A knowledge management system is an integral part of a modern organisation. It involves processes, people and technology that make sure information is not only kept in the individuals’ heads but is shared with the whole department. It is usually implemented in the form of an intranet portal which requires processes to maintain it and people to support it.
Because I believe having the right information at hand is crucial in making effective business decisions, I volunteered to take on the role of a knowledge management champion in my department. A knowledge management champion is the person who oversees the adequate operation of the system. In this case, to lead the project that would re-launch the system that wasn’t being fully used.
In my company, the knowledge management system is mainly intended to support the bid management process, where we respond with proposals to fulfill specific requests from our current or prospective clients. It is also used to assist project delivery when a piece of work is won.
As a first step, I managed a team of four to analyse the current state of the system and to gather feedback from the users to understand the limitations they felt they encountered. We discovered that the portal was hardly being used because some users were unaware of its existence, and many others found the navigation not very user friendly. This meant that the information stored in it was out-dated.I then developed a strategic plan to promote easy access to static information such as templates, proposals and engagement created data for the department. Several design changes were introduced based on feedback from the users.
Because the portal is only useful if it actually contains data that can be easily searched for, the next step was to collect as much information as possible from the department. We held multiple interviews with engagement managers to gather case studies and relevant data to add to the system. To ensure that the quality of the data collected was constant, we created a case study template consisting of three main parts:
- The client’s challenge: the problem the current or prospective client needs addressing.
- The approach: how the problem was tackled and solved
- Benefit to the client : the specific and measurable positive outcomes
When the design changes were implemented, the outdated data was removed and a sufficient amount of information was collected, everything was ready for the system’s re-launch. This re-launch was important enough to be given a presentation slot at the quarterly departmental meeting, where we talked about the improvements, encouraged the users to use the system and requested further feedback.
Though this successful project, as all projects, had a defined desired outcome due by a specific date, knowledge management never finishes and requires continuous improvement. It is now in the operational “run-and-maintain” state. New information is being uploaded to the portal and processes are in place to make sure it is maintained and information remains up-to-date.
I also organise regularly and participate in knowledge sharing events. I believe participating in such events and communicating lessons learnt to the rest of the team can help everyone to avoid mistakes we’ve made in our projects and improve the quality of deliverables.
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