Outsource Magazine Issue 27 - (Page 32)

IN THE KNOW With the finance function of today a very different beast from its incarnation of a couple of decades ago, isn’t it time organisations brought their knowledge management up to date too? Ralph Geertsema Ralph Geertsema is an independent advisor on finance transformation working with clients looking at how to implement ERPs, drive SSC build and stay compliant in one effort. K 32 ● nowledge management has been around for more than a decade and after an initial boom in the late 1990s, it has lost much of its drive and attention. With the globalisation of the finance and IT function over the last five to ten years there is a growing need to examine carefully how we capture and harness the knowledge in our everincreasing global organisations. This article will outline how the finance world has changed with regards to knowledge management; what the importance of it is; and how people can get started. Knowledge management in finance describes how a company ensures that transactions (payments, receipts, reports and accounts) are completed according to what the (internal) customers want and accounting laws have specified. The system handles the transactions, the processes describe who does what, and the reasons why and how transactions need to happen is knowledge which is often hardly captured or formalised. In the good old days when most of the systems, processes and people were located next or near to each other, there was a clear link between the three elements. There was always someone around to give the proper explanation over why things needed to be done in a certain way ("we book this AP invoice with intrastate VAT in this system in this manner because the law states... and the systems treats it like this... and therefore the VAT submission done by the tax department will be compliant"). The proximity of the teams performing the transactions and the teams receiving the service allowed them to have highly effective and very informal processes. Knowledge was managed and shared in an informal manner. Finance system support was a small "Knowledge management will never work until corporations realise it's not about how you capture knowledge but how you create and leverage it." – Etienne Wenger www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk http://www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outsource Magazine Issue 27

NEWS
PLANET ITO
NORM JUDAH MICROSOFT’S
IN THE KNOW
CALL BRITANNIA
DAVID EVELEIGH
CHAIN GAIN
CAN EVERYTHING BE OUTSOURCED?
NOA ROUND-UP
QUICK CHANGE?
TRANSFORMING FINANCE
CAROLINE STOCKMANN
GOOD REVIEWS
OUTSOURCING IS NOT MAKE VERSUS BUY: IT IS A CONTINUUM
PAYING ATTENTION
POWERING UP YOUR CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ENGINE
BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS
HEAD-TO-HEAD
TOP TEN
THE LEGAL VIEW
HFS RESEARCH
HEADLINES...
ONLINE ROUND-UP
INSIDE SOURCE
THE LAST WORD

Outsource Magazine Issue 27

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