Re: Client contact

[Dianne Blake <write-it -at- home -dot- com>]

Sanjay Srikonda wrote:
> 
> Lucky you. Our company is 40-odd people. ...I'm trying to formulate 
> some kind of argument for internal and external clients. Our SMEs are 
> just not very interested in participating and their boss is not all 
> that interested in "discussing" the issue past the introductory phase 
> of me saying I need to develop documentation on the SME's needs, his 
> response, the SME is fine, and knowledgable enough.  Well what about 
> the new SMEs who are still learning about the software. 
> 

All companies, whether large or small, need to keep these two business
strategies in mind:

  *  Knowledge Transfer
  *  Process Documentation

Knowlege transfer: companies should record what their subject matter
experts know. The company shouldn't have to recreate the wheel if a
person transfers from a department, leaves the company, or is even on
vacation.

Process Documentation: In today's business environment the B2B companies
want to work with successful companies. When they evaluate their
solutions partners they want to see the company's processes. If these
are not well documented then they may look elsewhere for a more
"dependable" solutions partner.

Here is a tragic tale that hopefully your company will never encounter:

One company I worked for did a 50% layoff to stop the burn rate on
venture capital. The 50% they kept were the key personnel who were
creating the product.

Problem is the key personnel were already unhappy and knew the layoff 
was coming so they banded together as a group and started interviewing
with other companies as a team. So the company was in shock when a few
weeks later their key players all left at once. They had hired me to
start the knowledge transfer documentation but had waited too long and
lost the information that would keep their company going. 

BTW, things like this are one of the reasons I became a consultant. I
simply hate company politics and stay out of them. I just watch from the
sidelines.  

Hope this helps.

-Dianne Blake
Consultant, Writer, and Trainer
write-it -at- home -dot- com

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