External assessment and benchmarking of your Knowledge Management

External assessment and benchmarking of your Knowledge Management

Many organizations are realizing the untapped value in their corporate knowledge, and implementing programs of Knowledge Management to release that value.

Knowledge management is a change process, and the first step in the change is to determine out the current status - to see what is already being done, what works well, where the barriers and gaps are, and where the strengths are. The Knowledge Management Assessment and Benchmarking service described here is a systematic approach towards mapping out current status. The output report provides a route map guiding the organization in the initial steps of implementing Knowledge Management.

The Assessment uses a 15-point model against which the current status is measured. The model is derived from a study of successful Knowledge Management implementations in a wide range of industries. The current status of each component is given a mark out of 10, and a color or red, amber or green depending on the level of need for change. Through a series of in-depth interviews, we will map the current state of knowledge utilization and application in your organization against the proven components of systematic Knowledge Management.

The responses to the interviews are noted in detail and brought together to look for common themes, issues, and concerns. Key quotes are also identified to support and illustrate the main conclusions reached. The responses, and the numerical rating, provide a picture of the Knowledge Management strengths and weaknesses of the organization which can be benchmarked against Knowledge Management competencies in other organisations.

We have run this assessment many times over the past for major organisations, or business units in major organisations, in the Oil, Engineering, Manufacturing and Retail, Mining, Utilities and Public Sectors. We therefore have a benchmarking database of 40 datapoints, which allows you to compare yourself against a range of peers, as in the plot below.

Example benchmarking plot against 15 criteria

In other studies, Knoco Ltd. has conducted assessments for clients at the start of their Knowledge Management implementation - to help identify the gaps that need to be filled - or at key points in their Knowledge Management implementation to help identify new directions. We have also run repeat assessments for clients to measure the progress of their Knowledge Management implementation.