Analysis of knowledge work maturity – find out more with iManage
Section 1: Taking a closer look at Europe’s knowledge work economy
If an organization is actively involved in the professional production, analysis, interrogation, sharing, and commercial use of unique knowledge, then it operates in the knowledge work economy.
In this economy, knowledge is the new currency. The importance of building a business environment that enables knowledge professionals to take full advantage of the collective intelligence of the organization cannot be overstated.
At iManage, this is why we commissioned the industry’s first framework for measuring your progress toward becoming a knowledge-driven organization. The resulting Knowledge Work Maturity Model, is a data-driven approach that is based on a survey of more than 2,000 knowledge organizations across 44 countries.
Taking a deeper dive into the research used to create the Knowledge Work Maturity Model (KWMM) allows us to focus our attention squarely on Europe and to compare insights across different European countries. For example, how are the top business challenges that organizations face in Northern Europe different from those in Western Europe? How much importance do organizations in Spain assign to being knowledge-driven versus organizations in Poland or Sweden?
Section 2: Top concerns and business challenges of European knowledge workers
What exactly are the top concerns and business challenges facing European knowledge work organizations? What do they have to say on the matter?
The KWMM research indicates that knowledge professionals across Europe are universally concerned with the ability to better meet customers’ changing expectations and preferences, and with better managing risk (this includes elements like cybersecurity, data privacy, and systems reliability).
While these were universal concerns, Europe was hardly of one mind when thinking more broadly about other goals and areas that required their attention — and there were notable differences by subregion. Figure 1 helps lay out some of these differences and make them explicit.
In Eastern Europe — represented predominantly by Poland in this study — the top additional areas of concern were enhancing the ability to innovate and meeting new standards in regulatory requirement and compliance.
Contrast that to Northern Europe, which in this study comprised the UK, Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden. The top additional concerns here were around improving employee productivity and collaboration, and better supporting collaborative work.
Meanwhile, Western Europe — defined as the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France — primarily focused on using technology to deliver a best-in-class customer experience and digitally transforming the business.
Southern Europe — consisting of Spain, Italy, Serbia and Montenegro — had similar priorities as its neighbors, as well as reducing costs through operational efficiencies.
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