Microsoft Server Product PortfolioCustomer Solution Case Study

Maintains its prestige by adding SNS and group intelligence mechanism to knowledge management

OverviewCountry or Region: KoreaIndustry: IT ServiceCustomer ProfileSamsung SDS, which has 13, 493 employees as of December 2011, is an ICT provider expanding its coverage beyond the Asia Pacific region into the global market.

Business SituationIn the face of the convergence era, to rise as a global company, Samsung SDS began searching for new ways to increase creativity of the organization and enhance knowledge utilization capabilities to create new business opportunities.

SolutionRe-built the SharePoint Server based platform to converge collaboration portal and the concept of social network service in ARISAM, the company’s knowledge management platform.

Benefits Foundation of knowledge management

connecting past and future Facilitate the proliferation and sharing of

knowledge through SNS Create knowledge using collective

intelligence Accurate and fast knowledge search

“As of 2012, the term knowledge management sounds like a very old library.

While it sounds very familiar, it also has an academic feel to it, and Samsung

SDS re-built ARISAM based on SharePoint Server to transform knowledge

management into an innovative and young image.”Principal Specialist, Center for Advanced Knowledge Management

Samsung SDS is well-known as a knowledge management leader. It has received several awards including the Asian MAKE (the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise) Winner (10 times) and Global MAKE (2 times) presented by Teleos, a world-class UK knowledge consulting firm. The extraordinary passion of Samsung SDS for knowledge management was once again recognized both domestically and internationally in 2011 with its ARISAM innovation. Why does Samsung SDS promote ARISAM innovations? Samsung SDS conducted a pilot survey and technology verification for almost 2 years and completed designing a new concept of platform with collaboration and communication in mind. And in November 2011, Samsung SDS launched its next-generation ARISAM based on SharePoint Server.

SituationSamsung SDS’s vision is to become a World Premier ICT service provider that leads the “era of convergence”. As part of its efforts to acquire leadership, it re-organized and re-opened ARISAM, its knowledge management platform, in November 2011. ARISAM is a pure Korean word meaning “deep and never drying spring”, and Samsung SDS’s ARISAM is a knowledge management platform with a long history and tradition. ARISAM has evolved in 3 phases from 1.0 through 2.0 to 3.0 generation. The 1.0 generation started in 1996 when even the term knowledge management platform was unfamiliar. The ARISAM of that time was like an archive business system that merely accumulated knowledge compared to the ARISAM of 2012 that is much more advanced. As Samsung SDS entered the 21st century and faced changes in business environment, it began making preparations to migrate to ARISAM 2.0. It established an organization dedicated to knowledge business management. Samsung SDS established the knowledge management center (current Advanced Knowledge Management Group) in 2002. The Principal Specialist of the Center for Advanced Knowledge Management said, “Even now, it is uncommon to have a dedicated organization for knowledge management. In that sense, Samsung SDS recognized the importance of knowledge management early on and worked on developing platforms and visions that incorporate people, cultures and technology by focusing on the concept of knowledge management, as opposed to simple support through business system“. With the establishment of its dedicated organization, ARISAM experienced major changes including the enhancement of field-focused support that encourages the re-utilization of project deliverables and know-how. In addition, various attempts were made

to encourage active utilization of knowledge rather than simple accumulation of knowledge. It enabled knowledge management to take root in the organization. With the vigorous activities of its dedicated organization, the visions and strategies of knowledge management continue to accommodate changes of new eras, placing Samsung SDS’ ARISAM amongst the best in the industry. As a result, it received honors such as winning the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise award in Asia, presented by Teleos of the U.K. for ten consecutive years from 2002. In spite of these movements that were ahead of the times, Samsung SDS did not rest on its laurels, and it began drawing up blueprints for ARISAM 3.0 generation in 2009. The Principal Specialist of the Center for Advanced Knowledge Management said, “Knowledge dissemination that relies on subject-matter experts is now a thing of the past, and each member of an organization should be regarded as an expert with their own experience. Now is the time to develop strategies to utilize their know-how and their external knowledge network from the perspective of collective intelligence, and this is why the company started the ARISAM innovation”

SolutionSamsung SDS’s knowledge management group believed that the success of this innovative project would be determined by how well they can collaborate on an enterprise-wide level from planning to actual implementation. Therefore, it consulted with relevant departments from planning to solution selection. Samsung SDS knowledge management group held various meeting and workshops to get a better sense of the direction of knowledge management and exactly what kind of knowledge management services will be provided. Technology review was conducted carefully. While contacting several providers, Samsung

