Idea Transcript
7
Projects and international programmes
7.1
Status report on knowledge management
In 2008 again, GRS further extended its information and knowledge management. In doing so, the activities were focused on the further development of the GRS intranet portal (the »GRS Portal«). The number of documents made available in the portal, of team sites for communication and co-operation in teams and the current information have increased considerably. Furthermore, GRS has set up additional portals which can be accessed by other organisations. These external portals have proved as effective support for the communication and co-operation of several organisations. The
Dr. David Beraha
present contribution provides an overview of the most important innovations relating to the GRS information and knowledge management.
Internal GRS project portals Internal information and knowledge management. At the beginning of each GRS project, an individual website (the so-called »project portal«) is created where the information and documents (especially the so-called »project files«) pertaining to the project are made available. Until 2008, project portals had been set up on a separate MS project server. The change to a new version of the SharePoint Server in 2008 enabled the integration of the project portals into the GRS portal. This led to considerable advantages for the users: The project list now corresponds to the SharePoint standard with the known and appreciated extensions of the grouping, filter and sorting possibilities. Also the project sites with the associated libraries are now created in a SharePoint-compliant manner.
121
Dr. Peter Puhr-Westerheide
Data synchronisation. The synchronisation of the master data between the project portals and the GRS company software SAP was developed as an additional function. With this function, it became possible to extract the master data of a project from SAP and to represent them in the respective project portal. That way, the double storage of master data is being avoided. Advantages. The further development of the portal solutions led to an increased efficiency of the administrative handling of the projects. So, for the projects GRS is working on by order of the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the essential parts of the central files are replicated on the BMU intranet server on a daily basis. With this innova-
[ Annual Report 2008 ]
7.1 Status report on knowledge management
tion, the previously required forwarding of altered project documents is not necessary anymore.
External GRS portals External information and knowledge management. GRS has observed an increasing demand in platforms to support the co-operation with other organisations. Such platforms are provided by GRS in the form of portals which are made available to authorised external users via the Internet. The primary purpose of the portals consists in the facilitation of the exchange of information on certain topics or projects with ordering parties and project partners. A central access management for external users on the basis of the »Active Directory (AD)« has proved its worth for all portals on the GRS extranet. The provision and maintenance of the portal tools are performed by Solutions for Research (SfR). IRRS mission by the IAEA. By the end of 2008, GRS had already set up 15 such portals the major part of which was established by order of the BMU. In this context, the portal for the German IRRS mission of IAEA is to be pointed out in particular. Due to the facilitation in the form of a fast and reliable exchange of documents and organisational information, the use of this portal has significantly contributed to the smooth course of action of the IRRS mission. BMU »Reactor safety portal«. The »Reactor safety portal« (RS-Portal) of the BMU Division for Reactor Safety, which was developed by GRS within the scope of a project and which was integrated into the ordering party’s intranet is still supported with solutions and suggestions. After the first version of the RS-Portal had been finalised, BearingPoint appraised it order of the Federal Office of Administration, Federal Office for Information Technology (»Bundesverwaltungsamt, Stelle für Informationstechnik« – BIT).
122
In 2008, the appraisal was the basis for the BMU’s decision to implement an overall intranet portal with the Microsoft tool SharePoint analogously to the RS-Portal developed by GRS.
Information officers Function of the information officers. In the reporting period, GRS has further developed its internal information structures by introducing information officers. The information officers were appointed by the individual GRS divisions and are assigned different tasks. They support the work units responsible for the knowledge management and the communication within the company by providing up-to-date, substantiated information relating to the content of the websites to be created and of general parts of the GRS portal. In addition, they coordinate the creation of the so-called »knowledge pages« (»Wissensseiten«) of the GRS portal. The knowledge pages are prepared and maintained directly by the divisions themselves. They concisely describe the respective field of expertise and can thus also be used as basis for the technical information on both the Internet and intranet.
Outlook The methods and tools of GRS’s information and knowledge management have become wellestablished by now. The support of the users of this infrastructure as well as the development of team pages or portals for internal and external purposes will remain the focus of our activities. Furthermore, the »Information Brokering«, i.e. the provision of technical contents and portals for external ordering parties, will become increasingly important for GRS. Finally, new knowledge management methods which develop in connection with the evolution of the Internet towards social and semantic networks will be continuously reviewed as to their possible use in the company network.
[ Annual Report 2008 ]