Modern concepts like Knowledge Management require evolved knowledge management organizations to take off the gloves and get up-close to the knowledge-makers and the ideas they produce. But it requires more than that. Knowledge management's fundamental insight is that by definition knowledge is more about intelligent people than anything else; because you simply cannot have knowledge capital without the intelligence of people and you certainly cannot realize the economic value of knowledge without a context created by relationships with people.
The BPO assembly lines that you probably have already experienced don't seem to work from these assumptions and consequently everybody gets short-changed (and many are unhappy). We are very happy to see the raising of the bar in this business from static BPO to dynamic BPO (KPO).
So what is this new thing called KPO? Just one more acronym to use when you can't think of anything useful to say? Not by a long shot. It is forming up to be the way we do business in the 21st Century. Instead of a BPO drone who helps you perpetuate errors until they become obvious and intolerable, KPO-trained personnel think: this is our problem, define it, and create solutions. We focus more on defining the right questions than mere answers to a question. Skimming over the top of a process is not the way to understand it; understanding and knowledge go hand-in-hand. In fact understanding is the sine que non of knowledge.
Since KPO is still a relatively new concept, let's use a simple example. You take your car to a BPO mechanic because it is stalling briefly when you start off from a stop sign and when you try to pass another car. He discovers it is a sticky accelerator pedal, puts some grease on it and tells you it is done. He charges you a bargain basement price of 50 bucks. A week later you cannot start the car. Since he was so reasonable last time, you return thinking this must be a new problem. He finds the fuel pump has failed, replaces it, and you get out of the shop for a few hundred, again a bargain, you think. A month later, the same process begins again: stalling on acceleration. By now you begin to wonder.
So, you take it to a KPO mechanic. He analyzes the problem, determines the gas pedal is sticking, but he isn't satisfied and puts a pressure gauge on the fuel line. He discovers that the pressure falls too low and asks why this should be. He pulls the fuel line and discovers that the line is partially clogged, which causes undue stress on the fuel pump causing the car to stall on acceleration and the fuel pump to fail prematurely. He puts some grease on the pedal, a common problem with your make of car, replaces the fuel line and charges you 100 bucks. No fuel pump replacement necessary because you have solved the problem before it caused system failure.
But our KPO mechanic goes one better and asks: what kinda gas you using? Yup, that cheapo station down on the corner has dirty gas and that's the real problem here. You happily pay him and walk away thankful he was smart enough to ask the right questions. That is KPO in a nutshell.
Whereas BPO focuses on Information Value Chain, KPO focuses on Knowledge Value Chain; BPO considers technological systems as key components guiding the organization's business processes; KPO treats human systems as key components that engage in continuous assessment of information archived in the technological systems.
If you want to propel your SME business into the 21st Century and gain a secure place in the global future, you will very likely become intimately acquainted with KPO, in one form or another. For one thing some form of Process Outsourcing is becoming the state of the art in today's business climate. To put it simply, we do it better for less money.
We'd like to stress that KPO is about effective management because we believe that people who are managed well, perform well.
