home Magazine Competence centers formation of research competencies and technological reserves. State support for NTI Competence Centers

Competence centers formation of research competencies and technological reserves. State support for NTI Competence Centers

By 2020, at least two competence centers will be created in each of the areas of "end-to-end" technologies of the Digital Economy program. So far, there are five such centers. The Skolkovo Foundation is responsible for regulatory regulation, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives is responsible for personnel and education, Rostelecom is responsible for information infrastructure, Sberbank is responsible for information security, Rostec and Rosatom are responsible for the formation of research competencies and technological backlogs.

In addition to competence centers, working groups have been created for each area, which are headed by top managers of telecommunications and IT companies. According to the Ministry of Communications, this helps to take into account the opinion of all representatives of the industry - the working groups are open, representatives of companies, public organizations, and the scientific community can join them. They can complement the proposals for the implementation of programs that are considered by centers of excellence. Opinion working group taken into account when preparing action plans for each area of the Digital Economy program.

Active participation in the work of competence centers is taken not only by representatives of business, but also by federal executive authorities. This allows you to quickly prepare action plans. For the convenience of interaction in the centers, separate websites and chats in instant messengers have been created, where interested organizations can send their comments and suggestions.

In addition, an information system is being created electronic interaction, said Evgeny Kislyakov, deputy head of the Analytical Center under the Government, head of the project office. The system will have Accounts each participant in the process, the basic documents and materials of the subcommittee will be posted. It is also planned to upload action plans and reports on their implementation there. It is expected that the system will become a convenient communication platform for competence centers and working groups.

It is necessary to develop a set of legislative measures to create a digital environment of trust

Some of the competence centers have already shared information about what they are working on. For example, Rosatom is responsible for four areas of activity - these are new production technologies, big data, virtual and augmented reality technologies, quantum technologies. Rostec develops neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence, distributed registry systems, industrial Internet, robotics and sensors, wireless communication technologies. The Agency for Strategic Initiatives works in five subgroups - general and additional education, professional education, continuous education and personnel, methodology, technologies.

114 representatives of leading companies in the field of IT and telecommunications take part in the work of the Information Infrastructure competence center, Rostelecom told RG. In total, the expert community proposed about 500 events with specific proposals for the development of fifth generation communication networks (5G), data storage and processing infrastructure, the creation of "digital" transport corridors, ensuring equal access of citizens to digital services in the field of healthcare and education, and the formation of a new type of infrastructure - digital end-to-end technological platforms. The main provisions of the action plan of the program will be presented at the international forum innovative development"Open Innovations", which will be held from October 16 to 18 in the Skolkovo Technopark.

And the Skolkovo Foundation, as a center of competencies in the direction of "regulatory regulation", gathered a pool of 400 experts and prepared a set of proposals for changing and adapting legislation for the purposes of digital economy. In particular, the issues of regulation of artificial intelligence are discussed. "This also applies to the so-called cyber-physical systems (drones, unmanned vehicles, robots), and artificial intelligence as a kind of software product. The questions are considered whether it is possible to use artificial intelligence in the work of government bodies, whether such programs can be human assistants or make independent decisions. We must determine our position on these issues in order to fix specific solutions in the concept of medium-term and long-term measures," said Igor Drozdov, Chairman of the Board of the Skolkovo Foundation.

The plans developed by the centers of competence are verified in the working groups, after which they are sent to the government commission for approval. Then work on these plans continues in the competence centers.

On December 15, 2017, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation prepared. It is aimed at creating an institutional environment for the development of research and development in the field of the digital economy, as well as technological reserves and competencies.

On December 18, 2017, the plan was approved by the government commission on the use of information technology to improve the quality of life and business conditions.

Tasks

The action plan includes 6 main tasks. This is an analysis of supply and demand for research and development in the context of the use of "end-to-end" technologies, the formation of mechanisms and measures to support participants in the "Digital Economy" program, the definition of criteria and the formation of a procedure for selecting leading research centers (LRCs) for the development of "end-to-end" technologies. In addition, the tasks include the implementation of the mechanism for the selection and functioning of LICs, the formation of programs in the field of education and advanced training in the field of the digital economy, as well as the formation and successful functioning of at least 10 leading companies.

