Which core processes carry your company's critical knowledge?
Every SME earns its money through a handful of core processes: winning and pricing work, delivering it, keeping its quality, and servicing what it delivered. The steps are usually known. The judgement that makes them work — which exception matters, which customer needs what, which supplier to trust — often sits with one or two people. These pages show, process by process, where that knowledge hides, who holds it, and what to capture first.
Each process page follows the same structure: the process in brief, where the knowledge hides, what breaks when the holder leaves, and what to capture first.
Why look at processes, not only at people?
Starting with one expert works when the risk sits in one head. In most companies, though, critical knowledge is spread across a process: the salesperson knows what was promised, the engineer knows the exception, the planner knows the priority. Looking process by process shows where that knowledge meets — at the hand-overs — and where it gets lost.
It also makes the risk concrete. Not “we depend on a few people”, but “our quotes stop at the pricing step when one person is away”. That is a risk an owner can act on, and a place to start. The underlying problem is the same one described in knowledge concentration risk.
Winning and pricing the work
Quote to order and pricing and margins decide which work comes in and what it earns. Their knowledge is judgement: whether a request is feasible, how much effort a non-standard job takes, what a customer has been promised before, and how far to go in a negotiation. It usually sits with the owner, an estimator or a key salesperson.
Delivering the work
Order to delivery crosses more departments than any other process, so its knowledge lives in the hand-overs. Planning and scheduling adds what the planning tool cannot know, and purchasing and suppliers holds the history and the agreements that keep materials arriving on time.
Keeping quality and service right
Quality control and release rests on the judgement around deviations and borderline results. Service and maintenance rests on the history of the installed base — what was built, changed and repaired — which experienced technicians carry with them.
Bringing new people up to speed
Onboarding and training is where every other process is either passed on or lost. How long a new colleague needs before working without the expert depends less on the training plan than on whether the knowledge of the other processes is available at all.
A quick check for each process
Answer five questions for each of your core processes:
- Can you name one owner?
- Can at least two people do every critical step?
- Are the decision rules and exceptions written down, with their source?
- Do the hand-overs have agreed criteria for “complete”?
- Would the process keep running for a month without its most experienced person?
Two or more “no” answers make a process a good candidate to map first. Which process should we map first? helps you choose between candidates.
How MentX works on a process
MentX captures how your company really works: the knowledge of your key people and the processes they run. We offer both a hands-on service approach — mapping your processes and capturing the knowledge behind them, from meetings, workshops and a guided intake — and our own personality-aware knowledge base, with full source attribution, in your own Knowledge Space. We build on the tools you already use and add best-practice solutions where they fit.
For each process we follow the same steps: map it end to end with the people who do the work, starting from a real case; capture your operations — the owner, decision rules, exceptions and data per step, each with its source; and run and improve on that knowledge with operational excellence. How an engagement runs.
Our processes are different from these — does this still apply?
Yes. The names differ per company and sector, but most SMEs run a version of each. The pattern is the same: known steps, and judgement that sits with a few people. Use the page closest to your process as a starting point.
Do we need to map all our processes?
No. Start with one — the one where value, dependency on a few people and today's pain meet — and let what you learn decide the next.
Who should be involved when we work on a process?
The owner of the process, the people who do each step, and the person who decides on exceptions. For processes that cross departments, one person from each department. The expert whose knowledge matters most takes part in the conversations and keeps veto rights over what is captured from them.
What do we have at the end of one process?
A map of the process as it really runs, the knowledge behind its critical steps with sources, a named owner, agreed hand-over criteria, and a short list of what to capture or improve next. It is also the template for the second process.
Explore the processes
Quote to order
Whose judgement turns a request into a priced quote.
Pricing and margins
Who knows why a price is what it is.
Order to delivery
The knowledge that lives in the hand-overs.
Planning and scheduling
What the planner knows that the tool does not.
Purchasing and suppliers
Supplier knowledge that leaves with the buyer.
Quality control and release
Who decides that work is good enough.
Service and maintenance
Installed-base knowledge that lives with technicians.
Onboarding and training
How long before a new colleague stops asking the expert.
Go deeper
Full source attribution
Every answer carries its sources — who said it, where, and when.
GDPR-native, EU-based
Built for European companies from day one.
Expert veto rights
The expert keeps veto rights over his profile.
Your own Knowledge Space
Data stays in your company's own Knowledge Space.
Interested in how MentX can help your company?
Start with the process that carries the most risk today. Guided intake and your first Knowledge Space at founding-partner conditions.
Message Nicolas for an intro call