This blog was written by a guest author, Regina Sebastian.
Businesses are always in the process of developing written materials to describe what they do, how well they do it and what makes them different or better than their competitors. These materials are developed for marketing purposes, briefings and proposals to summarize and educate customers, employees and business partners about the business.
Where do the details and specific information for the materials come from? Many times it resides only in the minds or personal files of individuals within the business organization. Businesses are well served to develop a knowledge management process or system to make organizational knowledge and information accessible. Knowledge management (KM) is a process that involves capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using the institutional knowledge about your organization.
With no repository or system for making the information available, keeping it current and building upon the information, businesses are constantly in the process of “reinventing the wheel”. There are many types of information to retain, some examples of organizational information or knowledge that should be managed in a repository (MS Word File, SharePoint or other accessible place), include:
• Contract Data – Customer, contract descriptions, contract number, date of award, period of performance, CPAR scores, CO/KO and COR/COTR names (phone numbers and address, email), evaluations value (total, base and options), CDR’s and their resolution. Kudos and “atta-boys” from customers.
• Contract Statistics – number of employees, quality scores, number of buildings or facilities, any metric that can be used to substantiate performance.
• Organizational Awards – quality, achievement, small business etc.
• Business Data – year founded, type of business, locations, addresses, total number of employees, customers, accounting system etc. Bios of company officers.
• Previous Proposal Submissions – with successful and unsuccessful annotations and debriefing notes.
• Lessons Learned File – summaries of what was learned, good and bad from proposal submissions, and engagements with clients.
As important as it is to have accessible information, keeping it current and having a process to maintain and collect it is equally important. Outdated and inaccurate information has the effect of making your business appear unprofessional and can prove to be detrimental to your marketing, business development and proposal efforts. Updating to the content in your repository every six months as is a good practice. New content can be added as necessary. While everyone in your organization can contribute to the knowledge repository, it is good to designate a person to be the “knowledge manager”.
The knowledge manager, classifies information, requests updates, populates and maintains version control for all users of the repository.
Management of your organizations information cannot be overstated. Your business needs access to current, accurate data to best represent your capability, showcase your professionalism and demonstrate a competitive advantage. Knowledge Management, establishing a process to capture, develop, sharing, and effectively use your organizations information is essential to successfully promote your business.