Results and quantitative indicators

As a result of the implementation of the action plan, the following results should be achieved:

The sectors of the economy with the highest potential for the commercialization of solutions based on "end-to-end" technologies in the field of DE have been identified.
Digital transformation of sectors launched Russian economy and its individual subjects.
Demand for products of Russian origin in terms of "end-to-end" technologies has been formed by a wide range of economic entities.
Protected technological solutions of foreign origin necessary for the development of priority "end-to-end" technologies in Russia.
Developed and approved activity programs for selected leading organizations
Conditions have been formed for the development of international scientific and technical cooperation (ISTC) of leading organizations in priority areas of "end-to-end" technologies of the digital economy, and the implementation of projects within the framework of ISTC has begun.
An ecosystem has been created that stimulates the development of leading companies in the digital economy markets.
Leading companies provide a significant contribution to the implementation of the digital transformation agenda of the economy Russian Federation according to the goals of the Digital Economy program.
The principles and tools for the development of the digital economy (digital transformation) have been brought to the attention of the leadership of leading state-owned companies.
The demand for research and development in the field of "end-to-end" technologies of the digital economy has been intensified.
At least 3 graduate and master's schools have been created in each area of "end-to-end" technologies on the basis of leading universities and scientific organizations.

The plan also contains quantitative indicators to be achieved in the period from 2018 to 2024. In particular, by 2020, 2 competence centers should be formed for each of the areas of "end-to-end" technologies. The number of international centers of excellence that are partners of digital platforms for research and development should increase from 15 to 30 from 2019 to 2024. Number Russian organizations involved in the implementation major projects($3 million) in the priority areas of the ISTC in the field of the digital economy in 2024 should reach 10.

Dramatically, from 3 in 2018 to 100 in 2024, the number of participants in digital R&D platforms should increase. The number of technological leaders competitive in global markets should increase to 10 by 2024. From 5 in 2020 to 30 in 2024, the number of implemented projects in the field of digital economy with a volume of at least 100 million rubles.

The number of created postgraduate and master's schools in the areas of "end-to-end" technologies on the basis of leading universities and scientific organizations should reach 50 by 2024. By the same date, the number of specialists in the areas of "end-to-end" technologies, trained abroad and returned to Russia, should increase to 500.

Expected effect

The expected effects from the implementation of projects for the development of "end-to-end" technologies include:

Creation of the first national system of intelligent video analytics based on one of the most advanced face recognition algorithms with a proven accuracy of about 95%.
Improving the efficiency of speech programming and speech recognition systems
Improving the quality of oncodiagnostics, including in the preclinical period of pathology development
Further development of technologies based on neuromorphic computing algorithms and neuromorphic chips; "neural network" for enterprises aimed at improving production efficiency
Creation of tools based on neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence for the development of digital medicine
The basis for the creation of a national communication network on the domestic element base. Creation of the necessary infrastructure base for further development 5G class networks.
The key core of the "smart factory" and (partly) "smart city". Multiple increase in energy efficiency
Creation of a full-fledged superconducting quantum computer, an optical quantum computer and a quantum computer based on neutral atoms.
Ultra-sensitive sensors for nuclear power plants, military, medicine, etc.
Creation of absolutely secure communication lines for law enforcement agencies, banking and corporate sectors.
And other achievements.

Creation of competence centers: Rosatom and Rostec

At the end of August 2017, the first meeting of the government subcommittee on the digital economy was held, dedicated to the organizational structure of the program implementation. For each area of the digital economy program, competence centers were identified that need to be created, and leaders of working groups elected from business representatives.

Among the centers of competence that should be created is "Formation of research competencies and technological reserves." They are assigned to Rosatom and Rostec. As part of the work of these centers, action plans should be prepared to improve the quality of life and the conditions for doing business in the selected technological areas.

Neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence;
Distributed ledger systems;
Components of robotics and sensors;
Wireless communication technologies.

The activities of the center at Rosatom include:

New production technologies;
Quantum technologies and communications;
Technologies of virtual and augmented reality.

Responsible enterprises in the contour of Rosatom:

New production technologies - and

The United Aircraft Corporation is engaged in the creation of competence centers, each of which specializes in the development of a specific area of production. The first operating center of competence was the AeroComposite company, which develops and manufactures structural elements from polymer composite materials (PCM) for aircraft.

The use of composite materials in the design of the aircraft can reduce its weight. For example, a PCM wing has a more perfect aerodynamic shape, which makes it possible to achieve an increase in fuel efficiency by 4-5%.

