Bouygues Telecom Knowledge Management System Analysis

This report analyzes the Bouygues Telecom knowledge management system, including the problems faced, strategies adopted, and IT tools incorporated. It also discusses the conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

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Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................4
The problems Bouygues Telecom faced...................................................................................................5
The strategy adopted by Bouygues Telecom to cope with the situation................................................5
Incorporation of IT tools by Bouygues Telecom to implement the knowledge management system.. 6
Cloud computing...................................................................................................................................6
Expert system.........................................................................................................................................6
Initial step Bouygues Telecom took to share tacit knowledge................................................................7
How Bouygues Telecom converted technical tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge........................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................................9
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The report analyses the Bouygues knowledge management system

Executive Summary
Bouygues Telecom is a mobile telephony company that faces a problem in managing the huge
amount of data, information, and knowledge that accrues because of the six million customers
that it serves. At the end of 2000, Bouygues Telecom tried to provide a solution to this problem
but faced implementation, management and cost difficulties on the solutions available. They then
contracted Valtech company that solved their knowledge management problem by rapidly
delivering four knowledge management systems; SAP best practice, technical reference system,
information system innovation knowledge management system and innovation tracking system.
SAP best practice and the technical reference system helped Bouygues Telecom to convert
technical tacit knowledge into technical explicit knowledge.
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Introduction
This report analyses the Bouygues Telecom knowledge management system. It identifies; the
problem Bouygues Telecom faces with regards to knowledge management, the strategies it
adopted over the years to cope with the knowledge management problem, the information
technology tools that Bouygues Telecom incorporated to implement the knowledge management
system, the initial step Bouygues Telecom took to share tacit knowledge, and it converted the
technical tacit knowledge into explicit technical knowledge. Finally, the report is concluded with
the findings of the analysis of Bouygues Telecom knowledge management case study.
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The report analyses the Bouygues knowledge management system

The problems Bouygues Telecom faced.
Bouygues telecom faced inefficient knowledge management problem. Having six million
customers and a network covering 98 percent of France, Bouygues Telecom handles a huge
amount of data, information, and knowledge but encountered problems when it came to the
management of these data, information and knowledge. Bouygues Telecom struggled to manage
the flow of information and knowledge across the organization and to maximize the business
value and employee intelligence. This led to departments and individuals failing to collaborate
effectively with other employees in other parts of the business. Employees from different parts
of the business could not effectively share knowledge on best practices, advice, and experiences.
When Bouygues Telecom chose to launch an initiative that would maximize on the business
value and employee intelligence through the implementation of a new knowledge management
system, they faced implementation difficulties, management and cost difficulties on the available
solutions to the knowledge management problem. The implementation of the new knowledge
management system was too complex for the skill set of the employees of Bouygues Telecom.
The implementation and management costs for developing and acquiring the new knowledge
management system was too expensive for Bouygues Telecom.
The strategy adopted by Bouygues Telecom to cope with the situation
Bouygues Telecom launched an initiative that would maximize the business value and employee
intelligence by developing short and practical knowledge management projects. They researched
the available knowledge management solutions at the time but they had implementation
difficulties, they were difficult to manage and were costly to be implemented. Bouygues
Telecom then resorted to issuing tender invitations to companies that provide knowledge
management system development services. Bouygues Telecom chose Microsoft’s SharePoint
Portal Server to distribute the tender invitations.
Microsoft SharePoint Server was chosen because it provided Bouygues Telecom a means to
control and manage all the workflow processes involved in the creation, publication, and sharing
of documents in the required platforms. Microsoft SharePoint Server also offers a speedy
marketing strategy which reaches many organizations in the shortest time possible. After putting
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The report analyses the Bouygues knowledge management system

out the tender invitations through Microsoft SharePoint Server, Bouygues Telecom picked
Valtech to develop and implement the knowledge management systems.
The accelerated delivery of reliable knowledge management systems and experience in the
development of knowledge management solutions is what made Bouygues Telecom choose
Valtech company to develop and implement short and practical knowledge management
solutions for them. According to Bouygues Telecom, the accelerated delivery practice done by
Valtech would help them to realize the three-month deadline set for the completion of the first
knowledge management information system. This enabled Bouygues Telecom, through Valtech
company, to acquire four knowledge management systems.
Incorporation of IT tools by Bouygues Telecom to implement the knowledge management
system.
Cloud computing. Cloud computing is a technique used to design, develop and implement
applications in the cloud (Marston et.al; 2011) and (Fernando, Loke, & Rahayu, 2013). The
cloud here is the internet. Users can access the applications in the cloud using any device at any
time anywhere as long as they have internet accessibility. Valtech Company implemented a best
practice solution through SAP which offers cloud services. The SAP best practice solution
provides online assistance to the employees of Bouygues Telecom. The employees are now able
to share their best practices online. The SAP best practice’s knowledge base manages the
publication and classification of documents and provides users a single knowledge portal through
which they can add their advice and experiences.
Expert system. Expert systems are applications designed to collect and analyze data on a
specific research domain and advise on solutions related to problems arising from the research
domain (Jayaswal, Verma, & Wadhwani, 2011) and (Idrus, Nuruddin, & Rohman, 2011). The
knowledge management system used to innovate information systems is an expert system. This
knowledge management system consists of three components; a knowledge base, an inference
engine and the user interface (Naser, & Hasanein, 2016). The knowledge base gathers
information about innovation strategies and information systems. The inference engine then
tracks and researches on new information systems whose implementation can best support the
business objectives of Bouygues Telecom through analyzing the knowledge gathered in the
knowledge base.
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The report analyses the Bouygues knowledge management system

