Organizations across all industries have an immense amount of knowledge, both in tangible and tacit form. Despite the proliferation of information, most organizations are dealing with a knowledge gap that inhibits innovation, growth and the cross-pollination of ideas. In order for organizations to benefit from their knowledge base and turn it into a true value proposition, it must be harnessed. The most effective way to capture and create knowledge for easy consumption is by investing in an Enterprise Knowledge Solution (EKS). According to Oztemel and Arslankaya (2012), an enterprise knowledge solution assists with “the representation, organization, acquisition, creation, use and evolution of knowledge in its many forms.[1]”  In addition to bridging the inherent knowledge gap that exists in organizations today, below are several other reasons why organizations should invest in an EKS.

Aging Workforce

There is a seismic shift occurring within the nation's workforce demographics. By 2020, 25 million baby boomers will be leaving the workforce[2]. The massive exodus of employees is problematic for agencies because of what the workers are taking with them: decades of institutional knowledge. According to the National Technical Assistance Research Center, "this 'brain drain' could result in the loss of key information about customers or practices that could be devastating to organizations."

An EKS can help organizations capture decades of organizational knowledge and expertise from their veteran employees before the knowledge walks out the door.  Once this information is archived in the EKS, it will allow others within the organization to capitalize on the knowledge, some of which may have been previously undocumented.

The Surge of a Younger, More Diverse Workforce

As baby boomers retire, organizations are hiring younger and more diverse workers. However, without an EKS, agencies will be hard-pressed to train the new workforce while also striving to achieve business imperatives.

With an EKS, the challenges associated with training the surge of new workers are significantly reduced. Because an EKS has the power to become a repository of an organization’s data, new workers can efficiently retrieve important information to acclimate themselves to their new positions. From human resources documents to specific information related to their job duties, an EKS enables new workers to answer their own questions.

Teleworking

Technology allows employees to work from anywhere, which explains why the average worker telecommutes two days per month[3]. Without an EKS, however, employees working remotely may be lacking crucial information needed to conduct their jobs because information is stored in filing cabinets or in databases only accessible at the office. An EKS not only makes organizational content available from anywhere that has an Internet connection, it can also plug-in to an enterprise’s line-of-business solution. Thus, an EKS has the power to be a remote knowledge repository or it can integrate with an enterprise solution for a holistic view of organizational data in real-time.

Disaster Recovery

According to the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council, “For most organizations, the question is not if a disaster or outage could happen, but when it will occur and how severe it will be.” Unfortunately, one of the ramifications of an outage is data loss. An EKS can stave off perpetual data loss by securely saving decades’ worth of organizational documents and data to a cloud server.

How Sagitec Can Help You

Sagitec understands the benefits that your organization stands to gain from an EKS; after all, as Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Knowtion™, our newly evolved enterprise knowledge management solution, can help you create a digital library of your organization’s knowledge. Knowtion™ not only helps your organization deal with changing workforce dynamics and disaster recovery, it also improves productivity, customer service and your bottom line.  

To learn more about how a knowledge management solution like KNOWTION can help your organization, click the Read More button below. 

About Sagitec

Sagitec Solutions, LLC designs and delivers tailor-made pension, provident fund, unemployment insurance and health and life sciences software solutions to clients of all sizes. Understanding that a dynamic world requires dynamic technology, Sagitec offers solutions that are highly configurable and extensible by nature. With deep industry experience in software implementation and systems integration, project management, consulting, hosting and software support, Sagitec is a partner clients can trust to deliver mission-critical IT projects. They are headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Learn more by visiting http://www.Sagitec.com or by contacting Rick Deshler at (651) 335-3406 or at Rick.Deshler@Sagitec.com.

[1] Oztemel, E. & Arslankaya, S. (2012). Enterprise knowledge management model: a knowledge tower. Knowledge and Information Systems 31(1), pp. 171-192.

[2] Employer Strategies for Responding to an Aging Workforce. (March 2012). The National Technical Assistance and Research Center.

[3] Jones, J. (2015). In U.S., Telecommuting for Work Climbs to 37%. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/184649/telecommuting-work-climbs.aspx