Knowledge seekers are mobile: Is your data?
Low-code design
The design phase is also pivotal for organizations using mobile apps for KM purposes. Certain solutions facilitate the knowledge capture process with mobile technologies by enabling users to create forms for capturing content via an app on their mobile devices. In addition to template-based, drag-and-drop functionality, the best of these offerings allows organizations to input knowledge already residing in a repository, taxonomy, or subject area model. In this case, there’s a “drag-and-drop form designer that can use enterprise data to present to the user any content that may be relevant to what they’re working on,” Rapelje indicated. “They might key in a keyword, and other data from that enterprise will fill in and show them relevant data to what they filled in.”
These codeless capabilities are often readily augmented with coding for a low-code experience. Coding presents another layer with which to customize the form, the information input on it, and the overall presentation of this mechanism for gathering knowledge. “For example, you might add JavaScript to adjust the way fields are available based on what other information is on the form,” Rapelje mentioned. Once these forms are designed, they can be accessed via mobile devices and used to gather data, review it, or make changes to spur along any business process— like reviewing contracts. “The forms allow for structured capture of knowledge,” Rapelje maintained. “The fields submitted in the form can be used as metadata for the content once it’s stored in the repository.”
Metadata management
The metadata management implications of designing materials for the data capture process, as well as implementing that process, are core to
optimizing KM for mobile technologies. As Rapelje denoted, any sort of construct used to capture knowledge, such as a form disseminated through a mobile app to a phone, can be tagged with metadata. In some instances, the metadata derived from the data capture mechanism is implicit to the mechanism itself, such as the specific fields on a form for a financial process pertaining to a loan. The fields on that form can serve as metadata.
In other instances, the metadata is automatic. Geolocation information from devices at the point of the knowledge capture phase, for example, is also ascribed to the forms Rapelje mentioned. He articulated a use case in which maintenance personnel utilize Laserfiche’s mobile app and forms to service different units. In this application, not only do mobile phones aid in the data capture process by taking pictures and videos of repair work or needed repairs, there’s also metadata generated about where those photos and videos are taken or where the information on the form is filled out.
Searching functionality in mobile environments
In credible systems that optimize KM for mobile technologies, all meta-data is searchable, allowing organizations to easily discover information assets and deploy them in downstream processes. Once the data captured via mobile devices is uploaded to a centralized repository or KM hub, “search can be done later in the system based on the location of the content or that knowledge,” Rapelje remarked. “Someone can spot trends that can be used as data for analytics, and there’s additional knowledge that’ s captured when someone’ s using a mobile device because of the geolocation.”