DS CWA 14924-3:2004

European Guide to good Practice in Knowledge Management - Part 3: SME Implementation

Scope

Throughout Europe, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and SME communities are refocusing their
activities to collaborate and compete through knowledge. Hence their awareness grows that efficient
management of knowledge is essential for remaining competitive.
But KM is not something that may be bought off the shelf, and it is generally agreed that there is not just one
single way to implement KM in SMEs.
This booklet 3 in the European Guide to Good Practice in KM presents a unifying guide with good practice
examples for KM implementation in SMEs across Europe and thus assists SMEs and SME communities in
identifying their readiness for KM, identifying and motivating key players, implementing KM successfully within
and across their organizational boundaries and networks, and measuring the results of their efforts.
Readers can benefit from the content of this booklet alone, but we strongly recommend that they actually
read this document along with the other booklets of the guide (all booklets are complementary and crossreferenced),
namely:
• Booklet 1: Framework
• Booklet 2: Culture
• Booklet 4: Measurement
• Booklet 5: Terminology
This booklet presents guidelines, checklists, practical examples, models, and tools based on common needs.
Tools selected to enable KM implementation should meet several criteria: they should provide a sound
conceptual basis, they should have gone successfully through practical testing, and should reflect a variety of
business environments. The work builds on currently available guides to good practice, lessons learned,
problem solving histories and experiences, and input provided by SME representatives (see reference list for
details).
In short, this chapter intends to provide its readers with an easy to understand, easy to use and step-by-step
guide to successful KM implementation across diverse SME environments