Where to start?!

In my new job at a consulting firm, I have been charged with several tasks surrounding a knowledge management portal for their employees. Throughout my internship I will be responsible for:

1. Creating a set of metrics that can be used to evaluate the performance of their KM portal.
2. Segment the users into various groups that will be analyzed to understand their knowledge needs.

Thus far, I have gained some insights from a presentation that outlines 6 levels of measures that can be used to gage success. They follow as such:

6. ROI - The quantifiable business gains vs the costs of implementing the Portal. Typically the benefits and costs can be categorized into several categories including, Time Savings, Increased Outputs, Increased Quality, Increases in Sales, Decreased Costs, Increased Employee Engagement/ Satisfaction, and Increased Networking. Some of these may be difficult to quantify because our firm has not calculated an ROI in the 4 year existence of their KM system.

5. Business Results - The business outcomes that have resulted from applied knowledge gained through the Portal.

4. Apply Knowledge - The internal benefits from employees applying knowledge gained through the Portal.

3. Locate Information - The Portal's ability to connect individual with relevant information that they are searching for quickly.

2. Access System - The Portal's ability to facilitate the interaction between people and information (eg. Number of visits, Usability, Penetration, etc.)

1. System Status - Base level functionality of the Portal (eg. down time, speed, is it functioning properly).

These measures can easily be used to create a series of metrics that will create a comprehensive set of metrics to measure the performance of the Portal. Later I hope to further develop the categories in order to create more suitable metrics for generating a clearer picture of the Portal's performance. In doing so I will be able to create a set of criteria that can be used on an ongoing basis as an evaluation for the Portal's performance.