Are you a small business with no knowledge management processes?

Over the last decade the power has shifted towards a knowledge economy. That’s all very well for large businesses with six or seven figure budgets for knowledge management, but what about the average business of less than 100 employees and without the cash to spend on recording their formal and tacit knowledge?I think this is a growing problem that will only increase as time goes by. As large companies formalise their knowledge management processes, small companies will get left behind. There are few, if any, appropriate technology solutions to help smaller businesses manage their information.

Knowledge Management for small businesses

While I was working at Shepherd and Wedderburn, I developed a bespoke knowledge management system using open source software. The only capital cost of this system was my time and salary. I realise this is a luxury that working in a larger organisation can bring, but what if a custom solution like that at Shepherd and Wedderburn was altered sufficiently to fit into businesses in different sectors?

Such a solution would fit a large number of businesses with minimal changes and could provide a lower cost entry into formal knowledge management. Such a solution could help to formalise knowledge management processes and procedures and if made simple to use, could be used to break down knowledge sharing barriers.

At this stage, such an idea is a pipe dream, but I suspect there may well be a market for such a product.

Does this interest you?

If the idea of a lower cost knowledge management system is of interest, please get in touch with me about what sort of content and tasks you would like such a system to be able to do. Additionally, any comments about knowledge management for small businesses are very welcome, I am very curious about this marketplace.

Posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 1:13 pm