The National Knowledge Network (NKN) was set up to enhance collaboration amongst higher education (HE) and research institutes. The government of India implemented the NKN to provide connectivity to nearly 5000 institutions, including publicly funded higher education and research institutes. The objective of this paper is to provide an integrated framework for increasing the effectiveness of knowledge networks. We do this by identifying the organizational mechanisms, key processes and competencies required to support HE and research institutes in India that would enable them to exploit the public high speed National Knowledge Network. We examine this from the perspective of Knowledge Network Provider and User Institutes.