Professional Research Pro

Research Plan — Internal Knowledge Base Decision

Decision question

Should the company build an internal knowledge base or adopt a hosted tool, given its users, security needs, budget, and operating capacity? A recommendation is not supportable yet because key inputs and vendor evidence are missing.

Scope and criteria

Compare options across: total cost over an agreed period; setup and ongoing administration; search and permission controls; data location and export; integration needs; accessibility; reliability and support; migration effort; and ability to meet internal security requirements. Confirm weighting with the decision owner before scoring.

Priority research

Internal needs: interview representative teams; review current search pain, content types, usage, and access requirements.
2. Build feasibility: estimate engineering, hosting, security review, maintenance, backup, and ownership over time.
3.

Hosted options: create a vendor shortlist only after security and integration constraints are known; verify current product documentation, pricing, data terms, and service commitments directly with vendors.
4.

Pilot evidence: test a small, representative set of content and users against agreed search tasks. Measure success, time to find information, permission accuracy, and maintenance effort.

Evidence table

Inputs needed

Budget range, security and privacy requirements, current systems, content volume and sensitivity, integration needs, internal ownership capacity, and target decision date.

Reporting standard

Cite every external claim with source, title, date, and access date. Distinguish vendor statements from independently tested evidence. Include counterevidence and unresolved risks. No factual market comparison or recommendation is asserted until research is completed.