in the job description itself, so that the team
member will understand that it is the part of their job and not an additional work which
they can be done in some free time.

 The knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse should be made a benchmark at the time of
appraisal.

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 The knowledge sharing and usage should be discussed in the monthly team meets. Each
members of the team should share what are their knowledge contributions and takeaways
from the KM system. This will make the knowledge sharing culture more accountable.

Through these methods a sustainable knowledge management program can be

implemented. All the four phases of the knowledge management framework should be
logicallyfollowed to build an efficient and optimum knowledge management program in
people function at Mindtree.

5.2 CONCLUSION

The project study was completed and a systematic road map for implementing the knowledge
management system across the people function was formulated. The important phase of
deciding the requirement and value proposition of the knowledge management system was
carefully identified. This has given a strategic direction to focus on the knowledges that they
required for fulfilling the essential job functions and also to improve the service quality and
productivity continuously in the people function domain. The knowledge strategy was
developed to take step by step expansion of knowledge management system from nothing to a
fully operational and effective one. The knowledge management system was identified and
made suggestion in the IT solution to make it ideal and optimum for the people function
requirements. Once prerequisites where successfully identified, and a knowledge management
system was made into a fully optimum one; the next step was to make it sustainable. Various
pragmatic and essential practices were suggested to maintain the knowledge management
system in the future such as; engagement and involvement of top management in supporting
and motivating the employees to regularly use the KM system; the rewards and recognition
for the contributor as well as the reuse of the knowledge; finally the incorporation of the
knowledge management practices into the day to day operations of the people function to
avoid the feeling of doing an extra job by contributing and reusing the knowledge.

The proposal was systematically presented to all the stakeholders of the knowledge
management system and communicated with them the importance and benefits of having and
using such knowledge asset which will bring efficiency and helps to bring the synergy within
the whole people function team to eventually attain the organisation goals and objectives. All

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the aspects of the proposalwerediscussed with the People function team and got accepted as
well as appreciated.

CHAPTER 7:LEARNING AND MANAGERIAL

IMPLICATIONS

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7.1 LEARNING AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

This study was conducted in the people function team at Mindtree Bangalore. As a part of
collecting data regarding the various knowledge contents from individual people function
team various job functions of teams are learned. The different people function dutiessuch as
attrition data generation andanalysis, compensation cycle etc…are learned and helped in all
those processes. The learning has also happened in how the Human resources business partner
is actually aligning its strategic directions to attain the objectives of business and how the
people function is providing and contributing for the growth of business.

There were many employee engagement activities and employee learning programmes that
were conducted by each people function team at Mindtree to provide improved job
engagement and career development respectively. The effectiveness and advantages of those
activities have been evaluated and understood. The critical work knowledge that are required
for a people function managers to fulfil their job functions have been analysed and
understood.

In order to identify the best knowledge management system and practices the learning
happened in the knowledge management domain also. Various knowledge
managementliteratures have been reviewed and learned all the important aspects of it. The
best practices followed by various successful knowledge management implemented
companies were examined to understand whether those can be adapted to fit in a Mindtree
people function context. The learning also extended to different knowledge management
frameworks, the benefits of implementing knowledge management program, the common
knowledge sharing barriers to recommend an effective knowledge management
implementation road map across people function team.

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