Utilising SAP Knowledge Manager to tame an endlessly proliferating documentation system
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The Challenge
Long ago, Texterity encountered a documentation system that seemed immune to organization. The setting was a global professional services company operating in 52 countries, heavily reliant on documentation. Each client implementation required a vast documentation set, both client-facing and internal.
The general manager of this division had taken the progressive step of deploying a free, open-source Wiki platform (I did say, long ago, right?) At the time, it was cutting-edge, and employees embraced it enthusiastically because it was so easy to use.
Too easy, as it turned out. Searching for a set of documents—say, France – Pension Schemes—yielded hundreds of hits, many containing MS Word or PowerPoint attachments. It was impossible to tell which, if any, were the latest versions or authorized editions. Us documentarians used to joke that the Wiki was like ‘hydroponic lantana’—lantana being an invasive species that spreads uncontrollably into impenetrable thickets. The question was: how could Texterity bring order to the chaos?
The Insight
As it happened, this was an SAP-centric company, providing SAP implementations worldwide. Fortunately, they had chosen to implement SAP Knowledge Manager (SAP KM), which, in hindsight, was a wise decision.
But while SAP KM had strong functionality, usability issues were an obstacle. The interface was unintuitive, and entering queries cumbersome. As a result, employees continued to create their own document sets—a nightmare from a documentation control perspective. The lantana refused to die!
It was at this point that Texterity identified a key feature of SAP KM: no matter which document you were trying to access, it could always be retrieved via a fixed URL format. The first part of the URL never changed—only the last four digits, which corresponded to the document’s unique ID, needed to be added to the URL prefix to retrieve any document. I realised that this meant that if users were given a way to simply enter the four-digit Doc ID, they could retrieve the latest authorized version of any document, no matter where in the world they were, and without bothering to directly interface with the KM system.
Implementation
I immediately suggested to my manager that we add a feature to the Wiki to make integration with SAP KM seamless. A simple JavaScript function could take a user’s input – the four-digit Doc ID – then append it to the fixed SAP KM URL, and return the document. Hey presto!
One of our developers wrote the script in about five minutes. It was then embedded in the headers of all Wiki pages. Users could now enter a Doc ID and hit Enter—and the correct, authorized version of the document would be retrieved instantly. The adoption was immediate and enthusiastic.
I also expanded this technique to create a Docindex—a PDF containing links to all documents for a given implementation (e.g., Implementation/Germany). This greatly simplified document retrieval and knowledge management. At the time, I dubbed it the ‘portable portal’ —a single, always-up-to-date index of document links, ensuring access to the latest authorized files.
The Impact
Of course, this was just one of many large-scale documentation projects Texterity undertook in this role. Eventually, we helped migrate everything from the ‘hydroponic lantana’ to SharePoint, a transition that took several years. But I was pleased to see that the docfinder methodology proved equally useful in integrating SharePoint with SAP KM. By then, it had become an integral part of the company’s knowledge management architecture.
Key Takeaways
In any large-scale documentation system, maintaining a ‘single source of truth’—a single repository of authorized document versions—is fundamental. A well-designed knowledge management system should ensure that end-users can easily locate and retrieve the documentation they need.
The docfinder solution worked because it simplified access to the right documents without forcing users to navigate complex interfaces. In large-scale organizations, small usability improvements can drive significant efficiency gains—and in this case, helped tame the hydroponic lantana once and for all.