EPOS believes that knowledge, besides experience, is the most precious and important tool for consultants allowing them to provide state-of-the-art advice and good quality services. Accordingly, a range of practices to create, identify, and share know-how and information has been established at EPOS. Various instruments have been developed and integrated into EPOS’ Quality Management (QM) system according to the ISO 9001:2000 requirements. However, the main purpose of these tools is to enhance the continuous learning process necessary to keep the knowledge and competence of the company in all areas related to international health at an optimal level.

Improving project development and implementation
To improve quality in both project development and implementation, standard procedures and guidelines have been introduced to facilitate active knowledge transfer. One special package is the Guidelines for the Mobilisation of Team Leaders designed to support Project Managers in the start-up phase of a project. This includes an introduction to EPOS and to the principles of development cooperation and client oriented consulting services, guidelines on project management and administration, as well as specific ones provided by the client (especially International Financing Institutions) for project administration and procurement procedures, and some contractual issues. Effective and efficient collaboration and information exchange between the project team and backstopping staff at EPOS HQ is essential for the quality of our services. Therefore, the mobilising procedure aims at laying the ground for a joint understanding on basic principles of collaboration and project management. Before the start of the project, the Project Administration and Management Manual, EPOS’ Policy Papers (Code of Ethics, HIV/AIDS Policy), and other documents relevant to the project are introduced to the project’s key staff in order to strengthen the team’s management capacity and their corporate identity with the company.

To complete these basic tools, a comprehensive set of guidelines has been established to support information exchange across EPOS’ Areas of Competence (AoC) in order to assure knowledge sharing for strategic purposes, that is: a) to improve the overall quality of EPOS’ services, and b) to strengthen EPOS’ position in all areas relevant to international health projects and programmes (Health Facilities and Services, Policy and Financing, as well as Primary Health Care and Reproductive Health). This approach involves cooperation partners and key experts, and is a joint effort of all staff members to coordinate with each other in a way to deliver the best quality.

Thus, for each project to be implemented by EPOS, we develop a Quality Management Plan which serves to set the basis for the quality of our services. Furthermore, there are several Knowledge Management tools which enhance this QM process.

A key effort towards KM is the setting up of Project Websites. The purpose is to inform interested parties about the project and to offer access to project specific information, e.g. project reports, new activities or job advertisements. A standard format for such project websites ensures that all websites follow the same format and quality standards (except in projects where a standard structure and format of web-sites is already provided and recommended by the client, e.g. some EU-Projects).

EPOS uses ‘Share Point’ for an increasing part of its projects. This software tool allows information exchange via internet between EPOS HQ, consortium partners, and the project team. It provides the possibility for all people involved to view and work on documents, which saves both time and effort and allows optimal coordination and speedy information transfer. EPOS is successfully using this tool for projects in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania.

Enhancing intra-organisational knowledge
Various approaches and tools have been adopted to ensure and optimise internal knowledge sharing and management, which strive to enhance efficiency and quality. This is also our attempt towards Human Resource Development and Management.

EPOS’ Business Development Unit (BDU) deals with cross-cutting issues such as monitoring, quality management, and human resources development as well as information on major clients and financing institutions. To ensure harmonisation and standardisation of various tools and approaches, the BDU acts as a resource centre and a knowledge management enabler. It works towards summarising regional intelligence and knowledge on clients, especially on International Financing Institutions and Development Cooperation Agencies. Regular meetings and discussions on project development issues constitute another platform for information exchange. Guidelines on documentation, archiving, and email handling have been developed and implemented to ensure quality and corporate identity in internal and external communication.

EPOS has recently set up an intranet knowledge management portal that allows its staff and experts to access tools, manuals, guidelines, policy documents, country reports, studies and articles, and project development concepts. EPOS has introduced focal points for major clients and countries to ensure that relevant information for project development and implementation is pooled and therefore accessible to EPOS staff in a much more efficient way. Specially appointed staff at EPOS and within the GOPA Group is responsible to collect and disseminate information on clients and for regions and countries of strategic interest to create synergies and intensify information exchange. A company network (e-mail distributor) was established to link all Team Leaders working in GOPA Group Projects and thus to distribute information relevant to all Group members effectively.

The availability of these tools to all our staff members has considerably improved project development and implementation, and thus the results achieved through our consulting services.

 

EPOS Forum 2006 on Knowledge Management (KM)

 

With the aim to improve the quality of project implementation, experts met for the EPOS Forum on Knowledge Management

 

 

Representing a first step of knowledge sharing on knowledge management issues in Germany, the event took place on 18th of May 2006 in Bad Homburg. Participants from institutions like GTZ, Universities and companies in the private sector exchanged ideas on approaches and existing knowledge management tools.

Thus all serving improved efficiency and innovation, the different models which were presented gave an insight on a variety of approaches developed for specific contexts. The forum allowed to reflect some valuable lessons learned and led to fruitful discussions also on new ideas.