A Knowledge Management Framework for call centre in a Telecom Company Literature review

A Knowledge Management Framework for call centre in a Telecom Company - Literature review Example It can aid the employees within an organisation, and that includes the top level managerial staffs to the ground-level employees, and even the employees working in the field outside. Thus, one of the key goals of knowledge management is to ensure that the employees have the information they need; at the times, whey they need it, to give effective performance. This is applicable to employees in organizations in various industry sectors, where knowledge or the collected data may play a key role. Call centres are becoming a key industry sector of their own, operating independently or in association with organizations from other major industry sectors like Telecom. With the development of advanced communication technologies, Telecom companies are proliferating and are impacting the people’s lives in various ‘spheres’. Organizations in the Telecom sector are optimally using call centres as an extension of their functioning, and importantly to manage the knowledge and p rovide customers apt services. Call centres, or their contemporary successors contact centres, are the preferred and prevalent way for many companies to communicate with their customers. However, perhaps the greatest challenge of running a call centre is to ensure that the customers are provided with the right information in a timely fashion. This is where the KM comes into the picture, and aids the companies to do that exactly. Although, KM has a number of practical tools and strategies to meet this challenge but to leverage the potential of these tools organisations must understand how to implement KM especially in their call centre department. In telecom companies, knowledge in any form is indeed valuable and so managing these ‘knowledge entities’ or information are important for the success and even the survival of the organizations. Call centres could do it aptly, if a framework of best practices is formulated. These best practices could aid in the management of kn owledge or information about the company’s products as well as the about the customers. So, the aim of this report to develop a KM system or framework of best practices to support the call centre in a Telecom Company in order to improve its customer service performance and the company’s competitiveness. In that direction, this report will do a literature review on the topic of KM in a general manner, and focusing on its applications in the Telecom sector as well as in call centres. Then the report will discuss the proposal for KM in call centre, by coming up with an optimal framework of best practices. Literature review KM- A background As Tiwana (2000, p.7) states â€Å"Knowledge management enables the creation, communication, and application of knowledge of all kinds to achieve business goals.† Seiner (2000) further expands on this aspect of KM by stating, â€Å"Knowledge Management envisions getting the Right Information within the Right Context to the Right Person at the Right Time for the Right Business Purpose†. Thus, when viewed from an overall perspective, KM is a discipline that aids in the process of knowledge creation or accumulation and thereby helps the employees to access that knowledge, when there is a need. This access of knowledge can positively impact on the employees’ performance, thereby improving the service provided to the customer,