Knowledge management has always been a hot topic with support services, where publishing how to solve a problem can dramatically save time when the problem reoccurs with other customers. In professional services, knowledge management, or KM, has been less of a focus. Until now. Changes in professional services projects are occurring as more technology shifts to the cloud, and the rise of repeatable, fixed-price projects means companies are laser-focused on driving down costs. Capturing and sharing a library of best practices and lessons learned can help reduce costs and improve project margins, and more TSIA PS members are asking how to kickstart a KM program.
In this report, TSIA outlines some proven best practices for KM from the support services domain that are perfectly applicable to PS. Companies wanting to improve knowledge sharing among PS consultants need to focus on culture, incentives, and processes to establish a new paradigm, and ensure that it sticks.