Organisations often realise that they have an issue with finding and sharing information, so they have asked all the right questions in identifying the need for a Knowledge Management System. However, organisations often fail to identify the cost savings and the real value and opportunities that a Knowledge Management system can bring and therefore they choose to do nothing.
We all know those famous words “the way we do things around here”, but how often is this converted to costs? What would the cost to a business be for failing to improve and standing still?
As a very crude but easy benchmark in this calculation, try and time your employees and see how much time per day does it take them to find information and knowledge that already exists.
Typically, it’s easier to pick up the phone and ask Sarah or Fred, “do you know what repository to look in?”, “where was it residing?” Once found, how easy is it to provide feedback on the document or highlight any issues with quality?
A McKinsey Report highlighted that of every
employees,
would spend every day every month just searching for information and not contributing real value to the business.
What would your team, department or organisation do with the
of salary savings?
As a basic measurement, 20% of an organisation’s wage bill is the cost of standing still and not implementing a successful knowledge management strategy and software product.
With the correct technology accompanying the appropriate processes and organisational culture, a commercial Knowledge Management system provides a quick and easy way to achieve the project goals from the outset and beyond.
Often, in the long term this costs a lot less, particularly when taking into account the cost to do nothing, build costs and the time and effort to maintain a bespoke system.
With no build, testing and system refinement/enhancement costs, the implementation of a 3rd party tool will provide security, a future proofed investment, with the ability to influence future product direction.