In the photo: Moscow laboratory of CJSC "AeroComposite"

The Moscow Experimental Laboratory of CJSC "AeroComposite" was established in 2011 to study polymer composite materials, develop the technology for manufacturing prototypes based on them, as well as draw up technological documentation and apply the results obtained at production sites in Kazan and Ulyanovsk.

At the end of 2014, the testing laboratory of CJSC "AeroComposite" received a certificate of accreditation from the AR IAC, and is currently carrying out a set of works on testing the products of factories.

In mid-2013, AeroComposite opened the first plant in Kazan - KAPO-Composite. The area of the plant is 35 thousand square meters. meters. The area of the "clean room" is 6 thousand square meters. meters. Specialized equipment is installed here to maintain strict parameters of temperature and humidity. Cleanliness class - ISO 8.

The plant specializes in the production of aircraft structural elements by autoclave molding. The product manufacturing process includes a full cycle of operations, such as preparation for production, cutting of the main and auxiliary materials, laying out, molding, machining, ultrasonic testing and geometry control, painting. Currently, the enterprise is working under the Sukhoi Superjet 100 and MS-21 programs.

The largest production site of the company, the AeroComposite-Ulyanovsk plant, is located in Ulyanovsk. Here, load-bearing elements of the wing structure from PCM are manufactured for the MS-21 medium-haul aircraft. The production is designed for a full technological cycle: from the laying out of auxiliary materials to the assembly of the product.

On the picture: manufacturing facility plant "AeroComposite-Ulyanovsk"

Investments in the creation of an enterprise built from scratch amounted to about 5 billion rubles. Area - over 90 thousand square meters. meters. "Clean room" class ISO 8 - 11 thousand square meters. meters. To date, CJSC AeroComposite-Ulyanovsk is the only plant in Russia for the production of load-bearing structures and units for aviation from composite materials using the vacuum infusion method. Usage this method makes it possible to create more complex structures from PCM with a high degree integrity in one technological cycle. This reduces the weight of structures and significantly reduces the cost of manufacturing products. Thanks to the use of high-performance equipment, the labor intensity is reduced by five times compared to similar enterprises abroad.

LLC "UAC - Integration Center"

OOO "UAC - Integration Center" is an integrator company whose main activity is the development, integration and debugging of on-board equipment systems for civil and transport aircraft.

The company was established in April 2012 by the decision of the sole founder - United Aircraft Corporation PJSC with the aim of consolidating the industry's resources and in pursuance of the corporation's strategy in terms of creating key centers of competence.

The core of the Integration Center was made up of programmers, designers and engineers who gained experience in system integration of a number of UAC military and civilian aircraft, including the Su-30MKI, Su-35S, T-50 (PAK FA), SSJ100.

At present, the Integration Center is the only integrator of advanced civil aircraft MS-21, SSJ100 modifications, as well as projects being developed as part of the expansion of the production line. In the future, UAC - Integration Center will support all projects of PJSC "UAC" in terms of on-board equipment at all stages life cycle, including development, integration, debugging, delivery and after-sales service.

New Competence Centers

Today, the United Aircraft Corporation is working on a feasibility study for the creation of new competence centers at various enterprises. Including, for engine nacelles, the manufacture of fuselage panels, etc.

It is reasonable to carry out activities for the accumulation and systematization of competence within the framework of a separate organizational structure- a competence center responsible for the preparation and support of automation solutions, as well as for the provision of related consulting services. The main goal of such centers is to deepen and expand the competence and the results of practical activities directly related to it in the field of automation.

Competence centers are divided according to their purpose into innovation centers and industry competence centers. The activities of the former are aimed at promoting the solutions of specific manufacturers, and the latter are aimed at carrying out work or providing automation services in a specific industry (industries). This separation significantly affects the results of work, functions and organizational structure of the centers.

The complexity of technologies and automation solutions offered the largest suppliers, were the reason for their promotion to the market through the creation and development of innovation centers. Many integrator companies open innovation centers based on their own production facilities and based on their financial capabilities. This is done based on the synergistic effect of advertising and production activities. Firstly, the manufacturing company begins to recommend the integrator company as a proven source of competence on a specific national market. Secondly, on the basis of our own innovation center, you can work out various configurations of solutions, which allows you to conduct practical training of your own personnel and reduce the risks associated with lack of experience. industrial operation new technologies or products.

