A business deals with a lot of other companies, organisations and people; and then there are the business structures, internal reporting hierarchies, and cross-team projects communication paths to name a few. Know How's Blackbook module allows a business to see their external and internal 'partner-chains', or what we call the NetworkDNA.

Social networking websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn have become widely popular as a means for people to stay in touch with each other and build up their professional networks. Businesses have many networks, which can be big and very complex especially when dealing with supply and demand chains. Busineses can also get a lot more out of their networks and need to understand them well in order to be competitive.

When dealing with customers, the business needs to know just how far further down the chain their goods will go before they reach an end user. Are there opportunities their to shorten the demand chain and get the goods into the hands of the end user faster and with less middlemen. Would that improve customer service and the bottom line? Would that negatively affect the middlemen, and what would be any fallout?

Considering the supply chain the questions are the same. Can the business find the correct materials closer to home or through a more direct channel? Would that require a change to shipping routes or methods, or signing contracts with entirely new shipping companies (who are also in your network)? What are the pros and cons of the options? Options can't be quantified if they aren't identified.

Demand and supply chain associations are all external. Additional external associations that are equally important to the businesses's network are transportation companies (as has been mentioned above), service providers such as security, maintenance (including office cleaning), consultants (e.g. lawyers, technology), trade bodies, government agencies and many others. When you starting writing them all down, classifying them, and putting them into degrees of separation and their association with each other (half the members of the supply chain use the same shipping company, which has by the way been increasing its rates above average for the last two years...) you'll quickly appreciate the ability to be able to see and manage the network.

And that's just the start of it.

Its very easy and natural to go into depth with each association and discover their external networks as well.

Its easier, and perhaps a good thing, to build a network of the competition. By building up their network just as for the businesses own, shared associations can be itentified, along with potential threats and opportunities. By knowing that a competitor has a shared supplier or customer, deals can be negotiated and plans made to shut them out.

The last section of external associations for the network are individuals. It is equally important to know who you dealing with, their name, position, background and the manner of the relationships the individual has. For example knowing that an Accountant Manager has accounts with four customers isn't enough. The network must also include who the contacts are inside the account so they can be contacted directly and a network of associations created for them as well. By building up profiles of the people involved in the network, how they behave and operate, the business can better plan its activities.

All of these external associations make up part of the business's NetworkDNA. Identifying and gathering as much information about them and their own networks will provide the business with a valuable pool of data that it can use for tactical and strategic planning. The Blackbook module which comes as an integrated part of the Know How suite, lets businesses capture, view and expand their NetworkDNA.

In another article Aksakal Australia will explain how adding internal associations complete the business NetworkDNA.