Technology is by no doubt very important in this digital economy. However, just as important or even more so is the flow of information within your company and your partners (as relevant). Of course a large part of information access or not, involves human pride and territorial instincts. Thoughts such as, “this is my information, if I let someone else have it, then I won’t be important anymore!” may surface.

Let’s push the policy and human elements of information sharing aside for now and explore some great ways to share information in the small business work space. This sharing of knowledge is often referred to as “intellectual capital” or “knowledge management” The purpose of this article is not to show you how to build a “knowledge management” solution in 10 easy steps!!! That’s ridiculous and you shouldn’t approach the subject that way. But the purpose of this article is to wet your appetite.....

1. If you have problems in your small business with the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing you need a knowledge management (KM) solution
2. Do you sometimes get embarrassed or angry at only finding out information, a week after the deadline. Or not finding out at all.
3. Is your staff not getting the information they need?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, or one’s like it, then you NEED a KM solution.

The first step in ensuring your employees and others have the capability of sharing information is to ensure you have a network and all your staff, be they mobile or in the office have access to it.

There are several solutions you may wish to consider when developing a knowledge management solution: 1) your email 2) you may also wish to use a WEB based application or suite of applications for this purpose 3) there are several proprietary systems that you can also utilize to build your knowledge management (KM) solution.

If you already use an email program that has a built in KM solution, you may wish to work with your VAR to build a solution for you. However, if you don’t have a KM solution I would suggest you build a low cost Intranet that will easily enable your in house staff and mobile work force to share not just files but collaborate on projects, contribute to discussion boards and etc. Hot Office http://www.hotoffice.com has a great service, with several hosted applications for small business collaboration. You can also try Intranet.com  (http://www.Intranets.com), their solution is free, but may not be as robust as that from HotOffice.com or others mentioned in this article.

Before you get into the technical details of your KM solution, you need to map out how your company’s information flows, who needs what when, from whom and how. Once this detailed process is done, as best you can, you can then implement a KM solution. Keep in mind that once you map out the flow of information in your business, this doesn’t mean it can’t change later on, but you have to start somewhere.

Some great tools to consider for your KM solution are:

Email. Not just plain email but with internal newsletters, discussion lists, and intelligent routing.  Discussion boards that will enable users to post comments, information, KNOWLEDGE  in specific  categories.

Document repository. A WEB based document storage solution will ensure that the proper staff have  access to the right documents, at the right time. Some solutions can even update“ subscribed”  staff, when  a document’s content changes. For each of the above listed solutions, there’s several different applications you can use, some are free, some you can download from the Internet and others you may have to buy from a specialized technology vendor. In addition, there’s many products that provide you a complete turnkey solution for knowledge  management.

  “Although the knowledge-management initiatives at Hewlett-Packard and Affordable Technology are very  different in scope, they boil down to the same thing: combining business processes with technology to  create a collective corporate memory. When done correctly, such initiatives ensure that all of a company's  practices are best ones, that time isn't squandered on wheel reinvention, and that valuable experience  doesn't trail departing employees out the door, “ Inc.com.

Lastly, bear in mind that technology will not solve your knowledge management problems, if employees  do not want to share information or don’t know how to share information. If your company is not used to  having regular meetings, not used to discussing things or at least sharing information via sticky notes, you  may want to consider first educating them on the importance of sharing information, intellectual capital,  and etc - before you even touch a software application for KM.

Here’s some useful links for further reading and information:

Knowledge Management Solutions:

SamePage.com's focus is to enable users to easily and quickly post graphic, audio, video, animated and multimedia files as well as spread sheets, budgets and business-oriented  data for comment, collaboration and review. According to them, “While there are other websites that offer virtual office space, SamePage.com is the only website that has been designed to meet the  demands of the creative community specifically.”

Customer FX (651-646-7777 or 1-800-728-5783) specializes in all phases of “Customer Relationship Management,” encompassing sales force automation, marketing automation, product configuration and customer support automation.  With their  strong planning and implementation process, Customer FX has achieved leadership distinction and is the alltime number one solution provider for both SalesLogix and GoldMine, the world’s leading midmarket

Customer Relationship Management system providers.

Lifestreams Office is an information management system for small businesses.  Lifestreams Office, a knowledge management and workgroup collaboration software package, brings order to the overflow of information, saves valuable time and increases productivity.  It automatically captures, files and retrieves documents and data of all kinds, including emails, bookmarked web pages, wordprocessing files, spreadsheets, photos and even sound and video clips.