I came across some very interesting benefits of early KM adopters that APQC (American Productivity & Quality Center ) put together. This should give you an idea of what results you can hope to achieve with a robust KM initiative in place.

While this article is a little dated it does have some facts and figures that are worth looking at.

Ford

Target Value Proposition : Operational Excellence , create a more affordable business structure.

Approach : Communities of Practice, Best practice replication process

Results : In less than 6 years , 15000 ideas submitted , value realized ? over $1 billion.

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young

Target Value Proposition : Faster revenue growth, lower costs.

Approach : CoP’s, central KM Managers, content management.

Results : 10 fold increase in revenue with only 5 fold increase in employees.

Schlumberger

Target Value Proposition : Operational efficiency and service delivery to clients, Knowledge sharing culture.

Approach : CoP’s, InTouch, service desks, content management, SME teams.

Results : $200 million revenue created / saved , 95% reduction in technical query resolution. Annual investment of approx $50 million.

GE Plastics

Target Value Proposition : Decrease customer service costs

Approach : Customer Portal, Customer knowledge repository

Results : Number of test chips created decreased from 4.2 to 2.7 / Average reduction of 4.5 hours per color match / Savings of $2.25 million per year / Total investment unknown

Dow Chemical

Target Value Proposition : Provide faster access to information, improve information management, improve sales leads

Approach : Content management, communities of practice

Results : Increase number of sales leads / Increase in new product sales / Improved customer satisfaction scores / CM investment of over $3 million for start up, $8 million annually.

Shell

Target Value Proposition : Create a single, global company /Reduce cycle time / "Too Fast to Follow"

Approach : Global Networks (CoPs) / New ways of working / Letting the new guys into "Old Boy" networks / Transfer of best practices

Results : $200 million/yr cost savings / Reduced number of wells / Increased facility uptime / Reduced design and planning errors / Total investment of approximately $4 million