Industry competence centers are a kind of response to the requirement of a growing and more complex business: it is necessary to navigate the problems of rapidly changing and more complex office and shop production and be able to automate it, accumulate and systematize competence in increasingly complex technologies and automation tools, and also have a training and reproduction school frames. The centers of industry competence are divided according to the type of legal relations with the customer into internal and external. Internal are focused on the provision of services within a large company or group of companies (holding). In this case, it is advisable to talk about a specific division, possibly in the form of an affiliated legal entity that performs the functions of an industry competence center, whose customer is all other divisions of the company or holding.

When the center of industry competence "decides" to become external, that is, it goes into free economic navigation, its structure, depending on the complexity of the tasks being solved, becomes more or less similar to the structure of a traditional industry research institute that is capable of conducting large-scale industry projects. In this case, it is appropriate to speak of an independent legal entity, the role of the customer of which is the enterprises of one or several interconnected industries, and the work performed is characterized by large scale and high complexity.

Classification of problem areas

The whole set of problems of internal centers of competence, which are directly involved in large-scale automation of enterprises, can be divided into three categories: socio-political, organizational and technological. In each category, there are problem situations that are more or less typical for most large automation projects.

Socio-political problems are associated with the inadequacy of the result of the work of the center of competence to the tasks facing the center and the total cost of automating the enterprise in the eyes of the employees of the enterprise itself. Socio-political problems are the most difficult to overcome for two reasons: they are massive and difficult to manage technological and administrative methods. The feeling of “meaninglessness” of the activities undertaken by specific performers and users in an automated enterprise is a powerful factor in internal resistance to change.

Organizational problems are problems associated with the inefficiency of interaction within the center of competence as an organizational structure designed to solve the problems of development, implementation and support. Organizational inefficiency, as a rule, manifests itself in the fact that the decision organizational issues, for example, the coordination of draft decisions, the issuance of permits (sanctions), etc. considerable time is wasted.

Technological problems are caused by the inefficiency of the applied work technologies and are manifested in the delay in the implementation of typical tasks.

Socio-political problems

At the stage when the foundations for the functioning of the center of competence are being formed, as a rule, we are not talking about the concentration and systematization of industry competence, which could be useful and, therefore, in demand by the user of the center's services. In fact, it should be said that after the creation of the competence center is often self-limited by the functions of the development and implementation center specific solutions on automation, which does not allow him to give an adequate answer to the question about the place of implemented automation solutions in the client's business and the reasons for their use. In such a situation, all that the center of competence can do is formally refer to the contract on the basis of which the development or implementation is being carried out, or to the decision of the management if the contract was not expected. After that, the client of the center will be asked to refer to the documentation, which will not give anything to a specific employee of an automated enterprise, since it is written in a language that is incomprehensible to him and does not contain industry specifics (or its quantity is clearly not enough). This state of affairs cannot suit the client of the center, because he needs to clearly understand whether the changes associated with automation are justified and the difficulties caused by them.

Due to the aforementioned self-limitation, the performance results and the structure of the center of competence do not reflect and, by design, should not reflect the tasks of fully integrating the implemented solution into the IT environment of an automated enterprise. This situation forces the competence center to “know nothing” about the needs of other enterprise information systems. This is wrong from the point of view of common engineering sense, which says that "an automated enterprise is one, therefore, everything must be integrated." The lack of full-fledged intersystem integration significantly devalues the value of large industrial solutions in the eyes of employees, since it is obvious to them, practitioners, that the introduction of new “piecewise” solutions will only add problems, and not eliminate them.

To become truly in demand, a competence center must offer solutions that increase the efficiency of an automated business. Practical benefits are needed, such as simplifying the work of individual employees, reducing data loss, reducing wasted time and organizational costs - that is, a benefit that can be measured.

We must never forget that the automation of the company's work is aimed at reducing the number of work force per unit of production (services). Understanding this dependency by employees of the user company generates fear for their workplace, because it is obvious that with a significant increase in the efficiency of the company, even the growth of the market will not always be able to compensate for the decrease in the need for personnel. This circumstance imposes certain obligations on the center of competence, consisting in the fact that the key employees of the client, on whose loyalty the fate of the implemented solution depends, must be completely sure that as a result of automation, the need for their services will remain or grow.

Organizational problems

As a rule, there is considerable complexity in the interaction of the competence center with the client departments responsible for coordinating automation work or their methodological management. In the center of competence, interaction with authoritative representatives of the client is often not built. Therefore, the customer's approval of the contractor's proposals takes too long and painfully, and the customer formulates his decisions indistinctly or inconsistently in relation to the previous ones.

