New Knowledge Management Solution from Maintech Improves Operational Efficiency
Maintech has developed a Knowledge Management process and system that is cost effective and has built in workflows to help keep the information fresh. In fact, we can help build the ROI case for you. We developed our system using Microsoft’s Office Sharepoint Server to help us build a knowledge base that could be used by our technicians and engineers across all of our customer accounts.
As is true with most mid-size to large enterprises we already had the licenses and we repurposed an existing file server to keep our startup cost low. We wanted a system where we could store operational documents, troubleshooting methods and other key engineering and support documents that would allow us to share information with all service and support staff. The system needed to have a workflow for documents to be approved by specific staff prior to finding their way into the stream.
One of our customers, the data center manager for an international banking and brokerage firm based in New York, was exposed to the system through one of our engineers that was working on his issue. Our client asked if Maintech could develop a knowledge based system for their internal information. He explained to us that his company was experiencing difficulty in some operational areas due to the fact that they had thousands of documents on share drives, personal folders and even the good old sticky notes on individual monitors. They had no centralized version control, no way to retire old documents and no way to identify gaps in their current documentation.
Our team worked to develop a formal strategy, based on ITIL foundations, and sat down with our customer and went through the process, including costs and timeline. We discussed the use of Maintech’s technical writers to assist in the documentation development, talked about the discovery process to determine what already existed and where there were gaps, etc.
The customer presented the proposal to his management and explained that it was a living system of knowledge that would be useful and valuable long after the initial project was completed. They agreed to move forward with Maintech and after our initial discovery phase we began the process of updating existing documents, developing new documents and ‘retiring’ outdated information. The initial product launch occurred 90 days the initiation of the project and it was a huge success. Now, many other areas within the company that want to know how they can now participate in the system with their own documentation.
Since this initial effort we have been engaged by over a dozen clients, some new logos and some existing clients to deliver similar systems for them.
For more information on how Maintech can help you with your knowledge please call Bill Rudowitz at 1-973-330-3277 or send an email to
wrudowitz@maintech.com .