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Knowledge Management Tools 287

Box 8.3
An example: U.S. Army/Chevron/BP

The Army ’ s after action review (AAR) is an excellent example of a process that ensures
lessons are learned after an event ( Bhatt 2000 ). British Petroleum (BP) and Chevron have
introduced similar systems whereby they learn before, during, and after the undertaking
of a large project. Major cost savings have been realized by introducing these learning
processes. For example, Chevron introduced a lessons learned tool for their drilling pro-
cesses. Every time they drill in a particular area, lessons are recorded. Next time drilling
takes place in a similar area, lessons learned during the last drilling operations are avail-
able. This results in fewer errors and less reinventing of the wheel. Chevron has also
recorded waste savings in their drilling operations.
The United States Air Force (USAF) is utilizing Open Text ’ s Livelink to manage its
Business Solutions Exchange (BSX), which involves integrating the people, process, and
policies of the USAF ’ s service contracting into a single system, paving the way for the
group to meet the Pentagon ’ s goal of a completely paper-free acquisition process. Prior to
installing Livelink, the USAF employed a variety of client-server based systems that had
diffi culty managing this process across different geographic locations. With the new col-
laborative KM approach, the USAF has reduced the time spent from identifying the point
of need to completing a performance requirement document (PRD) from seven months
to eight weeks, a 70% reduction in processing time.
The USAF ’ s KM initiative is part of the Pentagon ’ s requirement to simplify and modern-
ize the US Defense Department ’ s acquisition process in the area of contract writing,
administration, fi nance, and auditing. Since July 1998, the USAF has been using Livelink
on a variety of outsourcing projects. The fi rst and largest project can be found at the
Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. The goal of the business solutions exchange (BSX)
process is to continually improve USAF business practices. BSX goes to work as soon as a
requirement is identifi ed and a business strategy team is formed. The collaborative software
is used throughout the life cycle of the project, from requirements defi nition to contract
closeout, connecting a cross-functional team dispersed across a given base and the
command.. A team, often composed of people from six different locations within the US,
is formed to create a PRD and uses the collaborative software as its central knowledge
library to gather market research, establish an acquisition plan, record baseline costs,
eliminate regulatory constraints, draft requirements, and gather feedback from customers
and industry on the contract requirements. The BSX team works together throughout the
planning, execution, and supplier management phases. Teams use the public folders
(http://www.bsx.org) to gather feedback from industry on ways to improve existing
requirements documents. In addition, the public sites include process-oriented libraries of
best practices that are available to other agencies, whether or not they use the collabora-
tive capabilities of Livelink.