The user interface is the medium through which the employees of Bouygues Telecom assigned to
innovating new information systems interact with the expert system or the knowledge
management system. The expert system advises the employees on what new information system
innovation, that has a huge influence on the business objectives, to pursue.
Initial step Bouygues Telecom took to share tacit knowledge
Bouygues Telecom launched an initiative which was aimed at maximizing the value of its
business and employee intelligence. Bouygues Telecom had an idea of developing short and
practical knowledge management systems from scratch. This was probably going to be
implemented by Bouygues Telecom’s information technology development team. Bouygues
Telecom researched the available solutions but had an implementation difficulty, and if they
could implement the solutions, they would experience difficulties in managing the knowledge
management systems. Another difficulty they encountered was that the implementation of the
short and practical knowledge management systems was too expensive for their expense. This
initiative was launched at the end of 2000.
They then put tender invitations out for other companies to provide them with knowledge
management system services. After good research of the market, Bouygues Telecom chose
Microsoft’s SharePoint Server Portal to enable them to perform all the activities associated with
the creation, modification, and sharing of documents in the required platforms. Bouygues
Telecom used Microsoft’s SharePoint Server Portal to serve respective companies that deal with
management consulting and enterprise information technology with tender invitations. The
tender invitations were so that they can find a company that delivers accelerated delivery of
reliable knowledge management solutions. It is through these tender invitations that Bouygues
Telecom contracted Valtech company to develop four of their current knowledge management
systems.
How Bouygues Telecom converted technical tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge
Bouygues Telecom implemented knowledge management systems where users and employees
can transform technical tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and store them for future
reference and access. They first implemented an SAP best practice knowledge management
system, then the technical reference system. These two knowledge management systems helped
in the transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. SAP best practice knowledge
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The report analyses the Bouygues knowledge management system

management system is a cloud-based knowledge management solution developed in SAP cloud
service provider. SAP best practice provides users and employees of Bouygues Telecom a
platform to share their best practices, advice, and experiences relating to SAP online.
The technical reference knowledge management system offers technicians the platform to access
technical explicit knowledge stored in the knowledge base. Over 200 technicians access the
technical reference through their computers either onsite or offsite. When a technician has a
difficult problem that required a complex solution, he or she can refer to the knowledge base and
check what solution another technician provided for a similar problem. The technician can also
make improvement on the solutions provided by other technicians and make the improved
solution accessible to the other two hundred technicians. Technicians can perform these activities
through their online portals. After doing these for months, Bouygues Telecom achieved a library
of explicit technical knowledge that provided a wide span of the company’s expertise.
Conclusion
The problem faced by Bouygues Telecom was a lack of an effective knowledge management
system that would enable them to manage the huge amounts of knowledge that accrue due to the
large population of French customers they serve. To efficiently and effectively solve the problem
of inefficient knowledge management, Bouygues Telecom contracted Valtech company to
develop four knowledge management systems for them. The four knowledge management
systems helped Bouygues Telecom transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and
enable employees to collaborate and coordinate effectively.
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The report analyses the Bouygues knowledge management system

References
Fernando, N., Loke, S.W. and Rahayu, W., 2013. Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future
generation computer systems, 29(1), pp.84-106. Australia. Trobe University.
Idrus, A., Nuruddin, M.F. and Rohman, M.A., 2011. Development of project cost contingency
estimation model using risk analysis and fuzzy expert system. Expert Systems with
Applications, 38(3), pp.1501-1508. Malaysia. Petronas.
Jayaswal, P., Verma, S.N. and Wadhwani, A.K., 2011. Development of EBP-Artificial neural
network expert system for rolling element bearing fault diagnosis. Journal of Vibration and
Control, 17(8), pp.1131-1148. Gwalior, India. Madhav Institute of Technology and Science.
Marston, S., Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J. and Ghalsasi, A., 2011. Cloud computing—
The business perspective. Decision support systems, 51(1), pp.176-189. FL, United States.
Elsevier
Naser, S.S.A. and Hasanein, H.A.A., 2016. Ear Diseases Diagnosis Expert System Using SL5
Object. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, 2(4), pp.41-47.
Palestine. Israa University.
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The report analyses the Bouygues knowledge management system