- Social Knowledge Networks
- Knowledge Access Problem
- Information Access Gap
- The Solution - Presto
- Presto Overview
- A Presto Knowledge Net
- Presto and SharePoint
- Learn More
What Are Social Knowledge Networks?
Social Knowledge Networks (SKNs) are virtual environments where content combines with human resource assets and subject matter expertise (SME) to address critical business initiatives and problems ranging from product innovation and proposal development to competitive intelligence and consumer insight. SKNs span enterprise silos and merge relevant content, search, and community insight, improving individual and organizational productivity, efficiency and agility.
The Enterprise Knowledge Access Problem
Business users spend an enormous amount of time randomly searching for useful information and subject matter expertise. Micro-silos and pockets of knowledge are everywhere. To drive productivity and organizational effectiveness a new approach to knowledge management is required – one that puts the business user and business problem at the epicenter to tap an organization’s innate social intelligence.
The Information Access Gap
Storage and retrieval of structured and unstructured content utilizes tools and technologies. Network drives and Wikis offer control for business users and require minimal IT resources, but offer minimal functionality and even less security. Enterprise repositories like document management systems are costly and not intended for business user access.
This creates the Information Access Gap where business user information access is hindered, self-sufficiency suffers, valuable time is wasted, and business opportunities are lost. Equally, an already strained IT organization is forced to build and manage an ever-increasing set of solutions.
Bridging the Information Access Gap
Presto SKNs are designed to bridge the gap between high-control / low capability solutions and more complex enterprise repositories that require more resources. Presto provides secure, flexible user access capabilities reserving IT resources for more complex projects.
What is Presto?
Inmagic® Presto is an application that enables business users to create and manage Social Knowledge Networks. Through Presto, enterprise content and subject matter experts are easily identified – and enriched – through the wisdom of the community, bringing to the surface valuable organizational knowledge and insight. Because staff spends less time hunting for corporate knowledge, projects are completed faster, the risk of inaccurate information being exposed is reduced, and high-value business processes are enhanced, making it easier to meet organizational objectives.
Presto addresses today’s business imperative to drive productivity and collaboration, and support strategic transformation initiatives such as innovation, as well as the retention and preservation of knowledge.
Addressing Business Processes, Topics and Objectives
A purpose-built Social Knowledge Network application, Presto addresses a wide range of high-value business processes, topics and objectives including:
- Brand enrichment and development
- Competitive intelligence and consumer insight
- Corporate libraries and research centers
- Customer or sales support repositories
- Incident management
- Knowledge retention
- Product development, research and innovation
- Proposal development
Features and Benefits
|
Feature |
Benefit |
|
360 degree view of, and access to, structured and unstructured information; both internal and external to the organization |
Improved business user productivity, decision-making and collaboration |
|
Content-centric resource expertise |
Diverse content is published, acted upon and socialized and subject matter experts are easily identified |
|
Flexibility in page layout, information structure and display, user privileges |
Increases business user control while IT staff is relieved of the support burden |
|
Information can reside in multiple nodes and multiple taxonomies |
Intuitive information discovery to drive productivity |
|
Aggregation from, and automatic synchronization with, corporate repositories |
Breaks down information silos making content more accessible |
|
Integrated content rating, tagging, blogs |
Provides alternative, community-driven classification systems to speed information discovery and enrich content and insight |
|
Search Presto from within SharePoint Team Sites
|
Leverages SharePoint infrastructure and content
|
Technology
Inmagic's core development philosophy is based on industry standards that are easily integrated and extensible over time. Our applications are based on Microsoft® SQL™ Server and .NET technology and fully utilize XML & Web services. This enables our applications to complement our customers' existing repositories and integrate with an organization’s existing applications or processes.
Inmagic products are noted for their flexibility, extensibility, and ease of use. While Inmagic offers out-of-the-box templates for managing many common types of information and content types, these templates can be easily changed and configured by non-technical business staff. In Presto for example, metadata elements, taxonomies, advanced search screens, edit screens, and search results views are easily modified. Presto is also designed to manage multiple forms of information, and to provide a single consolidated view of the information with ease - including documents, text, digital images, URLs, artifacts, newsfeeds, and books.
A Presto Knowledge Network
Presto helps solve the organizational micro-silo problem. The application spans the various silos - via a combination of repository connectors that index pertinent internal and external content, and make it accessible via Presto and Federated Search - where content is more accessible, intelligent, and informed. As a result, your organization’s social intelligence is harnessed, innovation thrives, productivity improves, and knowledge is retained.
The SharePoint “Micro-Silo” Problem
Many organizations that have implemented SharePoint Team Sites and My Sites have realized benefits at a project or workgroup level, but are increasingly realizing that SharePoint falls short when it comes to information access – which is core to any successful SKN.
While these “mini-sites” might enhance collaboration on a project level, they tend to isolate content into thousands of micro-silos that are inaccessible to others within the organization.
Spanning Information Silos
Presto SKNs span repositories, including SharePoint Sites, via connectors that index pertinent content and make it available to business users. When a new Team Site is created – to create a complex proposal, for example – the team can search Presto from within SharePoint to retrieve relevant proposals, images, and contracts, all of which are rated so that the best of each float to the top.
SharePoint and Presto: A Complementary Information Architecture
Presto enables organizations to leverage their investments while delivering – quickly and cost effectively – a very productive means for filling the information access gap. With SharePoint-compatible Web Parts and a Web Services API, Presto easily integrates with other applications, including SharePoint. Through Presto, business users can create secure knowledge networks around enterprise content, with sophisticated social, search, security, and library workflow capabilities not inherently found in SharePoint.
Presto Integrated with SharePoint
Case Studies
- NASA
- Ophea
- Owens Corning
- R.V. Anderson
- Large Government Organization
- Leading Media Organization
- Leading Pharma Organization
White Papers