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SDS conducted Proof of Concept (PoC) with its internal department that handles technology evaluation and solution selection to carefully confirm whether the solutions satisfy the knowledge management requirements. Samsung SDS believes that knowledge management should continuously enable innovations while ensuring organizational harmony among people, processes, and technology regardless of time. Samsung SDS perceived that developing systems every time a certain process is considered the best at a particular period could be an obstacle to continuous innovations. And it determined that selecting highly flexible commercial solutions with proven universal technology and advanced process is more consistent with the purpose of the knowledge management platform, which is to plan user-oriented services and create business value. Having successfully completed information gathering and PoC, Samsung SDS knowledge management group chose Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. The Principal Specialist of the Center for Advanced Knowledge Management said, “We wanted to establish a hybrid form of knowledge management system converging search and collaboration portal with social network. Actually, there was no solution that can perfectly accommodate every element, but SharePoint Server offers the closest approach, so we decided to deploy SharePoint Server.” Thus, Samsung SDS knowledge management group began its project in early 2011. The direction of ARISAM innovation is focused on the connection with legacy systems and acquiring internal social network channels from a platform perspective. And from a user’s perspective, the focus was placed on how to improve User Experience (UX). Samsung SDS knowledge management group wanted to easily upload deliverables generated

by Samsung SDS organization members including HR, finance, sales and marketing and enable convenient search for and utilization of various knowledge. Therefore, it enabled logical connection between various internal systems and ARISAM to acquire channels for seamless information flow. It categorized various deliverables including documents and source codes and began archiving them. Afterwards, the group applied the functions similar to public social network service such as Facebook and Twitter to ARISAM. For UX, it worked on improving user convenience and accessibility to ARISAM. The main page of the existing ARISAM was completely filled with all kinds of information. From the perspective of a planner, it is common to want to offer as much information as possible on the main page. However, Samsung SDS knowledge management group boldly pursued the beauty of simplicity from users’ point of view. The Principal Specialist of the Center for Advanced Knowledge Management said, “We designed the screen in a way that users will feel pleasant when they see it. We also offered a dual homed system allowing users to choose the screen. Giving users a choice between a screen that looks like the first page of Google with its search function emphasized and a screen with diverse information composed in a simple manner in the form of portlets was well-received by users.” The project, which began in early 2011, went through the customization of platform and UX for about ten months and in November of the same year, a completely new ARISAM was launched.

Benefits

Foundation of knowledge management connecting past and future

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ARISAM is an ‘old future’ for the members of Samsung SDS. As they have been using ARISAM since 1996, knowledge management has been part of their daily cultural and work lives. Once people get used to something, they tend to become complacent with the status quo, as opposed to driving innovations. In this regard, Samsung SDS knowledge management group infused new vigor into knowledge management through enhanced collaboration and communication. The Principal Specialist of the Center for Advanced Knowledge Management said, “As of 2012, the term knowledge management sounds like a very old library. While it sounds very familiar, it also has an academic feel to it, and Samsung SDS re-built ARISAM based on SharePoint Server to transform knowledge management into an innovative and young image. Executives also view it as a successful attempt to apply new ways of knowledge exchange and communication proven in the consumer market to the business environment.”

Facilitate the proliferation and sharing of knowledge through SNSThrough this innovation project, ARISAM became equipped with the mechanism that enables users to easily participate in knowledge propagation and sharing. The Principal Specialist of the Center for Advanced Knowledge Management said, “Rather than one-way knowledge transfer by adding new services, so that those in need of knowledge should look for it themselves, the ARISAM innovation facilitated knowledge proliferation on a platform level. For example, if the knowledge uploaded by someone is useful to you and you want to “follow” that person as in twitter, you will be able to view all the recent information he/she uploads on his initial screen. And relevant tags are added to

all knowledge information, so that when users register latest keywords that interest them, such as big data, new relevant information will be automatically displayed on the user screen.”

Create knowledge using collective intelligenceHow can Samsung SDS naturally turn the know-how that individuals have acquired in their business areas into knowledge? Samsung SDS knowledge management group found the answer in collective intelligence. The new ARISAM enables the creation of pages by subject like Wikipedia. Anyone can easily create space if they have tips on specific business areas or have relevant certificates, etc. Also, anyone can edit the information for knowledge enhancement. The Principal Specialist of the Center for Advanced Knowledge Management said, “The effects of collecting the knowledge of employees and executives are significant when it’s gathered from the perspective of collective knowledge. For example, newly coined words emerge almost every day in the IT industry and it is impossible for a single specialist to explain all those words and register them as knowledge information. It is more effective and realistic to add what individuals know using the Wiki method.”

Accurate and fast knowledge searchThe newly opened ARISAM also offered a search environment vastly different from that of the previous version. It used Microsoft FAST Search as the default search engine, which was positively received by users. Samsung SDS knowledge management group provides an integrated search service with the new search engine that offers one-stop search of information within ARISAM, as well as data in other internal systems without compromising speed or accuracy. The Principal Specialist of the Center for Advanced Knowledge

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Management said, “Analysis of user feedback after launching the website showed a high level of user satisfaction with the search function. The accelerated speed of search may be one reason but accurate search results probably contributed to such positive feedback as well.”

Microsoft Server Product PortfolioFor more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:www.microsoft.com/servers

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Samsung SDS’s products and services, call 82-2-3429-3114 or visit the website at: www.sds.samsung.com:

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published November 2012

Software and Services− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2− Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2