As part of the “World Computer Congress 2008″, held in Italy this year for the first time, the Fiera di Milano was the venue for the “Giorgio Sacerdoti Award” prize-giving ceremony.

Now in its second year, this Award is an initiative conceived within the framework of the PKM360° research project as recognition for the most innovative and effective corporate projects in the field of knowledge management and knowledge sharing.

For the 2008 edition, in addition to the Industry and Services sector, the award was extended to include Health Services.  Projects were judged from the point of view of both their innovation and their effective large scale implementation by the organizations concerned.  Special attention was also paid to the existence of indicators measuring the actual impact of each project.

The winners in the “Industry and Services” sector were:

· Costa Cruises, for the CostaPlanet program, an excellent example of knowledge management applied to a heterogeneous pool of users (shoreside and shipboard personnel, external stakeholders).

CostaPlanet is Costa Cruises’ Intranet, a full-fledged Internet portal that can be accessed by all of the Company’s 15,000 employees, whether they are in one of the 28 branch offices located in 16 different nations or on board one of the 12 ships in the fleet. CostaPlanet not only provides company news but is also the gateway to work tools and applications used on a daily basis; in addition, Costa’s Intranet allows the creation of subportals sharing information and programs with colleagues who do the same type of work, or who work on the same ship or in the same branch office.

• Finmeccanica, whose MindSh@re program constitutes a highly effective knowledge management model that facilitates the company in the administration of large scale international projects.
• Unicredit, for the Quickly project, which was the cornerstone of a highly successful process of organizational integration based on an effective knowledge management system.

The winners in the sector “Health Services” sector were:
• Azienda Ospedaliera di Vimercate, for its project to collate and share clinical records, which was both innovative, insofar as it enabled the gradual reduction of paper documents, and effective from the organizational standpoint
• Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Don Carlo Gnocchi, for the SIVA/EASTIN portals, which are a point of excellence recognized across Europe in the area of information and management of rehabilitation aids
• Azienda Provinciale per i Servizi Sanitari della Provincia Autonoma di Trento, for the AMPERSA project, consisting of the creation of a complete knowledge sharing network for hospitals, general practitioners and pediatricians in the province.

“The quality of the enterprises that took part,” commented Cesare Sacerdoti, CEO of Crescendo, the sponsor of the event, “and the excellence of the prize-winning projects are testimony to the interest in knowledge management also in Italy.  By rewarding the most outstanding initiatives in this area, the ‘Giorgio Sacerdoti Award’ acknowledges this trend and puts the spotlight on its leading exponents.”

Further information on the prize-giving and all the documentation presented in the course of the event will be available at www.pkm360.it