Knowledge Management at BT Labs

BT Laboratories has developed a knowledge management network in order to generate and disseminate technology trend and comparative RD technology and marketing strategists; and others throughout the company with a concern for longer-term technology trends. In an evolving sector like telecoms, which is intimately dependent on technology, speedy information on technology trends is an important input to all levels of a company's strategic thinking. British Telecom spends some L300 million a year on RD however, they do not necessarily formalize it so that it will be available to others, including the managers in the CRPO! In the jargon of knowledge management, there needs to be a process of externalization to convert from tacit to explicit knowledge. Building the Network Several years ago, CRPO managers considered how they could improve the quality and dissemination of this kind of technology intelligence. The solution was to appoint a team of 25 technology analysts, one for each technology of interest to BT. The analyst was almost always an active BT researcher in the particular technology area who remained in his or her particular role but took additional responsibility for the technology analysis work. Generally, the researcher was already being funded by the research budget and it was, in principle, merely a question of requiring that he or she spend a certain amount of time on this work-usually between a day a fortnight and a day a week. At the time, the choice of technology analyst was guided by an appropriate senior R&D manager who was already regarded as an expert in the particular technology. In retrospect, not enough consideration was given to the choice of analyst. Two Roles The job of the analyst consists of two related roles: understanding technology trends and understanding the competitive position (see Table 1). An initial "launch meeting" was held-in part to help the analysts understand their role, and in part to help them understand how to gather information. …