In holding structures, if the customer is the management company, and the automation object is manufacturing enterprises, poor interaction between the center of competence directly with authoritative employees manufacturing companies- automation objects leads to the fact that the management company receives a stream of "extra" work that diverts the resources of the center, and, among other things, jeopardizes the benefits of a centralized solution. “Extra” work refers to private “wishes” of end users from the side manufacturing enterprises, breaking the harmony of a centralized decision, which "among friends" are forwarded to management company and launched from there in the form of "priority requirements from the customer."

The organizational structure of the center also causes unjustified difficulties, when it does not reflect the tasks of accumulating, systematizing and alienating competence, as well as the reproduction of personnel. As a rule, the organizational structure of the competence center gives an idea of the architecture of the solution being developed and implemented by it, but not of how complex analysis the needs of the user company, as well as the accumulation and systematization of industry competence. The underdevelopment of the "institution" of accumulation and systematization of industry experience, as well as the reproduction of qualified personnel is the reason for the low controllability of the competence center, delaying the implementation of projects and the low quality of their results.

When the center of competence is, in fact, the center for the development, implementation and support of an automation solution, while the responsibility for implementation falls within the scope of an implementation project that is carried out outside the center, problems of duplication of functions arise. This leads to considerable costs for the transfer of competence, the implemented system and implementation tools through the "extra" node - the implementation project.

Another source of organizational problems is deficiencies in functional and regular project management. This is confirmed by the situation when the composition of the divisions of the competence center seeks to accurately reproduce the structure of the functional modules of the developed and implemented information system. The correct project "bureaucracy" is a very important aspect in the activity of competence centers, and ignoring it introduces unjustified difficulties into the activity of the center.

Technological problems

It happens that the founders of the competence center save on the process of regular testing of the information system on the basis of a specially dedicated unit. Testing in this case is carried out in two stages: component-by-component testing by analysts - developers of design specifications and integration testing by a temporary team, possibly with the involvement of specialists from the user company. The harm caused by such “savings” to the quality of the system being developed, as well as the difficulties associated with its further implementation and operation, is difficult to monetize. It is also bad that the harm itself does not appear immediately and not inside the center, but at the automation facility, during acceptance testing and trial operation.

Another technological problem is the absence or insufficient development of the direction responsible for technical architecture and information security as part of the competence center. The lack of attention to the creation of a balanced configuration of the corresponding unit creates the preconditions for the emergence of difficulties in the construction of technical architectures and information security systems, as well as problems in the course of their operation.

The most powerful source technological problems, the influence of which is difficult to overestimate, is the lack of the ability fixed in the organizational structure of the center to conduct analysis at the level of end-to-end processes on the scale of the entire automation object and the implemented solution. This happens when the structure analytical department repeats the modular structure of the system being finalized and implemented, instead of matching the structure of the processes of the customer's subject area.

Last on our list is the lack of integrated automation activities of the centre. This problem does not become urgent immediately and depends heavily on the size and complexity of the centre's functions. It becomes critical in the event of a significant complication of the functions of the center due to the consolidation of responsibility for many projects, for which, as a rule, centers of competence are created.

Helpful and efficient

The following key patterns exist in the automation expert community: the larger the size of the business and its speed, the greater the complexity of its automation and, consequently, the requirements for the competence required for automation are significantly increased, which, in turn, entails a strong dependence of the automated business on high level of competence.

As already noted, the law of specialization forces one to localize the process of accumulation and systematization of competence in one organizational structure - the center of competence. At the same time, the costs of creating a separate organizational structure in the form of a center of competence are a burden on the automated business.

Two key questions arise. First, which enterprises and under what conditions would it make sense to burden themselves with the creation of a center of competence? Secondly, how to make interaction with the center of competence more useful and effective?

The recommendations for the first question are as follows. If a big company If, on the one hand, it has sufficient free resources to create a technical base for a center of competence and, on the other hand, it has an acute internal need for competent personnel and, most importantly, for a system for their training and reproduction, then the need for a center of competence has already matured. How important it is for the management of such a company to think about the problem of creating a center of competence - the question is not entirely correct, since the degree of importance of this issue is purely individual.

As for the second question, the competence center will bring the greatest benefit in large centralized projects on the scale of large holdings, provided that its technical and technological bases are well developed, there is a school for training and reproduction of personnel, and, most importantly, the center has industry specialization. Greatest Efficiency interaction between the enterprise and the competence center can be achieved if their relationship is built on the basis of an agreement that defines the structure of interconnected services with certain quality parameters. This level of formalization of relations makes it possible to increase the transparency of the work and its results and will create the prerequisites for making the right decisions. management decisions on both sides - the customer (enterprise) and the contractor (competence center).

