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480 Part Three Key System Applications for the Digital Age

Knowmax, a knowledge management system, introduced. Almost 40,000-50,000 TCS staff blogged
developed using Microsoft sharepoint portal server in on the intranet. While the JustAsk system allowed
2007, gave TCS consultants access to nearly 40 years employees to post questions that others could
of experience and best practices, arranged by type answer, Idea Storm was a once-a-year event, where
of engagement, the technology in use, and customer two to three topics were posted by the corporate
requirements. It supported more than 60 knowledge team on which ideas were invited by everyone. TIP,
assets and was accessible via Ultimatix to all TCS an open portal for product innovation and potential
associates. Any associate could contribute to the new ideas was launched to promote the sharing of
K-Bank and Knowledge Officers were made respon- ideas. MySite, embedded into the KM portal, allowed
sible for maintaining the quality of content. each associate to have a personal page like Facebook
To maintain the work-life balance of its employ- or Orkut.
ees, TCS initiated Propel sessions which brought
together employees with similar interests to conduct Sources: Sankaranarayanan G., “Building Communities, the TCS
various activities such as reading books. Later, held way,” expressitpeople.com, September 2003; Kavita Kaur, “Give
and Take,” india-today.com, January 2000; Sunil Shah, “Network
every quarter through conferences and camps, this
Wonder: Collaborative Tools Help TCS Grow,” cio.com, July 2007;
initiative also spurred knowledge transfer among Shivani Shinde, “TCS Sees Synergy in Gen X Tools,” rediff.com,
the employees. The knowledge sharing at the proj- July 2008.
ect level was done through LiveMeeting application,
where all the project meetings were recorded and CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
stored in the project repository. Team members who 1. Analyze the knowledge management efforts at
missed the meeting, or any new members in the TCS using the knowledge management value
team, could listen to the recorded sessions and this chain model. Which tools or activities were used
enabled them to catch up with the rest of the team. for managing tacit knowledge and which ones are
Furthermore, Knowledge Transition sessions con- used for explicit knowledge?
ducted weekly by the “Subject Matter Expert” helped 2. Describe the growth of knowledge management
the team to learn from the experience of the experts. systems at TCS. How have these systems helped
“Tip of the Day” mail, comprising either technical, TCS in its business?
or conceptual, or human skills tips were also shared 3. Describe the collaboration tools used at TCS? What
within the organization, almost daily. benefits did TCS reap from these tools?
Though Ultimatix, launched in 2002, digitized the 4. How did Web 2.0 tools help TCS to manage knowl-
entire organization from end to end and improved edge and collaboration among its employees?
the business processes’ efficiency, it still couldn’t tap 5. How do you think KM tools have changed some
the knowledge of employees effectively. To improve key operational processes at TCS, such as bidding
collaboration among employees, Project Infinity was for new projects, project development and imple-
launched in 2007; this involved a number of technol- mentation, customer service, and so on?
ogies including IBM’s Sametime, QuickPlace, Lotus Case contributed by Neerja Sethi and Vijay Sethi,
Domino Collaboration tools, Avaya VOIP telephony, Nanyang Technological University
and Polycom IP videoconferencing.
As a result of adopting Infinity, collaboration
of overseas and local offices improved as instant
messaging (IM) got rid of cultural and pronun-
ciation differences that could occur on the phone.
Furthermore, corporate communications were able
to run a 24-hour internal news broadcast to all TCS
offices in the world. In addition, travel and telecom-
munications costs were reduced by 40 percent and 6
percent respectively.
Other than these channels, the company also
used the JustAsk system (embedded into the KM),
Blog platform, IdeaStorm, TIP, and My Site. Blogging
had caught on rapidly since 2006 when it was first

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