Communities are groups in an organization, spanning beyond a single group or department, who come together for a shared business purpose. Not necessarily tied to a business process or an organizational structure, communities are often created around a specific topic area where knowledge and expertise exist across the organization, and serve as a forum for community members to interact with other members. Communities can provide the forum for a wide range of business activities, such as information sharing, problem solving, idea generation, and training.
Iknow’s Communities and Social Networking services help its clients develop the strategies and implementation plans for creating, building, and sustaining communities. The services include:
- The “blueprint” for communities, which includes the detailed business objectives, membership, operating model, technology toolkit, and cultural change management program. This blueprint is customized to the organization and the specific requirements for the communities.
- The technology plan to enable the communities, including the selection of tools and implementation support.
- Implementation of community pilots, which includes planning, sponsorship, communications, rollout, and the capture of metrics, successes, and learnings.
- Planning and implementation of the full community rollout across the organization, which includes a refined business case, the “start-up toolkit,” and relevant processes.
Iknow’s typical deliverables include:
- Community business case
- Community strategy “blueprint”
- Technology plan, tool selection, and tool implementation
- Pilot community launch and feedback/learnings
- Full community planning, “start-up toolkit,” and implementation.
Successful communities have the potential to drive process improvements, lower costs, improve quality, and create more engaged employees. Communities are a central contributor of knowledge sharing and “smarter working” in any organization.