Alexander Prozorov - program manager for the development of an integrated system for ensuring settlements and relationships with the company's customers " Information Technology communications",[email protected]

Internal industry competence centers

The key to the successful operation of the internal competence center is its demand among users (clients, customers), which is based on a high level of competence in industry issues that are important to users.

The work on the creation of an internal center of competence is of a design-systematic nature: at the first stage, it is project-based, and at the second, after the launch of the prototype center, it is systematic (development and enlargement of the center by the forces of its leadership). On the first, design stage the role of the head of the center should be the project manager, acting on the basis of the charter of the project and the concept of the center. At the second stage, the leadership role can be transferred to the nomenklatura employee of the second or third level, acting on the basis of the job description.

The internal competence center is the core of practical work on the automation of the company's production processes: it implements relevant projects, and non-core work can be subcontracted. The results of activities should be divided into two parts: internal and external. External results include project activities in the interests of clients, to internal ones - intellectual assets (directly competence, various documentation, business process models, applied and utility software, proven solutions, etc.) reused as part of external results.

From the point of view of the output of its activities, the center may seem identical to an external integrator company. But the interests of the integrator company are to increase the number of customers, including those in various industries, while the internal center of competence has a fixed set of customers and their production processes are obviously predetermined. Such an "inextricable" connection with the client requires much more High Quality services provided.

Quality controllers should be maximally involved (approximated) in the production process of the center, as well as carry out industry-specific censorship of design and other output documentation.

In the internal center of competence, a system of training and reproduction of personnel well versed in the problems of clients should be established. For example, a mentoring school has been organized, where mentors (key employees) will be recruited from people who directly worked at the client's production facilities, and as young professionals, graduates of industry universities or young professionals who have not yet been “spoiled” by some not quite reliable work technologies.

Human knowledge and skills are the most demanded and scarce resources at the same time. After all, it takes decades to grow a specialist. Many industries now require multidisciplinary approaches, and large projects are often carried out by more than one organization. All the more understandable is the value of the company's own experience and useful lessons learned in joint projects. Collect and accumulate all this knowledge can be in the center of competence of the enterprise.

What is a competence center

The modern economy is characterized by processes that require the optimization of the use of knowledge - a specific resource of production and a source of innovation. Therefore, knowledge management as a special type of management is increasingly interested in company leaders.

The knowledge created during the execution of projects is often lost when the team is disbanded, employees move on to other tasks or are fired. Sometimes it happens that time and money are again spent on "reinventing the wheel", which has been in the organization for a long time, only they forgot about it. To solve these problems, it is necessary to systematically collect the most important knowledge firms, organize their exchange among specialists, ensure their reuse in new projects. Thus many Western companies reduce production costs, increase its efficiency and retain key workers.

Creating a center for the collection and dissemination of knowledge is one of the challenges faced by the organization, where they decided to identify and describe such a resource as knowledge. A competence center is a special structural unit of an enterprise that controls one or more areas of activity that are important for the company, accumulates relevant knowledge and looks for ways to get the most out of it.

This idea is not new, and to one degree or another it is embodied by departments of scientific and technical information, archives, standardization and quality groups, etc. In the current conditions, we are talking rather, about the integration of processes, knowledge, experts, about quick access to these resources and about effective IT communications, which is important both for the company's management and for specialists, customers, partners. And here it is not the information itself that matters, but the connection of people who create knowledge, the joint result of their activities. Knowledge centers are somewhat similar to libraries, but their peculiarity is that knowledge here is embodied mainly in people, and not in documents or computer systems. Therefore, one of the main functions of the competence center is to provide specialists with communication with each other and provide access to the necessary information.

What type of competence center does a company need

The most famous are four types of competence centers designed to improve processes in a company whose branches can be scattered around the world (today such work is impossible without the use of IT). The essence of the activity of the center of each of these types is determined by the main function.

Accumulation of excellence

The main task of this division is to collect, formalize and distribute samples at the enterprise and its branches. the best experience(best practices). The center's specialists define and describe common processes, draw up technical recommendations and standards for their use, and develop change management programs in the integration process. These can be effective methods of sales, working with clients, providing consulting services, product development processes, project management, the use of information and other technologies.

