|
KMS. MIS. IT. CRM. The acronyms in this field alone can be daunting for a small business owner, but knowledge management systems (KMS) can really take your company from mediocre to on top of the market. The initial set up of a system to share knowledge may be time-consuming, but in the end, having a plan for knowledge management is crucial to success, no matter how large or small your business may be.
Think of your company as the United States, with each department or employee being a different state. Data that you collect are cars. Without a highway, those cars never travel from Minnesota and the Human Resources Department to Florida and the Tech Department. At best, the process will be messy, with people sharing information through numerous emails, unsecured documents, and phone calls, which need to be repeated various times. As information travels, it tends to change slightly due to human error. Have you ever played the game telephone as a child? In the game, you sit in a circle with your friends and the first person whispers something into another’s ear. The message gets passed in this fashion around the circle, and the end result will make you laugh because it is usually nothing like what was originally said. Sometimes, businesses seem to be playing telephone. The result is inaccurate data and misunderstood information, which can cost your company clients, money, and other benefits in the business world.
A good knowledge management system prevents these errors as much as possible. The first step is the collecting and processing of information. This will be different depending on your business. For example, are you running a non-profit organization and are looking for potential donor phone numbers? Or instead, maybe you are a consulting firm and want feedback from clients, rating the helpfulness of your company. Perhaps you are a general contractor and simply want the latest information about new tools on the market. No matter what your business, you need some kind of information, and you have to determine a process for gathering that information. Will you look up numbers in the yellow pages, send out surveys, or search the Internet daily for tool news and articles?
More importantly, who will do these jobs? In the case of the general contractor, for example, think about how much time would be wasted if every employee went home at night and looked for news on the Internet. The next day, you might have 20 people, all with the same article printed out. A good plan for knowledge management systems means that the collection and processing of the information will be done by people in specific jobs. Often, companies have departments devotes to this, so you may wish to hire an Information Technology (IT) staff or Manager of Information Systems (MIS).
Of course, the next step in knowledge management is the distribution of information to administration and to employees. If your MIS personnel, for example, finds the number of a client who has recently moved, that information will not be good to anyone unless it is readily available. Sending out a company-wide email whenever you find a piece of information is grossly inadequate. First, not everyone checks their email daily. Second, if you find large volumes of information, this system will clog your inbox. Lastly, most people may not need the information.
Instead, it is important to control a database in order to strategically plan your business. Databases come in all shapes and forms. If you have a large corporation with thousands of employees and multiple locations, an online database of client information accessed by a password and username may be a good idea, for example. If you want to organize your office, a filing cabinet with organized information may serve the same purpose. If you want to share factual information, like how to use a specific piece of equipment, creating a wiki, which can be updated by all, may be most beneficial. The key is to find want works best for your company.
No matter what business you have, however, working with Customer Relations Management (CRP) is extremely crucial to the success of your business. This is an entirely separate kind of knowledge. Basically. Your CRP staff can help you learn what is and is not working for your clients. If you get feedback from multiple people, for example, that say they are considering going elsewhere because your prices are too high, it may be time to cut your costs. When you collect this kind of data and analyze it in a report, which can be read be everyone in the company, you can do strategic planning to help your business continue to stay successful.
A knowledge management system also includes gathering data from within your company as well. Your business cannot succeed if your employees are not happy or doing their jobs. Coming up with a process to analyze this is, then, important. Many bosses like to do annual performance reviews, for example, to keep employees on track. Sometimes, simply having time allotted during weekly meetings to voice internal concerns is also a good idea. Again, how your company does this is not as important as having set procedures. If a worker has a complaint, does he or she know the process of voicing that opinion? If not, the data can never be processed.
Building a highway for the knowledge in your company is extremely important. Whether you choose to have a all-access database, send out weekly memos, or update hard copies in file folders, if you can’t find the information you need quickly and according to a process, your company has a good chance of failing due to lack of organization. Collecting, processing, and distributing information about your product, clients or customers, and employees is the best way to take your business from average to phenomenal. If you truly want to understand how best to run your business, a plan for knowledge management is necessary. |
