EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Leverage the knowledge that resides in your content.
In the first place, it is important to keep the available knowledge within the organization. Many companies exist longer than the life of their employees. In order not to be dependent on the retention of employees, it is important for an organization to safeguard this knowledge within the organization. By making explicit knowledge implicit, an organization can safeguard the continuity of the knowledge.
In other words…
Writing down knowledge in books, blogs or digital files helps to retain this knowledge internally. Recording this knowledge ensures that the knowledge can be transferred from specialist to specialist, even if the previous employee is no longer active within the organization.
FAQ about Knowledge Management.
Knowledge management is all about capturing, sharing, using and managing tangible and intangible knowledge in an organization. The purpose of managing knowledge is to facilitate so organizations can work as efficiently as possible towards their goals.
It is a way to perform the tasks as good and efficiently as possible. If you are considering introducing knowledge management into your organization, keep in mind that this is not a responsibility of one department, for example, HR or IT. In fact, it should be widely supported throughout the organization. Managing knowledge is a journey, not a destiny.
Every organization has its own structure and knowledge. Therefore every implementation is different. Our Knowledge Management experts are more than happy to discuss what works best for your organization, without obligation. Talk to an expert!
Increasing digitization makes it possible to store and share knowledge easily and inexpensively. In other words, employees can access information at any time and from anywhere and also develop it further and integrate it into their everyday work. Rather, employees no longer have to ask their colleagues for this knowledge.
However, employees have to clearly categorize their information and tag them with keywords to enable other colleagues to quickly find answers using a keyword search on selected topics. As soon as a piece of knowledge – for example, software code or a manual – has been developed, it can be used (or improved) again and again, which saves work and thus costs. There is less (unnecessary) communication. You can learn from mistakes or hurdles that have already occurred and nobody misses a development because it is “lying around” somewhere.
In the best case, professional knowledge management creates the breeding ground for innovations or deeper knowledge with which tangible company-related problems can be solved. Employees can make better, faster and more data-based decisions.
In short, organizations can improve their operating results if they manage their knowledge intelligently They succeed in increasing the productivity and competences of employees. Last but not least: your customers are happier!
There are many reasons to implement a Knowledge Management System in an organization, but the main goal is usually to help people access knowledge and use it to perform tasks better.
To gain a deeper understanding of knowledge work in law firms, iManage recently commissioned Metia Group to conduct in-depth research, with close to 1100 global respondents from across the legal industry to gain a deeper understanding of knowledge work and discovered that:
- 68% of survey respondents said the information in digital documents and files is the most important thing to their business.
- 28% of survey respondents said that most or all of their documents are scattered and siloed across multiple systems.
- 30% of respondents said that documents reach their organisation via five or more channels.
The above mentioned statistics show that knowledge is one of the most important assets of an organization. Yet knowledge is too often undocumented, difficult to access and has the risk of disappearing:
- Because teams use different apps within the same company, this results in isolated and fragmented information that is difficult to find when customers or agents need it most. That’s why knowledge workers spend 30% of their time looking for or recreating information that already exists. When knowledge isn’t shared and accessible, employees waste time reimagining solutions, make mistakes people have made before, don’t gain the insights they need to be productive, and answer the same questions over and over.
- Employees retire or quit a company, taking decades of company knowledge with them. And even if they train their replacement before leaving, departing employees can never pass on everything they know because some knowledge is tacit. Having a process helps capture that tacit knowledge that might otherwise disappear.
- Knowledge stored in emails or local drives can disappear due to system failures or due to loss or theft of devices.
All of these situations are unavoidable which highlights the need for a good knowledge management system even more.
KEY BENEFITS
What are the benefits of knowledge management?
Knowledge management is important because it boosts the efficiency of an organization’s decision-making ability. In making sure that all employees have access to the overall expertise held within the organization, a smarter workforce is built who are more able to make quick, informed decisions that benefit the company.
THE CHALLENGE
Knowledge management requires new structures.
A knowledge management system requires new structures in the organization in which roles and responsibilities are recorded for realizing and maintaining the knowledge management concept. Examples include setting up know-how groups, an editorial board for checking the substantive contributions, a knowledge management user group and a responsible decision-maker within the MT. The time spent on knowledge management must be accounted for in time registration, and this subject must be addressed in performance appraisals. It is important that everyone participates, especially people in exemplary positions, such as managers. This is often the most difficult to accomplish.
In short, realizing a knowledge management system requires input from employees across the organization during development and it has an impact on the working method of all employees and the roles and responsibilities in the organization.
It is necessary to be aware of the consequences when choosing such a system. But once it is established, filled with data and widely used, the work will be more efficient and of higher quality, and the employees will have more fun due to good knowledge management!
OUR APPROACH
Making sure business and IT requirements are met.
For every project our team ensures a great fit of the solution, tailored to your specific needs and requirements. We follow a clear and transparent project approach and due to our best practices methodology we get you up and running fast – without false promises and compromising on quality.
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