This type is considered the easiest to develop and run, although collecting and describing the most valuable knowledge for an enterprise and creating a convenient and simple infrastructure for their use is not an easy task. However, impressive examples are known when, based on the introduction of best practices, product development time was reduced by 30-40 times, and new plants were commissioned using the saved money that could be spent on “reinventing the wheel”. Companies that have achieved a well-functioning center of excellence reuse 60-65% of the accumulated intellectual resources in new projects.

Development of technological standards

The relevant department also collects knowledge, but the emphasis is on the technical component - the development software and choice of computer equipment. Specialists standardize processes on a single technological platform, link repositories for metadata exchange, develop the best experience for using the chosen platform. However, in this model, there is no exchange of technological resources or expertise between projects.

Distributed service

The task of this unit is to optimize the use of resources by the teams involved in the project. This type of competence center is considered more complex than the previous two. The staff supports numerous knowledge management initiatives, including product training, technology benchmarking, metadata management, software evaluation. This model is one of the most used in Western companies.

Centralized service

This division manages the integration of processes and data, has its own budget and cost recovery methods. The Center accompanies many projects, ensures the development of resources, data quality, develops requirements and standards for information and technical subsystems, facilitating the exchange of knowledge in the enterprise and their reuse in new projects. In the future, the development of this type of competence center can be sold outside the organization.

When choosing this process integration model, it is recommended to carefully diagnose the organizational culture of the enterprise, evaluate existing policies and procedures. This model is also quite often used in Western companies.

Each of the listed centers performs its task, and the enterprise can evolve from task to task. For example, an organization decides to first create a center of excellence, and if successful, move to full control of processes across the firm, including branches and affiliated companies. Their main differences are in the degree of control over processes, in the level of investment and cost recovery. Each model requires personnel with special skills. Competence centers can employ from five to a hundred or more people, depending on how many centers exist at a given enterprise.

Competence centers can also be designed for special purposes. In the early 90s of the last century consulting company Ernst&Young has established three competence centers. The Business Innovation Center was supposed to accumulate new knowledge in the course of research. The Business Technology Center used existing knowledge to develop specific methods and related tools. The business knowledge center was required to accumulate internal and external knowledge and informational resources. The services of the latter eventually included a library, a call center for answering consultants' questions, and databases of consultants' professional skills. The managers of this center identified the knowledge and looked for key experts in business subject areas.

Basic Creation Steps

Goal, strategy, model selection

Each type of competence center has its advantages and disadvantages, so before deciding to create one, it is necessary to clearly articulate the goals and expectations for the work of this unit, and then develop a strategy. Sometimes a center of competence arises, as it were, spontaneously - on the basis of the entire previous work communities of practice, interest groups and other formal and informal structures as they develop.

One of the recommended approaches involves a top-down strategy led by an executive manager - the person who will "move" the project towards the goal. Although an integration strategy has many dimensions, it always focuses on people, processes and technology. This strategy should be reviewed regularly, in particular with regard to its alignment with the business of the enterprise, financial policy, outsourcing strategy, partner support, choice of standards.

There is no single answer to the question of which model is optimal for an enterprise. Each type of center of excellence must meet its intended goals, support the chosen strategy, and allow for growth and renewal.

Possible difficulties

The following list of possible difficulties in the course of creating and operating a competence center will help determine how ready an enterprise is for solving this problem.

Lack of time. Many experts complain that they are overwhelmed with current work (routine or another fire rush) and do not have enough time to collect or share knowledge.

Lack of resources. The staff of many competence centers notes that there are not enough resources for trainings, participation in conferences and IT implementation.

Lack of proper attention from managers. Competence center employees indicate that their managers' knowledge of the state of affairs in the center is limited. Managers are only concerned with achieving their operational goals.

internal competition. As a result of this situation (and it is almost inevitable), barriers arise in the exchange of knowledge between experts from various departments of the enterprise. Of course, there is a way out: you can organize many communities of practice, in which enthusiasts will work, introducing others to knowledge.

An aging workforce. Age of many key specialists at enterprises is approaching retirement. The same applies to competence centers, where there may be very few young employees or not at all. Two main difficulties are seen here: a) the continuity of competencies is questionable, since the expert will retire in a year or two; b) lack of enthusiasm and new perspective, limited in the perception of fresh ideas.

Lack of training and development opportunities. In certain situations, scientific research is the only way to acquire new knowledge and master new technologies. However, insufficient resources for self-development limit the ability of competence centers to master new technologies.

