Ways of surveying your information

Method Pros Cons Tips
KIM team or consultant to survey the organisation as a whole Gets the job done in one go

A consultant/KIM team is not so closely connected with the information so will be more objective than a business area and often more able to see the bigger picture
Resource intensive for KIM team and will cost more if you use a consultant

May be more difficult to get business area buy-in if there are not actively involved in the process

A consultant/KIM team will not have such a good understanding of businesses processes and information created/held

Work may lose momentum once consultant has moved on

For larger organisations this will be difficult
Get business areas interested and engaged with the process from the beginning

Important to appoint an owner/s for this work in the long term. It is not a one off activity and will need to be regularly reviewed and updated
KIM team or consultant to survey a business area at a time

Can focus resources on areas of particular need
Working closely with business areas will help gain a better understanding of the business processes and information created/heldResource intensive for KIM team and will cost more if you use a consultant

Can take a long time
Once surveyed business areas can help promote the benefits of doing this to other areas of the organisation

Focus on quick win areas first to test processes and demonstrate the benefits of the work early on
Business areas to survey their own information Business areas should have the most knowledge about their information so the process should be less labour intensive

Will aid implementation as business areas will have been involved from the outset and will have more buy-in
Business areas are very busy and often have a high staff turnover

Won’t necessarily want to spend the time on this or understand the importance
Use representatives responsible for information within their business area

Convince business areas of the benefits by showing them how doing this can make it easier for them to do their work