Challenge:

An international human services membership association retained Cadence Group to develop a comprehensive knowledge management strategy for its parent organization.

Solution:

Cadence Group conducted an extensive evaluation and analysis of current organizational data and information, knowledge creation processes, data storage, data retrieval, data utilization, management practices and processes, and technology assets across the association and its subsidiary organizations. During the course of their information gathering efforts, Cadence Group consultants examined organizational documents and charts, reviewed the current websites and products, and evaluated member information collected in various surveys conducted over the past few years.

We also solicited a wide range of employee input, via one-on-one in-person or phone interviews, from all levels and professional disciplines within the association; and from a select group of members and board members. In using this approach, Cadence Group hoped to get a sense of the client leadership’s KM expectations and gain a broad perspective of how this initiative could fit into its core human services mission.

Additional activities were conducted to identify best practices by benchmarking various non-profit organizations, attending specific meetings and conferences, searching the relevant human services and KM literature, and talking to experts to determine core KM functions.

Also, Cadence Group utilized organizational information inputs to answer a series of questions embodied in a KM maturity model. This analytical technique, when populated, presented a graphic depiction of our organizational readiness to embark on a KM project. It also pointed to areas of strength and weakness for use in developing our KM system plan, and the ability to monitor and measure progress toward accomplishing our KM objectives.

As a result of the information gathering, analysis, and assessment activities, Cadence Group presented four plausible flowchart models for structuring a knowledge management system with capture, manage and deliver elements that aligned with our organizational resources and financial capacity; and delivered a KM roadmap with specific, concrete steps for implementation, expansion, support, and institutionalization of the KM initiative.

Results:

Member organizations of the association will benefit from this project by increased intercompany sharing of internal financial and governance data, sharing of member profile and polling data, effective intellectual property management, improved document discovery and retention, reduced duplication of routine staff activities, reduced duplication of hardware and IT systems, and the ability to collect, retain, analyze, and disseminate data across the enterprise. These improvements will result in lower consolidated operating expenses over time and allow us to provide higher value products and services to our members.

Our members will benefit from centralized access to information collected from individual membership companies, increased access to high-value electronic resources, and improved delivery methods for generated reports, presentations, webinars, magazines, and other human services sector information.

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