Outdated knowledge. In some cases, the expertise collected by the competence center concerned a technology that was supposed to disappear in a few years. The center existed in order to accompany the old products purchased by the company's customers. Ultimately, this led to the degradation of the unit.

Benefits and Benefits

The center of competence reflects the requirements of the organization to itself, the standards of its work. This division collects key knowledge and does not allow the expertise to dissipate, disperse to the people and groups of the project. Cost savings can be achieved by eliminating duplication of processes and functions, reusing knowledge, optimizing project execution, resource use, and management. This frees up experts' time for consultations, and the company can provide services to a much larger number of clients.

Western experts point out that enterprises close their libraries or reduce their activities to a minimum, and then hire third-party consultants for a lot of money. Naturally, the number of consulting firms is growing. Many companies are missing out on significant value because they themselves could sell their knowledge to others. Who will collect their own knowledge and expertise - unique strategic resources that distinguish this organization from others?

How to collect the best experience

The accumulation of best practices is one of the first steps towards the implementation of larger knowledge management programs. Most often, the concept of "best experience" is defined as the most effective method to do a specific job or achieve specific knowledge, however, is concentrated in people, not in documents, so the easiest way to adopt this knowledge is something like: "Learn from others and try to do it yourself."

At the start of work, analyze the organizational culture of the enterprise and ways to motivate employees. The successes and difficulties of the proposed project are largely determined by the type of organizational culture and the established practice of teamwork.

Main functions

The competence center performs tasks related to the accumulation of knowledge and the exchange of knowledge in the area of business where the company has an advantage. The center can:

reflect the current state of the organization's knowledge management (compilation of knowledge maps, corporate "yellow pages" indicating experts and their specializations, processing internal and external requests);
convert hidden, individual knowledge of experts into formal documents accessible to most employees;
constantly improve the quality of expertise and maintain a leading position in the market in this area;
timely notice changes in technologies and global trends;
coordinate the description of knowledge based on the results of projects, transform them into a suitable formal document (database, best practices, success stories, etc.);
manage enterprise knowledge bases, catalog and index them;
disseminate the knowledge collected by the center in other divisions of the company;
provide effective communications between experts and specialists;
create, use and protect the intellectual property of the enterprise;
take care of the generational change, systematically train young employees, transfer experience from experts to newcomers.

Of course, every company has its own priorities. But despite the differences in experience, goals, areas of activity, companies are gradually coming to understand the value of intellectual assets. After all, practice shows that business without intelligence is possible, but short-lived.

Renowned consultant David Skyrme suggests such a framework for collecting best practices.

Determine the requirements of potential users. What exactly needs to be collected will be prompted by employees and customers. The enterprise may have units with low labor productivity, the work of which is difficult due to the lack of necessary knowledge among employees.

It is necessary to determine who will benefit most from this knowledge, how to ensure access to it and how best to apply it.

Find examples of the best experience. There are many methods for identifying best practice. You can, for example, analyze and determine who has the best performance in the company. Then you should evaluate which particular skills (methods, technologies, etc.) should be considered the best experience. This can be said by colleagues, partners, independent consultants. Don't limit yourself to finding the best experience within your own organization. Many useful things can be obtained from other enterprises in the industry or related to it.

Document the best experience. Description of best practices is usually stored in databases in standard form. Its format usually includes the following items:

title - short title with annotation, author's surname, keywords;
content - several sections describing the purpose of the method (technology), as well as its constituent processes, functions;
application - where the method or technology should be used, what tasks are solved with their help;
resources - what resources and skills are required to master this method (technology); necessary tools;
evaluation - whether there are measurements of its effectiveness associated with this experience; description of implementations;
lessons learned - difficulties in mastering this experience; what the specialist would do differently if he had to master this experience from the very beginning;
useful links - literature, contacts, working documentation, videos, workshops related to this practice.

Rate the best experience. A practice can be considered best or good only when there are demonstrable results of its effectiveness. Required Feedback with colleagues or clients to establish how fruitful this experience is.

Share and apply the best practices. Although databases are one of the possible ways fixing experience, many organizations practice the direct transfer of experience from person to person. This is where value is added. Communities of practice, quality groups, training seminars, knowledge days, etc. also serve as other ways to transfer experience.

Develop a supporting infrastructure- usually part of a broader knowledge management strategy.

You will need a team that will handle this project, content management staff, technical means communications support.

HR policy, Corporate culture